The Inviting-In Festival (Aithukaguk) is a great inter-tribal feast,
second in importance to the Great Feast to the Dead. It is a
celebration on invitation from one tribe to her neighbors when
sufficient provisions have been collected. It takes place late in the
season, after the other festivals are over. Neighboring tribes act as
hosts in rotation, each striving to outdo the other in the quality and
quantity of entertainment offered. During this festival the dramatic
pantomime dances for which the Alaskan Eskimo are justly famous, are
performed by especially trained actors. For several days the dances
continue, each side paying the forfeit as they lose in the dancing
contests. In this respect the representations are somewhat similar to
the nith contests of the Greenlanders. As I have noticed the dances at
length elsewhere,[26] I shall only give a brief survey here,
sufficient to show their place in the Eskimo festival dances.
[26] Canadian Geological Survey. Memoir 45. The "Inviting-In" Feast
of the Alaskan Eskimo.
The main dances of the Inviting-In Festival are totemic in character,
performed by trained actors to appease the totems of the hunters, and
insure success for the coming season. These are danced in pantomime
and depict the life of arctic animals, the walrus, raven, bear,
ptarmigan, and others. Then there are group dances which illustrate
hunting scenes, like the Reindeer and Wolf Pack dance already
described, also dances of a purely comic character, designed for the
entertainment of the guests. During the latter performances the side
which laughs has to pay a forfeit.
Elaborate masks are worn in all of the dances. The full paraphernalia,
masks, handmasks, fillets, and armlets, are worn by the chief actors.
They are supported by richly garbed assistants. An old shaman acts as
master of ceremonies. There is an interchange of presents between the
tribes during the intervals but not between individuals, as in the
Asking Festival. At the close of the festival the masks are burned.