WINTER CEREMONIAL DANCES 159

Several young uninitiated are called forward and asked to
throw the box on the fire, tipping it sideways so that the “man”
within is clearly visible amid the leaping flames. With con.
siderable fear they do so, while the kukusiut women begin to
weep. Non-members are amazed to hear X’s voice from the
midst of the flames apparently trying to sing a shaman’s song.
This ruse is carried out by means of a long stick from which the
pith has been extracted to make a tube. It has been soaked in
water so that it will not burn readily, and one end laid in the
fire; X, concealed behind a row of associates, sings into the
other, so that his voice appears to issue from the midst of the
fire. Often a singer acts as substitute for the dancer, since
the tube effectively disguises the voice. The heralds point out
how the body is shaking, and the excited uninitiated do not
realize that what seems to be movement is a mere optical illu-
sion, caused by the heat shimmer. Gradually the box is con-
sumed and the figure falls asunder. The marshals explain that
X’s liver is the last part of the body to be burnt.

When X’s body has been reduced to ashes, the spies guard
the door as at other kusiotem dances, and the ritual previously
described is once more enacted. Towards dawn one of the
spies who has left the house, rushes back to report that X is
coming from the river. In he comes, with his ornaments of
dyed cedar-bark smouldering from the flames. The wonder is
intense! Slowly he circles the fire, singing his shaman’s song
of Suitsman-a. This concludes the long night’s ceremonial and
the spies allow the guests to depart.

The descriptions already given of other Ausiotem ri tes apply
equally to those which follow the Burning dance. There is the
same period of waiting followed by nebusam. Details could not
be learnt of the portrayal of the burning which is followed by
the customary parade of supernatural beings. As in the other
cases, X is secluded for some time as if suffering from the effects
of incineration.