142          SMOKE-CONSUMING INDIANS.      [CHAP. XIIL
and a half feet high, crawlipg through which we at last reached the room, itself partly underground, and dimly lighted by blubber lamps.
The Indians who were to take part in the dance, chiefly young men, were engaged in dressing, and bathing themselves in the liquid not before mentioned. All were nude to the waist, and wore seal, deer skin, or cotton pantaloons, with the tails of wolves or dogs hanging behind, and feathers and cheap handkerchiefs round their heads. The elders sat on a bench or shelf, running round the entire building, and looked on approvingly, whilst they consumed their own smoke, as is the manner of the Tchuktchis, by swallowing all they made, and getting partially intoxicated thereby. Their pipe-bowls were on the smallest scale, and they even diluted their tobacco by mixing willow shavings "fine cut" with it.
Example of Pipe used by the Malemutes.
Meantime the women were bringing in contributions of berries and fish in large "contogs," or wooden bowls, varying in shape from a deep dish to an oblong soup-tureen.
The performance commenced by the actors ranging them-