C Ihe Ladies c cu. V'VVAN - History and Classics, Department of

262 Notes to Pages 60-62Interpreter stands up ready for action, in reindeer parka,white wolverine collar, moccasins, hlue trousers, a man withan aristocratic face and jutting chin, alert dark eyes, goldring on one finger, halfKanaka, half EskimoBy "Kanaka, " Vyvyan refers specifically to someone fromHawaii or generally to someone from another South Seasisland. To Vyvyan's eye, the man evidently possessed an exoticappearance, but another report of him, by one who knew himmuch better, does not accord with hers. Archdeacon Whittakeralso attended the trial. Following is a portion of his account:At this trial, Billie Kemaksina, a native of mixed Eskimoand Portuguese blood, was the interpreter. I had knownBillie as a small boy, an imp for mischief, but fairly attentiveat school. Afterward he went to Point Barrow, where hehad more schooling. Marrying there, he had returned tothe Delta, having acquired a good working knowledge ofEnglish. Being a good hunter, and trapper, careful andhonest, he was highly esteemed by the Hudson [sic] BayCompany, who had brought down for him an auxiliarypower schooner, valued at $7,000, for which he had inhand a large down-payment of valuable furs.After the trial was over, Canon Hester, the residentmissionary, secured the alleged murderer, with anotherfrom the same region, for attendance at the church, andBillie was put up to preach the Gospel to them. With a littlebook of notes in his hand, he began an address whichpresented to the minds of the pagan Eskimo, almost everythingthat the missionaries had spent thirty years inbringing to the consciousness of a people who were now in ahigh state of civilization, and of Christian living. Both as aninterpreter of other men's words, and of the truths of theChristian religion, he had attained a high standard. I couldgather enough, listening closely, to appreciate his loyalty towhat he had been taught, and his native eloquence in deliveringhis message. (Whittaker, "Sunrise" 174-)The point about the expenditure of thirty years' effort echoes astatement by Bishop Stringer recorded in Vyvyan's field notefor 29 May.Nalonga is slit-eyed, tattooed lines on faceGenerally, among Inuit of the region, pierced earlobes,pierced nasal septa, and facial tattoos were forms of ornamentationfor both men and women. "Women's tattoos consistedof small blue crosses at the corners of the mouth and of severalvertical blue lines on the chin," while "men's tattoos consistedof two or three transverse blue lines on the cheeks worn byhomicides and of small blue crosses on the shoulder worn bywhalers" (Smith 252-53).like the dancer, I had left my own consciousness and goneback into some region of prehistoric timeIn kind, Vyvyan's cultural disorientation is customary; indegree, it is rather remarkable, although Bishop Stringerfound a similar dance "dreadful to behold" when he saw it atKittigazuit in 1893 (qtd. in Frank Peake, The Bishop 27). Onemight be inclined to interpret "large village hall" as the localkashim (also transcribed as qasgiq-the communal men's clubhouse/assemblyhouse [Smith 351; Ostermann 26;Fienup-Riordan 43l-and as kajigi [Frank Peake, The Bishop 26]);but, if it is, it is only a makeshift one, for Vyvyan' s field notefor 24- June establishes that it occurred in the mission house,and Dorrien Smith, who did not attend, specifies in her notefor the same date that it was the Anglican, rather than theRoman Catholic, mission house, Vyvyan's basic description ofthe dance, aside from her response to it, is similar to earlierones, including the one most often cited, by Roman Catholicmissionary Emile-Fortune-Stanilas-Joseph Petitot (1838-1916). Noted for the acuteness of his ethnographicobservations, he visited Inuvialuit (Mackenzie Delta Inuit) fourtimes between 1865 and 1877, and witnessed dances at bothFort McPherson and Fort Anderson, which, situated on theAnderson River east of the Mackenzie Delta, lay betweenAklavik and lkagena's home region. In noting how drummersusing seal skin drums mark time and that a chorus of men andwomen always chant the words of a song (ajajai) to the beat ofthe drum, he recorded the following:their dances are characterized by mimic and rhythmed steps.Music makers and singers stand in around the dancers who,only a few at a time, gambol, gesticulate, and strike attitudesnow with a terrible martial look, now with a gracious comicaleven burlesque stance. Krs;ouktark started to imitate thebehaviour, the little leaps, the contorsions, the wingbeatsand even the cawings of the crow. His song was tuned to themovements of the dance ... He changed the theme of hisdance and of his songs to represent the hunting of a