When the animal has been strangled to
death, it is skinned and its head is cut off and set in the east
window of the house, where a piece of its own flesh is placed under
its snout, together with a cup of its own meat boiled, some millet
dumplings, and dried fish. Prayers are then addressed to the dead
animal; amongst other things it is sometimes invited, after going
away to its father and mother, to return into the world in order
that it may again be reared for sacrifice. When the bear is supposed
to have finished eating its own flesh, the man who presides at the
feast takes the cup containing the boiled meat, salutes it, and
divides the contents between all the company present: every person,
young and old alike, must taste a little. The cup is called "the cup
of offering" because it has just been offered to the dead bear. When
the rest of the flesh has been cooked, it is shared out in like
manner among all the people, everybody partaking of at least a
morsel; not to partake of the feast would be equivalent to
excommunication, it would be to place the recreant outside the pale
of Aino fellowship.
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