WINTER CEREMONIAL DANCES 75

who have gone aloft and never returned,** and of course in-
creasing the fear of the uninitiated. They then go back to X’s
home where a marshal speaks, asking all to keep silence so that
they will be able to hear X when he returns from the land
above. No noise is permitted during his absence, even the
discharge of muskets being forbidden. The man who carries
the rope from which X escaped always receives a call on this
night, because the supernatural beings have seen the important
part he has played in the rite, and his patron recognizes it in
thisway. This is the fiction taught to the uninitiated and, ac-
cordingly, the rope-holder is some kusiut who wishes to have a
call. After the usual curing, one song is composed for the
rope-holder, and sung very softly, since the night’s ceremony
is termed Afoligosnumx, “The Actionless N ight,” or Nuxstimut,
~The Silent Night.” The uninitiated believe that the kukusiut
are filled with woe and foreboding at the fate before X. It js
early morning before they disperse.

The next day, nusiutélsap for the rope-holder, the usual
ritual is omitted since the pretence of grief and fear must still
be preserved. Thus the necessary wood for the rope-holder’s
masks is cut silently. The collar and rope from which X
escaped are hung on the wall of his house, and when a herald
summons the kukusiut during the evening, he bids them as-
semble to watch over these objects. Although a second song,
composed during the day, is practised for the rope-holder, it
is done so softly that the uninitiated from neighbouring houses
imagine that the Aukusiut are really brooding over their loss.
The only sound that reaches them is an occasional hoip,
accentuating their fear. After the customary distribution of
work and food the kukusiut disperse.

On the morrow, the rope-holder’s gothm, the uninitiated
are summoned, because it is assumed that members of the

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“If a Cannibal dies during his period of concealment he is buried secretly.

The uninitiated are told that his power enabled him to cross a yawning chasm in

the land above, but then it failed him, so that he was unable to return to his friends.
“This consists of the frenzied beating of sticks, repeated four times.