THE GREAT WHITE NORTH

Evening Star, Issue 19615, 22 July 1927, Page 12

THE GREAT WHITE NORTH

A GAME OF THE ESKIMOS “And what Was the nicest thing of all you remember? ” . ■ ■. Onilo’s kindly old face lit up with a merry smile; she put down - her work, and shifting a little nearer, be- , gan her story:— ' “it was the first time 1 went back to Baffin Laud after i "'as married. And I, who had always Jjpen poor, a child without a father, passed, on from hand to hand—l found myself now a, , welcome guest, made much of by all those who had known me before. My husband had come up to challenge a man he knew to a .song contest, and there were great feasts and gablipnngs, such as i had heard of, perhaps'; but never seen myself.”, “Tell me something about them.” “ Weil, there was the Tivajuk, the Great Rejoicing, where they play the 1 game of changing wives. A big snow hut is built, all empty inside, just for the dancing, only with two' blocks of snow in the middle of the floor. One is about halt the height of a man, and is called the jumping block, the other is a full man’s height, and is called the lamp block. Two men, they are the Servants of Joy, me dressed up, one like a man, the other ike a woman, and both wear masks Their clothes are made too small for them on purpose, tied in tightly just where they ought to be loose, and that makes them look funny, or course. It is part of their business to make everyone laugh. “Then all the men and women in the place assemble in the dance hut, and wait for tho two masked dancers. Suddenly the two of them come leaping in, the man with •, dog whip and the one dressed as a woman with, a stick; they jump over the jumping block and begin striking out at all the men in the hut, chasing them all out until only the women are left. The maskers are supposed to he dumb, they do not speak, but make signs to each other with' great gestures, only giving a sort of huge gasp now and again with all the force of their lungs. They have to leap nimbly about among the women, to make sure there are no men hidden; then out they go to the men waiting outside. One of the men waiting now goes up to the two and smiles, and whispers the name of the woman he specially wants. At once the 1 two maskers rush into the hut and touch the woman named under the sole of the foot. Then all the other women, are supposed to be over so pleased to find that one'of their number has been chosen. Then tho three go out together; and every time the maskers go in and out they have to jump over the jumping block with long strides, trying to look funny. They load out the woman who has been chosen, and bring her back directly after with the man who asked for her; the women are never allowed to know who it is that wants them till they get outside. Both have to look very solemn when they come in, and pretend not to notice that the others are laughing. All tho others then call out, ‘ Unu-mi-nu-mi-nu-nu,’ and keep, on paying it all the time, in different voices, to make it sound funny. Then the man leads the woman ho has chosen twice round the lamp block, and all sing together: “ Mask, mask. leaping teasing mask, Twirl and writhe and dance with joy, Give him gifts now. Dry moss for lamp wicks: Mask, mask, leaping, teasing mask.

“ While this song is being sung, the two nniskcrs have to keep on embracing each other, making it as funny as they ran. so tliat the others have to laugh.”—Knurl Rasmussen, in ‘Across Arctic America.”