Then comes the actual sacrifice.  The Bear is led out of his cage, a rope is thrown round his neck, and he is perambulated round the neighbourhood of the hut.  We do not hear that among the Ainos he goes in procession round the village, but among the Gilyaks, not far away in Eastern Siberia, the Bear is led about the villages, and it is held to be specially important that he should be dragged down to the river, for this will ensure the village a plentiful supply of fish.  He is then, among the Gilyaks, taken to each hut in the village, and fish, brandy, and other delicacies are offered to him.  Some of the people prostrate themselves in front of him and his coming into a house brings a blessing, and if he snuffs at the food, that brings a blessing too.

To return to the Aino Bear.  While he is being led about the hut the men, headed by a chief, shoot at the Bear with arrows tipped with buttons.  But the object of the shooting is not to kill, only apparently to irritate him.  He is killed at last without shedding of his sacred blood, and we hope without much pain.  He is taken in front of the sacred wands, a stick placed in his mouth, and nine men press his neck against a beam; he dies without a sound.  Meantime the women and girls, who stand behind the men, dance, lament, and beat the men who are killing their Bear.  The body of the dead Bear is then laid on a mat before the sacred wands.  A sword and quiver, taken from the wands, are hung about the Bear.  If it is a She-Bear it is also bedecked with a necklace and rings.  Food and drink, millet broth and millet cakes are offered to it.  It is decked as an Aino, it is fed as an Aino.  It is clear that the Bear is in some sense a human Bear, an Aino.  The men sit down on mats in front of the Bear and offer libations, and themselves drink deep.

Now that the death is fairly over the mourning ends, and all is feasting and merriment.  Even the old women lament no more.  Cakes of millet are scrambled for.  The bear is skinned and disembowelled, the trunk is severed from the head, to which the skin is left hanging.  The blood, which might not be shed before, is now carefully collected in cups and eagerly drunk by the men, for the blood is the life.  The liver is cut up and eaten raw.  The flesh and the rest of the vitals are kept for the day next but one, when it is divided among all persons present at the feast.  It is what the Greeks call a dais, a meal divided or distributed.  While the Bear is being dismembered the girls dance, in front of the sacred wands, and the old women again lament.  The Bear’s brain is extracted from his head and eaten, and the skull, severed from the skin, is hung on a pole near the sacred wands.  Thus it would seem the life and strength of the bear is brought near to the living growth of the leaves.  The stick with which the Bear was gagged is also hung on the pole, and with it the sword and quiver he had worn after his death.  The whole congregation, men and women, dance about this strange maypole, and a great drinking bout, in which all men and women alike join, ends the feast.