WINTER CEREMONIAL DANCES 13

nearer and nearer, till finally a thump was heard on the roof.

O.---, cried out the kukusiut, “it is my patron.”

The uninitiated were told that in consequence of the dis-
aster, the supernatural beings had sent calls to this earth for
all within the house. Even small children were admitted on
this occasion. Those kukusiut in whose families were dormant
prerogatives at once explained to their relatives that the call
was from the patron of one of these, and that henceforth the
person addressed was a protégé of that being. But even with
the assistance of all the kukusiut, there were not sufficient
privileges for all who had seen the accident. The explanation
hastily agreed upon for those who could not otherwise be pro-
vided with prerogatives, was that a supernatural being men-
tioned in the myth from which the uninitiated had derived his
ancestral name had come as patron. Repositories were stated
to exist in various places near the village for the designations
thus created, and order had been restored before morning.
This event was described by so many informants that its his-
torical accuracy can hardly be challenged. Those so initiated
were said to have become “‘kukusiut under easy circumstances’’;
as prerogatives they had merely the right of singing about their
respective patrons, not of performing any particular dramatic
dance, but they were, none the less, fully qualified members of
the society. The prestige and influence of this organization
can be estimated by the fact that it was thus able to carry
through a wholesale initiation without its secrets becoming
known in adjacent villages. Those admitted, though realizing
that deception was being practised, were so overawed by the
other members of the society that they accepted what was told
them without question, entirely failing to use their common
sense. Thus, this incident, which had at first threatened
disaster, ultimately reacted to the advantage of the kukusiut.
It is true that their prestige was somewhat diminished by the
admission of young people, but in compensation they claimed
Many new patrons, including several regarded with veneration
owing to their occurrence in ancestral myths. Since the latter