eir sealskin boots. The performance commenced with music in the shape
of singing accompanied by walrus-hide drums, after which a long plank
was brought in and suspended on the shoulders of four men. Upon this
three women were hoisted astride, and commenced a series of wild
contortions, back and forth and from side to side, not unlike the "Dance
du ventre." Relays of girls continued this exercise for two or three
hours, until all were exhausted, and then flesh of the whale, caught
the preceding summer, was handed round by children, and washed down by
floods of raw whisky, which brought the entertainment to a close for
that night. The following day athletic sports were indulged in by those
sufficiently sober, the owner of one hut furnishing the prizes and
refreshments. This giver of the feast and his family were distinguished
by faces plastered with the red paint already mentioned as being
obtained from the mountains of the interior. Wrestling and racing were
the chief pastimes, the prizes consisting of a cartridge, a piece of
calico, or perhaps a fox skin. The women did not join in these contests,
but with them a form of "tossing in a blanket" was gone through. A
walrus skin perforated around with holes to give a firmer grip was held
by seven or eight stalwart men, and at a given signal a girl lying in
the centre was sent flying into the air, she who reached the greatest
height receiving the appropriate prize of a needle or thimble. At night
the dance was continued, and on this occasion a fire was kindled around
which the medicine men seated themselves, mumbling incantations and
casting small pieces of deer or walrus meat into the flames as a
sacrifice to the evil spirits. The whale entertainment lasted for three
nights, but the incidents which occurred upon the last evening are not
fit for reproduction here. The whaleman, being more or less of a
celebrity, had attracted the bright glances of several Tchuktchi
maidens. But even when he found his affinity poor Billy's courtship was
of short duration, for his ladylove, when embraced for the first time
upon the lips, indignantly thrust him away and screamed for help.
According to Tchuktchi customs, she had suffered an irreparable insult,
the only recognised mode of kissing here being to rub noses while
murmuring "Oo" for an indefinite period. This was Billy's first and last
experience of love-making here, although Teneskin would gladly have
welcomed a white man as a son-in-la