m:&: ':M^' r-Kiinf'-''feStiiili J SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTIONBUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGYBULLETIN 144THE NORTHERN AND CENTRALNOOTKAN TRIBESBy PHILIP DRUCKER Plate 1 (Frontispiece).- Nootkan territory: View up Tasis River, Nootka Sound.(Photograph from VV. A. Newcombc Collection.) U-' /.-^-oSMITHSONIAN INSTITUTIONy , C BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY ' ? BULLETIN 144THE NORTHERN AND CENTRALNOOTKAN TRIBESBy PHILIP DRUCKER UNITED STATESGOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICEWASHINGTON : 1951For sale by the Superintendent of Documents. U. S. Government Printing OflBceWashington 25, D. C. - Price $1.50 (Paper) LETTER OF TRANSMITTALSmithsonian Institution,Bureau of American Ethnology,Washington, D. C, April 1, 1949.Sir: I have the honor to transmit herewith a manuscript entitled"The Northern and Central Nootkan Tribes," by PhiHp Drucker,and to recommend that it be published as a bulletin of the Bureau ofAmerican Ethnology.Very respectfully yours, M. W. Stirling, Director.Dr. Alexander Wetmore,Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. CONTENTS PAGEForeword viiIntroduction 1The Nootkan tribes 3The homeland 6The historic period 10Economic life 15Implements of the food quest 15Fishing devices 16Hunting devices 26Gathering devices 35The economic cycle and methods 36Preparation and preservation of food 61Material culture 67Habitations and manufactures 67Habitations 67Carpentry 77Logging 79Board making 80Measures 81Canoes and their appurtenances 82Wooden receptacles 88Miscellaneous household utensils 91Textiles 92Dress and ornament 99Ceremonial dress 101Skin dressing 103Transportation 104Musical instruments 106Fire and lighting 106Tobacco and chewing gum 108Pets 109Wealth goods 109Dentalia 111Abalone shells 113Sea otter pelts 114Blankets 114Calendars and mnemonics 115The life of the individual 118Pregnancy and birth customs 119Twins 127Hair cutting _. 128Education 129First game . 137Girl's puberty 137HI IV CONTENTSThe life of the individual?Continued pageMenstrual observances 144Postpuberty 144Remedies 146Mortuary customs 147Religious life 151The supernatural world 151Tales of supernatural experience 157Dealings with the supernatural 163The ritual cleansing-spirit quest 167Hair seal hunting rites 168Sea otter hunting rites 169Whale hunters' rites 169War chiefs' rites 170Shrines 170Weather magic 174Observances in honor of game 175The Shaman 181Shamanistic curing 202Black magic 212The tsaiyeq ritual 215Social life 219Polity 220Chickliset 222Kyuquot 222Ehetisat 225Nuchatlet 227Moachat 228Muchalat 232Hesquiat 235Otsosat 238Ahousat 238Clayoquot 240Rank 243Privileges 247Ceremonial seats 260Inheritance 266Speakers, wars chiefs, and clowns 269Commoners 27 1 Slaves 272Hereditary trades 273Summary: The chiefs and their people 273Kinship 274Kinship usages and terminology 276Residence 278Marriage 286Sex conflicts 303Dissension and social control 311Suicide 322Personality types and social attitudes 322Ideals 322Abnormal personalities 324 CONTENTS VSocial life?Continued pageNews and gossip 331War 332The war between the Ahousat and the Otsosat 344The Muchalat wars 353Festivals and diversions 366Festivals 366Announcing intent 366Feasts 370Potlatches 376The "Shamans' Dance" (Loqwana) 386An Ehetisat Shamans' Dance 417A Nuchatlet Shamans' Dance 430Significance of the "Shamans' Dance" 439Shamans' Dance miscellany 440Older festivals 443Games and amusements 444The patterns of the culture 453Bibliography 457Index 461 ILLUSTRATIONSPLATES[All plates except frontispiece follow page 460]1. (Frontispiece.) Nootkan territor.v: View up Tasis River, Nootkan Sound.2. Nootkan territory, a, View up Tasis Canal, Nootkan Sound, from lowerchannel, b, Tide flats at head of Tasis Canal.3. Northern Nootkan art. a, b, Old houseposts at Kyuquot. c, Thunderblrd-and-whale memorial erected in 1902-3 at death of Chief Moqwina.4. Northern Nootkan masks.5. Nootkan masks. FIGURES PAGE1. Types of salmon traps 172. Globular kelpSsh trap 193. Salmon harpoon head and types of shafts 204. Cod and spring-salmon hook 225. Halibut rigs, position of parts while heaving out 236. Frame for waterfowl and herring nets 247. Frame for hand dip net for codfish, used with lure 268. Sealing harpoon 279. Type of scarf joint used for shaft of whaling harpoon 2810. Method of bending float to standing portion of whaling harpoon line.. 3011. Diagram of deer deadfall 3312. Crew stations and stowage of gear for whale hunt 5013. Tow for dead whale 5414. House frame at yukwot (Friendly Cove) 6815. Method of preparing and of carrying pack of cedar bark 10516. Pubescent girl's hair ornament 14017. Territorial holdings of various Moachat chiefs 2501 8. Potlatch seats of the Kyuquot chiefs in order of rank 26119. Feast seats of the Kyuquot 26220. Potlatch seats of the Ehetisat chiefs in order of rank 26221. Potlatch seats of the Moachat chiefs in order of rank 26322. Feast seats of the Moachat 26423. Potlatch seats of confederated Muchalat groups, end of nineteenthcentury 26424. Feast places of the Muchalat groups, during period of confederation(latter half of nineteenth century) 26525. Potlatch and feast seats of the Hesquiat after recent confederation... 26526. Seating order of the Clayoquot chiefs, for both feasts and potlatches.. 26627. Residence in the icsaath house at Ehetisat in the late 1880's 28128. Residence in the taclsath house at Kyuquot (1890-1900), and rela-tionships of residents 284VI MAPS PAGE1. The Nootkan tribes and their neighbors 12. Kyuquot sites 2243. Ehetisat and Nuchatlet sites 2264. Moachat sites 2295. Muchalat village sites 2336. Hesquiat sites 2367. Ahousat sites 2398. Clayoquot sites 241VII FOREWORDI wish to express my gratitude to various persons and institutionsthat made the research and the final preparation of this report possible.The Social Science Research Council sustained the initial field workthrough a pre-Doctoral Research Fellowship in 1935-36. Dr. A. L.Kjoeber obtained funds for collecting element lists among the CentralNootkan tribes that made possible a longer stay among them, and thefollowing year arranged for me to make a brief stopover at Nootkato fill in some of the major gaps in the field notes. I am also indebtedto Dr. Kroeber and to Dr. R. H. Lowie and Dr. R. L. Olson for adviceand criticism of my draft of the section on Nootkan social organiza-tion. Dr. Ralph Linton was also good enough to read that section,and gave me keen and constructive criticism.Of the many people who aided me in the field, Mr. W. A. Newcombe,of Victoria, B. C, put me under the greatest obhgation. His tremen-dous knowledge of Northwest Coast ethnology and art, his acquaint-ance with the various locahties, and with many of the older Indians,he generously put at my disposal. He also gave me permission tomake use of early photographs of Nootkan scenes from his extensivefiles. It is very pleasant to be able to express my thanks to him.To Dr. H. G. Barnett also I am indebted for many ideas and helpfulcriticisms, and for many other favors as well. Dr. Gunther is anotherperson to whom I am indebted for the many helpful pointers shegave me, based on her extensive knowledge of Makah culture.While in the field I received many courtesies and the hospitality ofa number of people, particularly Mr. Arthur Park, of Nootka, thevarious officers of the Nootka Packing Company, Father Joseph ofthe Hesquiat Mission, the good fathers at Christie Indian Schoolat Clayoquot, and Mr. Caldwell, the very capable and progressivemissionary of the United Church establishment at Ahousat. To allof them I am very grateful for their kindness.It goes without saying that, Uke all ethnographers, I owe thanks forwhatever merit this report may have to my Nootkan friends who,with endless patience and unfailing good humor, ransacked theirmemories to explain Nootkan life in the days of their youth to thisnot always patient field worker. a % 129? ^' ^^(south [ ' q oNORTHERN NOOTKAN T\ 8- 5CEITHE NOOTKAN TRIBAND THEIR NEIGHBC^(WOA/-A^OOr/f>1A/ GROUP A/M/A/ PARENTHESESji THE NORTHERN AND CENTRALNOOTKAN TRIBESBy Philip DruckerINTRODUCTIONThe material for this report was collected in 1935-36 with theassistance of a pre-Doctoral Research Fellowship granted by theSocial Science Research Council. The research problem was to de-termine the bases of social stratification. I had no intention ofdiverging from the specific problem to collect data for a generalethnography, but I soon found that the societal factors could not beisolated without forcing the material. For example, with variouseconomic property rights as important as they were to the status ofthe nobles, or "chiefs," the fact that a chief owned a salmon trap ofone kind, and a man of lesser rank a trap of another type, makes itnecessary for the field worker to learn what the different types ofsalmon traps were to see if there was anything of significance in thetwo specific cases he has recorded. Again, one cannot evaluate thesignificance of the ownership of particular ritual privileges by chiefswithout knowing the whole ceremonial. Before long I found thatmy quest for the basic forces of social organization were leading meinto all phases of the culture: economy, technology, ceremonialism,and the rest, so I ended up trying to round out the picture. Theaim, however, was always to relate these topics to the problems ofthe social structure.On my return from the field I began to prepare an account of Noot-kan social organization. As in the field, I found that the descriptionwas hampered by lack of the background data of economy, ceremonials,and the like; the paper became uncommonly cluttered up with ex-planatory footnotes in which I tried to condense these relevant factsto make the discussion intelligible. At last I concluded that, to dojustice to the material, it should be presented in the form of a fulldescription of all aspects of native life. I was particularly fortunatesince, by the time I had reviewed my field notes, Dr. Kroeber sentme on an element-list survey of the Northwest Coast, and arrangedfor additional funds to permit me, en route, to spend a few additional1 THE NOOTKAN TRIBESAND THEIR NEIGHBORS(A/OA/-/VOOTKAAJ GROUP A/AME3/N PARENTHESES) Map 1.?The Nootkan tribes and their neighb< 839083 O - 51 (Face page 1.) 2 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144weeks filling in some of the more apparent lacunae I had noted inmy data.From this time on, however, the tale of the Nootkan data I hadcollected becomes somewhat embarrassing, for I never was quite ableto set to work to get them in order. Other duties occupied m.e, whUethe Nootka notebooks weighed on my conscience. Now and thenI broke them out to write a few pages, but did not make much head-way. During the latter part of the recent unpleasantness, Dr.Barnett was kind enough to get my notes out of storage for me, andI made the first appreciable dent in them in several years on longdull afternoons while anchored behind the nets in various Pacificharbors. Recently Dr. Stirling permitted me to devote the necessarytime to rounding out the task of preparing the material for publication.As part of the vicissitudes of getting the material written, I shoiddadd that I have had quite a struggle in arriving at the form of pres-entation?a fact perhaps not obvious from the present orthodoxpattern. As I have said, my goal was an interpretation of social lifeand the functions of the social structure. I attempted at first toweave the data together in a functional picture of native activities,centered in the social life. One reason for trying this was that, hadI had the art to do it, it should have given a far more vivid pictureof the native scene. Too, I had so often been bored by the methodicalbut lifeless standard ethnographic account that I hoped to be ableto inject into the description some of the life and feeling that myinformants had given me. I found, however, that the laborious cate-gories of the standard account have their place. "WTien I attempted,while discussing chiefs' property rights in salmon traps, for exam.ple,to bring in all the information pertaining to these traps?their con-struction and forms, methods of use, the preparation of the salmoncaught in them, the ritual observances connected with the salmon,the etiquette of salmon feasts, and so on?the thread of my argumentbecame shockingly fouled up. If I lost the thread at times myself,I could scarcely expect a reader to follow it. In short, I could notdesign a "functional" presentation without playing down the numerousaspects of the culture indirectly related to the central theme. Itmight be done, dealing with a simpler culture, but with one as richand complex as that of the Nootkans the only way I found to presenta reasonably well-balanced picture was to separate the variousactivities and their material manifestations into the timeworn cate-gories of economy, material culture, and the rest.Another problem that confronted me was the temporal placing ofthe material. For various reasons, chief of which was that to appraisesocial values and attitudes I wanted first-hand observations of theinformants, I settled on the period from 1870 to about 1900 as my Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 6ethnographic horizon. Some information was recorded that goes backearher (and was hearsay evidence for the informants), but I tried todistinguish such material from the rest, even though to do so I hadto estimate the date as "about 1850," or "in early historic times."Where no such temporal clues are given, the material refers to the timehorizon cited. The problem of cultural changes and the processesinvolved in them since the time of the first historic records a centuryago will be dealt with in another pubUcation.THE NOOTKAN TRIBESVancouver Island juts from the mainland of northwest NorthAmerica at a sharp angle to the general trend of the Coast. The mainaxis of the island runs northwest-southeast, but in convenient moderncolloquial usage the seaward side facing the Pacific Ocean is called the"West Coast," while the shore facing the mainland is the "East Coast."On the "West Coast" from Cape Cook down to the vicinity of modernPort Renfrew lived the Nootkan tribes. Across the Strait of Juan doFuca on storm-lashed Cape Flattery was an outlying division of thesame people, the Makah. There were no other members of this nation.Their neighbors were the Southern Kwakiutl tribes north of Cape Cookin Quatsino Sound, and on the "East Coast" of Vancouver Island toCape Mudge, and various Coast Salish groups occupying the remainderof the island and the south shore of the Strait. The Chemakum andQuileute were the immediate neighbors on either side of the Makah.The designation "Nootkan" is a linguistic one, referring to this onemember of the so-called Wakashan stock. The language is ratherclosely related, as first pointed out by Boas and amply demonstratedby Sapir, to Kwakiutl. The word "Nootka" itself is a barbarism, forit does not occur in the native tongue. The ear of the great explorerCaptain Cook played him false when, on his entry into the sound nowbearing his name, he thought he heard one of the natives use the wordto refer to the place or the people. Actually, the Indians had no truenational designation for themselves, beyond explanatory plirasesmeaning " people we can understand," and the like; they used specifictribal designations rather than broad inclusive ones.In the Nootkan language there are three dialectic divisions : Nootkaproper, spoken from Cape Cook to the east shore of Barkley Sound;Nitinat, used by the groups of Pacheena and Nitinat Lake; and Makah,spoken by the Cape Flattery people. These dialects seem to differthrough a few fairly simple and consistent phonetic shifts, so thatalthough at first mutually unintelligible, a person who speaks oneform can soon understand the other and make himseK understood. Atleast that is what informants say ; detailed comparative analyses havenot been published. The relationship between Nitinat and Makah 4 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144remains to be classified, particularly. We have no information as yetas to whether they are more closely allied to each other than to Nootkaproper, or if all three dialects are equally divergent. In addition tothese dialectic variations, there are within Nootka proper a series ofminor local peculiarities of intonation and phi-asing, so that althoughthe people have no difficulty understanding each other, they canreadily distinguish from what tribal division the speaker comes. Evenone unfamiliar with the language can readily distinguish the sonorous"drawl" and rising terminal inflection of a person from Nootka Soundfrom the rapid speech of the Kyuquot with the characteristic tendencyto elide the final vowels. These local differences are of about the orderof those in modern American English, comparable, for example, tothose distinguishing colloquial speech of Boston, Baltimore, and FortWorth, and do not hamper communication.Culturally as well as linguistically, the Nootkans formed a distinctunit. While they shared many traits with their linguistic kinsmen,the Southern Kwakiutl, they also possessed a considerable corpus ofdifferent cultm-e complexes. With the Salishan-speaking neighborsthey had even less in common. Moreover, many of the traits sharedby Nootkans and Salish (and the Quileute) appear to represent outrightborrowings by the latter from the former. A major ceremonial of theSahsh of the Straits of Juan de Fuca and modern western WashingtonState was a dilute version of a Nootkan ritual and known by theNootkan name (illy pronounced, it is true). The Nootkan canoe typewas used by all these neighbors?in fact, the actual canoes wereimported, being preferred to the local craft. It is not my intent hereto appraise Nootkan cultm-e in the areal scheme?that can be donebest after it has been described in detail; my aim is only to bring outits unity and distinctness in broad terms. It is also possible thatwhen fuller data are available from the Nitinat and Makah, the sharpbreak between Nootkan and Salish cultures will pale somewhat. Thesetwo divisions are said to have had a number of typically Salish traitsof culture, and may have had even more.Among the groups speaking Nootka proper there were two principaldivisions and one minor one. The major break occurred at EstebanPoint, between Nootka Sound and Hesquiat Harbor. The groupsnorth of this point are those I have designated the Northern Nootkantribes. They differed from their relatives down the coast chieflyin observing a much greater number of customs borrowed from theSouthern Kwakiutl, with whom they were in frequent contact. Thetribes of the central province of Nootkan culture seem to have hadlittle direct contact with foreigners. What alien innovations reachedthem were second-hand imports, brought in by their northern kin,or by the Makah, who plied busily back and forth across the Strait. Drncker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 5One subgroup only of the Central tribes had frequent outside contacts.This division consisted of two tribes living at the head of AlberniCanal and on Sproat Lake. They will occasionally be referred toas the Alberni Canal groups in the following pages. One of thesewas a tribe called the tsica'ath/ a Barkley Sound group who claimto have moved from the Sound up to the head of the Canal not longbefore the historic period. The other group, the hopatcisath, hadmade their home on the shores of Sproat Lake since time immemorial.Since they were actually across the divide of the island and accessto the East Coast was fairly easy, they had considerable contact withvarious Gulf of Georgia Salish. Sapir, whose Nootkan studies weremade chiefly with these Alberni Canal groups, found evidence ofthis close contact in hopatcisath speech?so much, in fact, that heonce suggested they might have been a Salishan-speaking peoplewho became "Nootkanized" in both speech and culture (Sapir,1915, p. 19).There were five major political units, tribes and confederacies oftribes, among the Northern Nootkans, and several autonomousgroups. Beginning in the north were the Chickliset (tciklisath)of Ououkinsh Sound, who held the coast from the tip of Cape Cookaround nearly to Kjmquot Sound. ^ Next came the Kyuquot(qayokwath), a numerous group, really a confederation of a numberof tribes (each consisting of several local groups), who inhabitedKyuquot Sound. Next to them were the Ehetisat (ehatisath) andNuchatlet (nutcatlath) confederacies, and an independent localgroup (or tribelet) of Queen's Cove, the haqumstisath. In NootkaSound lived the members of the Moachat confederacy, and upMuchalat Arm were a number of independent local groups whocame within an ace of extinction owing to wars during the historicperiod, and who finally joined forces to become the Muchalat(matchath) tribe. It is from these Northern Nootkans that the bulkof the present material was collected. Specifically, Kyuquot, Ehetisat,Moachat, and Muchalat informants gave the greater part of the data.The Central tribes consist of the Hesquiat (heckwi'ath), a modernfusion of several independent local groups of the Hesquiat Harborregion, the Ahousat (ahausath), the Clayoquot (La'o'qwath) ofClayoquot Sound, the Barkley Sound groups (yuLutath, utcaklisath,ohiath, and toqwiath), and the Alberni Canal divisions previously ' In this report native words and phrases are recorded according to the simpler system of the methodsfor transcription of Indian languages (Phonetic transcription of Indian languages, Smithsonian Misc.Coll., vol. 66, No. 6, 1916). Differences within the k and q series, and between L and L! I am forced tosuppress because of inconsistencies in recording them in the field, as my ear became progressively moreattuned to Nootkan speech. Toward the end of my field work I should have reviewed all the phrases,brief texts, etc., recorded, but time did not permit me to do so. ' The capitalized tribal names and names of localities are the modem anglicized forms found on publishedcharts, etc. 6 BUREAtr OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144mentioned. There were formerly a number of other groups; theManoisat-Otsosat, exterminated by the Ahousat; several autonomousgroups in Clayoquot Sound, wiped out by the Clayoquot; and anumber of divisions in Barkley Sound whose names are only memories.Of the Central tribes fairly extensive accounts were obtained fromthe Hesquiat and Clayoquot, and data on a number of special topicswere collected from the Ahousat. Brief checks with element listswere made of the Alberni Canal people to determine their culturalposition with respect to their kinsmen of the outer coasts. I obtainedno information from the Barkley Sound tribes, nor from the Nitinat.The principal informants, with their tribal affiliations, were asfollows: Mrs. Sarah Olabar (Kjoiquot), Mrs. Captain Jack (Ehetisat),Chief Felix Michael (Nuchatlet), Frank Savey (Moachat), Mrs.Maggie Louis (Moachat), Muchalat Peter (Muchalat), Blind Harry(Muchalat), Muchalat Jim (Muchalat), Thomas Lucas (Hesquiat),Pascal Alexander (Hesquiat), Chief aLlyu (Ahousat), yaksu'is(Clayoquot), Jimmy Jim (Clayoquot), George Hamilton (hopatcisath),Jackson Dan (tsica'ath). The principal interpreters were Mrs.Olabar, Alex Amos and his wife Mary, Joe Hayes, George Shamrock,and Alex Thomas. THE HOMELANDVancouver Island, the habitat of our tribes, is a partially submergedmountain mass. Its jagged, saw-toothed peaks thrust skyward two,three, and four thousand feet above present sea level, like a wallfronting on the Pacific. The steep, freshly cut gullies along theouter slopes, became, on submergence, narrow fiords, a mile or twowide, dropping swiftly to 40, 50, and 60 fathoms. It is a rugged land.The lower ends of the canals merge to form inlets and sounds,studded with islands, rocks, and reefs?the tips of the smaller moun-tains. The sounds, with their open but partly sheltered expanses ofwater, furnished natural centers for concentrations of population andthe bases for political groupings. The northwesternmost tribe, theChickhset, occupied Ououkinsh Sound; the powerful Kyuquot con-federacy inhabited Kyuquot Sound, the next major break in the coast.Esperanza and Nuchatlitz Inlets were the homes of separate politicaldivisions, the Ehetisat and Nuchatlet respectively. Nootka Soundv/as the seat of the "Nootka" of early explorers, or the Moachat, asthe members of this numerous and aggressive confederacy calledthemselves. Muchalat Arm was the home of a number of smallautonomous groups who only recently confederated, but their neigh-bors have for long considered them a division apart. Around EstebanPoint lived the various Hesquiat groups, along the shelterless shoresof Hesquiat Harbor. Next to them were the Manoisat-Otsosat, of Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 7Sydney Inlet and adjoining channels, exterminated by the aggressivoAhousat, who made themselves masters of that region. ClayoquotSound was the home of the Clayoquot, another warlike tribe whosubdued or liquidated neighboring groups until they were left undis-puted owners of the Sound. Barldey Sound, again, was the home ofa number of large and important groups: Ucluelet, Ohiat, Toquiat,and Uchucklisat. It is apparent that the sounds and large inlets,major features of local physiography, played an important part informing the sociopolitical divisions of the people. The obvious reasonis that inhabitants of such a locality were thrown together and theiroutside contacts were interrupted by the frequent periods of badweather when it was impossible to round the headlands to the nextsound. It is noteworthy that each of these geographic divisions,that is, the people of a certain sound, had their characteristic intona-tion and speech mannerism?differelices roughly comparable to theregional differences in the English of New England and the Southwest,for example.Between the sounds there are areas of low headlands fringed inmany places by long, straight beaches on which the surf pounds end-lessly. It is said that anciently there were a few groups of peoplewho lived all the year on these "outside" coasts. They suffered manyhardships during winter storms when the surf was too heavy for themto launch their canoes. Eventually they made alliances with peopleof the sounds and abandoned the outer coasts except for spring andsummer camp sites.The "West Coast" of Vancouver Island is in the belt of heavy rain-fall of Northwest America. The annual rainfall varies slightly ac-cording as it is measured in more or less sheltered localities, but ingeneral averages about 100 inches a year. From early fall till springheavy southeasterly storm winds lash the coast with sheets of rain,and pile mountainous surf on the outer beaches for days at a time.These winds ordinarily gradually shift to westerlies as they blowthemselves out. Occasionally a northerly wind will come over themountains, bringing clear, crisp, fine weather. Then the southeastwind starts to blow again. In late spring and early summer there areperiods when the sea is glassy calm. Fog banks form along themargin of the Japanese current out offshore to roll in day after day,breaking up only when a light breeze picks up. In late summer,rain squalls alternate with fine bright days, till time for the southeaststorms to start.Although the climate is dark and raw, the temperature seldom fallsvery low along the coast. Sharp frosts and snows of brief durationoccur through the winter. Back up on the mountains, rivers and3?51 2 8 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144lakes freeze over and snow lies all winter; snow fields on some of thepeaks never entire]}'- melt away. But along the shore it never getsreally bitterly cold. The Japanese cm-rent passing some miles off-shore, near the edge of the continental shelf, ameliorates the cold thatwould otherwise prevail in that latitude. The same current is saidto cause the coldness of the local sea water, however, stirring up thecold water of the deeps and washing it against the coast in a sort ofback eddy (the inshore current has a constant northwestward set,even during westerly winds, the opposite of that of the Japanesestream). Whatever the reason, the sea water is markedly cold evenin the warmest season of the year.The tides are a striking phenomenon in this region. A tidal cycle,high to high, lasts about 13 hours. There is considerable irregularityin height of tide. Maximum heights of spring tides reach 13.5 feetabove lower low water; neap tides average about 8 feet. This con-stant rise and fall of the sea produces strong currents in the inletsand channels, particularly in places with reduced entrances to wideexpanses of water. Five-, six-, and even seven-knot currents areknown, and in all the channels the effect of the tidal currents is pro-nounced.On shore, the heavy rainfall supports a dense forest growth despitethe poor soil (the bedrock is in most places barely covered by a thinlayer of half-rotten leaves and needles, or moss, with but few andshallow patches of soil) . The woods consist predominantly of conifers : Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga taxifolia (Lamb) Britt.), hemlock {Tsugaheterophylla (Raf.) Sarg.), red cedar (Thuja plicata Donn.), yellowcedar (Chamaecyparis nootkaensis) , white fir (locally miscalled"balsam fir") (Abies grandis Lindl.), and yew (Taxus brevifolia Nutt.)being the more prominent species. Deciduous trees and shrubsoccur in scattered patches, tending to flank fresh-water streams.Alder (Alnus oregona Nutt.) and various bushes, salmonberry (Rubusspectabilis Pursh.), and wild cherry (Prunus emarginata (Dougl.) Walp.)are especially prominent. Salal (Gaultheria shallon Pursh.) standsin almost impenetrable tangles along the edge of the timber, and inpatches on rocky slopes where conifers have not taken hold.The woods, seen from the water, seem to form an impenetrablemantle over the irregular surface of the land. After one finally breaksthrough the luxurious growth along the margin, he finds himself in adark gloomy moss-covered world. Huge trunks rise straight andbranchless, the crowns forming a high canopy almost impervious tosunlight. Thin straggly young growth strives to reach the light above.Fallen timber?ranging from saplings that gave up the struggle toforest giants six and more feet through?hinder one's passage, formuch of the wood, particularly the red and the yellow cedar, rots but Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 9slowly. One must climb over one windfall, duck under the next thatlies over a big rock, and go around the third. The obstacle coursesused at training stations in the recent war are the only things I loiowof that would prepare one for travel through the woods of Nootkauterritory. And everywhere the scum of moss conceals the footing:in one place it slips underfoot from a glossy smooth slope of stone,at the next it covers equally a sound recent windfall and a rotten shellof tree trunk into which one sinks to the knees?it conceals crevicesand pitfalls innumerable. And everywhere water drips from rocks,seeps through the moss, drips from branches overhead.It is scarcely to be wondered at, what with the ruggedness of therockbound mountainous terrain and the dense tangle of vegetation,that the native population for the most part frequented the woodsbut little. The land game resources were fairly rich, but travel inthe woods was difficult, and moreover, marine resources were ex-tremely abundant. Several species of salmon occur there: dogsalmon (Oncorhynchus keta) and coho {0. kisutch) "run" in vastnumbers in the fall in almost every stream, large and small, thatenters the sea ; spring salmon (0. tschawytscha) and sockeye (0. nerka)run in certain rivers. Sea trout and steelhead accompany the salmonruns. A species of herring schools in the sounds and inlets in vastnumbers in late winter, then spawns in sheltered coves. Variousspecies of codfish were available at any time of the year, and shellfishin some variety were abundant along the outer beach. Halibutgrounds occur offshore, in the open sea. Associated with the wealthof fish in coastal waters were fish-eating mammals : hair seals (Pacificharbor seal), sea lions, and porpoises. Whales were also abundant,although the Indians claim that several species appeared periodically,giving rise to the notion that the cetaceans were "running" likesalmon. There was a time when the richly furred sea otter wasabundant on the coast.The list of land mammals, like that of many island areas, is note-worthy chiefly by reason of absences of a number of large forms foundon the nearby mainland. Elk, deer, black bear, mountain lions,wolves, raccoon, land otter, marten, mink, beaver, and squirrels werethe common forms. Marmots may occur in the higher areas. Com-mon animals of the mainland which were absent, so far as I couldlearn, were: grizzly bear, mountain goat, bobcat, foxes, skunk, por-cupine, rabbit. The avifauna seems to have been fairly rich (Swarth,1912). Waterfowl, of course, abounded, and as Vancouver Island liesacross the Pacific coast flyway it was a favorite resting place for ducksand geese. This was the land in which the Nootkan tribes lived. Itwas a strange environment, in a way, for its chief economic resourceswere in the water, or at the water's edge. The land was forbidding, 10 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144difficult of access. It is entirely possible that in recent times restlesswhite prospectors, trappers, and timber cruisers, may have exploredareas in the interior of the island that no Indian ever trod?at least,if the ancestors of the modern tribes arrived on the scene as canoe-using people, exploiting the products of sea and streams.The total environment affected the culture of its primitive occupantsin a number of ways. First of all, they made the products of sea andrivers their mainstay, traveled by water, and lived at the edge of it.A good beach, convenient for launching canoes, was an importantfactor in choice of dwelling sites. In the complete lack of Nootkanarcheological data we do not know whether the ancestors of the tribesarrived with a specialized sea-coast culture, or if they developed itincreasingly along those lines after establishing themselves on theisland, but it is certain that they were finally thoroughly bound tocoastal life. Only a few small local groups deviated from the generalpattern: two or three who penetrated up Gold River from MuchalatArm in Nootka Sound, and two groups at the head of Alberni Canal,on Sproat Lake. The situation of these two last-named divisionsdiffers slightly, for their territory physiographically belongs to the"East Coast" of the island, and is characterized by more open woodsand gentler relief. In addition, one of the Alberni Canal groups waseither originally an isolated Coast Salish group that became Noot-kanized or was strongly influenced by Coast Salish neighbors; theother tribe is said to have moved into the interior from Barkley Soundin late prehistoric times. The Gold River people were regarded bytheir coast kin as wild people of the woods; they were poorer, ruder?reaUy backwoodsmen. They, along with the Alberni folk, were alsothe only good woodsmen and land hunters among the tribes.The natural geographic divisions along the coast?the major inletsand sounds into which the fiords merged at their lower ends?likewiseinfluenced the cultural patterns. Here the effect was expressed insociopolitical terms: the various groups occupying a geographicaLdivision were thrown into more intimate contact with each other thanwith neighbors in the next inlet, and as a result, various sorts of fed-erations were formed, or else the groups became locked in conflict tillone emerged as dominant. In short, the geographical divisions of thecoast came to correspond with major political divisions,THE HISTORIC PERIODThe impact of Western European culture on that of the Nootkantribes varied in intensity in different epochs since it first began inearnest. The very first-known contact, with the timid Juan Perezin 1774, caused little pain or strain. That navigator made landfallon the Nootka Sound area, but laid to offshore,, not daring to enter, Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 11not half as bold as the amazed natives who came out in canoes,overcoming their fears sufficiently to go aboard his ship to exchangegifts and steal a few silver spoons. The evil star of European civiHza-tion dawned for the Nootkans and their neighbors on the NorthwestCoast 4 years later, when Cook stood in to King George's, or Nootka,Sound in the Resolution during his third voyage of exploration.Cook's discovery was destined to become famous, not because ofits addition to the geographical knowledge of the time, but because ofthe sea otter skins some of his people took in exchange for knick-knacks. When it was learned that in Canton the lush brown peltswere worth more than their weight in gold the fate of the nativecultures was sealed. The flamboyant Meares made his first voyageto the Northwest Coast in 1785, followed by Hannah, Barkley,Portlock and Dixon, Kendrick and Gray, and then a multitudeof others. The Spaniards, seeing a threat to their Pacific empire,established their short-lived outpost at Nootka Sound in 1789, andin 1794 Don Juan Francisco deja Bodega y Quadra formally surren-dered possession to Vancouver. The maritime traders continued tocome, a few ships each year, till the second decade of the nineteenthcentury, when the harvest of sea otter pelts had dwindled to meregleanings. It would be beside the point here to discuss the signifi-cance of this trade to the lands from which the traders came?thefacts that the "Nootka Sound controversy" brought England andSpain to the brink of war, and Boston was saved from ruin by seaotter hides exchanged in China for tea and silk are not pertinent toour discussion. The legend that the clean, driving lines of that queenof the seas, the American Clipper ship, were inspired by the gracefuland seaworthy prow of the Nootka canoe may not be true, but couldhave a germ of truth, for the very practical navigators of that daywere all impressed by the seaworthiness of the Indian craft. Whatis more important at the moment is the effect on the Indians. TheNootkans were most affected, beyond a doubt, of all the NorthwestCoast tribes, for the maritime traders formed the habit of putting into Nootka or Clayoquot Sound for wood and water after the longpassage from the Southern Seas, even after the avid commerce hadall but exterminated sea otter in Nootkan territory. They purveyedto the natives great stores of wealth in the form of metal tools, fire-arms, and ornaments. They alternately cajoled, robbed, and mur-dered them. Hannah exchanged names with an Ahousat chief,Meares had his sailmaker rig a suit of sails for "Maquinna's" canoes,Kendrick flattered the Indians by dressing in native garb. TheSpaniards fattened Maquinna's vanity and usurped the site of Yuquotfor their garrison. Martinez shot the high-rank chief "Quelquelem"to death for a fancied slight, and Boit, on Gray's orders, shot up and 12 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144burned out the Clayoquot village. Then traders of every nation-ality were horrified by the Indian massacres of the ships Boston andTonquiii.It is difficult to appraise the net result of the maritime-fur-tradeperiod on native culture. Firearms and wealth goods in abundancemust have had social repercussions. Data on the introduction ofvenereal diseases and smallpox are sparse, but these gifts of the highercivifization must have played their part in the rapid decline of popu-lation that followed.From about 1820 till 1875 the west coast of Vancouver Island wasspared intensive white contact. Hudson's Bay Company had wonthe bitter struggle on the lower Columbia, and estabhshed its rulealong the mainland shore. The Gentlemen Adventurers discoveredthat ^vith sea otter few and far between the Vancouver Island faunawas sUmmer pickings than the mainland. The Company establishedoffshore posts at Fort Rupert, and Fort McLoughfin, but those werepoints that could tap the riches of the mainland, as did Fort Simpsonfarther north. Thus for a good part of the nineteenth century theNootkan's white contacts were limited to occasional free-lance traderswho beat up and down the coast in small sailing vessels, and at timesmade vaUant but usually ill-fated attempts to establish independenttrading posts. There are scarcely any records of events from thedwindling away of the maritime trade in sea otter pelts until the 1850's.Wliite influence continued with trade goods, but pressure was shght.In the 1850's the tempo of the casual trade increased. A brisk tradein dogfish oil had developed in connection with the sawmill industryof the Northwest. The traders bought the oil cheap, and sold goodsdear, but nonetheless poured a flood of manufactured goods into thenative culture?^" two-and-a-half point" blankets, metal tools, guns,and the like. As this trade grew in importance, there developed atendency for people to winter at the old summer viUages to be nearthe trading posts, or the ports of call of the schooners laden withgoods. Before many years had passed, the old winter sites wererarely used. The year 1852 is a landmark of another sort: it is thedate of an epidemic of smaUpox that made heavy inroads in the al-ready declining population. From that time until the end of thecentury minor outbreaks of smallpox occurred at frequent intervals.Decrease of population meant that chiefs died without heirs in thedirect line. Potlatches were given by collateral relatives who hadnever potlatched before.The first intimate contact with a white group of size came wnth theestabhshment of the settlement at Alberni in 1860. The only tribesseriously affected were those of that immediate locahty, however,which was off the main line of communication up and down the coast. Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 13Among the rest of the tribes life went on pretty much as before.Several white traders were killed about this period, and the Ahousatcut off and plundered a schooner, for which theu' village was shot upby a British gunboat with inconclusive results. (As Sproat says, theAhousat considered they had won in the brush with the gunboat, forthe British did not succeed in captm-ing the instigator of the piracy,whom they had vowed they would take.)The period of relatively casual contact and slight pressure came toan end, or at least its end was fated, in 1875, the year Father Brabantestabhshed his mission at Hesquiat. The influence of this remark-able man came to be very great: modern Nootkans consider that heput a stop to the intertribal wars that scourged the coast. Thefact is, of course, that he was actively supported by Canadian law.His journal makes evident that his successful missionizing was a longhard struggle, but he eventually became a dominant figure, and in-fluenced many phases of native hfe all up and down the coast.In the 1880's fiu" seal hunting seems to have come to be an importantoccupation. Indian hunters were placed under contract by whiteschoonermen. The hunters provided a canoe, harpoons, guns; theIndians were given their meals aboard ship at a low charge and werepaid from $1 to $2 for each skin. At first, most of them went onshort voyages, going out only to intercept the fiu- seal herds on theannual migration, but it was not long before the Indians began toship aboard schooners bound for Bering Sea. Their world horizonexpanded suddenly, for many of them visited Japanese or Chineseports, and others caUed at San Francisco before returning home.The sealers worked on a long-term basis, many of them recruitingtheir crews from the same tribe year after year. They also had thecustom of estabhshing credit for then- better hunters at the tradingposts and for the hunters' famihes while they were at sea (by thisdate there were stores at Kyuquot, Nootka, and Clayoquot)?onesuspects they could easily afford tliis, paying a dollar or two a hide.Hunters came back from Bering Sea voyages with several hundreddollars, with any sort of luck; many are said to have made over athousand dollars in a season.During this same time, people began to travel more freely up anddown the coast. In the days of the wars, only a sizable party daredtravel any distance. A small group was fair game for warriors oftribes distant enough for relationship ties to be tenuous. Nowpeople went to Victoria, to work in the Fraser River canneries, andin the Puget Sound hopfields. Income from all these ventures madepotlatches frequent and more spectacular than ever. Some of theirwages were spent on sawed lumber, windows, and the white man'sfurniture, and, encouraged by the missionaries, the fad of building 14 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144individual family houses spread. Some of the houses built in thenineties and early 1900's, modeled on those seen in Victoria, Van-couver, and Seattle, achieved typical Victorian ugliness, with aprofusion of bay windows and fretwork.The policy of the Canadian Government in estabUshing the "Re-serves" scarcely afTected native life. All the important sites?thewinter and summer villages, the salmon-fishing stations?were setaside as Indian Reserves, so that there was no dislocation of thegroups.The final step in the transition to modern acculturation consistedof several parts: the estabUshment of Christie School at Clayoquotin 1899; the increased white contact resulting from the establishmentof canneries and other enterprises at Clayoquot, Nootka, and otherlocaUties; the white community at Tofino; and regular steamshipservice up and dowm the coast.^The final blow to native custom was the law passed in 1913 prohibit-ing potlatching. It was not strictly enforced, I gather, in Nootkanterritory for the first few years, partly because the region is so isolatedand partly because the Nootkans did not practice property destruc-tion nor the ghouUsh Hamatsa rites?the sort of thing the law seemsto have been aimed at. But before long pressure began to be apphed,and potlatching was abandoned.The foregoing sketch of the historic period is far from complete.It is not meant to trace the steps and processes of acculturation ofthe Nootkans. It is aimed only at setting the stage, so to speak, forthe ethnographic description to follow, for it is significant to placethat description temporally. I do not believe that any moderninformant can describe native customs, techniques, and the like ofover 150 years ago (prior to 1778) with accuracy and in detail. Accu-rate accounts, on which one can rely, are after all, those based onfirst-hand knowledge, the things the informant saw himself. Humanmemory can be tricky enough without adding the hazard of hearsay.Next in order of reliability are occasional bits concerning specific itemsthat were altered for one reason or another, usually through intro-duction of a new technique or tool shortly before the informant's day,at which liis conservative grandfather or other elderly relative sniffed,saying, "When / was a boy we did that properly, in such-and-such away." In the case of elderly informants, such data may go back80 to 90 years, and inject some interesting time perspective in theirremarks, but it would be too much to expect that they checked everydepartment of culture, so that they can describe everything on that ? These events were not simultaneous, but began about 1895. Several canneries were built that madea few packs and then failed. The Nootka Packing Company (operating at the time of my field work)did not begin to operate till 1917, but the first cannery In Nootka Sound was built in 1895. Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 15horizon. Formal history, including stories of wars and transmissionof hereditary rights and privileges is, of course, to be excepted?buteven there minor details referring to recent traits are sometimesthrown in out of all temporal harmony.* Check of early sources makesevident changes, some minor and others major, since the days of themaritime fur trade of which informants seem completely unaware.As a consequence, I made an effort while in the field to place myinformation so far as possible, and to make it first-hand evidence byinformants, not hearsay. Where informants had specific data onearlier practices, I noted it as such. The bulk of the material in thepresent report, except, of course, that of formal traditions and wartales, refers to the days of childhood to early adulthood of the in-formants, who ranged in age from the fifties to the seventies in 1936and 1937. That means that most of the data refer to Nootkan lifefrom the 1870's to the early 1900's. A few phases of custom ? techniques and usages specifically described by their elders, andpersonal anecdotes told as moral lessons, or as amusing incidentsgo back a little earlier, but not much. I wish to emphasize, therefore,that this ethnography is intended to be a description of the Nootkantribes during the last three, or at most four decades of the nineteenthcentury, except where specified as earlier.The fact that we have available so many, and such full descriptionsof the Nootkans at the time of the maritime fur trade offers an excellentpossibility for a study of a culture in transition. For various reasonsit is not practicable for me to make this report a minute comparativestudy of the two periods?to do so would nearly double its length,and double the time of preparation. Occasional striking changesand documented persistences where they seem pertinent will be noted,but I hope to prepare a detailed comparison for publication in thenot-too-remote future. ECONOMIC LIFEIMPLEMENTS OF THE FOOD QUESTAs a preliminary to a discussion of the food quest the variousdevices used will be described. This may seem a nonfunctionalapproach, and something of a distortion, but I believe it makes forclarity in presentation, just as does separating out material on magico-ritual acts for fishing and hunting success, which to the Indians wereas important economic tools as the traps and harpoons. Fishing < The historic accuracy of these traditions Is always suspect, for though they are sometimes candid, oftenunpleasant memories are repressed. Clayoquot traditions, for example, delete the burning out of the villagein 1792 (a documented incident) and the imhappy result of the Tonquin massacre; the Moachat do not tellof the high-handed murder of an important chief by Martinez nor of "Maquinna's hurried flight" to visitrelatives in Clayoquot. 16 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144devices?traps, harpoons, hooks, and so on?will be described first;then hunting equipment; and finally, implem.ents for gathering willbe described. FISHING DEVICESFish traps.?-The first trapping device to be set each season forsalmon, before they entered the streams in large numbers, was thetidewater trap (po'is). This was placed on the tide flats at the mouthof a river where salmon played before entering fresh water. Thetrap proper was built by setting fir poles in the form of a rectangle ata point between high and low tide lines. Any sizable flattish stonewas used as a pile driver. These traps were often quite large, somebeing 2 fathoms or more long by 1 fathom wide, and 6 or 7 feet high.The stakes were covered on sides and top by sections of lattice ofwrapped-twined fir boughs (rigid warps crossed by one set of rigidweft elements, bound by a set of flexible weft elements). The direc-tion of twining was altered from one course to the next for increasedrigidity. According to the descriptions given, all types of fish trapswere covered with lattice made in this ''bird cage" technique, or invariations of it. All this weaving was done by men. For springsalmon the spaces would be about 4 fingers high by a hand-and-ex-tended-thumb wide; for other salmon they v/ould be smaller. Onthe shoreward side were two entry ways, V-shaped with the apexinward. A V-shaped weir, the trap across its apex, was made bylashing fathom-wide sections of lattice to upright stakes. The armsof the weir did not extend to high-tide line. Usually a third "fence,"called "tongue" (tcup), bisected the V-weir (fig. I, a). Trap andweir were made so as to be covered by a foot or two of water at hightide. Salmon could easily swim over or around the apparatus, butas the tide receded, those between the weirs were forced to swim downinto the trap. Men went into the trap at low tide and threw the fishout. A smaller version of this trap, without the wings, and baitedwith broken mussels, was made for perch.There were several types of traps for rivers. Perhaps the mostcommon was a cylindrical variety (yahak). At right angles to foursupple hemlock branches were lashed rods 2 to 3 fathoms long, spaced2 to 4 finger-widths apart depending on the kind of fish to be caught.The lashing was a double-wrapped twine. Direction of work was tothe right, as the rods?or warps?lay on the branches. The activeelement crossed the intersection leaning to the left, was broughtvertically down behind the weft and up over the intersection with alean to the right, then spiraled around the weft once to the next inter-section. When completed, the body of the trap was simply a sectionof lattice. The four hemlock branches were then bent into hoops. Drucker] THE NORTHERlSr AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBESHIGH r/or i//vf 17 LOIV TIDC UNea ~~~:s% Figure 1.?Types of salmon traps.with the rods inside, and tied. A small section of lattice closed oneend of the trap. A place was left near the closed end over which aremovable woven "door" was tied. The mouth was not invaginated.Such a trap was set with the mouth upstream and well submerged,the closed end downstream and raised by shears just out of the water.A weir was built to turn the fish into the trap. The force of thewater carried them up high and dry into the raised end. As the sal-mon could neither go back down or turn around, they stayed in theend till they died. Now and then a fish might wriggle or flop aroundand escape, but this did not happen often. Several forms of weirswere used in connection with these traps. Pairs of posts were driven 18 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144into the river bed inclined so that their tops crossed shear-fashionabove the water for lashing. These were placed a fathom or twoapart. On the upstream side of the upper posts a horizontal polewas tied, on which the tops of sections of wrapped-twined lattice wideenough to overlap two adjacent shear legs were rested. The lowerends of the lattice were covered with rocks to keep them submerged.Sometimes a catwalk was built on vertical supports over the weir.One variety of weir extended across the middle half of the stream.At the ends, wings slanted upstream to the banks. In the anglesformed by the wings and banks, traps of the yahak type were placed(see fig. 1, b). Salmon going upriver were turned to the sides, andon going up into the angles, turned back into the traps. Anothertype of weir consisted of two V-shaped fences, one inside the other,with the apices upstream. The apex of the lower V was open toallow salmon to pass through. The arms of the weirs converged tothe mouths of two traps (fig. 1, c).A similar type of trap was a conical one (ni'Lic) . This was made inthe same fashion as the preceding, of long rods bound to flexibleboughs which were bent into hoops. The mouth of the trap wasquite wide, and there was a trap door at the tapered end throughwhich fish were removed. The trap was set with the mouth upstreamand the lower end raised out of the water, A V-shaped weir con-verged to the mouth (fig. 1, e). Men frightened salmon down fromupstream; watchers stationed at the trap clubbed and removed them,A rectangular trap (mo'ya) with an inverted V-shaped entrywaywas used sometimes. This type resembled the tidewater trap inform, but was smaller, and had a bottom so that it could be Hftedintact out of the river. It was set with the mouth downstream. AV-shaped weir converged at its mouth. Another type of weir usedwith this trap extended across the river at right angles to the cm'rent.At intervals short V weirs were placed, with rectangular traps at then-apices (fig. 1, d).Traps of the "pothanger" type (nipl'a) were placed at falls. Hori-zontal poles were placed across below the falls on which sections oflatticework were laid slanting up toward the falls, a short distanceaway from the water, A second range of latticework was set verti-cally, its lower edge meeting that of the first row (fig. 1,/), Salmonthat fell back in attempting to leap the falls landed in the trap andcould not get out.When visiting their traps, men carried their salmon clubs, billets ofhardwood, such as yew, smoothed so that they would not tear thefish, but undecorated. The handle was usually scraped down toleave a bulge at the butt end, so that it would not slip from thewielder's grasp. There were no gaffs, formerly. THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 19 Figure 2.?Globular kelpfish trap (dotted line shows form prior to setting).A small trap, intended for "kelpfish" used chiefly as bait (but edibleif nothing better was available), was woven of cedar withes in theusual wrapped-twining technique, with a bottlelike neck and a glob-ular body (fig. 2). The fisherman soaked his traps until he couldpush the neck inward, put in a few stones to partly overcome thebuoyancy of the device, and some cracked mussels for bait. Each traphad a fathom or so of fight line attached to it, with a codfish "stomach"(swim bladder?) for a buoy.For shiners and similar small fish low stone weirs were built onshallows that dried at ebb tide. The fish remained trapped behind therows of stones. Large tidewater traps of stones, like those used bythe Kwakiutl for salmon, were not built.Salmon harpoons.?A number of types of harpoons were used,depending on local conditions. The fundamental type, of whichmost of the rest were variants, was a well-seasoned fir pole 8 to 10 feetlong with two diverging hardwood foreshafts, one a trifle longer thanthe other (fig. 3,/). On the ends of these were seated the heads, tripar-tite points of bone. A slender biconic tip was fitted between two barbsdiverging to the rear; the whole was wrapped with the end of a cordof nettle fiber, and covered with pitch. This, of course, was thebasic type of Northwest Coast salmon harpoon head, used from theBritish Columbia coast to northwest CaUfornia. (Occasionally,nowadays, an old seal harpoon head, with a barbed iron point, is usedfor salmon.) The ends of the lanyards were joined into a loop whichencircled the shaft. Often a grommet of cedar withe or cherry barkwas worked around the shaft below the loop to keep the lanyards 20 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144 V S JFigure 3.?Salmon harpoon head and types of shafts, a, a' , Bone barbs; h, bonepoint; c, wrapped and gummed binding; d, (dotted area) socket for foreshaft;e, lanyard; /, two-foreshaft type; g, single foreshaft type; h, triple foreshafttype; i, lateral foreshaft type; j, detachable leister; k, modern detachable gaff. Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 21properly taut when the heads were seated. This harpoon was meantto be thrust, not thrown.Variations occurred chiefly in the number of points used. For"spearing" in small streams, a harpoon with a single foreshaft andpoint was often used (fig. 3, g). The people of Gold River (a'aminqas),which was noted for its rapids, used pointed harpoons (fig. 3, A). Peoplewho fished similar streams may have used these also. The longest fore-shaft continued the line of the shaft; the other two were curved andsuccessively shorter. The lanyards were joined into a single lineto the shaft (fig. 3, e). This type of harpoon was held low and usedwith an almost horizontal thrust. Where there were deep pools in ariver, another type of harpoon with a long shaft was used. Twoforeshafts were set far enough back so the end of the shaft extendedpast the tips of the heads seated on them (fig. 3, i). By this meansthe user could strike straight downward with less danger of damaginghis harpoon heads on rocks in the river bottom. A light throvdngharpoon, with double foreshafts, trident butt, and long lanyard fromthe butt end which divided at its distal end to the two heads, wasused where there was a wide expanse of water and few rocks, or some-times on salt water when salmon were "showing." This was a copy,of course, of the sealing harpoon; possibly old sealing harpoons wereactually used. Another type of implement was a combination of aleister and harpoon. Two strong but springy foreshafts were lashedtogether at an acute angle, hollowed at their bases to form a socket.At their extremities long bone barbs were fixed, pointing back andinward. A short line ran from the detachable socketed base to ashaft (fig. 3, j). This was used for spearing through log jams and thehke. The wielder gently slid the prongs over the sides of a salmon lyingpartly hidden under a log, then set the points by a sharp jerk upward.Two informants, tsica'ath and hopatcisath, at the head of AlberniCanal, described ordinary leisters with fixed prongs instead. Nowa-days many men use a gaft", a heavy steel cod hook mounted on a pole(fig. 3,k). Often the hook is fitted to a wooden socket which detachesfrom the shaft, to which it is connected by a lanyard, to prevent thefish from tearing free in his struggles.Hooks and lines.?Stems of the giant kelp provided most of thelines. As I understood, in many places the plants grow quite tall inwater only a few fathoms deep, and can be cut by a sharp bladebetween two crossed sticks on the end of a long weighted pole. Usablestems were also obtained from among the plants washed up on thebeach after storms. However obtained, the small solid parts of thestems were taken and subjected to alternate soaking in fresh waterand stretching and drying until they were of a pale color, small diam-eter, and very strong?at least, as long as well soaked. The lengths 22 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144were joined into a long line by the same method of tying pairs ofsimple overhand knots as shown by Niblack for the Haida (Niblack,1888, fig. 143). For leaders, lengths of tough nettle-fiber cordage wereused. Swan and Niblack figure some Makah hooks with "whale-bone" (presumably baleen) snells, a feature of which I did not hear(Swan,|l865, fig. 21; Niblack, 1888, fig. 147). My inform.ants mayhave been describing a less well-made form of hook, in which thenettle-fiber leader was fastened directly to the shank.The same type of hook was used for fishing cod, and for trollingfor spring salmon, according to the season, and, in recent times, forcatching dogfish. This hook was sharp-angled, with a single point.The base of the hook was made of spruce root, with a flat face andslightly curved back. Its lower end formed a slanted table, groovedto receive the point, which was a barbed splinter of hardwood orbone (fig.^4). The binding material was nettle-fiber string. A leader -?^^^ -^^^^^^?^2=^ 6?0 FOR BARBLEADER /WOODEN SHANKFiGUBE 4.?Cod and spring-salmon hook. Wrapped binding of joint of shankand barb omitted to show bed.of the same cordage attached the hook to the kelp stem line. Incod fishing, small fish?kelpfish, "shiners," or pieces of perch?wereused as bait. An oval stone was tied to the end of the line for asinker. It was secured by a lashing of two cedar withes, crossed andtied at their centers, drawn tightly and tied over the top. A floatof an inflated codfish "stomach" (or air bladder?), or one carved of apiece of cedar, was tied to the line at the proper depth. For springsalmon, no sinl^er was used, and a very complicated method of baitingwas customary.For the halibut fishery, the well-known "U-shaped" hooks wereused. These were sections of tough spruce root, steamed in kelpbulbs and bent into a graceful U -shape, narrowest a third of the wayback from the arms. The bending was done by hand, not in moldslike those of the Kwakiutl. A sharp bone barb was lashed to projectbackward and upward in the narrow part. At the midpoint of theother arm a leader of nettle-fiber string was tied. The leader wasmade fast to the end of a line of kelp. To keep the hook from foulingon the line when lowered, the end of the kelp line was lashed to,and then wound in a loose spiral around a stick about 3 feet long. Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 23(~~yr " ? Hoo/? Cf. Boas, 1909, flR. 122. The Kwaklutl "huntlnc boxes" figures there are quite similar to Nootkan ones.?' Boas (1891, pi. 21) ngures a number of vessels of this general type. Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 91Neither wooden ladles or spoons nor those of horn were madeby the Nootkans. A few chiefs, in the north, as usual, had suchimplements from Kwakiutl dowries, but they were more for displaythan for eating purposes.MISCELLANEOUS HOUSEHOLD UTENSILSThere were a number of odds and ends of utensils that were quiteimportant to women in their housekeeping tasks. A woman wouldhave been quite lost without her mussell-shell knife. These weremade of one valve of the shell of a large mussell found on outlyingrocks and islets. The hinge edge served as a grip and the lip edgewas ground sharp on a slab of sandstone. A provident housewifewould keep several knives, or at least the shells that could merelyby sharpening be converted into knives, so that if one broke she hada substitute at hand. This implement remained in use until quiterecent times, especially for cutting salmon, for it was believed thatuse of steel knives was offensive to the fish.Another woman's knife was the awllike bone blade for slittingherring. A prized variety of this knife was one made of a deer ulnaground to a long slim point. Deer and bear bone were said to bepreferred to other sorts for making awls and similar tools. Neitherchipped stone nor ground slate was familiar to my informants as amedium for making cutting edges. It seems probable that in pre-historic times ground slate blades may have been used for somepurposes.The tongs (La'maL), usually made of a seasoned piece of cedarsplit and bound tightly with withes at the handle end to preventtheir splitting out, were intended for picking hot stones from thefire to put in the cooking boxes, but were actually used as an all-purpose tool. The housewife poked her fire with them, and, shakingoff the ashes, used them to stir the food; she used them to pick piecesof meat from the cooking box to serve in the wooden dishes, and nowand then to wallop a half-starved dog that persisted in hanging aboutthe cooking place.Special roasting tongs, like those the Kwakiutl are said to haveused (Boas, 1909, p. 342), were not kept about, but were improvisedas needed.The lack of ladles has been mentioned in speaking of woodenutensils. The tongs were used to serve meat, and for boiled fish adipper (tcinixyak) of sticks bound together in wrapped twining wasmade. The ends of half a dozen short splints of cedar were bound totwo longitudinal splints with strips of cedar bark to form a smallrectangle. Two longer sticks (or a single one split partway downits length) were similarly lashed down the middle of the rectangle 92 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144to serve as a handle. The implement served for bailing up foodsthat would fall apart if taken up with tongs. The liquid, of course,ran off. Informants say, "The old-timers didn't hke soup much."The only spoons, except for the imported Kwakiutl articles, wereshells of the large horse clam (amiq). It is said that the lips of theseshells were often ground down, so perhaps they served more as knives,for separating pieces of food, than as spoons in the ordinary sense.The housewife usually kept enough of these around for ordinaryneeds. Some women kept them in small cedar-bark bags.The use of boxes for the storage of oil has been mentioned. Inaddition, in tunes of plenty most households had a number of con-tamers made of the viscera of animals and fish hung up around thewalls and overhead. Interpreters usually speak of these vesselsas "stomachs" of one kind or another, and I neglected to get a moreprecise definition. Quite large containers were made out of some partof the sea lion?perhaps from sections of its gut, unless the stomachlining was actually used, or possibly the bladder. The codfish"stomachs" often spoken of as serving for both containers and floatswere probably the air bladders of those fish. I neglected also todiscover how these receptacles were prepared for their use as oilvessels, but however prepared, and whatever they were anatomically,the sea lion and cod "stomachs" dangled from the rafters oozing oil.Kelp bulbs were not used for oil storage except when they werebought, oil and all, from the Southern Kwaiutl.TEXTILESThe Nootkan textile arts were very similar to those of the SouthernKwakiutl that Boas has described in detail. Some differences mayhave existed anciently that could not be brought out by my informants,for some of the techniques, such as the weaving of rain hats, havebeen abandoned for quite a long time. Others, such as mat makingare in common use at the present day, so that descriptions can easilybe supplemented and clarified with demonstrations.The chief textile materials of Nootkan weavers were the bark of thered and of the yellow cedar, spruce roots, and wild cherry bark.Weaving was considered woman's work. Actually, men did consider-able weaving also, the magnitude of their products making up inpart for their lack of neatness, for the sections of lattice of the varioustypes of fish traps and weirs were made by men using one of thecharacteristic basket weaves. However, men did not weave thearticles ordinarily considered textile products: robes, mats, andbaskets. A variety of weaves were in use: simple and twilled checker-work, with some special variations; simple and twilled twining,wrapped twining (the so-called "bu-dcage weave"). Coiled basketry Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 93was not made, except by the Alberni Canal groups, and even there,there was some feeling that it may have been a recent borrowing fromSalishan neighbors (quite recently a few Clayoquot women havelearned the craft). The very fine twined work in spruce root, withgrass overlay and imbricated design, such as was used in the ancientchiefs' hats, seems to have had a curious history. During the earlyhistoric period it appears to have been pretty well abandoned, thoughthe fine twining without overlay for ordinary rain hats persistedsomewhat longer. Among the Makah, however, it seems to havebeen carried on, and early became adapted, or perverted, if you will,to the fabrication of knicknacks for the tourist trade. Swan, writingin 1864, speaks of the Makah putting on the market hats (woven inthe shape of white man's straw hats), and basketry-covered "bottlesand vials." (Swan, 1868, p. 45-46.) Within recent decades this"curio" application of the art has been taken up anew by most of theNootkan tribes, so that nowadays they have a number of weaverswho make very neat and attractive articles with decorative motifsranging from whaling scenes to circus animals. A small tray given tome depicts a whale and whaling canoe that might have been copiedfrom one of the hats Captain Cook saw, and next to them a roosterand a kangaroo. This weaving is not recognized as a revivification ofan ancient art, but is considered a modern innovation. The whiteand dyed grasses used in the decoration are today purchased from theMakah.Products of red cedar bark and yellow cedar bark were used inalmost all aspects of Nootkan life. One could almost describe theculture in terms of them. From the time the newborn infant's bodywas dried with wisps of shi-edded cedar bark, and he was laid in acradle padded with the same material and his head was flattened bya roll of it, he used articles of these materials every day of his life,until he was finally rolled up in an old cedar-bark mat for burial.Yellow cedar bark was obtained from trees growing back in thewoods, and up on the sides of the mountains. While gathering thismaterial was ordinarily thought of as women's work, men often, ifnot usually, accompanied their wives, for the bark was heavy andhad to be carried some distance. A knife or chisel was used to makea cut near the base of a young tree at a point where there was along strip of trunlc without branches. With her digging stick thewoman pried the bark loose at the cut, and split it free along thesides of the strip as far as she could reach with the same implement.Then she or her husband grasped the strip of bark and backed awayfrom the tree, tugging the bark loose. There is said to be quite aknack to tearing off a length that went high up on the trunk,';varyingthe pressure with one or the other hand, moving slightly from side 94 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144to side, and so on. The bark was folded into bolts about 3 feet long.When the couple or party (sometimes a number of people went to-gether) had all the bark they could carry, they made it up into packsto bring it down to the canoes. The coarse outer bark was not splitoff when gathered, except for the flat dry scales near the base. ^ Atthe village the bark was unrolled and put to soak in salt water in aquiet cove. Rocks were put on the strips to keep them from washingaway. After some days, when thoroughly soaked and soft, the stripswere taken out of the water, laid on an old plank, and pounded withthe clublike grooved beater (hisyak) of whale bone, until the innerlayers of fiber could be pulled off. These fibrous strips were beatenagain with the same implement until well separated. Then they wereput to soak for a few days in a box of fresh water (to remove the un-pleasant odor, it was said). Finally, they were wrung out and spreadon the beach to dry, so that the short broken lengths of fiber could beculled out, and the rest saved to be woven.A part of the strands were woven into thin cord to be used in weav-ing the robes, rain capes, and women's aprons. Spinning of this,and all other cordage, was done by hand, on the bare thigh. Spindleshave not been used within the reach of modern folk-memory. Severalinformants recalled having seen Nitinat women spinning with largewooden spindle whorls, apparently like those of the Coast Salish.Presumably the practice of spinning with small bone and stone spindlewhorls went out of use very early. (Cf. Boas, 1909, p. 373, and fig. 68.)Mountain goat wool (tsaq) was obtained in trade from the SouthernKwakiutl, and was highly esteemed. It was spun into heavy yarnsfor weaving, sometimes alone, or sometimes mixed with strands ofyellow-cedar-bark fiber, to make it stronger, and, we may suppose,to make it go farther. A robe with a few widely spaced strands ofgoat wool was prized over one entirely of yellow cedar bark, and onewith many such strands was yet more highly esteemed. Only chiefscould afford to have robes in which most or all the weft strands wereof this material. Dog wool, and strands spun of mixtures of barkfibers and feathers, both Coast Salish manufactures, were not used.The robes and capes were woven exactly hke the Kwakiutl oneswhose manufacture Boas (1909, pp. 395 ff.) describes. Hanks ofshredded cedar bark were suspended over a bar, or "half-loom," andcaught together by twining ^vith cords, or the strands of goat wool.There was an especially fine type of robe in which wool wefts, ingroups of fours, were twilled, instead of being in simple twined weave.Such robes were rare. The shape of the robe was the same as thatof the Chilkat blanket, with straight top and sides, and deeply curvedlower edge. Wool borders were often put on, but modern informantsare not very clear as to how this was done. (Cf. Boas, 1909, p. 396, Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 95fig. 89.) Sometimes strips of sea otter fur or mink fur were sewnon around the edge instead. The rain cape was woven in the sametechnique, but wool wefts were not used. Women's front apronswere started hke robes and capes, except that the wefts were long,so that the ends could be twisted or braided into a belt. Usuallyfour or eight rows of twining across the top held the hanks of yellowcedar bark together. A chief's daughter might have an apron withstrands of goat wool, but such garments were not common.Red cedar bark was obtained in the same way as that of yellowcedar, strips being ripped off clear sections of the trunks of youngtrees. When she had a number of strips, the woman sat down tostrip off the coarse outer bark. At the top of each strip she pried thetwo sections apart with her fingers, then taking the outer bark inone hand, and the inner in the other, she put one foot on the stripof bark to hold it taut. She braced her hands against her knees,then spread her knees apart. With the even pressure thus achievedthe inner and outer layers of bark separated from the tips she heldin her hands to the place where she had her foot. Splitting off theinner bark was a fairly rapid process. The bark was then foldedinto flat bolts to be taken home and spread out for a few days to dry.As she needed it, the woman split strips off the lengths of bark. Abone knife, usually of deer ulna, or seal rib, served to start the splits.The innermost layers of bark were for fine mats and baskets; theouter ones for coarse work.For mats, a few strips of bark were usually dyed. For a blackcolor the bark was buried a few days in black mud. There werecertain places, known to all women, where mud occurred that gavea fast black color. Nowadays, black color is obtained by soakingthe cedar bark in tubs of salt water with some rusty iron. For red,alder bark was boiled and the cedar bark soaked in the infusion.Designs were woven into the borders of the better mats, and a fewhad all-over designs consisting of zigzags and diagonals that crossedback and forth over the mat. To accentuate the patterns in theordinary simple checker mats the borders were often woven withwider "warps" or a single wide element was worked in; the edgeswere finished off as in the Kwakiutl mats (Boas, 1909, figs. 74, 75,76, 77). Diagonal checker was a common technique for finer mats,especially the long feast mats (yutckanul) which might reach, itis said, 40 feet or more in length. Twilling was said to have beenused occasionally, but simple checkerwork, either straight or diagonal,was the most common mat technique.The principal difference between Nootkan and Kwakiutl matweaving, and one of which nearly all the informants were aware, wasthat the Nootkan mats were woven flat on the ground, not suspended 96 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144over a bar as was the Kwakiutl method. Mats had innumerable uses.They served to sleep on, to cut fish on, to sit on in the houses and incanoes, and as "tablecloths" (spread on the ground) at feasts. Oldones were used to cover canoes.Many types of baskets or, better, bags were woven of red cedarbark. The usual shape was, of course, rectangular, for the bottomwas woven hke an ordinary piece of matting. Very frequently thebottom of such cedar-bark bags was coarsely woven, of wide strips ofbark, and bound \vith a row of twdning in which a fine cord served fora weft. Above this point the cedar-bark elements were spht fineand the weaving continued to the rim. Diagonal checkerwork, twilledwork, and several varieties of openwork were used for the sides. Acommon variety of openwork consisted of bands of simple checker inwhich at regular intervals the warps were crossed. (Cf. Boas, 1909,fig. 83.) There was another variety of openwork in which the warpswere alternately pulled to right or left, so that they crossed diagonally.At the interstices horizontal elements were inserted, making a three-element openwork.My notes refer to a number of special forms of cedar-bark bags (orbaskets), and there were doubtless many more. One of the mostcommon types was the dried salmon basket (Lapat). This wascoarsely woven, of a size to accommodate the spread-out dried salmonpUed flat in it, and was supposed to hold about as much as a mancould handle conveniently. Special ones, used for gifts of driedsalmon (especially dried sockeye) were made larger, so that it tooktwo men to lift them. Tool baskets, or "wedge baskets," were longslender rectangles made especially for the carpenter to carry hischisels and wedges in. Harpoon baskets (la'ac) were small flat bags;those for the whaling harpoons were just the size of the individualharpoon. I understood that they were always woven all over incheckerwork, never made of folded strips of bark with the ends twinedtogether, Makah-fashion (Waterman, 1920, pi. 8, a). Tackle bags, forfishhooks and other small oddments, were woven of very fine stripsof bark into a form like that of a modern folding tobacco pouch: along strip folded double and bound along the edges to make a com-partment at one end and closed by folding the long flap over two orthree times. A small flat wallet (tsa'auts) was also finely woven andused for storing dentalia and similar articles of value. A similarwallet (nuxhwats) in openwork, usually, was used as a ditty bag bymen, especially for trips back into the woods. A man would packsome shredded cedar bark, his strike-a-light, small containers of shotand caps, and a ration of dried salmon in his wallet, which he thentucked under his robe above his belt. Some of these wallets hadtelescoping covers, really bags a trifle larger, that sHpped over the one Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 97used as a container. The largest containers of cedar bark were thebig heavily reinforced containers for the whaling line, sometimesused as drogues.Strips of cedar bark were also woven into line, a four-strand braidbeing the mxost common type. Use of such line was Hmited, for itdid not compare with spun line for strength. Belts, to bind theyellow-cedar-bark robes snugly about the waist, were made of diagonalcheckerwork. Early accounts mention more elaborate woven belts,but the method of manufactiu-e of these is no longer recalled (Jewitt,1895, p. 59). The rain capes of checkerwork (not the conical twinedvariety) were woven of checkerwork in two layers, one fine and theother coarse, bound together at the edges.In addition to its almost infinite number of uses in the form of matsand baskets, red cedar bark was shredded for a host of purposes.The method of shredding was to feed a strip of bark across the edgeof a paddle blade, striking it with a chopper or haggler just to theright of the blade. The Kwakiutl procedure was followed precisely,and for some time the same long-bladed wooden chopper has been inuse. The ancient chopper, of whale bone, rather short, and usuallydecorated, was recalled by but few informants. (Cf. Boas, 1909, pp.371, pi. 27, a, and figs. 65 (Kw^akuitl type), 66, a-d.) This shreddedbark, which could be made into soft clotlilike strands or, by finerhaggling, into a fluffy cottonlike mass, was used for cradle mattresses,for infants' headpressers and washcloths, for menstrual towels, forbandages, for napkins used after feasts, for tinder, and all throughthe historic period until breech-loading arms became common, forgun wadding. Plain or dyed red with alder bark, it was twisted intothe turbanlike ceremonial head rings, and the neck rings, wristlets,and anklets of dancers. There were few routine or extraordinaryactivities that did not use tliis material in some way.Simple twining was used for rain hats. Informants disagreed asto whether these objects were made entirely of spruce root, split intofine strands, or whether loosely spun strands of red cedar bark wereused for the wefts. Possibly hats were made in either way. Thehat was started from a four-bundle starting knot, additional warpelements being added as weaving progressed. (Cf. Mason, 1904,fig. 36.) Most of the older hats appear to consist of an interwovendouble layer of twining. I could not learn just how this weavingwas done. A short distance from the brim, a series of the inner warps,all the way around, were twisted into loops for the insertion of theheadband. Some specimens seen have occasional rows of twillingon the outside, by way of ornamentation, though most of the hat wasmade in a simple twined weave. The hats were a good deal like the"inner hats" of the ancient specimens figured by WiUoughby (1903, 98 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY I Bull. 144fig. 153), except that the curvature of the sides was convex rather thanconcave. The head band apparently fitted fairly high on the head;the brim came about to the level of the brows and a couple of inchesout from them (the hats were not of the wide, flaring-brimmed typeused by liaida and Tlingit). Most men fastened a bit of cord intothe head band for a chin strap. Nootkan informants differentiatebetween the work methods of their weavers and those of their Kwakiutlneighbors by pointing out that West Coast women wove mth the hatturned inside upward, on the floor, not suspended from a cord or overa stake, Kwakiutl style. This difference in mode of work extendedto WT-apped twined baskets as weU. I have already remarked that theancient double-layer hats with designs imbricated on a background ofoverlay are no longer remembered. The modern overlay twiningbaskets are often begun from a smaU rectangle of checkerwork, made ofsmall flat bundles of spruce-root warps. The basic wefts are of cedarbark. Around the edge of the base there is often a course of three-element twining, with overlay, and from there on the wefts carry anoverlay of bleached or dyed grass. Two or three rows of checkerworkare sometimes used to set off the decorative field. The designs aremade in red, yellow, green, purple, etc., with grasses dyed with storedyes by the Makah.Burden baskets, hand baskets, and some tool baskets were made inthe wrapped twined technique. The tool baskets of this type tendedto be rather rough, but the carrying baskets were neat and weU made,as a rule, although roughly made baskets sometimes were used forgathering wood, clams, and the like. Slim evenly trimmed splintsof cedar bough were used for the warps. Carrying baskets (ka'ots)were made with a narrow base, so that from the side they had a sortof blunt wedge shape. Two warp rods somewhat heavier than therest were wrapped together at their centers, then separated and bentupward to form the corners. The other warp elements of the sideswere bent over them ; those of the ends were inserted into the ^Tappingsas the basket widened. Similar strands of cedar were run around theinside of the warps as the rigid weft elements. They were bound inplace by ^\Tapping them with fairly wide strips of wild cherry bark.Such baskets are still made and used, chiefly for berrying. Theclosely spaced turns of the glossy cherry bark give them a very pleasingappearance. To make rougher but stronger baskets in this technique,spruce root would be used for the UTapping material. Small handbaskets (noxhats), for picking into when berrying, were made thesame way, except that they had flat bottoms of simple checkerwork,and were wrapped twined only from sides to rim. Tool baskets wereof cedar splints with spruce-root wrappings, and were long cylindersin form. Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 99Tule mats are a variety of textile whose history among the Nootkansis not quite clear. When the people began to go down to the FraserRiver and to the Puget Sound hopfields, they purchased sewn tulemats from Coast Salish with whom they came in contact, and beforelong began to make them themselves, using long-eyed yew needles,and " creasers" of wood or bone, in good Salish style. A few informants,however, believed that before the introduction of the sewn mats, tulemats were made in a twining technique, the stalks being bound togetherin pairs with a selvage made of leaves of the plants. This informationcomes from Muchalat and the Alberni Canal groups, and may reflectan older strain of Salishan influence, if it is correct.DRESS AND ORNAMENTThe early historic narratives aU give very detailed accounts ofnative dress at the period of Contact, probably because the types ofgarments struck the voyagers as novel, and also because they wereobvious and easy to describe. On the basis of this information, we maysee clearly that there was httle change until the last decades of thelast century aside from a gradual replacement of the aboriginalcedar-bark robes by "two-and-a-half-point" trade blankets. It wasnot until missionary influence became strong that the people beganto adopt European garments; Father Brabant recounts his bitterstruggle to make Nootkan men wear trousers to church. The travelto other regions, begun in the 80's and 90's, where both white men andother Indians were seen habitually wearing shirts and trousers,probably facihtated the adoption of the disUked apparel. Formerly,and during the period of these data, the garb worn by older peoplewas quite similar to that described for the Kwakiutl (Boas, 1909, pp.451 ff.).Men, on the occasional pleasant days, wore nothing at all, asidefrom a few ornaments. For warmth, they put on a robe (almakal) ofyellow cedar bark. This garment could be worn over the back, withthe corners brought forward over the shoulders to be pinned together,a style of dress called mo'tchitcsa; but was more frequently put onunder the left arm with the two corners pinned together over the rightshoulder, so that both arms were free. This latter method was calledLe'ac. It was worn this way with or without a belt. In cold andwet weather a man would supplement this robe with a short conicalcape (Litenix) twined of yellow cedar bark that hung from about hisneck to his elbows, and a rain hat (tslyapuks) woven of red cedar bark,or of spruce root. These hats were much smaller than the northern(Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshan) ones. Informants describe this headgearas having the shape of a rather blunt, or truncated cone, with convexsides and inner fitted head bands. Chiefs are said to have worn 100 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144painted versions of these. There was a rain cape of double mattingthat covered the back with extensions that were brought forwardover the shoulders to be tied or pinned. It was just like the Kwakiutlspecimen figured by Boas (1909, pi. 33). Women wore both yellow-cedar-bark robes and the conical capes. Early writers indicate thatthe capes were considered sufficient covering for the upper part ofthe body. In addition under the robes women always wore frontaprons of strands of shredded cedar bark that hung m a loose fringefrom a few courses of twining across the top.There were a few local variations. Muchalat informants mentionfur caps made of coon or beaver skin shrunk over a wooden form (?),and a very crude type of moccasin which they considered huntinggear (for it was used only by men who hunted land game in thesnow). A hopatoisath informant from the head of Alberni Canal,perhaps unconsciously trying to stress the difference between ancientessentially Salishan culture and that of the coastal tribes, added thatsome men wore buckskin shirts and leggings, but in view of the rarityof such garments among the Gidf of Georgia Salish,^^ I am very dubiousof this information.Men ordinarily wore their hair at about shoulder length, just longenough, as one informant put it, "to have enough to tie up on top oftheir heads for the dances." The shaggy, bushy-haired effect es-teemed by the Kwakiutl was not in vogue, nor was it customaryeven for warriors and hunters. Women wore their hair in two braids,usually tying the ends together. They tossed the two braids behindthem to keep them out of the way when working. Several of theearly accounts suggest that the ancient fashion was for women towear their hair loose, as one of Boas' Kwakiutl informants also main-tained was their custom before use of braids (Boas, 1909, p. 486).Nonritual face painting was done by both men and women to protecttheir complexions; younger people were more prone to do it than theirelders. It was done especially on sunny days. Even nowadayspeople worry a good deal about getting sunburned on the infrequentbright clear days, A person first put on a base of deer tallow, smear-ing it evenly all over his or her face, and then applied either a coatof hemlock sap (Latsip), which turned black, and had a pleasantodor, or a red ocher paint (kwohamis). Only one informant, aMuchalat, knew of the micaceous material used in face painting thatthe early historic accounts mention so often. Both sexes wore earornaments, usually of dontalia, or copper, or abalonc shell, or at timesof glass beads. Persons of high rank usually had holes not only inM narnett, i939, p. 247. Harnott's Scchclt inrormant described a similar costume; all the rest told oftypes of dress that fit the general coastal pattern. Such anomalous data are questionable. In any case,the Sechelt was not a group with whom the hOpitoisath had any close contacts. Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 101the lobes but in the hehx of theu* ears. In recent times women worenose ornaments more commonly than did men, though both sexes hadpierced nasal septums. Women also wore bead or dentalia necklacescommonly, and bracelets of various materials. Women's braceletsand anklets of strips of sea otter fur were mentioned by several in-formants. The anklets may have been simultaneously ornaments andcontinuations of the bands worn by young girls for the purpose ofmaking their ankles small and their calves thick, which was con-sidered good looking.The early navigators make a great deal of distinctions between theeveryday dress of chiefs and commoners. Modern informants saythe differences consisted in a chief's wearing a hat with painteddecoration and a robe with some wefts of goat wool, neither of v/hicha commoner would have. However, even the chiefs saved their bestrobes, with considerable quantity of goat wool, for use on ceremonialoccasions. One suspects the combination of facts?first, the festive,or semiceremonial occasions on which they had dealings, during whichthe chiefs would don their best, and second, the explorers' convictionsas to the existence of a native royal caste?lead the early writers tostress unduly the differences of dress. One garment that delightedthese early whites, and which soon became too valuable a commodityto keep for personal use, was the robe made of three sea otter pelts,or great numbers of mink and marten skins neatly sewn together.By the time the maritime fur trade had run its course, there were noneof these robes to be found on the coast.In the time of informants' youth, as remarked, it was the olderconservative persons only who wore cedar-bark robes. The middle-aged and younger folk had given them up for trade blankets. Pro-gressive young men found flannel shirts comfortable on cold days, andoften confined their hair with a scarf or bandanna. They stillregarded trousers and shoes as uncomfortable and inconvenient.Women seemed to have begun to wear dresses of trade cloth undertheir blankets about this time, and for festive occasions used gailycolored shavds supplied by the traders.CEREMONIAL DRESSIn addition to the general practice of putting on one's newest andbest garments for ritual occasions, there were some special pieces ofwearing apparel and ornaments for such times. A man engaged inthe ritual bathing for hunting luck, or for whatever it might be, tiedhis hair up on top of his head and put on a shredded-cedar-bark headband in which he stuck twigs of hemlock. Some men simply took arobe of bearskin, cutting a neckhole, and sewing the sides together(some informants described an unsewed slipover made by case- 102 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144skinning the barrel and forequarters of the bear). It was slipped overthe head, and worn fur side out. At the place he was to begin hisbathing, the ritualist slipped out of his garment, putting it on againonly after prolonged immersion in the water had chilled him till hecould scarcely move.Shredded cedar bark was a common badge at times of ceremonies.In the Shaman's Dance (Loqwona) all the initiates wore head bandsof this material dyed red with alder bark, and some of the principalperformers?novices and dancers?wore very elaborate ornaments ofthe same material. Some of the head bands were almost turbanlike;others were small rings. In addition to the head bands, wristlets andanklets of the shredded bark were worn by dancers. My notes donot refer to neck rings, except for the few Kwakiutl-derived Hamatsadancers, and for the novices, who wore head and neck rings, belts,anklets, and bracelets of shredded bark in which white fir twigs wereinserted. The various types of these ornaments do not differ muchfrom those that Boas (1895, passim) has described and figured in hisaccount of Kwakiutl "secret societies." It should be noted also thatthe real shaman wore head rings of dyed cedar bark during hisnovitiate.For various purposes, dancers inserted feathers in their head bands,or wore special head bands with feathers in them. These variedfrom those with one feather on either side (which usually referred tothe spirits called "ya'al") to headdresses with a complete circlet ofvertical feathers. I was not told of any preference for feathers ofcertain birds: eagle and hawk feathers were often used, and whenwhite feathers were desired, those of the swan were available. Downfrom under the wings of eagles, and from various kinds of ducks, wassometimes piled in a circular headdress so that it floated out in theair little by little with the dancer's movements. Down from gullswas never used for this.The Nootkans distinguished several general categories of masks.There were numerous varieties of these, representing spirits of humanand animal form. One such category was a mask for the face(lio'qom). These masks always had a grommet rove through andwrapped on the inside to form a bit which the wearer held between histeeth to help support the weight of the mask. A second type was amaskette worn in a headdress above the face (huluksum). Thisseems to be a type that has been diffused southward from the northernneighbors of the Kwakiutl. More characteristically Nootkan wasthe "mask" (really, headdress), made of a kerfed and bent cedarboard, carved on the outside to represent the Plumed Serpent. Thiswas designated ha'iLikhsim. Boas (1895, pi. 48, and fig. 198) haspublished two examples of this type. Finally, and likewise very Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 103Nootkan, was the headdress hollowed out of a block of cedar andcarved to represent the head of a wolf. These were called xeniqitsum.There were also a few masks or headdresses obtained from the Kwa-kiutl that represented great birds' heads, or heads of grizzly bears.On all ritual occasions, participants wore their newest robes, and,those who had them, robes with the greatest amounts of mountaingoat wool. Anciently, before they were bought practically off theirbacks, chiefs wore the rich robes consisting of three sea otter skins,neatly sewed together, with sea otter tails sewed on as ornaments.In recent times Chilkat blankets and "button blankets" (tradeblankets with designs formed by mother-of-pearl buttons), werepurchased for such displays. As usual, it was the Kwakiutl whowere the last of the series of middlemen involved in the trading ofthese blankets from their source far to the north.Several of the early sources mention a dance apron of deer hide towhich jinglers of dewclaws and quills were attached. This garmentwas reported used by Central Nootkan informants; it seems to havefallen into disuse early in historic times among the Northern tribes.The early sources also mention elaborate face painting, includingthe common use of the micaceous substance dusted over a well-greased base. Most modern informants know only of two kmds offace paint: red ocher, and charcoal for black. For ceremonies thesewere put on in a variety of stripes and other ways, distinct from theall-over daily style. Painting of the face with blood sprayed on bythe mouth of the dancer's attendant was a special style for Shamans'Dance novices at one stage of the ritual.SKIN DRESSINGSome modern informants say that their people did not dress skinsas well as the interior people of the mainland (Interior Salish, for themost part, whom they have seen in the Fraser Valley). However,the quality of the preparation of sea otter skins and the like broughtno complaints from the early traders, and the elk-skin armor of thewar chiefs was softened enough to be wrapped around them andyet permit them to move about, so probably the deprecatory remarksshould be modified to say that not so much tanning was done as by theinterior tribes, and there was far less interest in buckskin. Furs wereusually open-skinned, that is, cut down the belly, out along the limbs,and peeled off the back. Some of the bear-hide "vests" worn bysome men during training rituals were case-skinned. Opened skinswere laced to a fixed rectangular form made of four poles lashedtogether. The flesh side of the skins was scraped in former days witha large mussell shell. In recent times iron blades lashed to handlesto form end scrapers have come into favor. Usually two men worked839093?51 8 104 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144together on a hide. After scraping it well, the slack was taken out ofit by tightening the continuous lacing by which it was fastened to theframe. It was allowed to dry a bit, then sprinkled with warmed staleurine and scraped again. This process was continued over a periodof some days until the hide remained soft. Ashes, brains, etc. weresaid not to have been used. No one nowadays is quite sure howthe hides used for armor were tanned; most people think the hair wasleft on, and the skin was put through the same process, but left a bitstiff. The only dehaired hides (so far as is known in modern times)were (and are) the deerskins used for the recently introduced tam-borine drumheads. These are buried tightly rolled up a while beforebeginning the scraping, and "the hair slips right off," say informiants.TRANSPORTATIONThe Nootkans traveled considerably within their small world, littleoutside of it. The chief mode of travel was, of course, by canoe.Baggage was easily accommodated in the roomy large canoes; whenthere was much gear, as during the movements from one fishing stationto another, they made "rafts" by lashing house boards across twolarge canoes and piling their goods on the resultant platform. Logs,for house posts, beams, and the like, were towed in the water.There were not many occasions for carrying loads on the back.Women picking berries, or digging roots or clams, used burdenbaskets, usually with a strap across the chest. A few special articles,like cedar bark, also had to be carried some distance at times.The tumpline (mama'anim,) w^as made of lengths of selvage twinedtogether loosely in the middle to make a flat band, and with the endsbraided in three-strand. Both m.en and women used it to carry loads,such as firewood. A cross-chest carry was used more commonly forheavy packs than the head carry. The tumpline was used by womenfor berry baskets, and other containers, such as the cedar-bark"baskets," or bags, called Lapat, in which dried fish were packed.There were other ways of baling up loads, depending on the mate-rials involved. Strips of cedar bark, for example, were rolled intoflat bolts V/i to 2 feet long. Four or five such bolts, depending ontheir width, were laid parallel to each other and across two straps ofbark 8 to 10 feet long. Two light rods were laid on top of the boltsparallel with the straps, and caught to the latter by thongs passedbetween the bolts. Another layer of bolts of bark was laid on andlashed down with rods in the same fashion. When four or five layershad been bound on?depending on the size of the bolts of bark and thedistance to camp or to the canoe?the long straps were brought upover the bale and tied firmly a little to one side of the middle. Thenloops were tied in them for shoulder straps. Any convenient scrap of Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 105bark was used to tie the straps across the chest to steady the load(fig. 15).Meat, such as that of deer or elk, was commonly butchered out offthe bones and rolled up in the hide (or pieces of the hide in the caseof an elk). Armholes were cut in the hide, and the shoulder strapsthus formed were caught with a thong or strip of bark across the chest,like those of the cedar-bark pack.Blanlvets, when transported in quantities, as for instance for mar-riage payments, or the gifts a chief took home from a potiatch, were Figure 15.?Method of preparing and of carrying pack of cedar bark.baled up in cedar-bark mats. Ordinarily these bales were carried toand from the canoes in the arms, but if there was a long portage, theywould be packed with tumplines.Small bundles ordinarily were tucked under the arm for carrying.The checkerwork ditty bags, in which were carried small valuables,or various useful oddments, or a hunk of dried salmon one took for"lunch" on a trip into the woods, were transported thus, or tucked intothe overlap of one's blanket over the belt. 106 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144MUSICAL INSTRUMENTSMusical instruments of the Nootkans were limited to a very fewarticles, used during rituals. Rattles were of three types: the woodenrattles, usually carved in the form of a bird (they usually look morelike ducks than any other species, although no one nowadays knowswhy this should be so) ; shamans' rattles of baleen or imported moun-tain sheep horn, made by steaming and bending an elliptical piece ofthe material till it was folded double over a wooden handle; and thepecten shells strung on a withe used by the tsaiyeq dancers of theCentral tribes. All rattles were called kuhmln. The dance skirt,adorned with bird beaks and deer hooves or dewclaws, might beincluded as a sort of rattle. Few modern informants know of it,however, though it is frequently mentioned by early voyagers. Oneform of drum was a long plank laid across short sticks to raise it offthe floor and pounded on with short hardwood billets. Another wasa long narrow lidless box, one end of which was raised by slinging itfrom a line over a beam to increase the resonance. The drummerwrapped a bundle of shredded cedar bark about his fist to thump theinstrument. In recent times the tambourine drum?a piece of rawhidestretched over a circular hoop frame and beaten with a paddeddrumstick?has been introduced for accompanying lahal-gamesinging. A special item in the sound-effects department was a longwooden box (sometimes the box drum was used) in which a lot of fist-size stones were put, to make a thunderous sound when the box wastilted first one way and then the other. Whistles were the only windinstruments. They were used only for the Shamans' Dance. Thesearc said to have been of many varieties, although the main points ofdifference seem to have been between the small simple whistles ofcertain novices, and the larger whistles with reeds of the men whoplayed the part of Supernatural Wolves (some of the large whistlesdid not have reeds). There were also multiple whistles that producedseveral tones. Flutes or flageolets were unknown. The bull-roarer,a board whirled at the end of a string to make a humming noise, waslike the whistles associated with the Shamans' Dance. The musicalbow was not known. FIRE AND LIGHTINGThe ancient method of kindling fire was by use of the smiple drillrotated between the palms against a wooden hearth. Drill and hearthwere of dry red cedar. Finely shredded cedar bark was heaped at thebase of the hearth as tinder. It is said that when the prevailing damp-ness made it more difficult than usual to ignite the fine dust producedby the drilling, the firemaker dug a little wax from his ear and smearedit over the drill tip to speed the process. In any event, making fire by Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 107this method was claimed to be very difficult?all the informants saidtheir old people had told them so. Only men could do it, they weretold. Women lacked the necessary strength and endurance. Lightingfires was not a daily chore, for the cooking fires were banked at nightwith chunks of half green or water-soaked wood that would hold thefire until morning. If a woman's fire went out in the night, she couldborrow a brand from a more careful housemate. When shifting resi-dence, slow matches of tightly twisted cedar-bark rope that burnedvery slowly were carried.Drilling fire was only a memory, or a method to be used in emergen-cies, in informants' lifetimes, of course. Strike-a-lights were intro-duced by early traders, and later block matches were considered anindispensable item. For a long time, however, the practices ofkeeping fires going continually, and carrying a slow match, were keptup, for fire lighting is difficult at best in that damp climate. Thebow drill, for making fire, was introduced in the latter part of thenineteenth century. Just how and when could not be learned. Onesurmises that the implement might have been observed in some Eskimoor Aleut village where some sealing schooner with Nootkan huntersput in. Since the device had to compete with continually bettertypes of matches it never attained great favor, although many peopleknow of it today.Both men and women got wood, although women's wood gatheringconsisted chiefly of picking up small driftwood along the beaches.Men got "big wood"?big lengths of driftwood, or lengths of soundwindfalls not too far from the water to be levered down to the beachwith poles and towed home. It is claimed, incidentally, that therewas much less driftw^ood on the beaches before the days of the loggingindustry. Men also gathered quantities of thick bark of Douglas firfor hot smokeless fires, and the partly rotten hemlock wood for smoke-curing salmon.The household fires provided the only lighting in the houses, for-merly. On ceremonial occasions the family fires were put out aftera huge fire in the center of the house had been lit. Whale oil wasthrown on this central fire to make it blaze up at appropriate timesduring the rituals; at other times, to permit stage shifting, as it were,men came running in carrying buckets of water with which theysuddenly doused the fire to leave the house almost dark. By the timeit had been rebuilt from the embers, other men had set up v/hatevermechanical contrivance was to be shown, or had changed their cos-tumes, or had done whatever else was ritually necessary. Torches,usually of long splints of dry cedar lashed tightly together, or seasonedresinous knots, were often carried outside at night.A few people recalled hearing of a lighting device that appears to 108 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144have been used, though not extensively, about the 1850's or perhaps aUttle earher. It was a lamp made of a large deep-sea clamshell, ofthe sort that washes up on the beach, filled with dogfish oil. Thewick is said to have been a thick hank of shredded cedar bark. Mem-ory of the object is perpetuated in its name, hahatmaq, referring to thedogfish oil (hatma), which was transferred to coal-oil lamps on theintroduction of this latter by white traders. The source of this oillamp, so suggestive at first glance of some Eskimo-Aleut connection,is shrouded in mystery. The informants who told of the clamshelllamp, incidentally, considered it to have been a very ancient device oftheir people; they had no notion that it was a historic introduction.It must be noted, however, that early historic sources are quite expHcitas to the absence of any lighting but that of the household or cere-monial fires. Wliile casual visitors might have overlooked the lamps,it is difficult to believe that such observers as Mozino and Jewettwould have missed them. It seems certain that the introduction orinvention must have been made in historic times. Yet, unlike thebow drill, which apparently is to be attributed to about the period ofthe Bering Sea sealing voyages, what few clues informants couldassemble?that is, who of their elders had told them of the lamps, andso on?suggest that the device had its brief vogue 20 to 30 years ormore before the Nootkans began to go fursealing.--* Were it not forthe unusually rich literature on Nootkan life and customs of the periodof first European contacts, we should have to accept modern infor-mants' opinions that Nootkan lamps go back to prehistoric times.TOBACCO AND CHEWING GUMPrior to the maritime-fur-trade period, the Nootkans neither knewtobacco nor any substitute for it, either for smoking or for chewingwith lime in the Haida manner. Early sources and modern infor-mants agree on this point. It was some time before smoking becamea popular habit, and once it was taken up, was used European fashion,as a casual pastime without ritual significance. Trade tobacco wassmoked in clay pipes of the sort used by English and American tradersof the day, imported, of course, by the traders.Chewing spruce gum was a Nootkan pastime or vice, however onemay view it, to which the people were addicted long before the intro-duction of the modern confection based on chicle. Lumps of the harddried gum from recent scars on trees were collected and made soft, andcleaned as well, by heating the gum on the end of a stick held near thefire, and catching the drippings in a clamshell of water. Bits of bark,? Hough (1808, p. 1039) also refers to Nootkan shell lamps in which whale oU was burued, based on in-formation from a man who visited Cape Flattery and Vancouver Island about 1850. Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 109 needles, and miscellaneous debris were picked out of it at the time.Of course, the gum had other uses beyond keeping people's jawsoccupied : it was used for covering over the bindings of harpoon pointsto make them smooth and waterproof, for mending cracks in canoes,and many other processes, and was thus much more useful than modernchewing gum. PETSDogs were kept, for no particular reason except that the animalsmanaged to survive and preferred human company to competing withthe wolves in the w^oods. Only rarely did the animals serve any usefulpurpose. One Ehetisat chief of bygone times had a famous largedog that chased deer and elk from small islands into the water, butso far as is known the chief's contemporaries made no attempt totrain their pets to be similarly useful. The dogs were not of the woollysort raised by the Gulf of Georgia Sahsh. If the beasts were of noparticular use, neither can it be said that they were pampered. Theylived on what scraps they could scavenge, chiefly offal, and effortswere made to prevent their eating even this poor fare during the earlypart of the salmon runs while restrictions were still in force. Chiefs'dogs were given high-sounding names, referring to their owner'sgreatness. Other men's dogs received casual names, referring to theircolor or markings.Of other pets, tame crows and seagulls are said to have been themost popular. They became quite tame when caught young, andcould be let loose, for they would come back to the house in theevening, it was said. Most chiefs had special names, which only theycould give their pet birds. Smaller birds were often taken, but asthey were given to the children as playthings, they did not last long.One Muchalat informant made quite a name for himself in his youthas a sort of Nootkan Frank Buck by finding a number of wolf dens,and bringing home the Utters; he also caught a bear cub on oneoccasion. Some of the animals he sold, some he gave to relatives.They were kept tied up. Those that lived all became vicious, andeither escaped to the woods or had to be killed. Probably the samething has happened many times in the past, young animals beingbrought home, played with a bit, then left alone till they escaped ordied. WEALTH GOODSThe Northwest Coast has long been characterized in accounts oftravelers and ethnographic descriptions as an area where wealthbulked large in native consciousness. Interpretations of the abo-riginal social structures as being integrated by the wealth complex 110 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144have been made. Conditioned by that sort of picture, one ratherexpects to find elaborate systems of currency, or near-currency, andscales of relative values minutely worked out. Actually such minuteand precise interest in wealth goods seems to have been developed onlyin northwestern California, the extreme and marginal periphery ofNorthwest Coast culture, where the people haggled and split hairsover microscopic variations in the few dentalia that reached them.The northwest Californians tattooed themselves with marks to measuredentaha by, and thought of stabbings and black eyes in terms of howmany shells would be required to salve the plaintiff's pride. As oneproceeds northward to the heart of the area such notions dwindleaway. Nootkan wealth-concept revolved about economic wealth inthe form of territorial holdings; ceremonial wealth, in the form ofhonorable names, titles, and ritual privileges. Token wealth rankedafter these in importance. And the tokens (simply luxury goods ofvarious sorts) were not elaborately graded, and there were no standardsof relative values. For example the big "war" or "freight" canoes,used in changing residence and in ceremonies, are almost invariablymentioned in listing valuables or riches. Yet there was no fixedscale according to which such a craft was worth so many sealingcanoes, so many slaves, or such an amount of dentalia. The wealthgoods could not be used to buy or sell, in the precise meaning of theseterms: they could only be bartered. There were rough standards, ofcourse?no one would seriously ofier a single dentalia shell for a largecanoe?but each exchange was arrived at as an individual case, justlike a horse trade in our culture of frontier days. Even more oftenthere was no preliminary agreement. A chief might tell a canoemaker to make him such-and-such a type of canoe. When it wasdone, he gave the man a gift in return. Interpreters say "he paid thecanoe maker," but the amount depended on the chief's prosperity andattitude toward the canoe maker, and even more his own self-esteem.The more he gave, the more he showed that his resources were soabundant that they mattered httle to him. The canoe maker would becontent if he were given a sea otter hide; if he were given two or threehe would realize he was dealing with a great personage. Something ofthis attitude has persisted, I believe, to the present day, makmg thenative attitude toward modem wealth tokens?Canadian dollars?rather different from what their white neighbors expect. Moderneconomy does not do much to alter this attitude either, for when aman makes a thousand dollars or more in a few weeks' fishing oneseason, and the next year works harder and barely breaks even onexpenses, it is difficult for him to think of money in terms of an equiva-lent in human effort or any other rigid standard.Consistent with this vagueness as to values and the loose barter Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 111system, there was no concept of borrowing and lending, and even less,of loans at interest.Checking the lists of potlatch gifts and the bride prices and dowries,which seems to be a good way to learn what things were reckoned valu-ables, shows that during the latter portion of the nineteenth centurymost of the items were trade goods. Cotton blankets, cash (whichbecame common on the coast with fur sealing, for the sealers paid offin cash), guns, and cotton cloth predominate. The minor items, givento wom.en at potlatches, included cheap chinaware, glass beads, shawls,and the like. Dentalia are never mentioned, except for the ritualhair ornaments of pubescent girls, and a few necklaces and the likethat conservatives saved for special occasions. Abalone shells werecut up to make ornaments, ear pendants, and the like, but are seldommentioned as gifts. Big canoes are among the very few articles ofnative manufacture figuring often in potlatches. Speaking in general-ties, people say that slaves were regarded as wealth goods, and couldbe traded off, or given away. Specific instances of giving slaves awayare very rare indeed, however, though many were bartered to distanttribes, where their chances for escape were few. Coppers, as usedby the Kwakiutl for prestige-making gifts and exchanges, were knownof but not used by the Nootkans. All in all, from a survey of themodified recent culture, one wonders what, besides a few dentaliaand goat-wool yarn and canoes, constituted the ancient wealth goods.So far as one can tell, in recent times and earlier as well, these "wealthgoods" were simply luxury items, esteemed, but scarcely regarded astreasure, and definitely not as "money."The dentalia fishery of the Nootkans has brought them some fame,as these tribes were apparently the source from which the prizedshells were spread up and down the Pacific coast, and inland, m earlyhistoric times at least, to the Great Plains. The shells actually grow,as I understand, over a wide area in Pacific waters, but apparentlyonly under rather special conditions do they occur in beds shallowenough for the Indians to reach them with their rather crude soundingdevices. Oregon Indians and Haida alike claim to have found dentaliaoccasionally washed up on the beaches, but such shells were oftendamaged and lusterless. The Nootkans were the only people whogot the live shells from the beds.Even in Nootkan territory dentalia grounds were limited. Theonly known bed available to the Northern tribes was that at cahqos,northwest of Tachu Point, in Ehetisat territory. As mentioned inthe discussion of territorial rights, a number of individual chiefs ofadjacent groups. Nuchatlet and Kyuqnot as well as Ehetisat, ownedrights to utilize those grounds. There seems to have been another 112 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144important bed in Barkley Sound, and shells are said to wash ashorefrequently on Long Beach, near Ucluelet. These are the only placesof which I heard, although it is possible there were a few other minorones, where dentalia were obtained.The method of bringing up the shells is well known, even thoughnone of my informants had ever actually seen it performed; it wasabandoned before their time. A bunch of fine cedar splints was lashedto one end of a long fir pole in a round bundle flarmg toward theunlashed end in a form resembling somewhat that of a home-madebroom. The bundle was 8 or 9 inches across at the open end. Thesplints in the center were quite fine, those near the edge, coarser, andaround the outside was a row of flat rather wide splints. A hole wascut in a narrow piece of board so it would slip over the end of thebundle where it was lashed to the pole, but would not slip off theflaring end of the "broom." Two stones of about the same size,weighing, informants estimated, about 10 pounds each, were lashedin withes and secured to the ends of the perforated board. Thedentalia fisherman provided himself with enough additional polesin 15- to 20-foot lengths, to reach bottom at the grounds when joinedend to end, and a quantity of good heavy cordage of nettle fiber.He went out to the grounds with the poles and the broomlike affairin his canoe. There he laid the "broom" in the water, with theperforated board in place. The [weight of the stones pulled the"broom" end down, and the fisherman lashed another of his polesto the upper end, continuing to join the poles till he could sound thebottom. For greatest efficiency of the rather clumsy implement,of course, the stone weights should have almost counterbalanced theeffective buoyancy of the poles and board; it may be that the esti-mates of weights given are a little low. In any case, when he hadenough poles lashed together, he jabbed downward sharply a fewtimes, then pulled up the pole, letting the top lean over till the wholelength was afloat in the water. One informant specified a line wasmade fast to the lower end, just above the bundle of splints, to pullit up by; this sounds like the most practical method. As the gearwas raised the weights drew the perforated board down snug overthe splints, compressing them slightly. If he had been lucky thefisherman found a dentalia shell or two pinched firmly between thesplints (not, informants insisted, skewered on them); if not, therewas nothing but mud and trash from the sea floor. Then he had tounlash his poles, paddle back to the place he had been sounding, forthe water was too deep to anchor in, and rig his gear for anothersounding. It was a slow laborious task, by all accounts. One hardlywonders that it has been a long time since anyone has gone to allthat trouble. Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 113The fact that the apparatus is an invention of no mean order isworth stressing. The part that made the gear function?the weightedperforated board that made the spHnts grip any small object insertedbetween them^?is mechanically quite neat. One is impressed by theabstract reasoning involved. A primitive inventor conceivably couldwork out a new device for, let us say, hurling a spear, in great part bytrial and error, for he could actually see what his experimental modelwas doing. Whoever invented the dentalia gear had to be able tovisualize what his equipment was doing out of sight in deep water.He had to be sure enough of it to know that when it brought up noshells on several tries the reason was no shells grew where he made thesounding, until he eventually found the beds (unless he was such afortunate individual that he achieved success on the fii-st few tries).The day's catch of shells were boiled in a small cooking box to re-move their unfortunate occupants, and then put into a box of finesand to polish them up a bit. Informants said rather vaguely theshells were "stirred around" in the sand?one might guess they wereshaken gently back and forth to remove mosslike marine growth thatthe boiling had not detached. Not a great deal of such polishing wasnecessary. After some quantity of dentalia had been collected, theywere sorted into lots of large (a'eh), medium (o'o'umh), and small(atcaqinhais) shells and stored in small finely woven cedar-barkbaskets. The sizes were not measured, but roughly estimated by eye.There is said to have been no particular difference in value of the threesizes, but "it looked better to have all about the same size on a neck-lace." The shells were also sometimes strung on fathom-long stringsfor storage. ABALONE SHELLSThe Spaniards seem to have begun the importation of "Monterreyshells" to the Nootkans. There is a persistent rumor, referred to alsoby Swan (1868, p. 47), that large richly colored abalone shells occursomewhere in the Gulf of Georgia or upper Queen Charlotte Soundregion, and that they were obtained from the Southern Kwakiutl inprehistoric times. The local abalone, with its small thin pallid shell,was never used. Whether or not the la,rge shells ever reached Nootkanterritory before white contacts, they soon came to be highly esteemed,and many a fur was traded for them. The fur traders' tendency totry to standardize the rates of barter led them, it is said, about themiddle of the past century, to set a price of one shell per span oflength of a sea otter skin. When the Indians learned this scale, itdid not take them long to discover that a green sea otter pelt could bestretched a span without visibly affecting the density of the pelageby weighting the lower end when it was hung up. It seems clear that 114 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144they could comprehend the principle of stabilized relative values ifit were brought to their attention.SEA OTTER PELTSThe sea otter skins themselves were valuables of a sort anciently-esteemed so highly that only persons of high rank wore cloaks madeof them. All through the historic period until the fairly recent veryrigid enforcement of game laws, the occasional sea otters that couldbe taken were prized as tradable commodities. Even then, whenthe pelts were given away in potlatches on rare occasions, no particularnotice was paid, so far as w^e can learn, to size or quality, althoughthe Indians were well aware that the white trader would measure theskin, feel the density of the fur, and so on, in setting a price on it.BLANKETSInformants conjecture nowadays that their forebears used theyellow cedar bark "blankets" or robes as potlatch gifts before the dayof the cotton trade blanket. Men of high rank would have beengiven robes with goat-wool wefts. While it is likely that the robeswith varying amounts of the imported goat wool were esteemed, beingconsidered proper for chiefs, one is inclined to doubt that the commonones of yellow cedar bark ever had such a use. For one thing, there isno hint, either from native sources or from early historic accounts, ofproduction centers in which quantities of yellow-cedar-bark robeswere woven to provide surplus quantities, nor on the other hand, dowe hear of people who lacked the garments because of their poverty.In other words, the w-omen of every family wove the robes the familywore, so there was little room for a wealth-token function to attachitself to these articles. The goat wool, already spun, or in the formof four-finger-wide strips of hide, was different, because its possessionindicated not simply high rank, but also formal relationship withSouthern Kwakiutl chiefs from whom the material was obtained.The real use of blankets as wealth tokens derives from white contacts,going back to the days of the fur and dogfish-oil trades. Followingthe lead of Hudson's Bay Company, the traders used the cheapcotton blankets, valued at $1.50 a pair, as the unit of value, just asthe "beaver" had been established as the trade unit in the interior.It was the traders, not the Indians, who set the prices of guns, powder,molasses, beads, and other articles in terms of blankets, translatingdollar values of their merchandise into this unit. The blanlcets soonbecame popular and became the nearest thing to currency there was,because the traders would receive them in exchange for other items. Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 115An additional incentive to their use was that they were sho^vy, intheir four colors of white, red, green, and black.^*CALENDARS AND MNEMONICSAmong the various items of knowledge, we may include the calendricsystem. Time was measured only in the crudest way by the Nootkans,the year being noted as a unit consisting of two phases according asthe sun was increasing in northerly or southerly declination. So faras modern informants know, there was no designation for "year" norfor the two parts of it just mentioned. It is said that the summer andwinter solstices were noted by people who took it on themselves towatch the apparent point of emergence of the sun. At the pointof maximum southerly and at that of maximum northerly declination,the sun was said to rise in the same place for 4 days, then "startedback" in the other direction.^^ The names for the solstices weresimply phrases expressing literally the rising in one place that wasbelieved to occur: te'al hupal, "continually in one place?the sun,"i. e., the solstice. Lesser periods were computed according to the lunarperiods, 12 or 13 to the year.The moon count was of the descriptive type for the most part,referring to natural phenomena, the fish runs, flights of waterfowl, andthe like. Informants are divided in opinion as to just when the countwas conceived of as beginning in former times. Some think it beganwith the moon following the summer solstice, and there is some earlyvalidation of such a belief in early historic accounts, such as thatof Mozino (1913), who gives a midsummer moon as the first oneof his list. Other people beheve it began with the "elder" moon, aboutNovember, which ordinarily marked the beginning of the ceremonialseason, when the people had assembled in their winter villages afterthe fall salmon fishing. This was also the moon when many menbegan their sessions of ritual bathing for one or another activity.The moon counts of the Northern tribes seem to have been identical,although occasionally informants switched pairs of moon names about.By adjusting these apparent errors (some of which are obvious becauseof the events mentioned in the moon name), we get the following list:MeaningElder sibling (moon) . Younger sibling (moon).No (food getting) for a long time (?) moon.Bad weather moon (?) (one person suggested theword referred to axcil, "ebbing" (of tide)). " The blankets used by the KwakiutI and other tribes in the Hudson's Bay Company territory werechiefly white, although for wear other colors (perhaps more expensive) were in vogue. The greater varietyavailable to the Nootkans was apparently due to competition between the independent traders." This is actually not true, of course, according to modem astronomical concepts. Month (about) 116 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144Mona (about) Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 117Kyuquot had his wife spin two long strings of yellow-cedar-bark fiber(apparently because the weak cordage would not be used for someother purpose and lost), and in one he tied knots to indicate the numberof hair seals he killed, and in the other a knot for each sea otter. Thenumber of days duration of a voyage, a pubescent girl's days ofrestriction, and other things were similarly recorded by the peopleconcerned. There were no special types of knots used for differentclasses of objects; only the owner of the string would know whetherthe knots represented hair seals or moons of bathing ritual. Atradition tells of a young chief who improvised a simple quipu of thissort to remind him of the number of songs of a ritual that he learnedfrom supernatural beings.Of course, the bundles of sticks used in potlatch invitations weremnemonic devices, though of a less permanent sort than the knottedstrings. The speaker making the formal invitation had two bundlesof small splints made for the occasion; one splint for each chief to beinvited who was to occupy a potlatch seat was in one bundle, andin the other bundle, one splint for each person of lower rank. As hecalled each name in order of rank, he or an assistant threw down thestick from the proper bundle. THE LIFE OF THE INDIVIDUALIn Nootkan culture as in all others there were two types of patternsaimed at molding the individual into a socially acceptable, adequateperson. The fii'st of these were the common life crises observances.These were essentially therapeutic, intended either to protect or aidthe individual, or to protect society from contamination by him,and must be compared to such practices in our culture as vaccinationand quarantine. In the native view the practices were strictlyscientific?action A necessarily producing effect B?although tous the line of reasoning may seem obviously specious, and oftendownright quaint. There is little in this that is novel m Nootkanculture, and perhaps little that is instructive in the long list of pro-hibitions and prescribed activities although the material is easyenough to collect. I regret that I overlooked an intriguing aspect ofthese customs: the extent to which individuals actually observedthem, and the causes and effects of their disuse in modern times.In one respect the life crises patterns of the Nootkan Indians werenoteworthy (although it is a feature they shared with their neighborson the Northwest Coast) and that is the emphasis they put on com-bining activities which were societal in import with the ordinarilyindividualistic rites. That is to say, every important step alonglife's road, including the life crises, called for a public announcementand festivities. Of course, the extent to which this was done variedwith the person's rank. A chief's life was punctuated by an infinityof public celebrations: feasts, potlatches, and Shamans' Dances,each time with the assumption of a new name to signalize his newstatus, from the time his mother's pregnancy became known untilhis heir gave a memorial potlatch to remove the tabu on the last-used name a few years after his death. A child's first tooth, thefirst solid food he ate, the first bird he slew with his toy bow, thepiercing of his ears, were all potential occasions for festivities. Sincethe scale on which these announcements of social significance werecelebrated varied both according to one's rank and the condition of thefamily exchequer, this aspect of the Nootkan life cycle will be dealtwith somewhat casually here, and stressed in the discussion of rank.The second type of malleable patterns were the more subtle onesof childhood training and education. I am very conscious of thedeficiencies of my data in this important field. I have, therefore,combed the notes for casual references that seem to give some insightinto the problem of how people were brought up to be Nootkantribesmen. Perhaps these scant notes will provide useful leads tofurther investigation.118 Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 119PREGNANCY AND BIRTH CUSTOMSThe following accounts of the usages prior to and after the bii'th ofa child, as related by a Muchalat and an Ehetisat informant, may betaken as typical of observances at these times among all the Nootkantribes. Both accounts are given because they differ at some points,and emphasize different parts of the observances; some of these pointscannot very well be accounted for except on the basis of local differ-ences. For example, not only the Muchalat account presented here,but all the Central Nootkan informants, specified that the parturientremained in the hut in which the birth had taken place for 4 days,and the child was kept in the mat cradle the same length of time,whereas the Ehetisat informant insisted on 10 days as being the properlength of time. Since the latter was a woman of high rank, and hadbeen made to observe the old customs punctiliously when her chil-dren were born as well as at most other times of her life, it is likelythat there was a real difference of custom involved, the Muchalatfollowing the Central rather than the Northern Nootkan pattern.Statements of even such good observers as Sproat and Mozino to theeffect that women went about theu' daily aftahs immediately afterparturition are to be discounted; such women as they saw going aboutsoon after chUdbearing must have just been released from the con-finement hut after the locally proper period of seclusion.^^The account of the Muchalat observances during pregnancy andchildbirth was prefaced with a remark that, "they were more partic-ular about the rules during a woman's first pregnancy" than for sub-sequent ones, owing to the attitude that the first delivery was themost difficult and most dangerous. As soon as the woman becameaware that she was pregnant (on cessation of the menses), she con-fided in her mother or other elder female relative, who instructed herin the necessary behavior. The rules governing her activities fromthis time on were all directed to the end of ensuring an easy deliveryand a healthy child. Food restrictions were few: the woman couldeat almost anything at this time. The point of most importance wasthat she must not eat left-overs of any kind. Should she do so, eat-nig food or even drinking water that had remained for long in the cook-ing box or dish, the child would remain in the womb long past the timefor delivery. This observance was carried to a logical conclusion,and its strict practice was guaranteed, by insisting that she be thefirst to be fed at each meal. She likewise had to be the first to drinkfrom a bucket of fresh water. Ideahy she should not drink more thantwice a day , in morning and evening, and fresh water was brought2? Sproat, 18C8, p. 94: "Instances are known ofwomen being at work twelve hours after their confinement;"Mozino p. 27; ". . . they do not suffer the severe anguish of our women, for immediately after dischargiiigthe afterbirth they dive into the sea and swim about eiiergetically."8SIJ093 120 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144from the spring each time. Among the few items of food prohibitedto her was "wild rhubarb" (hu'mak), lest her child when born wouldcry until out of breath and then choke (hu'hQmakc, or hu'ma'aik,"he chokes, or strangles"). Perhaps the similaritj'' between the twowords led to this association. Other practices were similarly designedto protect either her or the child. The woman must never pause inthe doorway when going in or out of the house. Since hinged doorshave become common, this tabu has been extended to prohibit herfrom closing the door behind her. All work involving weaving, in-cluding the making of mats and baskets, and in addition, such pastimesas cat's cradles, were prohibited, lest the child's umbilical cord be-come "snarled up." Her mother and other kinswomen prepared allthe necessary shredded bark, and mats. To see a land otter, or thedeath struggles of any animal, to look upon a dead person or even tohear the wailing for the dead would do her child harm. These lasttabus applied equally to her husband, and obviously restricted bothhis hunting and fishing activities considerably. In recent years thebelief has become common that the child will be harmed if its father"liquors up" during the period of gestation. In general, a pregnantwoman was expected to be quiet and inactive; her kinswomen didmost of her chores for her, made the first cradle, which was of matting,and the various pads, mattresses, head presser, and the like for her.It was said that the couple should not have intercourse from the timethe woman became aware of her pregnancy. When her time came,the woman went to a little hut of brush and mats prepared for herby her mother or other kinswoman. The informant explained theneed for sending her out of the big house by stating that it was becausethey could not tell if she were going to bear twins, or a deformedchild (becoming "qwaiyas").Quantities of finely shredded cedar bark were provided in the par-turition hut. A seat, made of a board heavily padded with shreddedbark, with a pole backrest against which she could lean, was prepared.The parturient was left alone for a time. Her mother ordinarily stoodby near the hut, however. When the pains became frequent, theparturient's mother would enter to assist in the actual dehvery,cutting the umbilical cord with a knife made for the occasion (ofmussel shell), examine the child to see that it was not deformed, andwrap it in shredded cedar bark. She, or sometimes another womanliired because of her known skill at the task, would put her finger inthe child's mouth to "raise its palate," and "shape" its face to conformto the standards of beauty. Apparently this last consisted of pressinggently on the features, pressing upward, for example, on the browsto mold them into the highly admired arched form. A shaman withpower for the task, or some other person with special secret knowledge, Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 121might be called in to manipulate the infant's viscera to make surethat the organs were in their proper places. I do not know just howthis was done, but suppose it was more of a magical than a manualprocess. Friends and neighbors, standing around outside the hut,were informed as to the child's sex, beauty, and other qualities.Shamans were not called to aid a parturient unless delivery wereunusually difficult. There are said to have been some who couldcorrect an awkward presentation by manipulating the parturient'sbelly. In addition, many families had secret magical recipes, usuallyof herbs, crushed up so fine as to be unrecognizable, to administerprior to and during delivery to ease the process. Some of theseherbals were mixed with a special kind of oil called qumo'oxsit, whichwas particularly effective against a condition known as "ma'Las," inwhich the child "was stuck to the side of the womb." If the par-turient's family, blood or affinal, had no such hereditary remedy,they could request someone who had to prepare and administer it.They might pay him for his service at the time, or wait to give hima special gift later on during a potlatch.The parturient's mother massaged the woman's belly to help herexpel the afterbirth, which seems to have been left near the hut for4 days, with no special attention. At the end of the 4-day period,however, the afterbirth was wrapped in shredded cedar bark and dis-posed of in a ceremonial fashion. There were various procedures,some which may have been inherited family secrets while others werecommon loiowledge, for treating the afterbirth so that the child's lifewould be influenced along certain lines. For example, if the parentshoped the child would be a good singer, they would have the relativewho disposed of the afterbirth sing special songs over it. To make aboy grow up to be a skilled woodworker, a chisel and an adz mightbe wrapped up with it. Nowadays a coin is often included in thebundle. It is well known that AJ, at Nootka Sound, is a lucky gam-bler because a coin and a deck of cards were placed with his afterbirth.In the case of a girl baby, bits of basketry and matting were commonlyincluded in the bundle. A girl's afterbirth was shallowly buried in adry sheltered spot; that of a boy was buried in a wet swampy place,"so he would be able to stand the cold."This 4-day period prior to the disposal of the afterbirth was oneof restrictions for both the mother and father of the infant. Thechild's mother remained in the hut, sitting or squatting with her legsflexed. To straighten them out would do her great harm. She wasfed warm broth of black cod, and boiled dried dog salmon. Steamedclover roots were also given her. The codfish broth was especiallybeneficial, for it was thought to stimulate the secretion of milk. Shemight drink cold water if she wished. A fire was kept burning in 122 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144the hut to keep her warm. Her husband remained in the big housefor 4 days, subsisting on dried fish. Relatives fished for the blackcod, provided firewood, and looked after the various chores duringthe couple's restrictions. The infant, meanwhile, had been put in itsfirst cradle of matting. This consisted of a small rectangular check-erwork mat called na'yaqpa'tu in which two sticks, slightly longerthan the mat, had been placed longitudinally. They were separatedby a distance slightly greater than the width of the occupant's body,and held in place by having their ends jabbed through the matting.A series of small loops or eyelets were attached along each stick. Sixor eight inches from one end a cross stick was placed, lashed at itsends to the longitudinals, and carefully padded with shredded cedarbark. This piece was to support the infant's neck. Three pads ofvery finely shredded cedar bark, one flat with the bottom of thecradle, the other two set edgewise, were placed to protect the backand sides of the head. A "mattress" of loose shredded bark filledthe space between the longitudinal sticks below the neck rest. Theinfant was placed in the cradle, a special pad of shredded cedar barkwas placed over its navel, its legs were flexed, partly supported by apad under its knees (for to straighten its legs out would cause itsnavel to protrude), and a cover of slu-edded bark was placed over itsbody and secured by a lashing rove back and forth through the eyeletson the stick. The head presser (atcum), consisting of a long narrowtriangular bundle of shredded bark with its tip doubled back towardthe base, was placed with the wide end to the top over the child'sforehead and secured by a cord laced across through three pairs ofeyelets. The lower end, which was not lashed down tightly, cameover the bridge of the infant's nose. This head presser, together withthe side pads, produced the ideal long narrow head shape. (Inform-ants comment on the difl'erence between this type of head deforma-tion, and that practiced by their Makah relatives, who, they say,flattened their heads to a "wide flat shape.") The heads of ahinfants, even the children of slaves, had their heads shaped in thisway.During the 4 days while the infant was in its mat cradle, it was feda few drops of oil of a small variety of dogfish (qomux) . At the end ofthis time its umbilical cord was supposed to detach. The mother leftthe hut without any particular ritual, except that a kinsman was sentto bury the afterbirth, as previously related, just before she left.Once back in her place in the house, she put her infant into its secondcradle, a large container shaped much like a Nootkan dish, carved outof a single block of wood. At this time the infant's legs were straight-ened out for the first time, then flexed again with a shredded cedar-bark pad under the knees. An old man was called over, the infant Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 123in its new cradle was laid on the floor, and the old man jumped overit shouting, "yu!" so that the child would not be frightened easily whenit grew up. The infant was lashed into the wooden cradle in a fash-ion similar to that used for the matting one, and the head presser wasretained for some time, in fact as long as the cradle was used.According to the Ehetisat informant, when it appeared that awoman's time was approaching, her mother and other female relativescollected and shredded red cedar bark, to have a plentiful supplyready. The woman's mother also wove a number of strong littlemats, about 8 inches wide by 20 or so long. These were for the child'sfirst cradle. (The restrictions during pregnancy were about the sameas those described by the Muchalat, with most emphasis against eating "left-overs," and on work involving weaving or handling cordage.)The birth itself had to take place in a dark quiet spot, far enoughfrom the village for no noise to disturb the parturient. For daughtersof chiefs, a shamaness (?) (or speciahst ?) was called. Usually theparturient sat, supported by her mother, v/hile the attendant "caught"the child. The attendant massaged the woman's belly to assist thebirth, and by the same method assisted her to expel the afterbirth.The child was bathed, wrapped in shredded cedar bark. A fine bitof bark was poked up the infant's nostrils four times, beginning withthe right one?"to make him breathe." Stones were heated anddropped into a wooden "chamber pot" to make steam through whichthe infant was passed four times. "This made him strong, so hewould not catch any sickness."There were other "medicines" as well, for the infant's welfare andto influence its future. It was not made clear whether they werenecessarily the property of the parturient's family or whether theycould be secrets belonging to the attendant, which she was paid to use.There was a way of putting a finger far down into a newborn infant'sthroat which insured his becoming a good singer. To make him agood dancer, the freshly expelled afterbirth was laid on new mats,sprinkled with down, and a top was spun on it four times. For themother there were medicines too?plant infusions to drink, or leavesto chew, to lessen the pains and make the birth easier.The newborn babe was wrapped in shredded cedar bark and putin its cradle of the smaU mats with transfixed longitudinal rods towhich loops were attached for lashing the child in. Pillowlike padsof shredded bark were put under the child's neck, on either side ofits head, and under its knees (to keep them in a partially flexedposition^?they were not straightened out till 10 days had passed).At the same time the head flattener, a triangular pad of shreddedyellow cedar bark doubled back in the middle was applied, wide (base)end upward. 124 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuH. 144After 4 days, the afterbirth, which had been kept wrapped in mat-ting was taken out to be buried, by an elderly female relative. Magi-cal family recipes were used at tliis time. They consisted of specialsongs which the old woman sang as she carried away the afterbirth,and things to be buried with it. There was a way of includingshavings and chips from canoe making which would make a male-child a good canoe maker when he grew up, and a mode of buryingbits of cedar bark with the afterbirth of a female which ensured herbecoming an industrious weaver of mats. "\^Tien the old womanreturned, the infant was laid on the floor, and she jumped over itfour times, shouting its name (?) each time, so that when it grew upit would not be frightened by loud noises.The occurrence of the Mongoloid spot (ya'pctsaL) on an infantcalled for no special comment. It was believed to mark the placeon wliich the weight of the afterbirth lay.At about the same time the afterbirth was buried, the stub of theumbilical cord ordinarily detached. (If it fell off after 3 days, insteadof 4, it indicated the child was sickly.) It was tied on a loop of string3 or 4 inches across. An elder sibling or cousin of the infant wasgiven the string to hang over his or her right ear. The child had torun through the woods shaking his (or her) head, without noting thepoint at which the string fell off.On the same day (the fourth) commoners pierced the child's ears,and, in the case of a girl baby, her nose. A chief might have it doneat this lime, or might wait even several years, for a more convenientday, for he would pay whoever performed the operation, and give apotlatch to celebrate the event. A boy's nose was not pierced forsom.e years, until he was a "good-sized" lad.After 10 days the infant was put in the wooden cradle instead ofthe cedar-mat one. There were two varieties of wooden cradles inuse among the Ehetisat, one a dugout affair, shaped a good deallike a wooden dish with high ends, the other made like a box withsides of a single board, kerfed and bent. It made no differencewhich type was used. In either case, the cradle was made largeenough to be used until the child was about 3 years old. A frame-work of sticks, with crosspieces to raise the head and feet slightly,was set into the bottom of the cradle to tie the infant in. The cradleof a girl child had three holes drilled tln-ough the lower edge for drain-age of urine; that of a boy baby lacked this feature, his lashings beingarranged so as to leave his penis uncovered. Otherwise there were nodifferences in cradles according to sex of the child. The infant wasnursed in or out of the cradle. It was taken out from tmie to timeto clean it and change the shredded cedar bark, nursed, put to sleep,then lashed in tightly. At these times, the head and brows were Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 125greased with "red fish" oil (the variety of fish from which this oilwas obtained could not be determined), before putting the headpresser back on. The cradle was often slung horizontally from aspringy pole, or from a beam, and swung to put the child to sleepafter his cleaning.Until the time of shiftmg the infant from the mat to the woodencradle, the child's mother remained in seclusion in a sitting position.She was propped up with mats and blankets and a brisk fu-e waskept up near her. She ate only old dried salmon (not fresh dried)and cold water, during this time. The child's father was subject tothe same food restrictions, for 4 days. After the end of the first10 days had passed, the mother massaged her legs?it was, so theinformant said, difficult to walk after sitting still for 10 days?andthen bathed with warmed water. For about a year she refrainedfrom eating certain foods that might harm the child: rock cod, squid,the "dark side" of halibut, spring salmon, hau- seal, sea lion, whalemeat, sea bass, hucldeberries, salmonberries (unless they had beenkept overnight after picking), and salmonberry sprouts. She had aseparate water bucket, cooking box, spoon, etc. (because other peopleate things tabued to her), and ordinarily a kinswoman cooked forher. What she ate was usually boiled with a good deal of water, sothat she would have abundant milk.For the first month especially, the infant was never left alone.When, after the seclusion period, the mother went out of the house,she either took her child along, or left it with a kinswoman. Whenshe carried it outside, she painted a little spot on its nose (with char-coal) and carried a small knife. A low fire was kept burning allnight at the family living space, and the mother was expected tonurse and comfort the infant to quiet it, no matter at what hourit began to cry.The first name was given at or soon after the time the child's earswere pierced. A commoner would give a small feast to announcethe ear piercing and the child's name?or he might give what wealth-goods he happened to have to the chief of the house, so that the lattermight potlatch and announce the name. A chief would bestow aname on his offspring when he celebrated its ear piercing.A portion of the traditional history of the chiefly lineage at Clayo-quot gives some details as to some of the special "medicines" used toproduce desired physical and personality traits in children. It isrelated that hicqa, the youngest full brother of the chief ya'aistohs-malnl, who later in life took the name wikenanic and is said to havebeen the "Chief Wikananish" of the early white explorers, was agreat warrior. In fact, this youngest brother's exploits contributedmuch to the chief's fame, wealth, and power. Even before the birth 126 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144of hicqa, his mother decided that she would make him a warrior.She told no one when her time came, but went alone into the woodsto bear him. As soon as he was born, she put a stone war club intohis hands. She herself cut the afterbirth into four pieces, one ofwhich she put in a cave in the woods, and the other three in placesin the sea inhabited by fearsome supernatural beings (one place wasthat where a great supernatural Shark dwelled, another was the homeof a huge supernatural 'Wliale that devoured canoes). Wlien thebaby slept, she put his cradle outside, even in cold weather, to makehim hardy; when he reached the age of 3 or 4 years, she made himsleep without blankets. The only time he had blankets to warmhim was when she rubbed his body with plant "medicines" to makehim strong and brave, applying them so energetically that his skmbled?then she covered him with a blanket so that people would notknow he was being "trained." She used two kinds of plants for thesemassages. From time to time she made a tiny cut across the bridgeof the child's nose between the eyes, "so that he would not sleepmuch when he grew up." Her treatment was successful, it is said,for when hicqa grew to manhood "he was four spans across thechest," and became renowned all up and down the coast for his bold-ness in war.Several tales of heroes of more remote epochs refer to the cuts madeon a child's nose to make him sleep but little. They also describe asort of deformation to make boys become warriors which may be en-tirely imaginary. These yarns tell of mothers laying large flat stoneson either side of the infant's chest so that it would grow flattened onthe sides and protrude forward, "like a deer's breast," which for somereason made the child more courageous.Secret family rites and medicines for children's health and strengthare mentioned in traditions quite often, as a matter of fact. Certaindetails were omitted?there were undoubtedly formulaic prayers andsongs to be used with them that constitute essential parts of the secret.An ancestor of the tsaxanaath lineage of the Muchalat was namedwina'axcta'kama. He was noted for his swiftness. When he was aninfant his mother bathed him in a wooden tub. The instant the childwas taken from the tub, the swiftest runner of the family seized it andran to empty the water in the swift current of the river. They alsohad a procedure for catching four raindrops at a leak in the roof whichthe child was made to swallow (cf. the mythical Wolf Messengercalled Raindrop-falling because he traveled so swiftly on an errand thathe returned before a drop of water from the eaves struck the ground).AVlien the child had grown to young manhood, he was taught to batheritually, and to rub his body with twigs on the tips of branches (with-out breakmg them off) . He pulled down a branch, scrubbed his body Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 127vigorously, then released the branch saying as it snapped upward,"May I leap so swiftly." These rites were successful it is claimed, forhe became the swiftest runner of all time. Once he encountered awolf on the trail, and began to pursue it. He soon overhauled theanimal, and gave it a kick, saying, "Why don't you run a little?"He eliminated his opponent instead of animating him, however, forwith his kick he broke the wolf's tail and it died.TWINSA special and extremely severe set of observances followed on thebirth of twins. The bases of these rules were the belief that twinswere intimately associated with the Salmon Spirits, and that on theircare depended the future abundance of salmon in tribal territory.In a sense, twinning was felt to be closely akin to having a supernaturalencounter, and gave to the father power to "call" dog salmon, andother important food fish.All the Central Nootkan groups from whom information was col-lected on this topic set the period of restrictions as 8 months; NorthernNootkan accounts (on which the present detailed description is based)were unanimous in setting the duration of seclusion at 4 years. Thisseems almost impossibly long, yet informants insisted on the point,adding that the twins were "good-sized" youngsters before the people(aside from close relatives who visited the family from time to timeduring the seclusion) ever saw them, and that frequently at leastone other child (to whom a special term was given) was born to thecouple during their isolation. In all other respects, there was littlevariation in the observances of the Northern and Central tribes.Some people wished, and even performed bathing rituals for twins;others (and they were more numerous) did everything they could toavoid twuining. One measure to the latter end was that a pregnantwoman should not sleep alone. If her husband was away, she got akinswoman to sleep with her. Should a pregnant woman sleep aloneshe might dream that a supernatural being came to her bed and hadintercourse with her, in which case she would invariably have twins.When twins were born, no one approached the woman for 4 days,except her mother or an elderly kinswoman who tended her.After the 4 days, the woman and her husband moved to a little hutof boards built back in the woods by her kin. Two carvings repre-senting sea gulls were set up atop of taU poles in front of the shack(sea gulls were associated with twiiming). The couple lived on olddried salmon and roots. Food, wood, and water were brought themdaily, by their kin, and their fire was kindled for them. If the firewent out, or if they needed anything, the husband beat on a boxdrum, to call the persons looking after them. The couple painted 128 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144their faces and bodies \\4th horizontal stripes of red. After 4 days,they moved to another hut deeper in the woods. As I understood,they moved four times, the last move taking them up to the head ofsome remote inlet where they could dig clams and roots for them-selves. If they were taken by canoe, a screen of hemlock boughswas put up around them in the canoe so they could not look on saltwater. In this last remote camp they had to stay for 4 years. Kins-folk visited them from time to time, to bring them dried salmon.Visitors had to paint their faces red, and wear new blankets and birddown on their hair. If the couple had children born previous to thetwins, the latter stayed with kin for the first year, then might jointheir parents in exile. Nightly, the couple sang to bring salmon,herring, and whales, he drumming on a box drum and she shaking awooden rattle. The father wandered much in the mountains, seekinga supernatural experience, and, as a matter of fact, often met with one.The twins themselves, if they survived birth (even if they died orone or both were born dead, their parents were exiled just the same),were treated according to special rules. The main point was thatthey be treated exactly alike, so one would not become jealous of theother. If one cried in the night, he was not cuddled and nursed toquiet him, as were ordinary children. Both had to be suckled at thesame time, each in his cradle, but with the cradles tilted away fromeach other. They were never put face to face while small, lest "theytalk to each other" (agreeing to return to Salmon's Home). If oneof the twins died in infancy, his body was not buried, but laid on theground in a swampy place. It was tabu to mourn the death of atwin. Twins that grew to adulthood often became shamans, and hadspecial powers of clairvoyance. Even the children of twins wereluckier than the average person.After the 4 years had passed, the relatives of the twins' parentswent to bring them back to the village. They brought them to theplace where their first hut had been, and fed them there on freshlycaught black cod. They then could come back to the house, and,little by little, partake of other fresh foods.The birth of a deformed child, or of a monster, was followed bysimilar restrictions, but for only a year, informants claimed. A childborn to the parents of twins during their 4-year exile was called ana'tca', "Salmon's tail." Informants had never heard of triplets orother types of multiple births being born to Indian parents.HAIR CUTTINGA child's hair was not cut until he was about a year old. At thistime it was singed off close to the head. Usually it was not cutagain by girls, and by boys only when they were big enough to go Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 129out in the woods where long hair disturbed them, getting tangled inthe brush. Then they haggled it off with a knife to about shoulderlength, and evened the edges by singeing them with live coals.EDUCATIONLike most American Indians, the Nootkans were fond and indul-gent parents, at least by our standards. Yet they did not leaveeducation and personality formation to chance, but had a well-estab-lished system making youngsters into useful adjusted members of thecommunity, just as they ensured the physical growth and health ofthe child through the magical and rituals processes of the life crisesrites. Though to us the educational methods may seem to havebeen more useful and efRcient, to the Nootkans themselves trainingand rites were equally important and necessary for the task of bring-ing up their children. As readily becomes clear on comparison withPettitt's stimulating survey (1946) of Indian educational methods,the Nootkans were not unique in regard to the efficiency of theirmethods, nor in the general pattern of the methods which they them-selves shared with most other North American tribes.Psychological effects of the use of the cradleboard (the Nootkancradle was simply a cradleboard with sides, the child being lashed inso snugly it could not move) have been discussed in Pettitt's study(op. cit., p. 11 ff.). It is purely speculative, but one wonders if thecradle may not have acted something like the hammer in the ancientjoke about the man who hit himself on the head with one "becauseit felt so good when he stopped"?that is,, if the long period ofrestricted activity in the confining lashings might not have madethe child exceptionally responsive to the fondling and petting givenhim on taking him from the cradle. I have no precise informationon the frequency of such handling, but it was said that infants weretaken from their cradles for cleaning fairly often. At these timestheir bodies were rubbed with an oil considered mild and soothingto prevent chafing, their limbs were massaged, and they were playedwith and often suclded (though normal feeding was done while in thecradle). One thing seems clear, no matter what the other effectswere, and that is that there came to be a strong association of secu-rity with the cradle. Commonly, youngsters who were no longerlashed in, climbed into their cradles of their own accord to sleep.Many children gave up this habit only when the cradle became toosmall for them.Toilet training probably was begun late, to judge by the manyreferences to taking the child from the cradle for cleaning, thoughthere was a custom of blowing on the child's genitals, which was saidto make it urinate while out of its lashings. Observation sugge?sts J30 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144the modern Nootkans do not hurry a child much in these matters.Physical punishment in connection with such training, whenever itbegan, was unthinkable. In fact it was said that children were neverslapped or spanked for any reason. "It would make a child 'mean'to strike him," as one informant phrased the child's resentment tosuch punishment. A Kyuquot girl who seems to have been mentallydeficient and who flouted all morals and proprieties until her deathin her teens was never punished for her acts so as far I could learn.She was quite uncontrollable "because she wouldn't pay any heed towhat her mother told her." Jewitt (1815, p. 133) makes clear theNootkans' distaste at use of physical punishment when he introducedthe civilized custom of flogging the insane. This abhorrence of vio-lence in any social situation (except war) is typical of Nootkan culture.There was only one type of corporal punishment of which I heard:left-handedness was discouraged, when an infant seemed to showsigns of it by reaching out more frequently with his left than with hisright hand, by putting a hot stick (unpleasantly hot, but not burning,of course) in his left hand when he tried to grasp something.^In addition to the complete lack of physical punishment, exceptfor the minor custom just described, "bogymen" or supernaturaldisciplinarians do not seem to have been used in child training. Idid not inquire specifically on this point, but no mention was made ofsuch a usage in any connection. The only exceptions to this state-ment are references to the danger of "someone" working black magicagainst the child when oflFended .by him. Such remarks were ofnecessity vague and unspecific, and could have made little impression.No one knew the identity of witches in the first place, and even if acertain person were suspected, no one would risk his sure enmity bytelling a child, who would likely blurt out the accusations at someinopportune moment. It is quite clear that the kidnaping by theWolves in the "Shamans' Dance" (Loqwona) was not the basis forthreats made to misbehaving children; one did not say, "The Wolveswill get you if you don't be good." Small children were usuallyfrightened during the performance, it is true. The hullabaloo andrunning about, the rough practical jokes (carried to the point of throw-ing people bodily into the sea), the kidnaping and purported slayingof siblings and playmates, all combined to make the small childrenthe least entertained and most perturbed of the spectators. Theirparents and grandparents took care to shield them from the morerough-and-tumble play, when they might have been stepped on or >' This was done because eating with the left hand was a deliberate insult to others present, at least whendone by an adult. It was not that the child was committing a breach of etiquette, but the people realizedthat the habit was easier to break in Infancy than later in life. Northern Nootkan bear trappers alone werepermitted to eat with the left hand, for that was one of their common ritual acts ("bears reach for bait withtheir left paw"). Drueker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 131knocked about, and tucked them under their robes or blankets to"save" them from certain of the supernatural beings (this last, ofcourse, was a convenient way to keep the children from seeing certainindispensable parts of stage setting and dressing of performers whichhad to be done by the nearly but not quite extinguished fire) . The factsthat the "kidnaped" children later came to be the center of attrac-tion, to be admired and praised, and that all children had to be takeninto the rite sooner or later and all its mysteries explained, would, ofcourse, have soon vitiated its disciplinary effect, and recognition ofthese points may have prevented attempts to use it so.From the native view, the most important mode of education wasthrough oral instruction. This includes scoldmgs by way of punish-ment. People invariably say that v/hen a child misbehaves, oneshould never strike him, but should "take him to the house and talkto him." For youths, and even for adults, such talking-to ordinarilymeant emphatic and vigorous dressmg-down, with stress on theshame motive. For children, however, scoldings took the patheticapproach, variations, so to speak, on the "can't you see you're breakingyour poor old daddy's heart" theme, and always included a longdiscourse on the way the child should do in the future. Threats hadno part in these harangues. The parts dealing with the correct modesof behavior the child had heard many times over, for they formedthe nucleus of the instruction begun while he was still in the cradle.The parents began these discourses on mores while the infant wasquite small. The thought of a chief lecturing his son of tendermonths on the advantages of giving feasts and potlatches may strikeus as ludicrous as the behavior of young fathers among ourselves whorush home with footballs and air rifles for then- sons of similar age,but according to Nootkan thought it was quite logical. "It doesn'tmatter if the child can't understand yet, he takes the words in anyhow,and later they come to mean something to him," they say. Whenthe child was in the cradle, and later, when it was sleepy and lay inthe arms of its parent, and while it was eating ("he takes the wordsin with his food, and remembers them"), were favorite times for suchinstruction.As has been indicated, social behavior, good manners, and the like,formed the chief theme of this instruction. The children of chiefswere told to be kindly and helpful to others, and never to be arrogant;they were told that they must "take care of" their people (com-moners), providing them with food, giving them feasts, winning thegood wiU and affection of the commoners, for "if yom- people don'tlike you, you're nothing" (phrasing pretty exactly the relationshipbetween chiefs and commoners). They were told not to quarrel;"If someone, whether chief or commoner, says something 'mean' to 132 BUREAU OF AiMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144you, don't answer him, just walk away. A real chief doesn't squabble."A child of low rank would be told to play with a chief's childrencarefully, to help them, and never to quarrel with or strike them.These discourses express so clearly the ideals of social behavior thatI have quoted samples of them at length in discussing that topic.Vvliat with their explicit phrasing and infinite repetition the ideals ofbehavior became an influential factor in regulating one's acts in laterhie.''In addition to the mores, other sorts of information were includedin the lectures to children. Among the more important of these werethe individual rituals which ranged from common practices of generalknowledge to closely guarded family secrets consisting of formulaicprayers, magically potent herbs and plants and the method of usingthem, and including the complicated procedures for using the shrinesfor "calling" runs of fish, stranded whales, and so on. Chiefs' sonsnaturally heard more of this than did commoners, for one of a chief'sprincipal obligations was to provide food for his people through suchrites, and it was important for him, in recent times, to kill many seaotters to be able to potlatch. Almost everyone had such secretknowledge, however. A small child w^ould be told only the bare out-lines, of course; the more highl}^ classified portions of the rites wererevealed to him only when he was approaching the age at which hewould begin to perform the acts. In addition, the traditions concern-ing the numerous rights and privileges to which he was heir weredrilled into a child of rank from his earliest days.The folk literature was, of course, an important teaching aid. Myimpression is that the mytliology was told principally for amusement,though some myths had explanatory elements tacked on, and thestereotyped lay figures, such as Raven, could be used as type ofexamples of antisocial behavior. The family traditions, distinguishedby the natives from the myth cycles, were to them more important,and were told and retold. One often hears that the basic reason forthe long detailed, accounts of the origins and descents of privileges atthe potlatches was for the purpose of instructing the young, "who hadto know^ wjiere all those rights came from." Still more important isthe use of current anecdotes. Pettitt (1946) has remarked on theiruse among other groups. The long involved yarn of the troubles of anEhetisat shrew was related to young girls to show them what happenedto a woman who continually nagged her husband and mistreated herparents-in-law. Many of the cases recounted by informants todemonstrate certain phases of social relations were similarly widelyknown, because they had passed into the literary realm?and most of? Sapir H,.l Swadesh (1939. pp. 184-209) give a long text based on the sort of counsel a chief gave his sonor grandson that contains the above concepts, as well as other topics to be described. Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 133them had done so because they set off in such sharp rehef ideal andantisocial conduct that they made first-class examples for instructionof the young.A certain amount of practical demonstration went along with thisoral instruction, wherever it would fit. A father might take a 7- or8-year-old son to a pool or lake, and accompany him in a simplebrief bathing ritual. The arduous all-night bathing was not forchildren, for "they would not be able to stand it." Only maturemen carried out the really strenuous rites. A recorded instance ofpractical demonstration, though for a different purpose, was that inwhich MP's mother took him, when he was to be taken into theShamans' Dance, to the place in the woods that served as the dressing-room for the men taking the part of Yfolves. There she pointed outto him that the "Wolves" were really only men he had known all hisshort life, and were not to be feared; then she told him which of themen would come to carry him away. He had been frightened by theWolves at previous performances, but his fears seem to have beenquite calmed. His only anxiety seems to have been whether he wouldremember the instructions given him. It was said that a chief v/ouldtake his son, when the latter was old enough to begin the serious rites,to the slu-ine whose features and use the young man had heard de-scribed many many times, to show him how to use it.There are a good many indications, when one begins to look forthem, that combinations of demonstration and practice were regardedas im.portant aspects of the learning process, both for children andadults, and suggest, incidentally, that the habit of listening to oralinstruction made people receptive to such teaching. For examplethe "novice" in the Shamans' Dance had to learn a number of songsthat he or she would sing solo before all the people. An adult wouldact as his speaker, to help him over the difficult parts of his individualperformance, but he had to sing his songs for himself. In addition,although a complex dance would be performed for him by an adult,he had to learn a simple dance, and various procedures essential tohis part in the ceremony. These things were taught him by hisinstructor or instructors (usually elderly relatives designated to takecare of him during the rite), who fu'st gave him the material orally,then made him practice over and over. Similarly, when a man gavehis son-in-law masks and dances as a dowry, their display at theceremony and the handing over of the masks themselves were assumedto suffice for teaching them, despite the fact that elaborate danceroutines, numerous songs, and often other things as well were involved.Actually, on questioning, it appears that the giver subsequently spentdays with the recipient and his songsters, who practiced each songan infinite number of times until letter perfect. With such teaching J34 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144methods in vogiio, we are not surprised (although it is almost uniqueas far as published accounts of Indian tribes go) at hearing of a warparty going through full-dress battle practice, with practice landingsand sorties as well as individual drills at dodging arrows and spears,before staging an actual attack.To return to the education of children and youths, it seems clearthat such teaching, with explicit and detailed phrasing, and demonstra-tion and practice by the student where apphcable, must have beensuccessful. The Nootkan attitude plainly assumed it to be. Therewas no provision for deviation from ordinary rules of inheritance ofsongs or rituals, public or private, because the proper heir could notlearn them. If they were part of the family heritage, the heir, unlesshe was an out-and-out mental deficient, would learn them all. Thepeople find nothing surprising in accounts of intricate procedureshanded down for several generations without being used, whicheventually were successfully revived, as they say occurred with whalingat Ahousat. Both ritual and practical features of the complex, theyclaun, were transmitted for four generations without use, then theAhousat chiefs suddenly began to go whaling again. The chiefswho had not hunted whales "loiew how, but just didn't go out (i. e.,lacking energy or were occupied with other things)." I suspect thatsome Hesquiat and Clayoquot teachers intervened, but in the nativeview it was not necessary.That play could be a useful form of training was understood.Adults encouraged, and supervised to some extent, games in whichthe children staged "play feasts" and "play potlatches." EvenShamans' Dances were put on by children as a game, with theirelders' cncouragment and advice. The Kyuquot informant men-tioned one occasion in which some old men helped the children tothe extent of making a Grizzly Bear costume out of gunny sacks,and gave them bits of glass to use as supernatural crystals. "Theydidn't allow us to use real Shamans' Dance songs, though?we hadto use 'play-songs' (which presumably their elders made up for them).But when no grown people were around, we used the real songs."The discussion of education has stressed social behavior and ritualknowledge up to this point, not by chance but because these are thetopics emphasized by the people themselves. They obviously feltthat such things had to be taught, and centered the formal educationabout them. Yet it was realized that other activities had to belearned as well. For example, in both tales and case histories,instances occur in which chiefs' daughters after marriage foundthemselves in the same straits as some brides in our culture: theydid not know how to prepare and cook certain dishes. The explana-tion invariably was "her mother didn't teach her, because there were Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 135SO many women (of lower rank) in the house to do it for her." (TheparticuLar dishes were usually those involving the most laboriouspreparation.) A popular anecdote, widely known and related becauseit is thought funny, concerns a party of Kyuquot war chiefs invitedto a feast at Ehetisat. They consumed enormous quantities ofprovisions (they had asked to bo invited, and therefore were underobligation to eat all that was offered them). After several days offeasting, they departed for Kyuquot with a canoeload of "left-overs"(actual left-overs from the feasts, plus extra portions given them totake home; the purpose was to enable them to give a feast on theirarrival to tell their tribesmen their experiences). A bad storm caughtthem and they made camp, where they were storm-bound severaldays. Before the storm let up, they devoured all the "left-overs"they were supposed to take home, except a couple of boxes of driedherring eggs. These they could not eat because they did not knowhow to wash the eggs to remove the fir needles; women always didthis, and men never learned how. At last they got home, ravenous,and with only the herring eggs instead of the canoeload of food theyhad set out with. Such comments by informants make evident thatthe natives understood that merely seeing a process performed is nosubstitute for a step-by-step explanation and demonstration. Theirformalization of social and ritual education simply implies that theyfelt these things to be more difficult and to require more concentratedattention.Training in technologic and economic arts was given by variouspersons, not only parents, but parents' siblings {not only the mother'sbrother), and especially by grandparents. It seems that these last-named played an important role in teaching, especially while childrenwere small. Any of these people, however, might make toys forchildren, and with the making, show them the way to use whateverthe object might be. Older women made dolls of shredded cedarbark for little girls ; fathers or older men made small bows, harpoons,and toy canoes for the boys. MP related how he and his playmatesclustered about the Muchalat war chief, tuckai'ilam, then an oldman, who regaled them with tales of his hunting and trapping adven-tures and made small sets to illustrate his yarns. Such useful informa-tion he interspersed between stories of catching wolves and landotters with his bare hands, which contributed but little to the boys'store of useful information, but enthralled them considerably. Suchentertainment was an important factor of learning. Some games,particularly those involving marksmanship with spears or bows,impressed the adults as forms of useful training, I was told, and theyencouraged the boys to play at them, and praised those who did well.Another source of instruction, as informal as that just described 136 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144and even more difRciilt to get specific information on, was the teachingof various skills by other children. Linton has pointed out howfrequently there exists a sort of culture-within-a-culture consisting ofknowledge and skills transmitted on the children's level. Amongourselves these complexes consist mostly of games and obscenity, butsome more practical procedures may be disseminated the same way.These were the things that the older children taught the youngerwho joined the play groups presumably either by direct teaching todisplay their superior wisdom, or perhaps by their own hesitant andless skillful performances which may have given their new playmatessomething approximating slow-motion demonstrations. It seemsprobable that most of the things that adults assumed "came natu-rally" to youngsters, such as canoe paddling, throwing of lances (andharpoons), and swimming, were learned on this level, from teachersbut a year or two or three senior to the pupils.Real participation in adult activities with its concomitant oppor-tunities to learn by observation (once the basic skills were mastered)and from an expert companion's tips on the special knacks of doingthings did not begin for Nootkan youngsters until they neared pu-berty.^ As girls gave physical evidence of approaching pubescence,their mothers began to keep careful watch over them. The first stepwas to keep the girls in the house as much as possible, and to see theywere accompanied by older female kin, whenever they went out.Their mothers and "aunts" would call them over, saying for example,"Look now, this is the way you begin to weave a mat (or spin thread,or mash fern roots, or whatever it might be). Watch how it is done,for you will have to do it yourself when you are married." One getsthe impression that not only did the woman undertake this practicalteaching to prepare her daughter or niece for future duties, but to dis-tract the child from boredom, and also hoping to prepare her for theeventual abrupt announcement that she was to be the wife of so-and-so, and that henceforth her days of play and freedom were over. Agirl learned spinning, basketry, and such things chiefly at this stageof her life, it seems from informants' remarks, and, as well, some ofthe finer points of cookery and similar housewifely tasks. Boys ofthe same age had perhaps begun to accompany their fathers now andthen on hunting and fishing expeditions, but still spent most of theirtime playing.I suspect that one reason for the late entry of the boys into the fieldof useful activities was that such a large proportion of Nootkan tech-nologic and economic chores involved handling of heavy equipment ? It is tnic thnt bnys, niri soiiicliir.pr, girl?, of 10 and 12 nnir.iiially liold chieftainships and sat in tlie placesof honor at ceremonies, but they were but puppets of their elders who ran the show. One never hears ofritual procedure altered by a childish whim. ? Diuckei] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 137or long strenuous journeys, beyond a child's strength and endurance.The cutting of heavy sections of timber for woodworking, the drivingof big wedges to split planks, the lifting of the heavy weights used indeer and bear traps, were all activities in which a small boy could notaid. The struggles of a harpooned 10-pound salmon would probablybe beyond him too. I must admit that this is my own opinion, and notbased on statements of informants. But it is clear that the Nootkansdid not expect of a boy a man's eadiu"ance of discomfort and pain,from their frequent statements that only a grown man undertook thearduous bathing rituals; a boy could not stand them.There is some indication that the verbal counsel often took the tackof ''what a fine thing it will be when you grow up to be a big strongman" and can do all the things grown men do?children have beensold the same bill of goods in other cultures to get them to give uptheir life of play for one of work. The praise and honor given a boyat the feast on the occasion of his first game, and to a girl for the firstroots or berries she collected, may be interpreted as part of this;likewise, it seems to have been built up as a treat for boys to be takenalong on a fishing expedition by their fathers or uncles.FIRST GAMEA boy's parents had to give a feast, designated 6'tul, for their son'sfirst game, "even if it was only one salmon, or one little duck, that hegot." The catch was cooked up (augmented with other foods asnecessary) and guests were invited, their rank and number dependingon the rank of the parents. The boy could not partake of the feast,but his parents could. The same kind of feast was given for the firstberries a girl picked, or the first mess of clams she dug?at least, wereher parents of high rank.This seems to be one of the few times in a child's life when, as thenominally honored person, he was made to feel that he was the realcenter of attraction. At prior festivals he was obviously too youngto care, and in the Shamans' Dance the adults really held the centerof the stage. The First Game feast, though, must have been quite apalatable morsel to the young ego.GIRLS' PUBERTYAt the onset of a girl's puberty, her mother called in a female shamanto massage the girl's abdomen "so she would have a child easily."This process was called tcatswiqstil. No singing or shamanizingaccompanied the massage. The pubescent (aitsat), was then madeto sit up, facing away from the family fire, for 4 days. She had to sitwith legs together, either outstretched or doubled under her. Atnight, after the other people in the house had gone to bed, she might 138 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144lie down, but was not supposed to turn over. She had to resume hersitting posture early in the morning before the day's activities began.She had to be the last person in the village to sleep and the first toawake. (This was the conventional theory, at least. At night akinsman was sent through the village to report whether all the fireswere banked for the night.) Only during the dog salmon or herringruns would she be confined in a cubicle, but at no time was she per-permitted to look about, or to look at people entering the house fromthe outside.During her 4-day seclusion, the pubescent was allowed to eat onlyfreshly cooked dried fish, usually cod, although if none were availableold dried salmon might be given her. The Ehetisat informant main-tained the girl's parents also might eat only old dried fish during thisperiod. She was never given left-overs from a previous meal. Like-wise, she could not drink stale water. A kinsman, or kinswoman,was sent twice a day for a bucket of fresh water from a never failingspring (so the girl's breasts would have abundant milk), from whichthe girl took her two daily drinks. She did not use a drinking tubebut drank from a cup. She used a scratching stick to scratch herhead and body. Her face was heavily coated with deer tallow "tolighten her complexion." Twice a day she was allowed to go out ofthe house, accompanied by her mother or other female relative. Atthese times she wore a wide-brimmed rain hat pulled well down overher eyes, for "she was not supposed to look around." She carriedfour pebbles, which she dropped one at a time after passing out thedoor. The informant could not explain the significance of this act.Her kinswoman dressed her with a new cedar-bark robe; she herselfmight not tie knots, or fasten anything with a pin.There was no "t'ama singing" among the Northern tribes. Thiswas a Central Nootkan custom, which has only recently been adoptedin modified form by the modern Moachat-Muchalat group at FriendlyCove. However, the girl's (younger) playmates came to visit her andreceived as gifts all her toys, which she could no longer play with nowthat she had attained woman's estate.On the last day of her seclusion, her mother and aunts made anumber of bundles of hemlock twigs for ceremonial bathing. Thenext day, early in the morning, the pubescent was taken to a bathingplace, accompanied by her kinswomen and a crowxl of small children.This bathing rite was called "ha'tes." Her mother and aunts dis-robed her at the water's edge, and rubbed her body from head to footwith the bundles of hemlock twigs, praying that she might have a longlife, many children and riches, the while. Then the girl entered thewater, accompanied by two small boys, one on either side. This wasso she would have male ofi"spring. Each time she ducked her bead Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 139under the water she exhaled violently. The bubbles represented theboiling of a cooking vessel, and the purpose was "to make her a goodcook." After she swam, making four ceremonial circuits, the otherchildren went into the water. Then she and her escort returned tothe house. The girl was given fresh fish to eat while her hair wasstill wet. Her kinswomen then trimmed her eyebrows, plucking themto the admired high arch, and combed her hair preparatory to puttingon the dentalia hair ornament. A Moachat informant said the girlv/as taken for abbreviated versions of this bathing rite for the next 3days (making 4 days in all).There were two types of hair ornaments, one called ai'aitsham, asingle unit suspended at the back of the head and which was usuallyreserved for the eldest daughter of a family, and the other, huhupist-kum, which consisted of two parts, worn one on each side. For theformer, the girl's hair was combed back tightly and done up in onebraid at the nape of her neck. The end of the braid was doubled upunderneath over a wooden pin 3 or 4 inches long. The doubled braidwas wrapped with a string of colored beads. The hair ornamentitself consisted of a row of strings of dentalia shell a span wide spreadout flat by means of two or three wooden spreaders wrap-twined inplace. At their upper end, the strands, which might be 2 or 3 feetlong, were woven or knotted together, with two long free ends fortying the ornament to the base of the doubled braid just above thewooden pin (whose purpose was, of course, to keep the ornament fromslipping off) . At the lower ends, brass buttons and similar decorativeoddments were attached. (See fig. 16.) A really good hair ornament,such as a chief's daughter would wear, consisted of strands of mountaingoat wool, and the protective pad that hung beneath the shells, theatcasim, was also woven of the imported wool.The hair ornaments of younger daughters were similar but shorter,and came in pairs. For these, the hair was parted in the middleand done up in two braids, which were made up into clublike rolls,and to which the ornaments were attached. These ornaments hadno wrap-twined cross-sticks because they v/ere so short, reaching onlyto the wearer's breasts.Naturally there was considerable variation in the degree of splendorof these ornaments, depending on the station of the pubescent'sfamily. While the eldest daughter of a high-ranking chief wouldwear a long pendant of dentalia threaded on goat wool strands, acommoner's lass might be adorned with a hair ornament of tradebeads strung on ordinary nettle or cedar-bark string, unless, ofcourse, some chief loaned her parents a richer set.The ownership of the hair ornaments was a special privilege belong-ing to certain chiefs. Anyone who had occasion to use one for his 140 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144daugher had to pay one of these chiefs for it. Some people actually-borrowed the objects?perhaps rented would be a better term?fromhim; others made up their own, but in any case had to give him apayment for the use of the ornaments. If a man had several daughters(or nieces) approaching puberty, he might retain the same set of orna-ments for all of them, giving the chief a present, however, each timethe articles were used. A chief who made up his own set for hisdaughter, would perhaps give the completed ornament to the chiefhaving this special ornament-ownership privilege as an especially splen-did gesture, in addition to the payment. The amount of the paymentvaried according to the status of the user. One informant suggestedthat from one to five blankets would be an average payment, although,of course, a chief would pay more.In connection with the end of the puberty observances and theattaching of the hair ornaments, either a feast or a potlatch could be Figure 16.?Pubescent girl's hair ornament.given. Often a feast, called hatunuxpop (referring to the ceremonialbathing), was given immediately, and followed some months later,when the hair ornaments were removed, by a potlatch, aitstot,"potlatch for pubescent girl." If a feast was given at the time of theremoval of the ornaments it was called simply Li'ko'at, "taking off."The length of time intervening between the tying on and the removalof the ornaments was optional but as a rule reflected the status of Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 141the girl's immediate family. A commoner's daughter wore her hairpendants for a month or two, as a rule, while a chief's daughterwould more likely keep them on for 8 to 10 months. During thetime, whatever it was, that she wore the ornaments, the girl wassubject to various restrictions. She was not permitted to eat eitherfresh dog salmon or fresh herring, nor salmonberries. The rule apply-ing to the drinking of fresh water still obtained, except that, so theinformant said, water was brought for her three times daily insteadof twice. When traveling in a canoe she had to sit in the bow. Dur-ing festivals, she might neither paint her face nor wear feathers, nor,in fact, could she attend any dances except those given in her ownhouse. She went out of the house but seldom, and never went aboutunchaperoned. She was allowed to weave mats, and the like, butmust not finish them off herself. She had to continue to use thescratching stick.The final festivities for a girl's debut in woman's estate variedconsiderably according to her status. A poor commoner could dolittle to celebrate the event beyond giving a feast to the chiefs of thehouse in which he stayed. A man of higher rank, that is, a closerkinsman of a chiefly line, who had privileges in his own right, or couldcount on borrowing them from the chief, would give a potlatch. Inthe days to which these data relate, an enterprising commoner, aftera good trapping or sealing season, or a lucky encounter with a sea otter,would likewise potlatch with borrowed display privileges. A chief,naturally, would stage the most elaborate ceremony of all for an elderdaughter with a major potlatch at which a "screen" of boards v/as dis-played on which were painted the privileges the girl's children wouldinherit. These were named and "explained," i. e., the right by vvhichthe chief used them was related, while the maid in whose honor thefestival was given sat before the paintings. The topati, or marriagecontest privileges, were shown as well, before the distribution ofwealth goods. If the girl's ears had been pierced during her pubertyseclusion, the gifts were referred to as tuthwai, "earrings." After theguests had left, the girl's hair ornam.ents were removed, and she wassubject to no tabus.Among the Central Nootkan tribes women came in from otherhouses dm-ing the girl's confinement to sing tama songs. In thenative view, they took the initiative, although the girl's parents knewwhen they were coming and were ready for them, and, in fact, theywould be expected to come on two or all four days if the pubescentwere the daughter of a chief. The women came in in everyday garb,unpainted. The ghl's mother gave them paint. After they hadpainted their faces a small feast was given, during which the womensang, either individually or in groups. The songs were made up ^^2 BUREAU OF AAIERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144 especially for the occasion. Often, they were humorous or evensatirical in nature. They were called tapyik (the same word as thatfor love songs, my informants said, "but the songs were not the same").Afterward, the women were given small gifts. This tama singingcould be done prior to a gu-l's puberty, as a matter of fact, if theparents let it be known, informally, that they were ready for thewomen to come to sing for then- daughter. In quite recent times thislatter sort of tama singing has become popular in the Moachat-Muchalat community at Friendly Cove. The tapyik songs can beused on other occasions too, if they become popular, "whenever theyfeel happy." People often sing them at "home-brew feasts."At the time the girl's hair ties were removed, among Central groups,there was an occasion for singing the same kind of songs. This wassometimes referred to as tama singing, sometimes as "tama songs forthe pubescent girl" (tapyik aitsowil). On these occasions men as wellas women sang. Persons clever at improvising songs let it be Imownbeforehand that they wanted to sing, and also that they would liketo be given certain objects that the girl's father or close kinsman had.At the festival, the gnl's father called out, "Here is what you wanted,so-and-so," (a'ko'alac ya'au'ilintak) and the person's name, andthen the one called on came forward, received his present, and sang hissong. In a festival given by a Hesquiat man in his daughter's honora few years ago one man asked for a big iron kettle belonging to AA(my interpreter, a close relative of the man giving the affair), andreceived it, and a Clayoquot who had let it be known he wanted acanoe was given one by the girl's father. A Hesquiat informant saidhe had once been given the right to a salmon trap for a 4-year periodon a similar occasion. None of the Northern Nootkans had thiscustom.A tama song popular while I was at Nootka was made up by anold lady living at Friendly Cove. It referred to the following in-cident: an old Moachat woman had gone with some other peopleto see an airplane moored to a float at Nootka Cannery (airplaneswere still quite a novelty on the coast). Through some youngerEnglish-speaking person she asked the pUot who was lounging aboutwhere he had come from. On being told, "Vancouver," she volun-teered she had a daughter living there, whereupon the pilot in jestsaid he would take her to see her daughter. The old woman tookhim seriously, and went about excitedly telling people about it;everyone else realized the pilot had been joking, and was much amused.The song was made up to poke fun at the gullible one. The wordswere translated to me as, "That is the one, going along up there inthe sky, the one who invited me to fly with him, the 'captain' of theairplane." Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 143The debut of the mformant M differed in some respects from thegeneraHzed account of proceedings at a girl's puberty for severalreasons. One was that because of her father's high rank, he feltthat nothing less than a Shamans' Festival was adequate to cele-brate the event. Another factor was that the procedure was hurriedas much as possible, for she had been formally married 2 years or sobefore her first menses to the young chief of the Kyuquot taclsath,and her parents were anxious to comply with their duty by deliveringher to her husband before anything happened to disrupt the arrange-ment. Thus, she did not wear her hair ornament for the customaryseveral months, but for a few days only. (A revealing light on therestricted behavior of high-rank children is cast by the informant'sopinion as to the cause of the tardiness of her pubescence. Othergirls her age had gone through their puberty rites, a long period ofwearing their hair ornaments, and were married, before her firstmenses, because, she believed, she "was a chief's daughter and had tostay in the house so much, and was not allowed to run and playlike other children.")When M's first menses began, she woke her mother to tell her.Her mother began to sing (a song used at girl's puberty potlatches)so that the people would know. Her father had two men put onblankets "like Wolves" and gave them Wolf whistles. Two othermen and two women took M outside. The Wolves whistled severaltimes, then "abducted" her. They, and the other four people, tookher out into the woods, where they constructed a hut and cared forher in the manner proper for a girl's puberty seclusion. In the vil-lage (or rather fishing station?the people were all at makte'as fishinghalibut, and sealing) the Shamans' Festival proceeded in normalfashion. At the end of the 4 days she was taken to bathe in the ritualfashion and her hair ornament put on her. Then she was smuggledinto the house and dressed in the hemlock-twig cape, skirt, and head-dress of a novice. Meanwhile, the people were out with the usualrafts. The Wolves appeared with a girl similar to M in size and build.When M's double was rescued, taken through the village and intothe house, she removed her novice dress, put on ordinary clothes,and slipped out of the house by a side door. (How many peoplewere taken in by this maneuver is difficult to say. The reason forit was that M, being pubescent, was subject to restrictions on goingabout. It was believed that appearing with the Wolves, dancingthrough houses, and so on, would harm her.) That night M sang"a song that the Wolves had given her," and her father's speakerannounced that the Wolves had ordered the people to practice twomarriage ceremony privileges belonging to her: playing scrambleball (patsakum), and catching a feather danced from a string on the 244 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144end of a springy pole (hinimix). Four days later, M's father gavea potlatch to his tribe in his daughter's honor. She sat on a high"bench" (patsatsum), on which the chief or his speaker stood tothrow the scramble ball. The women danced a dance calledtcistclsa. Her father gave away blankets, and sticks representingpieces of blubber from the next stranded whale that beached on hisindividually owned territory, and other sticks representing basketsof dried salmon. (To give a stick representing a specified gift iscalled oya'kulcil. That very winter he "got" a whale and was ableto discharge his obligations, incidentally.) Then her hair ornamentwas removed, and her parents began preparations for taking her toKyuquot. MENSTHUAL OBSERVANCESWomen kept track of the phases of the moon to know when theirmenses were due. The moon caused women's menstruations in someobscure manner?this fact was known, one informant averred, be-cause the culture hero Snot Boy told the people so back in mythictimes. During the 4 days following the onset of her menses, a womanwas not permitted to eat fresh fish of any kind, nor wild rose haws,nor could she approach sick persons even of her own family. Other-wise, her activities were restricted but little except during the dogsalmon or herring runs. She could work at anything she wished,cook for her family, and mix with the people of her household. Herhusband could hunt and fish just as at any other time; her conditiondid not affect his luck.During the time of the dog salmon run (and some informants in-cluded the time of the herring run as well), the menses were referredto as sitsul (instead of the ordinary term, numakamil). At this time,a woman had to make a little cubicle of mats or boards in the house,in which she was secluded for 4 days (or 10, if her menses occurredat the beginning of the run). She could not go out by the front door(which faced the river), and had to cover her head with a blanket orrobe when she went out by an improvised "back door." She hadto use a scratching stick, and had a separate set of cooking and eat-ing vessels (for other people were eating the fresh salmon). She atedried cod or halibut; women always kept a small store of these driedfoods for these times. POSTPUBERTYFrom the time a girl's play had been restricted as she approachedpuberty, and the supervision over her increased, until she was married,she was in what amounts to a sort of seclusion. The confinementduring her first period was but an accentuation of this restriction, in Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 145a sense?she was made to stay in the house much of the time, andmight go out only when accompanied by older kinswomen. As de-scribed under the topic of education, she was taught many householdarts at this time and, as well, she had pointed out to her that the reasonfor her constant chaperonage was that it was not proper for her tospeak freely with men outside her own family; she should avoid theircom.pany, and even when in their presence in the company of her ownfamily, should not speak to them, and should keep her eyes downcast.The advice and chaperonage was more abundantly provided for chiefs'daughters than for those of commoners, of course.Boys were subjected to no rites or restrictions to qualify them forman's estate. They were expected to begin to take active part ineconomic pursuits, and were called on to assist in ceremonial activi-ties, but, of course, were leaders or major figures in none of these.They soon found themselves sharing the center of public interest onceduring this period, however, when they married. Parents tried toarrange marriages for their sons before the boys' sexual appetiteswere aroused and led them into illicit alliances that might cause troubleto or bring disgrace on the family. After this brief taste of the spot-light, however, the youths returned to the background.Indians' generalization about a man's life leave this part blank. Nowand then one hears of a youth potlatching at the birth of his firstchild, but inquiry usually shows that his father was the prime figurein the affair. MP's description of his own hfe during his teens indi-cates that his major interest was hunting. His parents had notlet him go out in the woods alone to hunt until near the time he wasmarried in the 1870's (he judged himself to have been about 15 whenhe married). He v/as the only surviving son, and they were still notconvinced that the wars v/ith the Moachat were ended. He began togo out by himself, or with a cousin of nearly the same age, settingtraps for fur bearers. The two important events, to him, from thetime he was married until he actually found himself taking his father'splace at the latter's death, were the time he found a den of wolf cubsand took them home and sold them, and the time he caught a bearcub. For the rest of his life, however, from the time he gave themortuary potlatch for his father, he was a major figure in tribal affairs.It appears that through their teens and until at least their mid-twenties young men were serving a sort of novitiate in economic, social,and ceremonial life. They were learning things, and busy (busytoo with their sexual interests, licit and otherwise), but kept in thebackground by their ignorance of the real social mechanisms and by thedomination of the middle-aged men who directed all tribal activities.Modern young men in late teens and early twenties impress one asacting much as their forebears must have at that age, being almost J46 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144invariably bashful and retii-ing before others. Only when they arewith a gang of age mates away from critical eyes do they become bois-terous and self-assertive. Oldsters criticize them because theycannot sing or speak at feasts and shnilar gatherings when they occupytheir hereditary places of honor. The old people say, "In the olddays, the young chiefs paid attention to their elders; they paid at-tention to their elders and learned the songs, and the speeches. Someof them did not need speakers to speak for them." It may be thatthe elders were able to put more effective pressure on the youngchiefs in those happy days. REMEDIESSome home remedies were known to almost everyone, others weresecret prescriptions known only to those of a certain family and jeal-ously guarded by them. The herbs and other simples were ordinarilymashed beyond recognition when the owner of one of these secret"medicines" was hired to treat someone outside his immediate family.He would be paid "a dollar or two" for the treatment. No songs orprayers accompanied the applications of the medicines, althoughthey may have been used while collecting the materials.Spider web, or a"gutted"slug, was put on a cut to stop the bleeding.Bruises and minor aches were treated by applying nettle as a counter-irritant (this was a remedy known to all). Bleeding, not tapping avein but making a series of shallow slashes, was done to reduce swell-ing. This was no secret curing method, "anyone could do it whoknew how to cut quick." It was never done for luck. Deep-seated"rheumatic" aches and the like were cured by applying a live coal ofa root of a swamp plant called ahwah ; a burning pellet of cedar barkcould be used too, but the ahwah root was more potent. When theburn festered and became pustulous, "That was the sickness comingout." Applied to the back of the neck, these embers cured persistentheadaches, it was said. Simple fractures were bled to diminish theswelling (a compound fracture apparently took care of itself) . Therewere a few people who knew how to reduce a fracture. The injuredlimb was padded with shredded cedar bark and bound with strips ofthe same material.One of the several cures for the sickness resulting from contaminationby a supernatural being was a crude steam bath. The procedure wascalled tl'kwin, referring to the steaming of ti'pa roots. In the lean-toor hut to which such a person was taken, a pit was dug. It was filledwith hot cooking stones (my notes do not make clear whether thestones were heated at a separate fireplace or not), water was sprinkledon the stones, and a covering of mats was put down, on which thepatient, bundled in blankets, sat. There were no songs used at this Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 147stage of the cure, nor was steam sweating used for any other purposethan curing spirit-sickness.Bezoar stones were not beheved to have magical properties. Theinformants were not aware of their occurrence in deer and elk, butclaimed that sea lions had them. They are said, jestingly, to be thesea lion's "ballast." MORTUARY CUSTOMSDeath was to the Nootkans a fear-inspiring phenomenon, despitethe fact that as hunters and fishers they were used to watching thedeath struggles of their quarry, and in war, they often mutilated theirvictims. When a member of the household died, from whatever thecause, grief was accompanied by the desire to dispose of the corpse aspromptly as possible. Father Brabant maintains the urgency wasfelt to be so great that at times unfortunates were crammed into abox and carted off for burial before they were really dead (Moser,1926, p. 58). Some of the instances he cites (based on hearsay) arestill recounted by whites along the coast. It is not impossible that suchthings occurred now and then.When a chief died, they wrapped his body in a cedar-bark blanket(and occasionally in robes of sea otter), without washing or paintingit, and crammed it into an ordinary wooden box. A hole was madein the wall for the box to be passed tlu-ough. Four middle-aged mencarried the "coffin"; usually the same ones were called on to do thisfor all the deaths of the tribe. The tribesmen joined the procession,following the body to the burial place. It was tabu to wail while thebody was being carried off. When taken by canoe, for instance tosome burial islet, it was put in one canoe and towed; no one rode inthe same canoe with a corpse. The box with the body might be putin a cave (or rock shelter), lashed in the upper branches of a tree, ormerely set on some prominent point alongside a memorial (qamata'a'),such as was erected for the predecessor of the present Moachat chief(in this case the body was moved later in secret to a burial cave).The memorial, if there was to be one, was set up at this time. Valu-ables of various sorts were taken along to put with the memorial.(A Chilkat blanket, sewing machines in abundance, and other articlescan be seen in the photograph of the Moqwina memorial (pi. 3, c).)Most informants averred that slaves were not killed, however, butwould be given away later. While the men were taking the body to theburying ground, the women cut their hair to shoulder length in sign ofmourning. They hacked it off with knives, then burned it. Theydid not scratch their faces as the Kwakiutl women did. (I neglectedto inquu'e just when the men cut their hair. Perhaps it was on theirreturn from the burial. Whenever it was done they cut it to justbelow the ears.) When the men returned to the house, they made ]^48 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144ready to sing the mourning songs. These were property of the chiefs,or of the chiefly hnes; some had two, and some four. The cadence wasslow and dehberate. The accompanying drumbeat was an unchangingone, two, rest. When the songs were finished, red paint was passedaround, and each man painted his face. Neither feathers nor headbands might be worn. The heir's speaker announced that they weregoing to send away to (matsap) the dead chief's soul. Planks anddrumsticks were distributed. They beat four ruffles. After this,food was distributed. At this feast, the heir announced that he wastaking the place of the dead chief.A few days later, depending on the situation, including such mattersas whether other tribes were to be invited, a"tlirowing away" potlatch(tcitcmaLskwi) was held. The gifts were cafled "carried away underthe arm to accompany the dead." Blankets, slaves, and the likewere given to men, and beads to the women. If the dead chief's bigcanoe was to be dragged into the woods and smashed, the fact wasannounced at this time. Privfleges such as certain songs and dances,and even entire ceremonials, were discarded?not given to guests, but"put away" never to be used again. More commonly, they were "putaway" for a set period of several years. This was called Latchsintlic(from Latcil, "to fold something up"). Announcement of the factwas made at this potlatch.This potlatch was also the time for announcing the name tabu.Not only was the use of the (current) name of the dead chief prohibited,but elements of it, if they were common words, were likewise pro-scribed. For example, when the present Moachat first chief's pred-ecessor died, he was using the hereditary name of haiyu'a'. Theword "haiyu," "ten," was prohibited. Instead, they said "o'umhai," "it fits," or "completes." Several men, well-informed and importantelders, met before the potlatch was to be given to decide what wordor words would be tabued, and what would be substituted for them.In ancient times, so it was told, "they would kill a person who violateda name tabu." In recent times he was merely berated. This nametabu lasted for a year, or perhaps two, when it was formaUy removedby the chief's successor at a potlatch given for the purpose. Afterthis both the name and its components could be spoken freely. Cere-monials which had been temporarily "put away" would be resurrectedat the same time.There were no tabus on mourners. Close kin, at least, wereexpected to keep to the house for a whfle, and not engage in merri-ment, but there was no formalization of this attitude, in terms of aset period, or real seclusion. After a time they began to mingle withthe people once more.Those who had handled the body, and carried it to its resting place, Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 149bathed before returning to the village, and that was all. They wereunder no restrictions.For lesser chiefs, and well-to-do commoners, instead of giving apotlatch a few days after the burial, the dead person's heir gave afeast called laktula, at which presents were distributed to the chiefsonly. As the giver of the affair passed out each gift he said, "Laktsk-wai" (said to be derived from lakwaqnaqcil, to become "heartbroken").This phi'ase would seem to mean something like "for grieving." Noformal name tabu would be set for a chief of low rank, much less fora commoner. Of course, his relicts would not like to be reminded oftheir sorrow by hearing his name bandied about, and their friends andneighbors would not speak his name in their hearing for a time.The bodies of low-rank chiefs, and of commoners as well, were putinto boxes, to be lashed to trees or stowed in caves, like those of highdegree. At Kyuquot suspension of the coffin in a tree was practicedonly for chiefs of the matsuwaiath lineage. Bodies of youngerpeople were put in caves; those of the aged under a canoe. Smallislets near villages were the usual burial places among all the Nootkans.Bodies of the very old Moachat were taken to a special burying placecalled otsa. Anciently, it was said, boxes were not used for commonersor slaves?their corpses were merely wrapped in mats. Aside fromthis, there were no differences in method of disposal of the corpseaccording to status. Shamans were buried like anyone else. Theonly people given special burial were twins and persons born deformed,and their parents. Such persons were not put into boxes, nor lashedup in mats, but laid on mats at the entrance to a cave or rock sheltercovered with a robe as though they were in a bed. The face wasleft uncovered.When they found the body of a suicide who had crawled into adeadfall and tripped the pin, they removed the logs, wrapped up theremains and left them there. Such a person was mourned like anyother.Cremation was not practiced by any Nootkan group. Kinshipterms were not changed at death, even in the case of a chief. AtClayoquot, and possibly by other Central Nootkan groups, the skullof a chief was recovered from the grave box "four" years after hisdeath. His heir displayed it at a potlatch, and stowed it in a boxwhere other ancestral skulls were kept. This was the time at whichthe name tabu and other restrictions, such as those on use of certainrituals, were formally lifted. None of the Northern Nootkans didthis, nor was any other form of secondary burial practiced.In view of the marked fear of the dead evinced in their haste to geta corpse out of the house immediately after death, it is noteworthythat the Nootkans claim to have practiced autopsies and similar 150 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144post mortem dissections at times. Tales concerning deaths in whichwitchcraft was suspected frequently tell of the parents cutting thecorpse open, or hiring it done, to establish cause of the demise. Ofcourse, to give point to the procedure, in most of these tales it is relatedthat bits of sharpened bone, duck claws, or similar objects were found,proving the deceased had been slain by black magic.Another occasion calling for dissection was that in which a womandied in an advanced stage of pregnancy. The abdomen was invari-ably laid open so the fetus could be removed. Informants maintainthis was for the protection of the father of the child, who would other-wise surely die should anything so intimately connected with him beleft in his wife's coffin. The purpose was not to save the child, thoughthe natives were aware that such a thing was at least possible. Onelineage at Ehctisat claims an ancestor in the direct line brought intothe world through one of these post-mortem Caesarian operations,and this tradition is invariably cited as evidence to prove that if theembryo were sufficiently well developed and showed signs of life theywould attempt to save it. Dissected bodies were not given any specialburial subsequently, but were treated lil^e any other. A fetus,removed as described, would be put in a Httle box and buried sep-arately, but with nothing to distinguish it from any other infant burial.The beheaded corpses of war casualties were treated lilve any otherdead.In recent times, when individual family "white man style" housesbecame common, they were frequently burned at the same time aspersonal effects. Informants tell of one disastrous year (about 1905)when many schooners with crews of Nootkan hunters were lost in theBoring Sea seal fishery. As survivors returned to tell of having seensuch and such a vessel go down with all hands in a terrible gale"houses were burning all up and down the West Coast." It wasinsisted, however, that the big multifamily houses were never burnedeven when the chief died, for that would work hardship on too manypeople. RELIGIOUS LIFETHE SUPERNATURAL WORLDTwo marked attitudes toward their everyday world gave a distinc-tive cast to Nootkan cosmological and supernatural concepts. Thepeople's "pilot's knowledge" of their own land, that is, minute knowl-edge of the alongshore and foreshore, and unfamiliarity with theinterior, may be noted first. To most of them, mountains wereobjects to be lined up in ranges to locate offshore points, rather thanlocalities to be traversed and known intimately. It is consistent thatthe woods and mountains were thought to be populated by vastnumbers of dangerous and horrendous supernatural beings, whUe thesea contained fewer and less malignant spirits. The other attitudethat seems to have colored metaphysical thought was the lack ofinterest in, and limitation of knowledge of places outside of Nootkanterritory. The Northern divisions knew, of course, and occasionallyvisited the Southern Kwakiutl neighbors of Quatsino Sound and theNimkish River; the Alberni Canal groups were familiar with theComox, and all the Central divisions were in frequent contact withthe Makah and knew through them of other northwest Washingtongroups. But they had little interest in lands and peoples south andeast of the Makah, and north of the Southern Kwakiutl. Theircosmology reflects this provincial outlook: there were no elaborateconcepts of other worlds, heavens, underworlds, or lands across thegray Pacific.^"A few myths (imports from other peoples, to judge by the widedistributions) tell of legendary heroes who climbed up to a Sky-world,and others who descended to an Underworld, but informants areperplexed in trying to account for such places?it is clear that therewas no well-defined system of thought about them. There was anUndersea-world not far off the Vancouver Island shore that everyoneknew about, for it was there that the Salmon-people and the Herring-people lived, each tribe occupying half of a great house. These beingslived there "just like people," in human form when they doffed theirsalmon (or herring) guises, which they put on or took off like robes.With them dwelled the souls of twins. By an extension of the sameidea. Whales and Hair Seals were also believed to have houses underthe sea, though the entrance to the house of the latter beings wasthrough a cave in a high island.3" Of course, with the growth of the Bering Sea fur sealing, many Nootkan men visited not only Alaska,but California, Japan, and other exotic places during prolonged cruises. This widening of horizons wasaccepte 1 as an increase of practical knowledge, but did not seem to be reflected in any way in philosophicalabstractions. Missionary influence of the same period introduced the notions of the Christian Heavenand LI ell, which seem to be clear only to the younger school-trained generation. 151 152 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144This interest in Salmon's Home, Hair Seal's Home, and \Vliale'sHome, all near the Nootkan foreshore, to the exclusion of speculationson remoter worlds, was typical of native philosophy. The Nootkanswere far more interested in the important animal spirits and monstersof their inlets and woods than with any remote deities. There wasa behef, common to all the tribes, in the "Four Chiefs"?Above Chief(hai'lepi ha'wil or ha'wilai'ilam). Horizon Chief (halsu'is hawii orha'wil su'isai), Land Chief (hai'ya'a'ai ha'wil or ha'wilume), andUndersea Chief (halaso's ha'wil or hinaso's tee ha'wil). Men calledon them in prayers during bathing rituals, but never attempted toexplain their powers or domains.^^Of much more concern were the many beings (tceha) who peopledNootkan territory, and who might be encountered at any time toman's benefit or peril, as the case may be. It scarcely needs to bepointed out that these beings had as much place in the Nootkanworld as did the neighboring tribes, the fish, and the animals of theforest. One soon learns of them, in talking with elderly people, andhears much of their effect on human lives.Wolves were placed in a special category among all the animals, aspossessed of great supernatural powers whether in animal guise or,without their skins, in human form. They were a "tribe," and livedin a great house under a mountain. There was some peculiar rela-tionship existing between Wolves and Killer whales; some peoplebelieved the latter emerged from the sea to turn into Wolves. Neitheranimal was considered dangerous to man. In fact, they were morelikely to be friendly than most spirits. There was no prohibitionon killing either species of the real animals.A very important race of spirits were beings called ya'ai. Theywere similar to men in form. On either side of the head, projectingupward, were tufts of feathers (I never understood whether thesefeathers served as ears, or grew from the ears). Sometimes theirbodies were described as white, sometimes as covered v/ith coarse hair.They might appear singly, or in groups of 4, or 10. Often they camepaddling a Supernatural Canoe (winatcict). Sometimes this Canoewas seen without its ya'ai crew. The ya'ai spirits possessed numeroussorts of power that they could bestow on human beings : shamanism,the art of whaling, wealth, as well as ritual displays ancl songs. Theyalso slew without mercy the ceremonially unclean persons who chancedupon them.Several other races of anthropomorphic beings inhabited thewoods?the tclnlath, tall shaggy-haired red-skinned beings who pur-sued people with spears, and maLoh, a race of pacific giants whose " Several early historic accounts refor to a sinelc doity. dwelling above "Q.uuvautz." (or like names) ofwhom modern informants know nothing. (Of. Jewitt, 1815, p. 172 173.) Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 153women had long hair that dragged on the ground when loosened.Neither of these gave any gift of moment to humans except the rightto represent them in dances. Far more feared were the lost humansouls, called puqmis. When a person nearly drowned, and then madehis way ashore, weakened and chilled to the bone, he would seeflickering fires inviting him back into the woods. Should he try togo to them to warm himself, they led him on and on, hke will-o'-the-wisps, till he turned into a puqmis, becoming an ugly white color,with protruding eyes "that looked like icicles." The nails of his handsand feet became long claws, and he could run incredibly swiftly. A.puqmis was thoroughly malevolent, though there are traditions of menwho obtained their eyes for charms.^^Somewhere up amid the remote snow-covered peaks lived thethunderbird (tuta, also titska). He was a huge man, who put on hisbirdlike dress to hunt whales. Few mortals had the fortune to en-counter him; they more often met his "dogs," the Feathered Serpents(hai'i'Lik), who were simultaneously Lightnings. A scale from one ofthese creatures was an extremely potent charm. There appear tohave been a variety of kinds of Feathered Serpents : in addition to thehuge ones ("like alligators," say young sophisticates who have seenthese reptiles pictured in books), there were some very small ones, andothers with heads on both ends.High up in the mountains, too, were caves in which grew Super-natural Quartz Crystals (hai'na). Some of these were of huge size.They swayed back and forth in the caves, emitting a weird hum.mingnoise. There are tales of ambitious men who plucked the largestcrystal in the center of the cave. It became night all over the world,except in the vicinity of the crystal, until the object was released.Most noble families had small ones as hereditary treasures.Shaman-Squirrels, Minks, and Ravens were sometimes seen in thewoods, singing, and shaking tiny rattles. Often they shamanized overold rotten logs, making the logs writhe and groan through the power oftheir songs. Their gift was shamanistic power, as was that of amysterious Right Hand that stuck from the ground shaking a rattle.(A Left Hand gave death to its finder.) If there v/as more to this spiritthan the hand?if it had a body and face?only shamans knew, andthey never told.There was really an infinity of dangerous beings lurking in thewoods. There were headless "mallardlike" birds of brilliant plumage,birds with human faces, a kind of mountain lion that walked backwardand killed men with its long lancelike tail, and many other horridand dangerous creatures. The Souls of Trees were malignant too;32 They were not the ghosts of the drowned whose bodies were recovered; v/e may suspect they were thosewhose bodies were never found. 254 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 14,4no one ever saw more of them than a shadowy movement "likesomeone stepping behind a tree," but this was often enough to killthe viewer. Small snakes, of the "gartersnake" type (there are nopoisonous snakes on Vancouver Island) were dreaded. To find aden of them was especially dangerous, for with lightning speed theyhurled themselves into the bodily orifices of the unlucky discoverer.There were also dwarfs, who had houses inside of mountains, wherethey enticed the unwary to dance with them around and around agreat wooden drum. Sooner or later he stumbled against the drum,and became afflicted with a peculiar disease called "earthquakefoot"?every time he took a step the ground shook. No one withthis malady lived long.In recent times a series of apparitions in which blood figuredbecame cormnon. There was no specific spirit connected with them.A person simply saw blood spurting from mirrors, from stones, andthe like. Such an apparition invariably caused death; the unfortu-nate finder came to his end bleeding heavily at the mouth and nose.There was no known cure.By contrast, the waters contained fewer perils. Of course, theSalmon and Herring, if angered, could do harm^to mankind, and ineach species of salmon there was a poisonous one, cicawul, whichwas to be avoided (it was easily recognized for its scales were turnedbackward) . At certain places, usually deep holes at the foot of cliffs,dwelled enormous Sharks that could swallow a big canoe with all itsoccupants. People ordinarily gave such spots a reasonably wideberth, but war chiefs deliberately bathed at these places. Therewere also tremendous Squid at certain places, but one never hearsof them attacking humans: most frequently they were seen far upsome fresh-water stream fighting with a yew tree. Such an encountergave courage and strength for war to the finder.Another sea spirit was a giantess, called kaptca, who came float-ing to the surface slowly like a drowned body, her tremendously longhair streaming out in all directions. Many men received wealth,power, rituals, and honorable names from "finding" her if they hadthe courage to yank out one of her long hairs for a charm. But noone ever saw her face and lived to tell of it. If she raised her facefrom the water, the mortal who saw it died.Just as their concepts of supernatural beings were particularistic,not organized into groups or hierarchies, so the concepts of variousnatural phenomena were vague and unsystematized. The sun andmoon (both called hupal) were personified in certain well-knowDmyths, but despite this fact were not ordinarily regarded as super-natural beings. One Kyuquot man of the past generation saw a"Moon Sphit," from whom he received many songs and names which Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TEIBES 155he gave to his chief (since he was of low rank and did not potlatchhimself). This seems to have been a novel encounter, without pre-cedent in native traditions. There were names for stars and variousconstellations, most of which were associated with myths, but againthere was little real belief that these bodies were supernatural beings.There seems to have been but little interest in heavenly bodies. Idoubt very much that they knew enough about them to steer byPolaris when far at sea (as Waterman reports), until they learnedfrom white seamen how to use that useful but rather inconspicuousstar.Eclipses were caused by a Sky Codfish (tuckaiilam) that swallowedthe sun or moon. People sang spirit songs and drummed on planksto frighten the Codfish away?Jewitt describes their consternationand the tumult produced at such an event. Modern informantsemphasize the occasion as potentially fortunate, rather than as oneof panic as suggested by Jewitt: children were brought out of doorsand made to mimic fishing, hunting, and the like so that they mightgrow up to be skillful and lucky at these pursuits. There seems tohave been no explanation as to what the Sky Codfish was doingin the heavens, however. Another being said to be in the sky, butonly vaguely accounted for, was the Sky Dog (eltcai ilam), a hugemangy beast, who caused snow to fall when he scratched himself(the snow being the mange scales). The elders considered this beliefsufficient grounds for scolding children who ate snow. Hail andthunder were caused by the Thunderbird, who was, as remarked, farmore clearly conceptualized than the other beings associated withthe various phenomena. He caused thunder by flapping his wings(the lightnings, of course, were his dogs, the Feathered Serpents) .^^The origin of the southeast wind is a source of amusement, for itis explained in a popular myth as caused by an old man who breakswind. To bring calm weather people sang songs of the birds andanimals who, according to the myth, tried to stop the southeast wind.It is difficult to tell how seriously they take this proceeding. Itwas my impression that at present, at least, this singing is ratherfor amusement. There are said to be other more effective forms ofweather magic.One would guess, offhand, that the Nootkans would have hadsome rather elaborate explanations of the tides that were so im-portant to them aU theh lives. For certain kinds of fishing?trollingfor spring salmon, for example, and for raking and dip-netting her-ring?the stage of the tide is more important than whether the sun 33 Sapir to the contrary (1916, p. 20), there are violent thunderstorms on Vancouver Island. They arenot frequent but when they occur are very spectacular, especially in early winter, when they are accom -panied by heavy falls of hail. 156 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144has risen or set, and the fisherman went out according to stage ofthe tide. Yet no informant knew of any explanation for them,other than the theory of lunar attraction which was recognized asbeing of European origin. On the other hand, there existed a firmbelief in two tidal phenomena for which I can find no justificationin the tidetables. It was said that in midwinter, at about the timeof the winter solstice, there occurred at night an enormously hightide, the highest of the year. Sometimes it rose so high that itentered the houses, although all but a very few people slept rightthrough it. This tide was called ''Turning over" (kwistsitcil) becauseas it rose and fell it turned over, then righted again, everything inits path?every stone on the beach. To wake and see it at the verycrest brought great good fortune. No one knew what caused it.In midsummer there occurred, it was said, the lowest low tide of theyear, but this gave no particular luck, so far as I learned.Fog was explained on the basis of a myth that told that Cranereleased it from his "kneecaps." The rainbow was not explained.Modern informants recalled no prohibition against looking at it,though an early source describes such a tabu. Northern lights wereneither explained nor considered significant except as a weather sign."It means there will be cold weather," say informants, which is trueenough, for the lights are seen only during the clear cold weather thataccompanies a north wind in winter.Nootkan thoughts on life were not particularly abstruse. One hada soul (koatsakstum) that was believed to reside in the brain. Itcould be lost, or stolen (for instance by vengeful Salmon) ; the loserwasted away gradually, dying if it were not restored. The life principle(titltcu) was distinct from the soul. It was situated in the breast(in the heart, titcma), for as one informant pointed, the shamanslistened, or felt a patient's breast, then reported, "He still lives.Ilis tititcu is here yet."Both soul and life simply "went away" when one died. TheNorthern Nootkans had no notion of an afterworld or Land of theDead, so far as informants knew, nor any theory as to what happenedto a soul (except, of course, souls of twins, who returned to Salmon'sHome).^* One informant, after we had discussed the matter at length,suggested that perhaps the supernatural beings who, according toone legendary account of the origin of a short version of the Shamans'Dance, came to dance in the house sites 4 days after the people hadmoved away, may have been ghosts, or spirits of the dead. Thisseems to have been derived from the commonest opinion (when any " There was a well-known variant of the widespread myth about a person who went to the Land of theDead, in an Underworld, but was sent back for fastidiously refusing food consisting of cooked fleas, nits, andthe like. For some reason however the journey to this Land of the Dead seems not to have been acceptedas explaining the fate of souls in general, but was regarded as a unique adventure of one person. Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TTIIBES 157thought was given to the matter at all): that spirits of the deadsimply wandered about in this world. The Central tribes believedthe spirits of the dead became owls, which seems to be a belief commonto many Coast Salish groups.TALES OF SUPERNATURAL EXPERIENCETo make the foregoing description of the commoner spirits andsupernatural concepts more concrete, a few tales of encounters withsupernatural beings will be summarized. It must be noted thatthese sketches are from stereotyped versions of the traditions relatedat festivals to account for certain rights, and the like, and are notfirst-hand experiences. They do show the concepts underlying thesituation of man-meets-spirit, however, and formed the basic yarnof knowledge from which actual visions and supernatural encounterswere spun.The following adventures are related of a noble ancestor, saiyatcapis,of the wohinuxtakamlath lineage of the Ehetisat: When he wasa young man he had a series of encounters in Avhich he was givenprivileges for ritual displays, and others from which he derivedgood luck and wealth power. It is said that he had these experiencesbefore marriage. His first encounter was with the Supernatural Canoe(winatcict). The young chief had gone out one night to harpoonporpoise. He sat in the bow of the canoe, with two young slavespaddling for him. The slave in the stern said, "Something strange ishappening to me. It makes me feel so weak I hardly hold the paddle."There v/as a sound, "xu!" repeated four times. The young chief andhis slaves felt weak and dizzy. Something seemed to flash across thewater, coming toward them in zigzags, like lightning, saiyatcapiscould see it even when he closed his eyes. He splashed water onhis face again. As it came near, the two slaves fainted. They laysprawled in the canoe bleeding at the mouth, ears, temples, and fromthe pits at the base of the neck. The young chief could hear thesound of singing; in a brief space he heard a great number of songscoming from the Supernatural Canoe. When it drew abeam he gavea ritual cry and leaped aboard. The apparition, at his shout, turnedinto a huge drift log with grasses, herbs, and seedling trees growingfrom it. There was one of every kind of plant in the local flora,saiyatcapis took four plants, pulling them out roots and all. Heselected the ones mentioned in the songs: spruce, thimbleberry,hemlock, and elderberry. He also broke four pieces of wood fromthe right side of the log. These things he rolled up in his cedar-barkrobe. Then he paddled for shore. The two slaves came to when theprow of the canoe grated on the beach. The young chief told them 158 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144what he had seen, but made them promise to guard the secret. Thethree rested there for 2 days, because they were weak from the effectsof the apparition. Then they set out for hohk. saiyatcapis told hisparents that he had "found" the Feathered Serpent's SupernaturalCanoe (hai'i'Lik winatcict tiwoq). His father gave a feast to thetribe to announce to them, "My son saiyatcapis was gone 2 days andreturned empty-handed, but maybe someday he will get something."(This was a jest; the old chief was happy about his son's encounter,but did not want to tell what saiyatcapis had found.) Then afterthe feast he and his son bathed in the sea nightly for 4 nights. Sixof the best singers of the tribe were assembled in a secret place back inthe woods so that saiyatcapis might teach them the songs; theylearned them all in 10 nights. Then the chief gave a potlatch atwhich the Supernatural Canoe was displayed (i. e., a replica of it),while its songs were sung.Shortly afterward saiyatcapis went out again porpoise hunting.He wanted to get several to give a feast. This time he had only onecompanion, an old man, very wise. The young chief had struck andkilled two porpoise when his companion said, "Listen, chief! I hearsome other kind of animal." They listened, as the creature surfaced,then dove. Ic was a killerwhale. Suddenly the canoe was surroundedby a great school of killerwhales. As they surfaced and spouted theymade a tremendous noise. The old man said, "I am beginning tofeel faint. These must be Supernatural Killerwales. Are you allright, chief?" The young chief repHed, "I also feel a little faint, forthey make so much noise when they surface. But let us follow them."They paddled after the school, following it through a narrow pass toa small landlocked basin. The old man said, "They are going tobecome something else now. Wait until they do so, and you will 'get' whatever it is." They paddled through the school of Killer-whales and beached the canoe. The Killerwhales lined up along thebeach, and all made their sound at once. Both the men fainted,saiyatcapis fell in a small stream, which revived him, so that he wasable to hear the Killerwhales howl four times like wolves, and aWhite Killerwhale in the midst of the school rose upright in thewater to sing a spirit song. Then the Killerwhales turned intoWolves and emerged from the w^atcr. saiyatcapis gave a ritual cry.They did not disappear, but simply ran off into the woods. Theold man said, when he came to, "What you have seen was very strong,chief. Let us camp here and bathe for 4 days lest we harm thepeople on our return (i. e., a sort of supernatural aura clung to themfiom the encounter which might injure persons ritually impure)."They threw away the two porpoise, also, lest they had been made"poisonous" by the supernatural influence. When the young chief Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 159and his companion returned, they found that one of the cliiefs wasgiving a Shamans' Dance.The messengers came to call saiyatcapis. When he went amongthe people, he, and they also, felt ill, because the supernatural powerwas still strong in him. He went back to his house to lie there on hisbed for many days. As he lay there, he remembered having heardtales of a house of stone back up in the mountains. He asked hismother if the stories were true. She told him they were, but thatno one could go near the place and live. Even the birds that flewover it dropped dead; the ground all about was covered with theirbones. She did not want him to try to go up there. That fall, whenthe people were diying dog salmon at the head of the inlet, saiyatcapisput on a robe of bearskin, and tied hemlock twigs in his hair with aband of dyed shredded cedar bark. He took his two young slavesas companions, and started up into the mountains. As they nearedthe mountain where the Stone House was, they began to feel strangely.Soon they could hear a faint sound, as of a great crowd at a distancedrumming and singing, saiyatcapis told his slaves to wait for himfor 4 days, then went on alone. As he came nearer the noise increased.Each time he stopped, the noise ceased; when he began to walk againit was resumed. At last he came to a clearing. The high ferns swayedas though in a strong wind; beyond them was a house, built of stoneinstead of planks. As he approached he could see that the groundwas littered with skeletons of small buds. Within the house hecould see the figure of a woman, and heard the sound of many voices.As he stepped through the door he fell unconscious. While lying therehe "saw" (or dreamed) a series of Bhd Dancers (dancers wearingdisguises of various bu'ds) who appeared from behind a screen todance as the woman sang. He learned all their songs. Then hecame to, and gave a ritual cry. The house tm'ned to a huge boulder;the woman became a bit of "foam" on the ground. He sopped upthe foam in a strip torn from his robe to keep as a token of his adven-ture, and started back down the mountain. His slaves had to helphim walk, for he was weak when he reached them. They had beenpicking salal berries while waiting for him.On their return to the village, they gave the berries to some women ; one who ate them fainted, and several of the others felt badly for ashort while, because of the supernatural contamination of the fruit,saiyatcapis hid the strip of robe with which he had mopped up the foamin the woods. He told his parents what he had seen, and asked themto keep it secret for a time. His father told his wife not to tell theirson of other supernatural places, for "he has had enough supernaturalencounters now; if he tries to get more we may lose him." The youngchief lay in his bed, pretending to be ill. When the lineage moved JgO BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144down from the salmon grounds, they had to carry him on a plankacross the portage to Espinosa Arm. Then one day he appeared,(h-essed m his robe and wearing his dyed cedar-bark head band. Hewent alone up the inlet and leaving his canoe, set out afoot up theriver to its head. At four places in the river he stopped to batheritually. Far up the mountain he began to feel strangely, so hechewed a bit of medicinal plant he had brought with him. Up on thebare slopes above timberline he began to hear a strange noise. Whenhe came near, he could see some Supernatural Quartz Crystals on aboulder. They were swaying back and forth, making a weird hum-ming noise. Now and then they clashed against each other, andfragments flew through the air to fall on the rocks far below,saiyatcapis was frightened, for this was the most powerful thing hehad yet seen. He was afraid to go too close, lest he be killed in thisremote spot where his parents would never find his body. He satdown facing eastward to sing four songs "like prayers," that belongedin his family. The ground shook under him as the Crystals moved.He gave a ritual cry, but nothing happened.Then he approached close enough to throw his robe over the Super-natural Crystals, again crying out ritually. Then the noise and move-ment of the Crystals stopped. He wanted to take the largest of theCrystals, but it w^as too big to be carried by one person (other tradi-tions relating to the Supernatural Quartz Crystals usually say thatwhen the largest Crystal was taken, darkness descended on the world;this incident may have been forgotten in the telling of the adventuresof saiyatcapis). He took four of the small Crystals. When he cameto the river, far below, he rested for 2 days, bathing ritually, and learn-ing the songs of the Supernatural Crystals (i. e., apparently in dreams).When he returned home he told his parents what he had done. Hisfather stood up to sing a spirit song, then fainted before he finished,for the young chief was still strong with supernatural power. Thenext morning saiyatcapis told his father he had dreamed that fouryoung spruce trees should be cut and placed one in each corner of thehouse. If this were not done he (saiyatcapis) would die. So hisfather sent men out to cut the trees. He asked his son if they shoulddisplay the Crystals which were in the house, saiyatcapis was goingto dance wearing a Crystal in his headdress. His mother told himto use an imitation one, lest he harm the people. He appearedwearing the imitation crystal in his headdress, and his father calledon four different chiefs in turn to remove the crystal. The first threesang the songs that saiyatcapis had learned, but were unable to comeclose to the young chief without fainting. The fourth took thecrystal and "sent" it away. Then the chief announced his son was tohave the name qlqimaxcia thereafter, and gave gifts to all the guest chiefs. Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 161qlqimaxcia continued in his quests for supernatural power. He hadsix further encounters, all more or less like the preceding. Amongothers he "found" two Killerwhales lying back in the woods, a Cranethat fished for Supernatural Crystals in a small pond, the SupernaturalWinter High Tide, and the Sea Spirit kaptca from whose head heyanked a hair to use in bathing to make dead whales drift ashore.It was not until he had had 10 supernatural encounters that he ceasedto search, and let his parents arrange a marriage for him. Longafterward, when he was an old man, he met another supernaturalbeing. From the effects of this encounter he died. All the songs,names, and dances he found descended in the family as display rightsto be shown at potlatches, along with replicas of the various spirits.In addition, certain medicines, such as the plants he plucked from theSupernatural Canoe, the hair of the kaptca, and others, were trans-mitted from generation to generation of his descendants to be used inritual bathing for good luck, wealth, and power.One day a young chief of the matcliath decided to return to thevillage site. All the people were at the fishing station. He set out ina canoe with a companion. As they neared the point matcllpla, closeby the site, he heard singing, and on rounding the point saw a row ofhouses there, with smoke coming from the roofs. (Actually, of course,there was nothing there but the bare house frames, for the pople hadstripped the houses when they moved to the fishing grounds.) Thechief asked his companion if he could see the houses; when the latterreplied "no," the young chief covered him with mats and paddled thecanoe ashore. He walked up the bank toward the house from whichthe most noise came. Peeping in through a crack in the boards, hecould see the backs of a great host of beings in human form. Hecould not see their faces. They were dancing. Now and then, whenone of them passed close by him, he would hear the being remark,"1 feel strange, as though there were a tceha (supernatural being)around here." As they sang, the fire would suddenly flame up high,and a rainbow appeared in the bouse. The beings shouted, "tcehaic!" each time this occurred. Then the young chief threw a stoneagainst the house, shouting a supernatural cry at the same time, andall the houses disappeared, turning into foam. Only one plank re-mained. The chief tore a piece from his cedar-bark robe to sop upa bit of the foam, and then hid this and the plank out in the woods.After this, v/hen he slept, he would hear the songs the beings hadbeen singing, until he had learned them all.He began to make a canoe, a short time after this adventure. Whensomeone came down to the beach to watch him, the young chiefwarned them away. If they came close to him, or stayed long, they Ig2 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144would begin to feel weak and dizz}^ for his supernatural power wasstill strong.The next winter the chief umakLa'a was giving a feast of salmoneggs. All the chiefs were assembled, waiting for the young chief.He was down at the beach, sitting in the water up to his neck. Heremained there all day. Then he went to the feast. He was served,and took a single spoonful of salmon eggs, then pretended to dropdead (as though his recently acquired supernatural power were stillstrong upon him). Before he went in the house, he had cut his tongueto fill a fish bladder with blood. He had concealed the bladder in hismouth, and, when he pretended to fall dead, bit the bladder so that itburst, and blood streamed from his mouth. The people gatheredaround him, and felt of his body. It was still cold, after all day inthe water. They wrapped him up in mats and took him to his house.The young chief had instructed his mother and four companions;when his body was brought in, they emptied a box of blankets andstuffed him into it, lashed up the box, and took it out to a burialcave. As soon as the crowd of mourners left, the four helpers cut thelashings to let him out. Pie smashed the box and run into the woods,where he stayed for 4 days. There was a man out fishing, whenWolves began to howl around the burial cave. The fisherman went tosee: the burial box was broken up and the body of the young chief wasgone. He hastened back to tell the pople that the Wolves had takenthe bodj^ of the young chief. Then they heard the Wolf whistles, sothey knew now that the young chief was giving the Shamans' FestivalHe appeared between four Wolves, and was rescued and taken to thehouse. There, he sang the songs and displayed the dances that hehad found in his supernatural experiences at match. He took thename kiLuc at this time. It comes from kiLcil, "to break up (some-thing)," referring to the breaking up of the burial box by the Wolves.When the son of the chief ukwistcik, of the matchath was a youngman, he continually went out into the woods at night to bathecoremonially. One dark night, he ducked under a big windfall thatlay across the trail. Something struck his head, knocking him un-conscious. In the morning he revived. When he looked about him,the first thing he saw was a wolf, knocked out as he had been. Hewent to the wolf and began to work on him to revive him. Theanimal came to, and wagged his tail. The youth said to the wolf,"I have brought you back to life. Now you must reward me." Thewolf got up and ran off into the woods, returning in a few minutescarrying certain leaves in his mouth. He brought three kinds ofleaves (in three trips), and then went once more, returning with aSupernatural Crystal. The young man ran home with the leaf Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 163 "medicines" (with which he was to rub his body while bathing ritually)and the Supernatural Crystal. This is how he became a great chief,and how he got the name hai'naqtsokwo, which means "SupernaturalCrystal snatched from (wolf's) mouth."There was a chief at tcecis long ago named nasatsois. One day hewent to visit his salmon trap, and found it empty. This happenedfor several days. Finally he hid in the brush near the trap to see whocould be robbing it. As he watched, a big canoe came down riverwith a crew of 10 men, or rather beings, for they were really ya'ai.The chief fainted. When he awoke they had gone by. He stayedthere watching. After a time they came back, towing a whale. Theybeached their canoe across the river from him to make camp. Hegave a supernatural cry, and they all turned to foam, and the whaledid too. Nothing remained but their v/haling harpoon and the canoe.The chief collected bits of the foam, and smashed the canoe, hidingthe pieces in the woods along with the harpoon. Now the chiefdecided to go whaling, and moved down to hiimis with his people.He took the name of maLisko'a at this time (from maLis, referring todragging or towing, from the vision in which he had seen the ya'aitowing the whale). They stayed at humis a long time. Every timemaLisko'a went out he killed one or two whales.DEALINGS WITH THE SUPERNATURALA major portion of Nootkan religion, like that of most AmericanIndian groups, consisted of a series of techniques for manipulatingsupernatural power to one's own ends. It was essentially practicaland direct. There were many practices that had to do with economicactivities, and they were considered by the natives to be integralparts of those pursuits. The rituals to ensure success at whalingwere, as Waterman (1920) pointed out, as essential a part of makingready for the hunt as the stretching and spinning of the sinews to makethe harpoon lanyard, or making the sealskin floats. Performing therites properly was as important as laying up a good sound harpoon line,and had as much to do with bringing success. It is difficult to ap-praise on the basis of even first-hand, let alone second-hand accounts,but my impression is that the Nootkan attitude in these mattersdiffered considerably from what we usually consider a religious one.A man performed his rites, often arduous and painful, with stoliddetermination; he approached situations of actual contact withspirits not with awe or ecstasy but with physical fear that he grimlyovercame, bolstered by the Iviiovvledge that if he performed his ritualacts properly he would receive no harm, but rather sure success. Oneis reminded of the frame of mind of the combat soldier, conscious of his 154 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144peril but relying on his own performance to get him through safely.Some few individuals, particularly shamans, seem from the accountsto have found an emotional satisfaction in their supernatural con-tacts, but in all probability this became greater in retrospect thanduring the sphit quest and at the moment of their encounter. Con-sistent with this pragmatic attitude was the concept regarding allspirits: the beings were both powerful and malevolent, but could beovercome or coerced by a courageous mortal provided he compliedminutely with the forms of his ritual. The spkits were, indeed,dangerous and terror-inspiring, but did not merit the designation ofgods, for they were very far from being omnipotent.There were three principal fields of life in which religious practicesserved man's ends. One can be referred to broadly as the man's re-lationship to nature in such respects as economy, health, and generalfortune. To overcome the vagaries of animal behavior the efficiencyof material implements?hooks, harpoons, and arrows?was aug-mented by ritual acts. These acts were simply additional tools of thefood quest. Similarly, there were procedures to ward off vague un-specified dangers to health, to give children rapid growth and strength.Other closely related practices had as their goal the ensuring of physi-cal prowess and bravery of war chiefs, wealth and good luck, and suchspecific minor goals as the production of the right type of weather fora voyage or a hunting or fishing expedition. A second application ofreligion was the social function of shamanism (and wizardry) , whereinother persons were cured, restoring them to then- roles as usefulcitizens, or put out of the way. The thhd sphere of activities inwhich religion played a part was in connection with the system ofrank, for all rights and prerogatives, including the display privilegesof masks and dances, were considered to have been awarded to theirowners, or to ancestors of the owners by the spirits.The techniques for dealing with the spirits, and for utilizing thepower won from them, can, like their uses, be grouped into a few simplecategories. The first of these may be termed compulsive rites. Theywere magical acts whose correct performance brought about the de-sired result in a cause-effect reaction. Included here were formulaicprayers; the application of "medicines" (au'yl), often plants, whichwere eaten, rubbed on one's body, or on one's weapons, as the ritedemanded; use of human corpses and bones; the setting up of dummyfigures imitating the desired act, as in the shrines; and the proceduresof black magic. I shall describe various forms of compulsive ritesin more detail in subsequent paragraphs, but the point to be broughtout here is the automatic nature of their action. The performance,for instance, of a certain ritual with a corpse invariably caused deadwhales to drift ashore. The underlying idea seems to have been Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 165that the dead have power to "call" or attract various kinds of animals,but this was not verbalized by any informant. To them, the use ofcorpses was essentially just another kind of "medicine." I found noone who had a clear concept of how and why these rites worked(some rather obvious procedures of imitative and contagious magicthey could explain, of course). That did not affect the efficiency ofthe rites, however, any more than among us an understanding ofthe chemistry and physiology involved alters the effect of, let us say,quinine, or sedatives. Informants believe they explain the effect ofthe rites by saying that the spirit who first instructed someone in theprocedure said it would produce the desired end. Anyone who fol-lowed the prescribed steps could bring about the result. On thisaccount all these rituals were closely guarded secrets. While thebroad outlines of many of them were widely known, their virtuelay in the minute details?the plants used, the formulas spoken orsung, the exact gestures, and order of procedure which were knownto no one but the owner and his heir or heirs. These secret detailswere the parts of the rituals transmitted in accordance with the rulesof inheritance from the original discoverer, to whom a spirit had re-vealed them, to his direct descendants. That the effectiveness of abathing ritual came from virtues inherent in the ritual itself and inthe plants used for scrubbing one's body, rather than from the super-natural being who originally "gave" the procedure, is made clear bythe following tradition of the tsaxanath of Gold River.There was a man named Ll'aik who was famous as a trapper. Hehad two deadfalls named tsa'aq (river) and wonis (throat ?). (Thesenames had been given in a previous supernatural encounter, in whichhe had found two small Feathered Serpents (hai'i'Lik), each of whichhe put in a small wooden box and buried under his deadfafis.) Oneday, far back in the woods, he heard a voice speaking as one doeswhen praying in ritual bathing. As he listened, he distinguishedthe phrases, "I shall lift up tsa'aq; I shall lift up wonis" (takapa' litstsa'aq; takapa' lits wonis). Ll'aik crept close. He found himselfnear a little pond at the edge of which stood a manlike figure with avery white skin scrubbing himself with leaves. The hidden trappercould not distinguish the person's features. The person scrubbed hisbody vigorously with the leaves, while chanting the prayer, then dovefour times, staying underwater a long while each time. Finally hewent to a tree where he seemed to put some object, then walkedaway. Ll'aik went down to the little beach. There were no tracksthere, nor traces of water (such as would drip from a person's bodywhen he emerged from the pond). Ll'aik went to the tree, but couldfind nothing. He retui-ned to the edge of the pond. Searching care- IQQ BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144fully, he found a piece of a certain leaf (with which the person hadbeen scrubbing himself), which he recovered. Li'aik realized it hadbeen a Bear who was bathing ritually to escape from his Li'aik's traps.The trapper thenceforth used the same kind of leaves to scrub hisbody with, following the Bear's ritual as closely as possible (altering,of course, the sense of the formulaic prayer the Bear had been using) . From that time on he caught more game than ever.A second group of procedures were those associated with ritualcleanliness. The concept underlying them, clearly expressed by thenatives, was that the odors of warm sweaty humanity were repugnantto the spirits. By bathing in cold water till the body was chilled,however, and scrubbing away grime and sweat with pleasant-smellingor magically potent plants one could approach spirits without theirbecoming aware of his presence. The bathing rituals (called osemitc)were not as barren and simple as this, of course. The scrubbing ofthe body with bundles of hemlock fronds or herbs was carried bymany to the point of mortification of the flesh, for they used roughtwigs, bunches of nettles, or even pieces of fir bark to rasp their bodiestill the blood came. The immersion in the water itself was a sort ofself torture, for men stayed in till they became almost too numbed bythe cold to walk.The bathing rituals overlapped the compulsive rites. Basicallythey were, of course, a specialized variety, and a cold damp one wemay add, of the American Indian spirit quest. However, many ofthem contained special secret procedures?certain herbs to be used,and similar minutiae?that had been given to an ancestor by a spirithe had encountered. Such bathing rites were for the purpose ofobtaining some specific goal: luck at sea otter hunting, for example,or for trapping, or for good luck and wealth in general, or for physicalstrength and long life. Many men practiced them, some regularly,some at irregular intervals from early manhood till old age withoutever encountering a spirit, or even wanting to, but attributed whatmaterial success they had in life to their faithful observance of theirbathing rituals. Therefore despite the basic conceptual distinctionbetween the magical procedures and the cleansing rites, it is difficultto draw a hard and fast line between the two sets of observances inpractice.Another series of performances associated mainly with economicvalues were those aimed at honoring and pleasing the species of animalcaught, so that its reincarnated spirit would again let its body becaptured. These customs were based on a belief in the immortaUtyof animal sphits, most explicitly described for the Salmon, whosespirits returned to their home beneath the sea to report how thehumans had treated them. Ill treatment was punished by refusal Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 167of the fish to run in that river again. In this category were the FirstSalmon, First Herring, and Bear rites, and the honors paid to the''saddle" of whales.The techniques involved in shamanism and wizardry containedmany elements of the first two types discussed, but in general can bedescribed most clearly in separate sections.We may proceed to consider some detailed accounts of religiouspractices. Two deficiencies in the descriptions should be pointed outin advance: one, the fact that the long formulaic prayers, whichshould have been recorded in text, like those that Sapir and Swadesh(1939) have presented, were slighted in my note taking; the secondpoint is that in many cases the particular secret plant "medicine"that made a ritual efficacious was omitted by informants, who stillfelt that such knowledge was very private property, not to be bandiedabout. This latter knowledge would be more important to one whowanted to perform the rituals, however, than for those of us whosemajor interest is their cultural pattern.THE RITUAL CLEANSING-SPIRIT QUESTThe bathing rituals, whether part of a spirit quest or part of acompulsive rite, were performed in the same fashion. Most of them,or at least the more important ones, were begun during the waxingof the "Elder Moon." To bathe ritually during the wane of anymoon would bring ill fortune. A man went out secretly. He did notwant others to know of his rites, and it would bring bad luck shouldanyone other than his trusted assistant see him. Clad in a bearskinrobe or vest with hemlock twigs inserted in a dyed red cedar-barkhead band, the ritualist went quietly at night to his special bathingplace. This might be in a lake, a stream, or the ocean. Here herubbed his body with bundles (titcam) of branches. The kind usedvaried, for each man had some special plant as his "medicine."Hemlock, and fir twigs, nettles, and certain gritty seaweeds seem tohave been the most popular. The body was rubbed painfully sore,often, indeed, until the blood came. As he mortified the flesh, he sangor repeated his secret prayer, always addressed to the Four Chiefs.Often he faced eastward to pray. Then he entered the water, iawhich he remained as long as he could stand the cold. Some menwould be almost unable to walk by the time they emerged. Commonlysome relative would be taken along, to hold the robe, and assist thebather should it be necessary. Men have been found dead at theirbathing places. The old interpretation was that such unfortunateshad met with a malignant supernatural being, but young modernsbelieve they died of exposure. A common variant of the swimming or839093?51 12 Igg BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144wading in deep pools of lakes or bays was a procedure in which thebather squatted on the beach with just his head and shoulders out ofthe water, scouring his arms and legs with sand and gravel. He mighteither sidle along the beach from one end of the village to the other andback, or remain at about the same place, backing up the beach as thetide rose. This type of bathing was called kwixqa.The bathing, whether in fresh or salt water, around offshore reefs orat the village beach, was repeated nightly, for either 4 or 8 nights, as arule. The long rites usually involved a certain number of periods ofbathing in fresh water, and a number in the sea.Rarely, a man's wife accompanied him as his assistant. Moreoften, she was required to lie quiet and motionless in her bed, especiallywhen the bathing was for luck at sea hunting, so that the quarrywould be calm and unwary. Her behavior during the rites, as well asduring the hunt, was an important factor in her husband's success, orlack of it. Only at Kyuquot, so far as I learned, did a few men haverituals in which sexual intercourse with their wives or amours wasrequired as part of the procedure.^^ Most men were required by theirrites to observe strict continence during their preparations. By day,the ritualist rested, but slept little. Some men had songs to sing allthrough the day. Most men ate but sparingly, although strict fastingseems to have been uncommon as a part of the rites. There were somemen, however, who did fast. The rites were repeated during the wax-ing of the set number of moons.HAIR SEAL HUNTING RITESA chiefly lineage of one of the Muchalat Arm groups prepared forhair seal hunting by bathing in salt water in the Elder Moon. Eachnight of the waxing of the second moon one had to swim counter-clockwise four times around a fresh-water lake, towing 10 humanskulls strung on a rope behind him. Once, long ago, as a chief swam,the skulls began to puff and blow like seals. He became angry andstruck them. "You are dead ; why should you make noises, pretendingto be alive?" He had so much power (from his rites) that he wasafraid of notliing. ? The hair seal hunting ritual of one renowned hunter at Hesquiatconsisted of 4 nights of bathing in the sea, during the waxing of themoon. Instead of conifer twigs, he used a seaweed called hohtsaqmaptfor rubbing his body ; it has a heavy "slime" which was supposed to bethe efficacious clement. After rubbing his body with this plant, whilepraying in a loud voice, he entered the water, swimming about with ?' Suoli rites seem to have been relatively common among the Southern Kwakiutl. (Cf. Boas, 1921, pp.637 fl.) Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 169his head well up out of the water (so the seals would swim the sameway, and not dive). He swam as long as he could stand the cold.Then he emerged to rub his body again with the seaweed, and to pray.According to the informant, he spent the most of the night this way,entering the water 10 times. By day, he did not sleep. He mightdrink fresh water, but instead of food, sucked a little deer tallow. Itwas said that the tallow prevented him from becoming hoarse from hisnightly praying. After the 4 nights of his ritual, he rested for 4 daysin the house, no doubt catching up on his sleeping and eating. Thenhe went out to harpoon seal.SEA OTTER HUNTING RITESThe sea otter ritual of a Moachat was as follows. At a lake nearthe beach west of Friendly Cove (the place, though not the rite, isrecent; anciently he would have had a place near the winter village ofkupti) he had to prepare bunches of hemlock twigs. He made 200,laying them on a rack of poles. He went to the place twice nightly,soon after dark and again just before daylight. First he sang a sacredchant, then he took four bunches of twigs, and while praying to theFour Chiefs, rubbed his body with one bunch at a time until all theneedles had come off. The worn bundles he laid on a rack at his left.Then he entered the water. He waded out about breast deep to makea circuit of the lake (which is not large) . From time to time he pausedto duck completely under. The procedure was continued nightlyin the proper moon phases until all the bundles had been used up.An Ehetisat chief bathed in salt water for success at sea otterhunting. To a head band of d3^ed red cedar bark he attached fourpieces of human flesh and a Crystal endowed with magical powerwhich an ancestor had obtained. He followed the shore line swim-ming, floating, and diving "like a sea otter" as long as he could standthe cold. WHALE hunters' RITESThe ritual of a Moachat whale harpooner consisted of bathingnightly during (the waxing of) eight moons. (He would have had tostart before the Elder Moon?about November? to be ready at thebeginning of the whaling season in April, despite conventional state-ments that the Elder Moon was the time for beginning these rites.)For the first four moons he bathed in running fresh water, rubbmghis body with bundles made chiefly of nettles, and some secret herbs.Gathering the nettles to make the bundles was part of the mortifica-tion of the flesh that made the procedure effective. As he bathed heprayed to the Four Chiefs to aid him, and recited long prayers to the 170 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144 effect that the whales should allow him to come alongside, and givehim a fair target for his harpoon. Dressed in his bearskin robe or"vest," with secret marks painted on his face and wearing a headband of dyed red cedar bark, he walked to and from his bathing witha slow ponderous tread, so that the whales he hunted would moveslowly in the water and not swim about erratically. For the secondfour moons he bathed in the sea. He swam about slowly, submerged,and came up making a noise like a whale "blowing" four times, thenfloated quietly in the water. This was all direct dramatization ofthe behavior he wished of the whales. He always swam a circularcourse, in the ritual counterclockwise direction. After each fourcircuits he emerged on the beach to rub his body with bundles ofplant medicines and to pray. He used some kind of seaweed "thatfelt all slimy" at this time. During the entire period he observedstrict continence. Members of his crew were likewise supposed tobathe ritually, and to be continent for some time before going out onthe hunt.Some other chiefs had even more arduous rites for whale hunting.A rather common whale hunter's performance, used also in ritualsfor sea game other than whales, consisted in swimming out to certainbarnacle-covered rocks and reefs and dragging one's naked bodyback and forth across the small jagged shells. This took the place ofscrubbing the body with twigs or herbs, and was about the maximumin the way of self torture that was required.W^A.R chiefs' ritesIt was said that a rather common feature of war chiefs' bathingrites, for bravery and invulnerability, consisted m embracing a smallspruce tree at the stream's edge while naked. The object was, ofcourse, to select a short bushy one so that its many stiff needles wouldprick and lacerate the bather's arms and body. War chiefs descendedfrom a person who had "found" as their source of power a GiantSquid fighting with a yew tree at the edge of a river, used bundles ofyew twigs in their bathing. Others customarily bathed in deeps inthe salt water in which Supernatural Sharks were supposed to dwell.From such performances they got great physical strength, courage,and invulnerability. SHRINESIt was but a step from the more elaborate of these bathing ritualsto the use of shrines (tciyas^m). These were made and used to"bring" a variety of products of economic importance; often the Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 171same shrine and its ritual served to bring heavy runs of salmon, herring,and to cause dead whales to drift ashore. Most frequently the chiefwho owned the territory where these commodities were obtained wasexpected to see to it that the supply did not fail by carrying out hisrituals meticulously. In addition to bathing he set up figures ofsupernatural beings and animals made of bundles of brush, and withthem skeletons and corpses. The human remains are usually said tohave represented the chief's ancestors, who had been given theritual by spirits. I never heard the obvious conceptual base for theseusages explicitly stated by any informant?that the dead had powerto attract, or to compel the game to come?but the rite of a Moachatchief makes this idea clear.This chief had a shrine on an island in Jewett's Lake near FriendlyCove.^^ His ritual was to bring herring and to cause dead whales todrift ashore. The shrine contained images of men and supernaturalbeings, made of brush, and rows of skulls. For 4 nights the ritualistbathed, rubbing his body with branches, and entered the shrine topray. The next 4 nights he waded around the lake. He took foursteps, then spoke a formulaic prayer. An assistant followed him onshore. The duty of the latter, it is said, was to note when the chiefbecame so cold he could not speak properly, and to make him returnhome. Neither might eat or sleep for these 4 days. The ritualist'splace in his house was screened off by mats (this was probably a modi-fication of the wooden "adoratory" described by Mozino). Therewas a wooden drum set up which his assistant beat all day while thechief sang. His ritual lasted four waxing moons. Whenever some-one died shortly before or during his ceremonies, the chief stole thebody, or had his assistant steal it. The relatives of the deceased oftenwent to great pains to hide it but were usually unsuccessful, for byspying, bribing members of the burial party, or some other means theritualist usually learned where the corpse had been placed. He senttwo men to get it and hide it elsewhere. These men had to batheand remain continent for some time to avoid harm. When thetime came, the ritualist and his aides transported the corpse toa place on the outside beach. The chief had with him a heavymaul, a sharpened stake of yew, and a tube made by removingthe pith from the stem of a certain bush. The body was laid facedown over a stone. One of the assistants held the stake at theback of the corpse's neck just below the base of the skull, the otherheld the maul ready. The chief prayed, then gave the signal tostrike. The stake was driven through transfixing the cervical ver-38 This was the shrine described by George Hunt (.in Boas, 1921). Some of the differences between hisaccount and the present one derive from the fact that he relates the origin tradition of the shrine, not itsmore recent use. ]^72 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144tabrae and coming out in the corpse's mouth. Failure to drive itthrough at a single blow brought bad luck. The stake was removedand the tube inserted in the hole. While the assistants held thebody erect facing occanward, the chief, standing behind the corpse,shouted through the tube, asking that whales drift ashore. Thethree men then had to bathe. According to one informant, the chiefwas obliged to give the body a decent burial, equipping it with manyblankets. According to another (and this seems more probable),he eviscerated and dried the corpse, and put it away in his shrine.The helpers of some chiefs were said to know how to smoke dry acorpse "so that it would last more than a year."The second chief of the Hesquiat kikinath had a shrine near a placecalled apsuwos. It contained many masks, skulls, and corpses.Before he went to the place, the chief bathed in the sea. He enteredthe water at the ebb and stayed in until the tide was full. After 4nights of this he went to his shrine to pray, and arrange his apparatus.He stood 10 corpses erect in a row, tying them to stakes. In theirhands he fastened a rope of dyed cedar bark to which a wooden imageof a whale was tied. From time to time he visited the place; whenhe found the rope broken he knew a whale had beached somewhere inthe vicinity, and sent men out to look for it.It is related that the last owner of this shrine, qonin, by ritualizingassiduously brought in a whale one winter. He attended a feast givenby a fellow chief with some of the blubber from his whale, and therehe heard the people complain, "This blubber of the whale-ritualist isvery tough." qonin became angry. "The next one will be tender,"he exclaimed then walked out. He found a slug (symbol of softness)which he fastened to the back of the wooden whale. Every day heinspected his shrine until he found the rope broken again. He gaveaway the blubber again. M^ien the people cooked the strips ofblubber they fell apart (i. e., the blubber was rotten). Then theysaid it was too tender.A chief of a'aminqas had a shrine in a remote rock shelter. Nightlyhe bathed, then drummed on a wooden box drum he kept there, sing-ing to bring salmon. His songs were for the four kinds that run inGold river: sockeye, spring salmon, coho, and dog salmon. This partof his ritual was continued for four waxing moons. He selected eightassistants, who had to remain continent during this time. The chiefhad (or his assistants secured for him) a desiccated corpse. On theproper night he and his men went by canoe to the lower part ofMuchalat Arm. They set the corpse in the stern of the canoe; thechief stood in the prow. All wore head bands of dyed red cedar Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 173bark. \^Tien they turned back, a long rope of dyed cedar bark wasfastened in the hands of the corpse. The crew of 10?9 hving and1 dead?started back to their river, the paddlers stroking to therhythm of the chief's supernatural songs. The corpse's cedar-barkrope was allowed to trail in the water. The performance was called"towing" (maLa) and invariably brought heavy runs of salmon. Itwas not necessary to do this every year.In connection with this pattern of use of shrines is a fact which isnot made clear in previous accounts, and that is that there was notan intimate association between the harpooning of whales and theuse of corpses. The consensus of informants was that harpoonwhalers, that is, those v\^lio harpooned whales at sea, relied chiefly onritual bathing. Each whaler, of course, had his own secret methodsof bathing, a special kind of leaves or twigs with which to rub hisbody, and his own prayers, all of which were important parts of thewhaling procedure, and were, as well, family secrets. Some rites in-volved carrying or bathing with a skull, or a bit of dried humanflesh, but informants denied that these men made extensive use ofcorpses or skulls in their rites. Those who used skulls and corpseswere those "whalers," really "whale ritualists," who built shrines tocause dead whales to drift ashore (and to "bring" other things aswell) . This is a point of some interest for it stresses the differentia-tion between the two types of "whaling" and suggests, if Lantis(1938) is correct in her premise of common origin of Eskimo and Noot-kan whaling, that the float-harpoon complex of the Eskimo and thelance whaling of Southwest Alaska may, along with their associatedritual patterns, represent two quite distinct complexes, rather thantwo variants developed from one basic pattern. Thus, the lancewhaling may not have represented an old harpoon whaling modifiedby the northeast Asiatic spread of use of aconite poison, but a com-pletely distinct invention resulting from diffusion of the use of thepoison to a coastal people."The intimate linkage between the bathing rituals, the use of shrines,and the spirit quest is revealed in observances at the birth of twins.The parents of twins, since twins came from Salmon's home, were inspecial rapport with Salmon and Herring. The father particularly,during the long seclusion, was expected to bathe ritually to bringheavy runs of fish. Often, he had a supernatural experience in whichthe way to construct a shrine and carry out the ritual in it was re-vealed to him. Some men, however, received other types of spirit " Cf. Heizer, 1943, pp. 448-450, for a summary of the evidence for the alternative opinions. Heizcr'sremarks as to the ritual similarity of Aleut-Koniag and Nootkan whale hunting, like Lantis's. are partiallyinfluenced by the fact that I had not thoroughly analyzed my field notes that I put at their disposal; the erroris mine, not theirs. J74 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144power in their encounters, some of them becoming shamans as a re-sult of their long rites, rather than ritualists.A rather recent development, and one whose frequency I do notknow but which I suspect is rather low, is the setting up of shrinesfor the popular lahal game. One such was said to have two rows ofstakes on which skulls were set, facing each other like the two "teams"at a game. The skulls of one row, presumably the opponents, hadthe eye sockets neatly plugged with moss. It is possible that informer times shrines may have been made for other things than forsalmon, herring, and stranded whales, although if so they were rare.All those of which informants know were like the first two slu-inesdescribed. The construction and use of a shrine was a serious matter,not lightly undertaken. The shrine itself was a dangerous place, forit was saturated with supernatural power. A man who happened onone out in the woods avoided it. Even the owner, who knew thenecessary procedure, would not enter his shrine without a preliminaryperiod of ritual cleansing. It is said that once at Ahousat a wolfwalked into a whaling shrine. Though wolves are animals of greatsupernatural power themselves, so strong was that in the shrine thatthe wolf dropped dead. WEATHER MAGICIn addition to the singing of the songs from the myth about thecalming of the Southeast wind, which seems to have been as much aform of amusement as an attempt to control the weather, there weresecret rituals that had as their goal bringing calms, storms, or what-ever might be desired. Most of these were bathing rituals in whichthe medicine for rubbing the body, and the prayers were the effica-cious, and secret element. For example, a chief who owned theright to net waterfowl on a certain inlet bathed ritually to bring thestormy weather and pitch-black nights necessary to the technique;a chief who had a shrine and a ritual to bring in dead whales hadformulae and prayers for stormy weather as part of his lengthy andcomplex rites (for it was believed that whales were injured or killedoutright during violent winter storms). Sea hunters prayed for clearcalm weather for their hunting. There were among the Central tribesmore specific magical procedures : one related by a Clayoquot inform-ant involved painting certain marks on the beach at low tide afterbathing in the sea, so that storms and rough seas would be causedwhen the water covered the paintings. I was unable to learn justwhat all the steps were in this ritual, or precisely what kind of figureswere painted. I did not learn of such complex magical performancesas those described for the Southern Kwakiutl (Boas, 1921, pp. 620- Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 175636) . The Nootkan rites seem to have emphasized the bathing ritualsmore commonly. OBSERVANCES IN HONOR OF GAMEThe ceremonies in honor of game, to conciliate them for allowingthemselves to be taken, were performed for salmon, herring, whales,and bears. So far as I could learn no other species was honored ? not even hair seal, nor the esteemed sea otter, nor halibut, porpoise,or deer. The species of salmon so treated, varied : usually dog salmonreceived the most elaborate treatment, but groups who had sockeyegrounds accorded that species the chief honors. The first of allspecies of salmon were treated with some regard, however, the com-monest feature being concern to return all the bones to the water.First Herring were said to be treated much like salmon.The observances for the first dog salmon at Kyuquot, Ehetisat, andamong the Moachat were nearly identical, according to informants'accounts. The first dog salmon were often referred to as hita'ul (aword used to describe "bright" fish that have not been long in freshwater). The entire first catch, as I understood, had a special namealso, a'amatsos. These fish were laid on new mats in the chief'shouse. The owner of the trap (i. e., the chief), sprinlded them withdown, and "talked" to them, saying, "We are glad you have come tovisit us; we have been saving these (feathers) for you for a long time.We have been waiting a long time for you, and hope you will returnto visit us soon." The fish were cut up immediately afterward, tobe cooked and served at a feast of which everyone but menstruatingwomen partook. The head, backbone, and tail were left in onepiece and broiled between sticks; the slabs of meat from the sideswere boiled. The former parts could not be dried until butterballducks appeared in front of the village. Until that time, the bones,(most of which, of course, are contained in head, tail, and back) andthe guts had to be put back in the water, or the Salmon on reincarna-tion in their hom.e beneath the sea would be deformed. (The ideawas that the bones were washed back to the Salmons' Home for avery literal sort of reincarnation.) According to a Moachat account,the backs, with heads and tails attached, and the guts were piledback of the houses, to be returned to the water all at the same time,when the butterballs appeared. The Salmon would be angered, andwould not return to the stream or river where people had been care-less and caused many Salmon to become deformed by returning themincomplete skeletons.All during the dog salmon season there were numerous tabus inforce. Certain words might not be used: One had to say sitstil in-stead of numakamil to refer to a menstruant; kwitcyawi'is for the 276 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144usual hitawi'is, "going out (in a canoe);" and mutchiwoqact insteadof tucqact, "dried codfish." At Kyuquot, some additional wordswere changed. Dogfish (ya'tea) was called qwo'a'ls, crabs (hasamts)were called tsaqmis, wolf (qwaiyatsk) became poha. Chewing(spruce) gum, carrying fire along the beach, making loud noises alongthe beach, and shredding cedar bark near the beach were all thingsthat displeased the dog salmon, and would cause them to stop run-ning. The Moachat informant specified further that cracks in wallboards had to be chinked up, lest light show at night. Tabus oncutting fish with any but mussel-shell knives, carrying them by thetail or in a basket, and eating freshly caught fish at the same mealwith "white-man grub," were strictly observed until modern days.To let dogs and cats eat fresh salmon until the butterball ducks hadappeared would also cause the run to fail. As described in anothersection, the restrictions to which menstruants were subject were muchmore strict than at other times.Any deformed salmon, crooked-jawed ones for example (calledtsi'kwasl), were taken back into the woods and left. They were nevereaten.The Muchalat groups who fished at Gold Kiver celebrated the sock-eye run with more formalities than they used for other runs. Anaccount of the observances, since it contains a number of detailsabsent (or not mentioned) in the accounts just summarized, will begiven in full.In the informant MJ's boyhood, there were two Muchalat men.who could bring a good run of fish: a'miLac, of a'aminqas, and kapin-Lacowa, of match. During theu- season of ritual bathing, they woreropelike head bands of shi-edded red cedar bark. They bathed ritu-ally, praying for fish in the following order (the sequence of the runs):sockeye (and sea trout), spring salmon and coho (which run at thesame time in Gold River), and dog salmon. kapinLacowa had ashrine out in the woods, with corpses and other things, that he usedin his ritual. These men also warned the people of the rules concern-ing treatment of the fish.It was necessary to be very careful when the sockeye run began.For example, when sliming the fish, the women had to lay them on amat, not on the bare ground. Nor might the wooden cutting boardsbe used for cutting sockeye. Sockeye bones were carefully collectedand returned to the water, so that after the run, when the fish assumedhuman form in their home, they would be short no parts. Matswere put down to collect the bones on. Even the split sticks in whichthe "backs" were roasted were carefully examined to make sure nosmall bones adhered to them. Fresh salmon of any kind, and thedried backbones, could never be given to another tribe (away from Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 177the fishing station) for the bones had to be returned to the river theycame from. Should the Salmon-people note that their kin werehobbling about in Salmon Land without arms, or legs, or other essen-tial members, they would become angry and refuse to return to theriver in which they had been mistreated. Salmon heads could notbe cut off, but had to be pulled off the backbone after broiling.The first catch of sockeye at a'aminqas was brought into the chief'shouse and laid on new mats, with the heads pointing upstream.kapinLacowa, or haha'umehic (a name said to refer to "bringingfish") as he was called at this time, sprinkled the fish with eagle down,thanking them for returning to the river and giving thanks also to theFour Chiefs. Then a roof plank over the fireplace was shoved aside,and he sprinkled down over the fire, so that it was wafted out by thecolumn of warm air and smoke. After these thanks had been given,a woman tied the corner of her blanket over her head so no hairwould fall on the fish, and slimed and cut them for broiling. Thiswas done for the fu'st sockeye, and the first catch of spring salmon,but not for dog salmon at Gold River.When people who dwelt on salt water came to a'aminqas in sockeyetime, they were not allowed to proceed immediately to stations upGold River, but had to stop 4 days at the mouth of the stream, bath-ing morning and evening with stale urine and fresh water, to removethe odor of salt water. After the 4 days they could go up to set thetraps.The rites of tribes of the Central group are less perfectly recalled,due, perhaps, to the stronger missionary influences (as at Hesquiatand Clayoquot), but the bits collected indicate that they were muchthe same as those of the Northern Nootkans. I shall not recountthe rites for the First Herring in detail, for the descriptions differedbut little from those of the salmon observances.Whales were ritually treated from the beginning of the hunt. Inaddition to the vigorous bathing of the harpooner and his crew, thewhaler's wife had an important ritual part once the actual hunt began.She represented the whale, for the time being, and had to lie quietlyon her bed, covered with new mats. If she moved about, the whalewas restless, and difficult or impossible to approach. A slug wasoften put on top of the mats that covered her, to show by its move-ments which way the whale turned. A variation of this practice wasrelated by a Moachat informant, who claimed the whaler's wife laydown only after the whale was struck, when a small canoe broughtthe harpoon shaft ashore to place it over the bed. Her remainingmotionless on the bed caused the wounded cetacean to run but ashort ways. 17? BUREAU or AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144Some of the towing chants used by whalers reflect interesting con-cepts. The whale was addressed by the title for "chief's wife," or"Queen" (to use the interpreters' usual term), was attracted to thewhaler's wife, and was attracted by a drink of fresh water (althoughthe Eskimo whaler's custom of actually offering the beached whalefresh water was denied by informants) . One Ahousat towing song was a simple chant, repeated over andover as the men paddled. It consisted of the phrase: yutsatcict a:haquma, which may be translated colloquially as, "Take it easy, 'queen.' "Another Ahousat song went as follows:tsuhuya, tsuhuya (go on, go on)wohaiyi hai'qhtcaiye wohayis (penetrating [like] Feathered Serpentpenetrating)qo'atstop, yahiyt', yahiya'. (you are a person [the last two words aremeaningless]) . In other words, "Go on, go on, going through [the waves] as theFeathered Serpent goes through [the mountains], person."A Hesquiat towing song is:hi hi hi (meaningless)utsapi' ima, hi hi (go straight toward)hilots tceha (there wife supernatural treasure)susiis ciLuks tceha (swim to where supernatural treasure).Informants considered that the whaler meant by this to tell thewhale that his (the whaler's) wife was a supernatural treasure, i. e..that the word tceha refers to her.A Moachat towing song is:ha: haquma (ha: chief's wife ("queen") [i. e., the whale])tsapi'ima: (go straight toward)tcamasukwi tca'ak (sweet that water)wonulsitas ([at] wonulsitas [the name of a place on the beach])."Ah, 'queen,' go straight to wonulsitas, where the water is sweet."Once the whale was brought in, the principal rite was that per-formed over the "saddle," the strip of blubber over the back in frontof and behind the "fin." At Ahousat it was said that the saddle(tcakwosi) was measured off according to the size of the whale, thatis to say, the piece cut bore a definite relationship to the size of thecarcass but it was not clear just how this was computed. Elsewhere,it was cut at points four spans forward and abaft the "dorsal fin,"and clear down either side to the "wrinkles" or "creases" on thewhale's belly. As soon as it was cut ofl" it was carried up to the whaler'shouse, to be put on a rack there. The whaler's wife led the procession,singing. Before being hung up, the chunk of blubber was adorned Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 179with shredded dyed cedar bark to which feathers were attached(apparently the bark was sewn onto the edge at intervals), and whenit was on the rack, white down was sprinkled on it. A small canoewas put under it to collect the oil that dripped out. Nightly, for thatnight and the tliree succeeding ones, the whaler and his wife and thewhaleboat crew assembled to sing special songs in honor of the saddle.During this time both the whaler and his wife drank water from aspecial spring brought in a special wooden pail (both spring andbucket were marked with feathers so that other persons would notuse them) . A close relative cooked for them during this time. After4 days, all the men were invited in "to take down the tcakwosl."They came in gala dress, their lower jaws painted red, and wearingshredded dyed cedar-bark head bands with one feather stuck in backof their heads. There were two men designated to tend to the cooking.They wore two feathers in their head bands (referring probably to theya'ai spirits), and had special tongs, also adorned with feathers, tohandle the strips of blubber. The blubber was cut in strips one-fingerwide (it would be from 4 to 6 inches thick), in lengths estimated tojust reach the ground when one end was held to the mouth of asquatting man (the men squatted as they ate their strips) . There were songs and dances for various stages of the proceedingsof cutting off the strips, heating water in a wooden box with hotstones, and cooking pieces of blubber. For these, the hands wereheld open in front of the body, palms toward the body, thumbsextended upward. The words of one of these songs I recorded asfollows : ani'is hmioqwa (I am doing this [referring to killing whales])haiyutsai tuituks Laqil (ten I have standing)taci ya'ai, hiya, hiya. ([at] door ya'ai [spirits]).In other words, as the song was explained to me, the singer says,"I am killing whales (because of the power of the) 10 ya'ai who standby my door."When the blubber was cooked, the guests sang in praise of thewhaler, then were given strips of blubber to eat. Each man ate allhe could; there were some who could eat four strips. Left-overscould not be taken home; all had to be eaten in the whaler's house.After the feast old women (those who had passed the menopause)could come in to eat up the scraps that were left. The oil from thesaddle was put in sea lion bladder (?) containers, specially markedwith two feathers, and saved for feasts during the winter. Thewhaler himself did not eat either blubber or oil from whales he hadkilled.A Hesquiat account of the treatment of the saddle follows. Itdiffers slightly from the preceding, and is point for point like the ritual ^?Q BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144described by a Moachat informant. Wlicn they brought the whale into the beach, the whaler himself cut the saddle. Sometimes he didthis, it was related, before the whale was actually on the beach; if theycame in at low tide, for example, they might moor the carcass and thenbring it well up with the flood tide, but meanwhile the whaler cut offthe portion to take up to his house. It was suspended over a rack, andadorned with shredded dyed cedar bark, in which two feathers hadbeen stuck, and sprinlded with down. The next day all the people(men and women) were called in to sing in honor of the saddle. Thissinging was called tcutcalc. The singers painted their lower jaws red,and wore dyed cedar-bark head bands with two vertical feathers.(The two feathers refer, I think, to the two feathers [or horns or ears,or whatever they were] of the ya'ai spirits.) There were fourtcutcalcyik (chants for the tcakwosi), each of which was repeated once.After each song, or eight times in all, whale oil was tin-own on the fire,while the people said, "ni:!" (an exclamation for ritual occasions).This was done for 4 days. On the fifth, there was a special song fortaking the tcakwosi down from the rack. It was cut into strips andcooked, then passed out to the guests. Left-overs, if there were any,might not be taken home; the people would have to be called in asecond time to eat them up, if they did not finish the pieces up thefirst time. The whaler himself ate none of his kill, except for thevery first he got; at that occasion he swallowed four small bits of rawblubber to insure continued success. The tip of the "fin" was savedand dried, to be kept by the whaler as a memento of his prowess.Great whalers had these tokens of all the whales they had killed intheir careers.It should be added that ritualists who "brought in" dead whales bytheir rituals at shrines nearly always performed the same rite over thesaddle as the harpooners, and like them dried and saved the tips ofthe "fins" of the whales they brought ashore.The observances for bears suggest the widespread "Bear Cere-monialism" in a general way, but in specific detail differ from theclassic form of the complex. The fact that bears were singled out forspecial treatment may indicate an ultimate connection, for it is diffi-cult to see why, of minor economic importance as they were, theyshould have received any attention at all.A bear trapper visited his set every fourth day. When he saw thathe had made a catch, he approached the deadfall with caution, thenshouted "nl:" four times. The bear was taken home and tied up inan upright posture in the rear of the house. Four white mats werelaid in front of him, and four freshly dried salmon were laid on each Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 181mat. Some person, perhaps the chief, sprinkled eagle down on thebear's head and welcomed him by saying, "We have waited for you tovisit us for a long time. Here is the eagle down you came to get."Flattering phrases were used as in welcoming an important chief;apparently the greeting was not a stereotyped formula but a speech ofwelcome. The bear was then dragged across to another part of thehouse to be skinned and cut up. Meanwhile, the chiefs of the otherhouses were invited in to partake of the bear feast. They ate thesalmon, which was theoretically given to them by the bear (it was"mamutskwlunl," the remnants of food which a chief took home froma feast and shared with his people). Then the bear was eaten?pre-sumably many people were invited for this part of the feast. Thetrapper himself rarely ate the meat. The bear trapper could give thefeast himself, but it was perhaps more decorous for him to give thecarcass to his chief, who would then do the necessary honors. Thebear's skull was not saved but was thrown away in the woods, awayfrom the water. The animal was not addressed as a kinsman. TheKyuquot informant said the usual mode of speaking to a bear?forexample, when women saw one near a berry patch, or thought theremight be one near?was to call it haqum, "chief's wife," or "queen."The women would shout at it to go away, using this title.THE SHAMANIn times prior to these modern decadent ones in which a commonercan attain an honored place in society by the expedient of inheritingchiefly prerogatives of distant kin, the shaman's career was one ofthe few means by which a person of humble origin could acquireprestige, and even a measure of wealth and privileges. One clearline of evidence to this conclusion is the fact that almost all of theshamans whose lives and miracles were recounted to me were of lowrank: commoners, or younger sons of chiefs. Of the real chiefs, onlythose of misty epochs of antiquity where history, legend, and mythimperceptibly blend, had time for shamanistic activities. This doesnot mean that chiefs did not search for spirit power or that they neverhad supernatural experiences like then- lesser kin. What happenedwas that a chief who encountered a spirit in the woods received songsand dances for a display privilege, or a ritual for increasing the salmonrun, or a medicine for hunting whales. Power to cure the sick fellto those persons of less importance who had time for it.The foregoing might be interpreted to mean that I believe, likeFather Brabant, that Nootkan shamans were cold-blooded fraudswho deliberately preyed on the gullibility of the ignorant. I am notof that opinion, and believe the good Father's judgment was influenced(apart from a deep-seated suspicion that such people were probably 132 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144in league with the Devil) by the fact that the shamans as a groupwere simultaneously an influential and very conservative segment ofthe population, who fought him because they saw in his missionizingnot only a threat to their profession but to Nootkan society and cul-ture. Time has shown that they were correct, just as Father Brabantwas correct in judging them to be his principal adversaries.The problem of who the shamans were and why is difficult toapproach because so many of our data are second-hand. Shamanismamong the Nootkans is a vanishing art, and I was unable to establishsufficient rapport with any of the few remaining persons who havepracticed as shamans to gain any insight into their personalities andmotivations.^^ First of all, however, we may dispose of the idea thatNootkan shamans were recruited from the ranks of the psychologicallyunstable. All of Pettitt's cogent arguments against such an inter-pretation of North American shamanism as a whole apply to theNootkans: the number of shamans appears to have been considerablygreater than the number of epileptoid and psychotic individuals(there is no evidence that such persons were more frequent amongthe Nootkans than among any other North American Indian group) ; the most of the shamans seem to have been mature individuals, andcontinued their art for many years with no hint of any early mentaldeterioration that is regarded characteristic of epileptoids; and, finally,the case histories of shamans suggest, from the hesitancy of beginnersand the apparent deft control of the curing situation of the experiencedelderly shamans, that they learned much as they practiced and thattheir success depended chiefly on above-average intelligence whichenabled them to profit by experience. (Cf . Pettitt, 1946, pages 119 ff.)The native's conventional attitude toward shamanism is that onewas encouraged from childhood on to seek power on the groundsthat shamanism offered a means of gaining much wealth, and that asuccessful practitioner could potlatch with the proceeds of his curingand "make his name great." From the practical point of view ashaman could do no such a thing, and intelligent persons must haverealized it. In ancient times a man of lower rank could win praiseand esteem by contributing wealth to his chief to be used in pot-latching, but no one but a chief of high rank could potlatch for him-self. In more recent times, even when reduction of population left achief's titles and prerogatives to be claimed by distant low-rankkinsmen (so that a commoner or low-rank chief could potlatch whenmaking a claim to such heritages), the fees of a lifetime would hardlyamount to the minimum amount of money one needed to be able to " The missionary campaign to extirpate shamanism by claiming them to be frauds, and exposing tlicin toridicule, has made the few aged cx-professionalists very chary of discussing the subject with any whitepersons. Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TEIBES 183give one major potlatch. The usual fees, when informants wereyoung and shamans were many, ran from 4 to 10 dollars, in cash or inkind, though occasionally chiefs paid more liberally for cures. Topotlatch one had to have a nucleus of $300 or $400, at the very least,plus all his kin would give him, and as each shaman performed but afew cures a year, so far as one may judge from informants' remarks,it is obvious that no shaman could potlatch often on the proceeds ofhis profession. The pay for curing was very cheerfully accepted, butit could scarcely have been the major goal of shamanism.Discussion of shamanism with informants leaves one with a sharpimpression of the respect the people had for shamans, and the interestin the curing performances. The entire village usually turned outfor the latter, to sit wide-eyed, watching. The shaman himself wasthe focus of this attention. And a shaman was nearly always treated,it would seem, with the deference due to one who has another worldpeopled by potent fearsome beings at his very fingertips and who maysomeday use this power to save any one of the onlookers from death.This deference was, perhaps, occasionally colored by the fear that theshaman's powers might not be for good only. I am convinced thatdesire for prestige was the major motive for becoming a shaman. Itoffered one of the very few means by which a person who enjoyed fewor no hereditary honors could win widespread public recognition. Wemay assume then that shamans were probably the better-endowedmentally of the people of lower rank who sought prestige throughshamanism because it was one of the few channels of self-expressionallowed them. They would have the proper supernatural adventurebecause of the pressure of their subconscious desire for the recognitionthey realized it would give them.Shamanism was a pursuit open to women as well as to men. In-deed, in recent times there seem to have been more female than maleshamans. Most informants believe that the most powerful shamanswere men, however. A shaman was called either Loqwona, ortictakiyu, interchangeably. The second term appears to have beena bit more commonly used by Central Nootkans. In theory, powerwas as likely to be encountered by chance as found after a deliberatequest, but actually it was almost always sought. That the seekerwent about his quest, quietly and without fanfare on the grounds thatit was strictly his own business was probably what gave rise to thetales of chance encounter. Often, an elder relative who was a shamanwould take a child under his (or her) tutelage, telling the youngsterhow to do the ritual bathing to prepare for meeting the spirits, whatto do to overcome the kinds of beings he might meet, and often,indeed would take the child along on trips to the ritual bathing place.The obvious result of such coaching was that not only was the child's 234 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144interest aroused, but he was conditioned to expect to find certainspirits, and usually did find them. Thus both shamanism and sha-manistic spirits, while not hereditary, tended to run in certain families.It appears from the accounts that some shamans began their questsin childhood. However, children were not expected to stand therigors of the serious sphit quest, and such statements probably meanthose individuals showed interest by practicing mild forms of ritualbathing. Others, similarly counseled perhaps, showed no interestin the profession until maturity or even middle age. Success in thespirit quest did not depend on age. Rather it depended on the vigorwith which the preparatory cleansing was done, plus the seeker'sknowledge (and presence of mind) by means of which he overcame thesupernatural being that he found.The preparatory ritual bathing was just like that for seeking anypower: hunting luck, wealth, or whatever one wanted. One bathedin a lake, or pond, or in salt water, rubbing his body with bundles ofbranches, during the waxing of the moon. The bathing place, thekind of plant used to mortify the flesh, and the songs and prayers forsupernatural aid all depended on the advice of one's elders and onhereditary family secrets. Continence was absolutely mandatory.Fasting was not, but one seriously interested in his quest would eatsparingly, and would wait for his food to cool, hot steaming thingsbeing objectionable to the spnits. This procedure might be carriedon month after month, year in and year out, before the seeker encoun-tered his spirit. In fact, many men carried out this ritual bathing fora few nights (ordinarily four) each moon, for good luck and well-beingin general, without ever finding a supernatural being. Others foundspirits soon after begimiing the quest.When the encounter came, early or late, it was dramatic. Someunusual noise would attract the seeker's attention, and turning, hewould see the vision he had sought so long. The power of the appari-tion made itself felt immediately in a sensation of dizziness or wealoiessthat swept over the finder. Some people fainted dead away, comingto hours later, with blood stiU triclding from mouth, nose, and ears,and even from the temples and the hollows over the collar bones, sopotent was the spirit power. Only the ritually best prepared had thestrength to withstand the supernatural emanations long enough togive a ritual cry (ekcil, "to call out * ?:!' ") and take the necessarysteps to overcome the spirit. Less well endowed individuals performedthis ritual after coming out of their faint or trance, often over sometoken which the spirit had left behind, since the spirits did not waitaround while the mortal revived.The spirits from whom one might receive shamanistic powers werebeyond counting. Many were the same as those from whom chiefs' Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 185prerogatives?songs, dances, and display privileges or wealth powers ? were obtained; others served only for the curing profession. Amongthe more common of the former we find the ya'ai, strange beings withmanlike but hairy bodies, and feathered ears; and the supernaturalcanoe, winatcict, believed by some, but not all informants to havebeen manned by ya'ai. Some people received curing power from theWolves. Of the second class?visions specifically and only forshamans?were some peculiar manifestations such as the kuhumatqa,"rattling," sometimes referred to as Lusyultcas or Lolsyultc'as (nottranslated literally), which consisted of a right hand sticking out ofthe ground grasping a shaman's rattle. If the finder were rituallyclean (having bathed frequently, and practiced continence) and gavethe proper ritual cry, the hand disappeared leaving a small rattle whichserved the finder as a token of the experience. (Once in a while someoneencountered a left hand with a rattle, and no matter what he did, howritually clean he was, or how he called out, he died from the malignpower of the vision.)It is interesting to note that in this case there was no specific beinginvolved in the encounter, or at least, nothing that we would regardas one, but the Indians considered it the equivalent of a completespirit. More like the common North American Indian guardian spiritwas a shamanistic vision of a Squirrel that sang and shook a shaman'srattle alongside a rotten log that writhed and groaned. The finderhad to give a ritual cry and strike the Squirrel with a stick. The logthen lay still, the Squirrel disappeared, and the tiny rattle was left as atoken of the encounter. Less frequently a Mink is mentioned as beingencountered in this fashion. Apparitions such as these are, of course,of what may be termed the "classic" type, known to laymen from well-known incidents in the folk literature. If a shaman intimated that hehad encountered a supernatiu'al rattle in the woods or that his visionhad to do with a Squirrel or a Mink it was assumed that he had hadone of these specific experiences. Informants are so explicit in de-scribing the spirit encounter of some famous shaman that it was sometime before I realized that the real experience might vary considerablyfrom the stereotyped ones. Part of this results from the fact thatshamans were chary of relating theii- adventures in detail. Theymerely hinted at, or alluded to, their spirit, except on the rare occasionson which they confided in members of their immediate families. Thereason seems to have been that a really minute account would containvaluable information that would assist anyone who knew it in findingthe same spirit, and therefore, like the secret plant medicines andindividual rituals for health, luck, and the like, should be kept to one'sself, or at most transmitted to a member of the family. There seems Jgg BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144to have been no feeling that to tell these things would endanger theshaman or weaken his own power.A few individuals claimed visions in which common supernaturalmanifestations were combined. Thus a noted Kyuquot practitioner,saw the supernatural "Solsticial Tide," which gave prosperity andabundance, over which the winatcict came sailing?from the latter hereceived his power to cure.Just what occurred in the complete encounter, in which the finderof power triumphantly overcame his spirit, could not be explained byany informant. At the sound of the ritual cry, and whatever accom-paniment was required?a particular phrase, a blow with a stick, thespitting of blood from a cut or bitten tongue?the spirit usually"turned to foam," or disappeared, leaving some object behind as atoken. Informants often speak of this as "killing" the supernaturalbeing, yet it was not the same as killing any hving being, for the spiritshortly appeared again to the finder, and apparently kept on function-ing in normal spirit fashion. The process would be better phrased as"capturing" or "dominating" the spirit. But Nootkan philosophy wasnot yet at the stage in which precision of meaning was required?they"killed" then- spirits and kept right on dealing with them.The "Wolves, remarkable beings that they were, were the one out-standing exception to the pattern of killing or overcoming one'sshamanistic guardian spirit. It was not uncommon for them to givemedicines or tokens of power, then trot off, reappearing in the dreamsof the favored mortal to instruct him further. Still more frequentlythey made their gifts out of sheer gratitude to persons who had thekindness of heart and the courage to remove fishbones stuck in a Wolf'sthroat, or wedged in his gums. Several tales of former times when .men were of sterner stuff than nowadays, tell of men who ran head oninto a Wolf while ducking under a fallen log across the trail. Theviolence of the blow knocked both man and beast unconscious. If theman on coming to had the wit to set about reviving the Wolf, insteadof worrying about his oa\ti aching head, he was certain to be rewardedby the grateful animal. As remarked, however, such kindly and gra-cious relationships between men and spirits were limited to encountersof men and Wolves. In all other encounters there was an initialantagonism, and a bitter, if brief, conflict for dominance.The bit of foam into which the spmt was transformed, or the token ? a rattle, a bit of dyed cedar bark, a bundle of medicinal leaves, apainted pebble, or whatever it might be?had to be preserved. Inthe case of foam, the finder sopped it up in a strip torn from hisblanket. Tokens of a more solid kind were wrapped up in a similarstrip. All the power of the spirit somehow resided in this fetishshould it be lost, the finder lost his control of the spirit, and conse- Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 187quently his shamanistic power. This concept is brought out in thefollowing case: When the elder sister of ML died, their sorrowingmother burned all the dead woman's belongings, her clothes, herfavorite possessions, and with them, the box in which she had kepther shaman's regalia, rattle, and fetishes. ML's shamanistic gearwas in the same box?she had the tokens of her supernatural adven-tures hidden in the handle of her own rattle?so it burned as well.From then on, she could no longer shamanize, she claimed.No seeker after power dared to forget, if he wished to avoid mis-fortune, that the encounter with a spirit was tremendously chargedwith danger. Should he not make his ritual cry, should he removehis gaze from the spirit, or should he not be in the proper state ofritual cleanliness, he and not the spirit would be vanquished. Hemight drop dead on the spot, or he might last to make his way home,to collapse in front of his house, with rigid limbs and horribly con-torted face. Sometimes, if called in time, a powerful shaman couldtake the malevolent spirit off him (the shamans who treated suchcases said they could see the spirit clinging like a leech to his victim'sback), but usually the unlucky one died.When a successful seeker after power returned home, his fetish wellhidden in the woods, he had to take certain precautions. Fresh fromcontact with the supernatural, enough spirit power clung to him tomake him dangerous to weaker mortals. Children especially werelikely to be made ill, or even die, because of the potency of the auraof power about him. Even adults who came close to him might bemade dizzy, nauseated, or faint. For that reason some men did notreturn home for a day or so; others would stay at one end of the beach,away from the houses. At Kyuquot it was customary to build a hutbehind the houses in which a finder of power passed 4 nights. Anyedible articles, fruits, fish, or game he might have in his possession atthe time of the encounter were sure to be so charged with power thatthey would be deadly poison for children, and would make adults whoate them violently ill. Consequently such things were thrown away.Even the containers in which they had been carried?baskets, buckets,and the like?were not brought home, but these ordinarily werecached in the woods along with the tokens of the encounter.If the finder of power had fallen in a faint, or a trancelike state atthe time of the encounter, the newly found spirit appeared to him totell of the power he would receive, or sang songs which the finderwould eventually learn and use in his curing. Individuals who with-stood the shock of the encounter might hear such songs before theproper moment came to give their ritual cry. In either case, thespirit continued to visit the future shaman night after night, toinstruct him in his profession. All the art of curing was taught in Igg BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144these nightly visitations. The songs he would use, the kind of facepaint and cedar-bark ornaments, all the procedure of diagnosing andcuring disease?all were learned by the shaman in dreams. Thus,informants stoutly maintain, there were no general shamans' stylesof face painting, of ornaments, of hair dress?each shaman had hiso^vn way of doing, according to what his spirit had told him.It sometimes happened that a person who fainted away at the timeof his encounter was found by friends or relatives unconscious.Naturally, he would be carried home, and examined by a shaman. Ifthe shaman diagnosed the case correctly, he usually announced to thefamily that so-and-so had encountered a supernatural power, andoffered to do what interpreters call "set his power right (i. e., prop-erly)," which means something like "shaman fixing." This same ritewas held over those who returned from a supernatural encounterunder their own power although not necessarily within such a shorttime after the adventure. The practitioner sang over the novice,sprinkled eagle down over him, and made scraping motions over hisbody, "gathering the power together" in the region of the solar plexus.Normally this required four nightly sessions. At Kyuquot, where anovice was kept in a separate hut 4 days and nights, this "fixing" wasusually done during the seclusion.The successful conclusion of the "shaman fixing" was indicated bythe novice making the ritual cry of the shaman?a gutteral, barkingcry of "hai! hai! hai! hai!" Making this cry, which was callednatcnatca, meant that the novice was definitely on the road to becom-ing a shaman. There was a certain amount of variation in the timefor this rite, however. Some people, on returning from a spiritencounter, told no one about it, but went on about their business until,perhaps, they had enough confidence in themselves as a result of con-tinued dreaming of the spirit, or until the spirit specifically told themto take the step. For practically speaking, it was the first publicindication of one's intention of following the shamanistic profession.(Of course, the word soon got about in the case of people carried homeunconscious, bleeding at mouth and nose, but those who enjoy^ed a lessspectacular homecoming might escape notice till they underwent this"fixing" rite.)All informants felt that the occasion of "fixing" the power waspotentially dangerous for the novice. An unscrupulous or jealouspractitioner could take advantage of the novice's debility and inex-perience by stealing his power from him. Just how this was done, noone could explain (nor obviously, would a practitioner admit knowing).There was a method of removing an evil or unwanted spirit frompatients, which involved wiping the four sides of his body (front, left,back, and right) four times each from head to foot with a bundle of Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 189shredded cedar bark, but to steal a spirit thus would be manifestlyimpossible in the presence of friends and relatives. There musthave been some less obvious means of taking the spirit, or the spiritpower, from a novice.The informant ML of the na'yitsauptakamlath, of Moachat, wasthe only person who had been a practicing shaman with whom thetopic was discussed. Certain features of her account are of particularinterest for the side light they cast on the individual's reactions tosupernatural experience. It will be noted, however, that in generalher experiences conform to the standard pattern as related by non-shamans?in other words, she revealed no trade secrets.Shamanism appears to have run in the family, on both sides, forML's mother's mother, her great grandmother, and her paternalgrandfather were noted shamans, as was also ML's elder sister.However, my impression is that this tendency for shamanism to runin a family, reported by other informants as well, derived from earlytraining rather than from some hereditary psychologic strain. WhenML was a child, her grandmother (the one who was a shaman) per-suaded the child to accompany her when she went to do her ritualbathing. The old woman rubbed the child's body gently with bundlesof a certain plant (the particular plant used was a family secret). Sheused to tell her granddaughter how to cure, how to find and take outthe disease objects, as well as what to do when she encountered ashamanistic power. ML continued this ritual bathing but in morestrenuous fashion, every "new" moon, until late in life.ML reached adulthood before she had a supernatural encounter.One day on the way to a spring she heard a strange noise in thewoods. She left her bucket by the trail while she went to investi-gate. Back in the bush she saw a dead log that seemed to be trem-bling, or moving, while a Squirrel ran from one side to the other,"doctoring" it. From time to time, the log groaned. As soon asML saw this, she fainted. Wliile unconscious, she "saw" (or dreamed)the way the Squirrel shamanized and heard his songs. When MLcame to, the Squirrel was still there. ML felt strangely weak. Shepicked up a stick and struck at the Squirrel, giving a ritual cry.The Squirrel disappeared and the log ceased moving. Where theSquirrel had been there was nothing to be seen but a few bits ofshredded cedar bark, which she picked up and saved. ML wenthome, leaving her bucket hidden. That night she began to cry outlike a shaman in her sleep, and sing the songs she heard in her dreams.She did this for a long time. Some time after this, she was out onthe beach at Bajo Point, one day, gathering small driftwood. Allat [once she saw two Wolves sitting close by looking at her. Shefainted instantly. When she awoke, there was nothing to be seen 29Q BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144of the Wolves, not even tracks. She searched, then saw a smallbright red object: a round pebble covered with fresh blood. Shehid it, and her wood basket too. When she returned to the house,her husband saw her. "Don't come in the house," he said. 'Tourface is pale; something has happened to you." So she sat on thebeach in front of the house. A neighbor came along the beach(behind her) and spoke to her suddenly. She famted. Her motherfound her lying there, and sprinkled water on her face to revive her.When ML revived, her mother said, "Don't stay here. Go back inthe woods, and find a place to bathe as your grandmother used totell you to do. You want to become a shaman?go about it properly."So ML went back into the woods. She bathed, using the magicalherbs, all that afternoon and night, singing all the while. Nothingappeared to her. In the morning she came back to the house.That night, she began to sing spirit songs. Her father's father cameand sang over her, to "fix her power." This process, called Loqwo-nlyapa (translated by some interpreters as "setting the doctorpower in place") could be performed by any estabhshed shaman.He sang over the novice, and worked over her with his hands, "gath-ering the power into one place," in the neighborhood of the solarplexus. ML's grandfather also gave her some medicinal leaves toeat; they were very bitter and unpleasant. The process was repeated"three or four times," "and then he tells you you're all right tostart doctoring." The informant specified that one should alwaysget some shaman who was a relative to do this "fixing," for two verypractical reasons, to wit: A kinsman won't steal your power, andsecond, he won't charge so much. Then she danced and sang thesongs she had learned in her dreams.The informant stressed that one didn't begin to sing spirit songsin this way of his own volition. He did so because (his) supernaturalbeings came to him and told him to sing. "They come close to youwhile you sing, and tell you how to sing, and to dance, and how touse your hands when you cure. All this they tell you while you sing."Similarly the gear that shamans used: their supernatural beingsprescribed the type of rattle, whether or not the token of the super-natural encounter (such as the shredded cedar bark left by theSquirrel, and the bloody pebble left by the Wolves) should be wrappedup in the handle of the rattle, the kind of red cedar bark ornamentsto wear, and the like. Apparently with the singing, the spirits aredrawn close, and become visible to the shaman, and converse withhim, or her. But that they ever "possessed" the shaman, in theclassic sense, was denied by the former practitioner just as roundlyas by lay informants.Once his power had been fixed, the novice shaman began a period Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 191of training. The behavior of each novice differed, since each did ashis spirit told him to, and no one can expect consistent behaviorpatterns of spirits. The general outlines of the procedure werecommon to most novices, however. Some night, after the officialfixing, the novice would be told by his spirit, in a dream, to sing, sohe had to begin one of the spirit's songs. Often he was made todance. (This singing, or singing and dancing, was designated bythe same term as the making of the shamans' ritual cry, natcnatca.)For certain types of songs it was required that the novice's house-mates drum for him on boards, and sing with him. As he sang anddanced his spirit came closer and closer, until it was plainly visibleto him. It showed him how to dance, and sang new songs, whoserefrain he picked up. As the novice continued to sing, and his super-natural power became stronger, he was conscious only of the spiritbefore him, urging him on. The housemates chanting and drummingthe beat of his frenzied dance faded into the shadows of the back-ground, until the only real presence before him in the firelight washis supernatural mentor. At the spirit's whim, he continued todance, or ceased, or danced out of the house and through the otherhouses of the village. Or he might be made to go singing through theeerie dark woods to be taught greater mysteries at the lonely ritualbathing pool. No one was permitted to follow him. No one butthe supernatural being knew where he would go, or when he wouldreturn.Occasionally individuals were cynical enough to make use of thepattern of the novice shaman's erratic comings and goings for secularpurposes. There is a yarn told at Kyuquot about a young marriedwoman who began to dance the novice dance at night. She woulddance round and round the house, then out into the woods to com-mune with her spirit power. Actually she was meeting her lover,and spending the night in the woods with him, while her husbandsat at home, very content in thinking that she was well on the wayto becoming a shaman. Finally someone surprised the adulterouspair, the word got around, and her husband sent her home.The frequency with which a novice (a real one) danced, varied withthe whim of his spirit. He might dance many nights in succession,then leave off dancing for a moon or two. He might have to batheritually every night of the moon's waxing, or only occasionally.Meanwhile, of course, he was being instructed by the spirit in diag-nosing and curing procedures, and learning the medicinal value ofvarious plants. When the spirit finally told him he was ready tocommence his practice, he announced himself ready, but not till then.Among the Central Nootkan tribes the culminating performances ofthe novice dance included rather spectacular sleight-of-hand stunts. J92 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144Northern Nootkan shamans did not do this. Some shamans dancedas novices for a few months; the novitiate of others lasted from 2to 4 years.Of course, by the time the new shaman was ready to practice,everyone knew about him. His novice dances always lasted longenough for that. People even knew in a general way, what his powerwas, for his songs alluded, for example, to the ya'ai, if his spirit werea ya'ai, or to the supernatural canoe, winatcict, if that was what hehad found. Likewise, they usually knew what his shaman-namewould be, for that too was mentioned in his songs. The propermethod of hanging out one's shingle was to give, or ask one's chiefto give a feast, at which it would be announced that the novice wasnow a full-fledged shaman, and could be called on to cure the sick.A chief could be counted on to give such a feast, because he was akinsman. The shaman-name (Luqwitkyukh) was announced at thistime also. As might be expected, the name was given by the spirit.These names usually referred to the spirit, or to features of shamanism.Thus, the names "ya'aitsuis," and "yatsusis" refer to "ya'ai (abovethe ocean)"; "maiyalwinul" contains the word "maiyal (diseaseobject)," as does the name of a great Muchalat shaman, "maiyala'ak."With this, the new professionalist was ready to begin his practice.During his long training and novitiate, he had learned the magic ofcuring. He had sung his spirit songs, and danced to them, in hisown house and in neighboring ones?by now they were known to hishousemates and kin, so he could always recruit a chorus of singersto help him. By means of the same novice dances, his new callinghad been advertised far and wide, and the formal announcement ofit at the chief's feast had made the news oflBcial. He was ready tosit back and let the world wear down the path to his door.Henceforth he was a person of consequence, one regarded by hisfellows with a certain awe, not to mention their admiration at hispopularly over-rated earning capacity.Shamans, during the novitiate period, wore ornaments (head-,arm-, and leg-bands) of loosely twisted rolls of shredded red cedarbark. (This type of decoration, it will be noted, is the same as thatused at so many points in the Shamans' Festival, and in the variousdance series of the Kwakiutl.) Once his novitiate was concluded, theshaman wore no distinctive insignia when not actually engaged incuring. The only formal observance was that no one should passclose behind him as he ate. Carvings representing the shaman'sfamiliar spirit (cf. the Coast Salish "tamanawus sticks") were notmade. The only carvings representing supernatural beings werethose of "display privileges" shown at potlatches. Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 193The Northern Nootkan shaman's rattle (kuhmln) was usuallymade of mountain sheep horn, obtained from the mainland throughtrade with the Kwakiutl, bent double after steaming and shapedaround a short wooden handle. It had pebbles for sounders. Holeswere drilled along the joined edges so that long strands of shreddedred cedar bark could be rove through. I neglected to find out if therattles were m.ade locally of the imported materials, or bought alreadymade. Some token of the supernatural encounter was usually con-cealed under the wrappings of the handle. Central Nootkan in-formants reported similarly shaped shaman's rattles of baleen.Perhaps the horn rattles are relatively recent innovations.It should not be thought that a shaman, once estabhshed in hiscareer, rested on his laurels. Like our own men of medicine he soughtto improve his professional qualifications. This he did by continuingto seek supernatural encounters, since it was from the spirits that helearned his arts of healing. It would seem that the first spirit, lilcethe first olive out of the bottle, was the most difficult to get, for mostshamans had a long succession of spirit encounters after the one thatoriginally gave them power. The routine was the same, save that thenovice dances were not repeated. The same term, natcnatca, wasused, however, for the singing that shamans did occasionally at nighttime (at the behest of their spirits, of course). This was not a strenu-ous performance, however: the shaman sat or stood in the darknessand sang. The ones who paid the piper were his housemates wholost sleep on account of the singing. One old shaman of whom inform-ants spoke was too comfort-loving to bother to get up when his spiritcompelled him to sing. He used to lie in his bed singing at the topof his voice.A shaman pursued his calling by sitting waiting to be called on.This did not prevent his engaging in routine affairs, such as fishing,or attending festivities, or going on a war party. As a matter offact, the distinction between wealth tokens and subsistence wealth(the latter consisting in ownership of fishing and gathering rights)meant that one could not earn a livelihood in our sense by shamanizingeven had the fees been larger and calls more frequent. There werea few shamans of whom it is related that they never worked?neverfished or hunted, but "lived on what they made by curing"?butthese statements prove to be exaggerations. Such noted personagesmay have potlatched for themselves and been able to assemble a groupof poorer relatives to fish and gather for them, with inheritance ofnames and territories due to the dwindling away of chiefly lines inrecent times. But by so doing, they were assuming the role of a chief,and were stepping clear out of their status as shamans. J94 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144A number of accounts of spirit quests and encounters are given inthe following pages. All but the first are conventional accounts andfor that reason give Uttle information on the process by which onemastered the shaman's art, attributing it to teaching by one's spirit orspirits; the unconventional account is that of a man who did notsucceed in his quest, so it does not give us much insight into thisparticular problem either. Nonetheless, each case history offersinteresting hints on shamanism: the seeker after power who had hisentire outfit, cedar-bark head band, rattle, and all, ready when hissupernatural visitation came; another shaman who is said to have"practiced" his curing procedure on a corpse; the man who was per-plexed because his supernatural adventure varied in detail from theconventional ones that he had expected. If the preceding generahzeddescription of the way one became a shaman differs in some respectsfrom the standard procedure that informants give, it is because suchhints as these have colored my opinions.The spirit quest of the informant MJ contains a good deal of inter-esting information. MJ, a man in his late forties or early fifties whenthese data were collected, had carried on a quest intermittently sincehis teens without success. His interest, in the beginning, was owingto repeated urging by his mother and her sister, both of whom werepracticing shamans, that he should become one. His persistence seems . to stem from an emotional basis of the association of shamanism withthose two persons. Just why he had not been successful is difficultto judge. At one time he was quite bitter, for he beheved that hismother had intentionally lied or withheld some important informationfrom him on how to obtain power, but was finally convinced that herinstructions were correct. It may be, that being a practical, some-what methodical individual, he required a more sharply defined andconvincing vision or dream experience on which to base a claim ofspirit power than did other seekers. MJ tried very hard to acquirepower, for he wanted it very badly. I hope that by now his desirehas been satisfied.He began the tale of his quest by saying that his mother time andtime again used to tell him and his sister that they should becomeshamans, so they would become rich. His sister was not interested,but he was. One night (he estimated when he was about 12 yearsold) he asked her, "Mother, how did you become a shaman?" Shehad told many times of bathing rituals and supernatural experiencesin generalized terms, but seems never to have related her own super-natural encounter in detail before. She had been a young girl whenshe had her first adventure with a supernatural being. At a lake in thewoods she saw a young man bathing, and fainted (because it was Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 195 really a ya'ai spirit that she saw). Her companions found her uncon-scious. They threw water on her face to revive her; she sat up maldnga gutteral cry like that shamans use. She told them not to come toonear her, and to precede her down the trail home, for she had had asupernatural encounter. She also made them promise to tell no one.That night she dreamed of a young man, who told her, "Too bad youdidn't get me when you first saw me (i. e., she should have given aritual cry on seeing him). You would have been a great shaman.You should have known what to do." Next morning, on awaking,she realized she had no token of her encounter. With another girl, shereturned to the lake, but found nothing where the spirit had been buta few scraps of rotten wood. Her companion found some strangetracks that led off through a swamp.Following them they came to a fallen cedar, in a crack of which wasa fir knot all worn down smooth. This obviously was the spirit's obj ectfor rubbing his body. There were also many fragments of maiden-hair fern stems about. Her companion pointed out that she shouldrub her body with the knot, and eat some of the fern, each time shebathed. Some tim.e later she returned to the lake, ate bits of the fern,and rubbed her body with the knot, but nothing happened. Thenext time she bathed there "her power came over her all of a sudden.She began to tremble all over." After this she began to dream (of theya'ai spirit), and learned to be a shaman. (Apparently no furthervision experience was connected with her becoming a shaman, or theinformant neglected to relate it; according to his account he inter-rupted her at this point in her story to ask how many times she bathedin all, and was told only twice, after finding the knot. On a lateroccasion she encountered a ya'ai spirit, however, from whom shereceived increased shamanistic powers, and a name, ya'ai'aksu'; andalso two masks to display in potlatches. This was said to have beena chance encounter, not preceded by a deliberate quest.) The inform-ant's interest in the story was in the detailed procedure of bathingthat his mother had followed. The following year when the familymoved up Gold River for the sockeye run, he persuaded his mother toshow him the lake. She took him to it, and even showed him the trailback into the swamp. MJ did not go back for some years, until afterhe was married. Finally he decided to try. He went to the littlelake, and there searched for a long time until he found a hard fir knotlike that his mother had described. He ate some fronds of maiden-hair fern, and began to bathe, rubbing his body with the knot. Hebathed all day for many days (while the moon was waxing). Hetried to wear the knot down smooth as his mother had said that of theya'ai was. But it was too hard; his body was all scratched and soreand the knot was as rough and unworn in appearance as when he had 295 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144found it. At night he wished to dream, but all he dreamed of wascards. He seemed to see two Jacks and two nines constantly in hisdreams. Finally he gave up for a time. It was then that he accusedhis mother of lying and concealing information from him, but sheinsisted she had told him every important feature of the quest. Itwas about that same time that he quizzed his "aunt" about how shehad found her power. He recalled that he was lying with his head inher lap, and she stroked his head as she said, "I'll tell you, my son."Then she told him that his mother had told him the truth, but thatit was harder to have a supernatural experience than it used to be(because more white man's goods and customs were in use). Sheherself had had a chance encoimter, she claimed, without a prior quest.She had found a fallen log trembling while a rattle sounded, and whenshe gave a ritual cry, a small rattle fell from the log, which she re-covered and hid. At his insistence she promised to show him therattle, "but she never did, so maybe she was lying too." In any case,she so animated him that he continued his ritual bathing each waxingof the moon for 2 or 3 years.During this time he continued to dream of the cards. Finally hegave up the ritual bathing. He began to play cards frequently,thinking that his dream would give him luck at gambling. Hethought that Jacks and nines should be lucky for him, and bet heavilyon them. But he invariably lost on them; they were bad, not goodluck, for him. Sometimes he could tell when a Jack or a nine wascoming up; he had a sensation of uneasiness, and sure enough, itturned up and lost for him.From time to time he resumed his quest. One year he began thepractice of bathing while living at Friendly Cove, going from oneend of the beach to the other. He continued until finally he camedown with some illness from the prolonged exposure, and was curedonly after repeated treatments by several noted shamans. He gaveup again for a time. His interest continued, for he used to ask allthe shamans he knew how they had got their power, and what it was;most of them would tell him only the barest outlines. He alsoassisted frequently at shamanistic stances. After his wife died, in1931 or 1932, in a dream he heard a voice telling him to use certainplants, scrubbing his arms only, not his entire body. He had aplace in the woods back of the cannery where he went to bathe duringthe waxing of the moon, and was still hoping his ritual would even-tually bring him shamanistic power.tukwit, or "Doctor Billy," as he was known to the whites, was afamous Moachat shaman of recent times. He began his power questwhile still a young man (his first child, now a middle-aged woman, was Dnicker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 197 still an infant v/hen he became a shaman). He used to bathe rituallyregularly, and constantly chewed leaves of some plant (presumablya secret family medicine for the power quest) . One night, at FriendlyCove, many people had assembled to gamble, when a man came intothe house saying someone "was lying dead down on the beach."They all ran out, to find tulvwit sprawled unconscious on the sand.Suspecting what had happened, they did not carry him into thehouse, but sent a canoe to tcecis to fetch a shamaness, hwina'l. Sheshamanized over him, then announced that he would recover: he hadencountered a "lucky" supernatural being, and had obtained power,tulcwit came to then. He told the people that he had started for thehouse where the game was to be held when he met a man (or he tookhim for a man in the darkness) who said, "Go by on this (left) sideof me." tukwit did so, and fell unconscious. This was all he evertold about his supernatural benefactor. No one, except perhaps hisimmediate family, learned just what his spirit was. After relatinghis adventure, he fainted. The shamaness said he could be takeninto the house. They put a curtain (of blankets or mats) aroundhis bed. He lay there unconscious for "several" days, probably four.When they laid him on his bunk his aged grandmother, who was totake care of him, sprinlded him with down. The people in the househad to be quiet while he was there. Suddenly one night tul^wit satup in his bed, crying out, "hai'! hai'!" He emerged from his cubiclenaked, and ran to the doorway. The informant's father said, "Whydon't you go with him? (i. e., to make ready to become a shaman)."The informant answered, "I can't. He's going too far." Theinformant despite his ardent quest, had not had the fortune toencounter a supernatural being, tulvwit did not return until thefollowing night, and then, when he entered the house, he came insinging and dancing in the style of novice shamans, natcnatca.People assembled to sing for him. He didn't tire, despite his longfast, but danced in the strenuous fashion of the novice shaman-leaping about in a squatting posture?"as light as a feather." Hedanced 4 nights. His family began to worry over his fasting. Hiswife asked why he didn't eat; he replied that he was keeping up hisstrength by eating his (plant) medicine. The morning after thefourth night of natcnatca, tukwit arose and put on a shirt and blanket.He took a turbanlike head band of shredded red cedar bark and ashaman's rattle of mountain sheep horn, with streamers of shreddedcedar bark from a box. (He had had this gear ready for some time.)He stalked out of the house, wearing his head band, and shaking therattle softly. He was gone for 2 days. After his return he becamea famous shaman. 198 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144witapi, younger brother of an Ehetisat chief, was a noted shaman.His first supernatural encounter was with a ya'ai. The accountmakes it appear that this was a chance encounter, not a deliberatequest, but, of course, he may have been preparing himself in secret.He had set out one fall to hunt ducks. He heard a supernaturalsound; and fainted. When he came to, he splashed water on his faceto revive himself fully, just as the sound was repeated. Four timesthis occurred. Then he heard the song of the ya'ai, and four of themappeared "all black," each with a white feather slanting back oneither side of his head, witapl gave his ritual cry, and "got" the firstof the four ya'ai; that is, the first turned into foam and the other threedisappeared. (It was stated that to "get" the last ya'ai of a group"is bad luck"; however, this may have been so for this family only, asother accounts tell of getting the last one without ill effects.) witapistayed up the river for 4 days, fasting and ritually bathing, then re-turned home empty-handed. He said he'd seen no ducks. He re-ceived curing power from the ya'ai, and when doctoring wore a redcedar bark head band with a feather slanting back on each side.Some time later he encountered another shamanistic power: heheard the sound of a rattle out in the woods, and then saw a Squirrelshaking the rattle and singing a shamanistic song over a rotten log.witapi gave a ritual cry, and the Squirrel disappeared, leaving therattle lying on the ground.He had two other powers as well, but the informant did not knowwhat they were.yatsusis, of Ehetisat, had sought supernatural power for a long time,bathing ritually, etc. He went out for wood one day, and did notreturn. The informant's father sent four men to look for him to callhim to a feast the chief was giving to the men of his house. Theyfound him lying in his canoe, unconscious and covered with blood, butstill breathing. The men stripped him hastily to look for a wound,but found none, so they knew that he had encountered a supernaturalbeing. They brought him home in their canoe, yatsusis came to,looked about, and said " Where are we going?" (This may be a refer-ence to his supernatural experience?he "found" a supernaturalcanoe.) He began to bleed from the mouth and ears, and lay downagain. It was late when they brought him into the house. Threeshamans were called to work on him. None of the three shamanscould detcrmme what had happened to him. There was a womanshaman there who had not been called in professionally, but had comem to watch, like a layman. The people called for her to try. She satby yatsusis, putting her hands on his body, and began to sing. In ashort while she announced that yatsusis had seen a "good" super- Dmcker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 199natural being, one that gave shamanistic power. Then she said,"I'm going to fix him so he gives his shaman's cry." She sang again,and then he made the gutteral, barking, cry of the shaman, "hai'!hai'! hai'! hai'!" She told the people not to bother him, but to coverhim and leave him there. She sprinlded eagle down over him. yatsusislay there for 4 days. Then he gave his shaman's call and got up.From time to time, during the ensuing 4 years, yatsusis danced.He might dance for a number of consecutive nights, then not for sometime?all according to the instructions he received in his dreams. Aspirit in the supernatural canoe had "given" him the songs, the kindof dance, the type of red cedar bark head band, and the rattle that heused. He danced in a fashion called taktakmit, in a squatting posture,"bouncing along on his toes," and extending his arms first to one sidethen to the other. A group of women formed a chorus standingaround him, holding feathers in their hands, and singing and dancing.All the people assembled to watch.After 4 years of this novitiate dancing his kinsman the chief invitedthe people to a feast, to announce to them that yatsusis was now ashaman and they could send for him when they were Ul.yatsusis had further supernatural experiences, but he did not haveto dance over them. Sometimes he would sing in the night (i. e., ifinstructed to in a dream). The second spirit he encountered wasLolsyul tc'as, "right hand sticking out of the ground." Sometimelater he found a kuhmata'a'tu, "rattle coming down [from the sky]."Still later, as he and his wife were out gathering "siwash rhubarb,"he saw a titcsai'yatc, "always follow," a being like a small silverylizard, with no taU. He wrapped the titcsai'yatc in his blanket, andcut blanket and all in four pieces, which he hid. (If one doesn't dothis, the being will follow him wherever he goes, hence the name.) Hekept only the tongue, which he wrapped in red cedar bark and usedfor sucking through when curing. After sucking through it, he wouldsqueeze it out; it was invariably full of blood.A small lake on Union island in Kyuquot Sound was regarded as afavorable place for parents of twins to seek power. The father of atwin still living (an old man in 1936) used to swim out to an islet inthe lake. One night, whUe he was on the islet, the waters of the lakebegan to seethe as though boiling; then a tremendous number ofkiller-whales and porpoises appeared on the surface. They swamaround the islet four times. He stayed there the rest of the nightand the next day; the following night the same thing occurred. Hewas disappointed because the creatures paid no attention to him, nordid he hear any of the songs that he had supposed would accompanya miraculous apparition. Disheartened, he swam ashore in the early 200 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144morning. As he walked up on the beach, a killer whale surfaced andas the seeker turned, spat some "foam" at the man's feet. Thelatter sopped up the foam in his blanket, and hid it outside the hut inwhich he and his wife were camping. He related his experience to her.Neither of them knew what the vision meant (i. e., it was a new formof vision) . He went to sleep, and in a dream a being told him, "Don'tthrow away what we gave you. When you die give it to your eldestson, when he dies let him give it to your grandchildren. It's good foryour gun, your sealing harpoon, your sea otter arrows (i. e., it was ahunting medicine)."One day, later on, as his wife was digging clams on the beach, shesaw 10 ya'ai. At her ritual cry, they turned to foam (somehow, she"got" the last one, i. e., it was the last who gave her her power) . Shewent back to the camp to tell her husband. Soon she began to singand cry out like a shaman at night. She was becoming a shaman.Next, the husband had a misadventure. While out in the woods,he saw a "man" (really, a spirit in human form) throwing pebblesthrough a tree trunk. He picked up one of the pebbles to look at it,and it disappeared (apparently it entered his body). He picked upanother and the same thing happened. Then he realized what hehad done. He sat down, thinldng to himself, "I made a mistake thistime. Now I can't help it." So he picked up two more. (Heshould not have touched the pebble until he had given his ritual cry.Had he done so, he would have become a curing shaman only. As itwas, he had power both for extracting disease objects and for sendingthem into people, i. e., he was a "poisoner" as well.) He felt badlyabout it, but he decided to tell people what he had done. Later on,he came to be a powerful shaman. Sometimes he felt a compulsionto send disease objects. He had to do it, or the spirit (?) would havekilled him. He would go out in the woods, "shoot" four pebblesthrough the trnnk of a tree, bathe, and come home. He never killedpeople with his power. (This defensive feature of the account muststem from the protagonist's being closely connected to the informant'sfamily. I doubt that nonrelatives would have put such a charitableending to a tale of a wizard's powers.)Near the end of the fourth year of the couple's seclusion, they awokeone night to see a spirit in the form of an old woman, with a cane,come in and seat herself back to the fire. The husband leaped to hisfeet, gave a ritual cry, hitting the being with a stick as he cried out.She disappeared, leaving no trace but an old tattered black blanl^etshe had been wearing. This the couple kept. In dreams they learnedthat bits of the blanket had the power of removing pain, when rubbedon an afflicted part. They dreamed also that the old woman toldthem, "I'm your great-great-grandmother." Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 201The surviving son of this couple kept their magical objects and wasin his day a renowned hunter. He could also cure minor ills, by sing-ing with his father's rattle (and using the black blanket?). He couldnot extract disease objects; he would have had to find his own powerfor that. Because he was a twin, he could bring rain by ritual bathing(i. e., had weather power). None of his children lived to adulthood,however, and he used to tell the informant that he believed it wasbecause his parents had had so many supernatural experiences.Once, in very ancient times, there was a man named nukwismiliving at matcti. He went deer hunting with two young men upmatch river. Just before they left the village, an old man namedmana'o died. The young men killed a deer, and they cooked it attheir camp. As they ate, the young men would gnaw the bones clean,then toss them to one side saying, "Here, mana'o, this is for you."nukwismi remonstrated with them but they kept it up. Suddenlythe voice of the dead man was heard in reply. The two young menwere unable to speak. Next day the three started home, and, shortlyafter arriving, the young men died, nukwismi was ill for a long time ? so weak he could not walk without a cane.One day nukwismi hobbled out to a little stream called t'a'ka'no.He sat watching the water at a little waterfall. All at once he hearda groan, and the sound of a rattle. He went toward the sound; it wasrepeated three times (four altogether) . There was a log lying on theground that groaned and moved each time the rattle sounded,nukwismi gave his ritual cry, and a small shaman's rattle fell fromthe log. He took the rattle and set out for home, going slowly so asto arrive late after all the people were alseep. He hid his rattle, andwent to bed without eating. As he slept, he dreamed of what he hadfound. The name of his vision was La'La'tcI'tin (from La'tcitul,"to shamanize over a person"). In his dreams he was told he wouldbecome a great shaman. He began to learn songs, and he sang themin his sleep. He had never had shaman songs before. In his dreamshe was told to take the name La'tcitsuis (referring to shamanizingplus the element "suis," "of the ocean"). He wanted to be a greatshaman, so he began to bathe ritually (to increase his power). Once,"to practice," he took the body of a man who had been dead for 2days, laid it out, and began to shamanize over it. After he had sunghis songs for a while, the body began to groan and move about,La'tcitsuis slapped it, saying, "You are dead. Don't speak ormove." The person answered, "I'm not a spirit, and I'm not dead.You have brought me back to life." Then La'tcitsuis knew he wasa great shaman, and was ready to begin curing people. 202 BUREAU or AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144SHAMANISTIC CURINGWhen a person fell ill, his family called in a shaman if he appearedto have a serious ailment. For minor ills?cuts, bruises, and minoraches and pains?there were of course home remedies : herb infusions,massages, and songs, most of which were hereditary family secrets.As among ourselves, these household cures were often tried first. Thedecision as to what shaman to call, when professional help was neces-sary, depended on the wealth and quahty of the person concerned.Obviously, only a chief could afford to hire the services of some famouspractitioner from a distant tribe. And for a chief, the best was nonetoo good. On the other hand, the days lost in sending for a shamanof coast-wide renown might be more than the sick man could stand.Thus, each family had to thresh out a solution to their problem.Poor people were more likely to call on the shaman in the same house,or from next door, though, of course, in case of an obviously serioussickness, the chief's assistance in sending for a famous shaman forhis relative could be depended on. The fact that several varieties ofdiseases were recognized, and that certain shamans had special powersfor curing one or another of them, was of no help to the distraughtfamily, for the outward effects of these illnesses did not differ enoughfor the layman to tell them apart. In fact even the men of medicineerred at times in their diagnoses.Often when a party came to call a shaman from another tribe toattend a patient, the shaman knew, via the rapid transmissions ofgossip channels, who the sick person was. It got him off to a goodstart to refer casually to the sufferer by name along with a commentabout the seriousness of the ailment. Such remarks were invariablyinterpreted as revealing powers of clairvoyance; some shamans ac-quired reputations for something approaching omniscience in thisway. The grapevine telegraph never got the credit it deserved. Atany rate, the request for the shaman's services would be made, andhe would agree to take the case. No mention of payment was madeat this time, although occasionally a blanket was given as a token, ora preliminary fee. Informants refer to the request as though it werealmost an order; a shaman was under a very definite obligation toaccede to the party's wishes. The next step was for the shaman toassemble his assistants, male and female relatives nearly always, whocarried his gear and knew his songs well. Most shamans kept theiroutfit?rattle, cedar-bark ornaments, paint, and similar instrumentsof their trade?in a small wooden box, so it could be carried about;some, especially female shamans, used a basket for this pm-pose.The calling party provided transportation, if a canoe journey wasinvolved. The shaman, like a great chief, was not expected to paddle. Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 203As a rule shamanizing was done at night, although occasionally apreliminary diagnosis was made as soon as the practitioner arrived.No specific reason is given for this; probably the dark backgroundand bright firelight heightened the eft'ect of the performances. Thereis no question but that these curing seances had a high entertainmentvalue. They were invariably played to a packed house. One wondersif shamans were not called on now and then for very minor ailments,mainly to thrill the populace with their spectacular cures.The patient was placed on a pallet of mats close enough to the fireto provide good light for the shaman, who sat or squatted by thepatient's right side. Across the fire sat the shaman's "helpers," witha plank to drum on with plain wooden drumsticks. All around, out-side the circle of the firelight, sat the sick person's kin and tribesmen,awed at the mysteries about to be revealed. Some of them could becounted on to fetch and carry and to assist as needed. It appearsthat as in most Indian spectacles it took a long time to get the pro-ceedings under way. Ordinarily, the shaman arrived for the seancewearing his red cedar-bark ornaments and face paint, but sometimeshe put the finishing touches on his makeup while sitting beside thepatient. He might feel the aching part of the patient's body, partlymassaging, partly locating the seat of the pain. Commonly, an ex-perienced practitioner would shake his head sadly, and say that thecase was very grave, probably beyond all hope of saving. "Youshould have called me sooner." But anyway, he would try to curethe unfortunate. By this neat if stereotyped bit of hedging, the sha-man at once absolved himself of blame if the patient died, and en-hanced his own reputation in case of a cure, for had not the sick manbeen right at Death's door when the treatment began? At length hefelt himself ready. He gave a few tentative shakes of his rattle andbegan to hum a spirit song, deep in his throat. It took a while toget in good voice. His humming became bolder, the clicking of hisrattle sharper. By this means he called his spirit to his aid.Now the time had arrived for the immediate relative of the sickperson to stand up and call his offer of payment: blankets, furs,canoes, or, recently, money. According to conventional belief, theshaman himself had nothing to do with accepting or refusing the offer.His spirit attended to that. The payment was made to satisfy thespirit, not the man. Should it be insufficient, the supernatural beingwould draw away, removing his aura of power. The shaman's throatweakened, his song died away to a low hum again. The patient'srelative then had to increase his offer. When at length it satisfiedthe spirit he drew near once more, and the shaman's song welled forth.The shaman was only a bystander in these negotiations, perhapsfortimately for him. In theory no one should be so unjust as to accuse 204 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144him of avarice?any avarice involved reflected on his supernaturalprotector, not him. However, inconsistent as folk beliefs are attimes, some shamans were accused of prolonging cures unduly, or evenof working wizardries, to get more fees.The amounts of the payments varied considerably. There was nofixed scale of fees. Further payments might be made during thecourse of the treatment, depending on how difficult the cure was.A sample list of payments made to shamans follows:A Kyuquot shaman, maiyalswinul, was paid $4 and a pair of blanketsfor sucking "bad blood" from an injury (gave two treatments for theone payment).A Kyuquot female shaman was paid $2.50 and a "store skirt" forremoval of a disease object to cure an earache.A female shaman from Queen's Cove was given a pair of blanketswhen called, then paid four pieces of whale blubber, a canoe, and a fur-trimmed yellow cedar bark robe for treating an Ehetisat chief. Sheremoved several disease objects, in the course of three treatments;she did not complete the cure, for they suspected her of prolonging thepatient's illness by magical means, but she was paid anyhow.The shaman witapi, of Ehetisat, was paid two pairs of blankets anda canoe for removing three disease objects from a chief's child duringfour treatments.yatsusis, of Ehetisat, was paid a canoe for extracting a diseaseobject. He found it necessary also to recover the soul of his patient,for which he was given four pairs of blankets, four sacks of potatoes,and one sack of flour.Three female shamans at Friendly Cove were paid $10 each for aseries of treatments in which they extracted two disease objects.A shaman at Kyuquot was paid $7 for an unsuccessful attempt tocure.There were variations, of course, in the manner in which the paymentwas off'ered. Some accounts refer to a series of offers being made atintervals during the cure?e. g., when he began to sing, when he haddiagnosed the case, when he was about to remove the disease?to spurthe shaman (or his spirit) on to greater endeavors at critical moments,as it wore. MJ gave a generalized account of his mother's curingprocedures, according to which her fee was usually announced aftershe had extracted the disease object or objects. In all likelihood, con-siderable variety of practice was tolerated?the one important thingwas that there had to be a payment made. It was asserted that thiswas the reason a shaman could not cure a member of his own immedi-ate family?a parent, child, sibling, or spouse; he could only undertakea cure for which a fee would be paid him. Nor did it matter whetherthe cure was successful or not, that is, whether the patient recovered Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 205or died. The shaman was paid just the same. Only in the relativelyrare instances in which shamans professed themselves unable to diag-nose the case were they unpaid, and even then they were ordinarilygiven a gift for their efforts.As the shaman continued to sing, his power increased, and he camein closer contact with the spirit world. The space about him came tobe peopled with spirits, who sang with him, and told him what to do.As the ex-shaman expressed it: "It's unpleasant, it's not a nice job,'doctoring.' You have to do whatever the spirits tell you to do.[The allusion here is to such shamanistic practices as washing themouth and hands with urine before extracting a disease object.lWhen a shaman sings, he doesn't see the people sitting there in thehouse. He sees supernatural beings all around him, hears themtalking to him, and singing all at once. You feel strange all over yourbody?you feel light, as though you could fly. You feel like youwant to cry, at the same time. Afterward [after the performance],you don't ramember it well?it all goes away from you, what you did."Other informants confirmed, from the layman's viewpoint, theemotional tensity of the shaman during the seance, seeking to expressit by such phrases as, "the shaman gets wild as he sings," and "hissinging sounds like he was half crying." However, this was verydefinitely not " possessional shamanism" of the classic variety. Allinformants concurred in stating that the shaman's spirits "came closeto him," but did not actually enter his body. They controlled hisactions by telling him what to do, and by demonstrating before him.Along with the power to see his supernatural helpers, the shamancould see other things invisible to common eyes as his power becamestronger. Some would feel and press the patient's body with theirhands as they sang, to locate the place in which the sickness was con-centrated, but the more powerful "doctors" did not have to, for theycould "see" into the body of the sick person. As the renownedmaiyala'ak, of Kyuquot, told one of his younger kinsmen, "When Ising, it's just like the skin of the sick man opens up?I can see all hisinsides; I can see what's wrong with him." In this way he was ableto diagnose the particular disease from which the patient suffered.There were several kinds of sicknesses that beset mortal flesh, inaddition to ordinary everyday cuts and bruises. The most commonwas illness caused by the disease objects, maiyali. These were small,perhaps half an inch long, and black in color. They were alive, for itwas held to be their sucking or gnawing on the flesh that caused thesensation of pain. They led an existence of their own " they just wentaround by themselves," and were not "sent" by either human beingsor by spirits or deities, nor did they come from any particular placein the world. (However, one account, from Ehetisat, describes a 206 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144case in which the objects were "sent" by the Dog Salmon as punish-ment for breach of tabu.) Once they entered a person's body theyate a cyst or cavity in the flesh, which filled with blood. Usually,especially if the patient had been sick for some time, a good deal ofdark, or "black" blood came out with them. In more serious illnessesthere might be several of these disease objects present. A secondtype of ailment, or perhaps a minor variant of the first, was the oc-currence of a cyst of "old dark blood" which had formed as the resultof some bruise. There was no object of any kind present. Suchcases were considered relatively minor ailments. A third disease wascaused by man-made objects, often sharpened splinters of bone, inpairs, tied together with a hair, which had been "thrown" or "sent"into the patient's body by an evil shaman or wizard. These objectswere called ocyilatcak, orocyiaL. Theywere much more difficult to re-move than maiyali; only few shamans had sufficient power to extractthem. A fourth sickness might be termed "spirit poisoning," or posses-sion. It was the result of a spirit encounter, either one in which an evilsupernatural being had been found, or one in which a "good" spirit,one from which shamanistic, or wealth, or hunting, etc., powers mighthave been obtained, was not treated in the proper ritual manner. Itappears that the spirit clung to its victim's back, in hobgoblin style.If possession really occurred, that is, if the spirit entered the person'sbody, as sometimes happened, no cure was possible; the person diedor became hopelessly mad. The fifth and last common disease wassoul loss. In some ways its cm-e was the most spectacular of all, forthe shaman journeyed to the place to which the soul had been takento recover it. Most commonly, soul loss was caused by beings of thesea; quite commonly, Salmon, who stole the souls of those who hadmistreated them during the run. It appears that, particularly amongthe Central tribes, there were also a few shamans who had the powerto steal souls, but beings of the sea were most often guilty of this deed.An additional source of sickness and death was contagious magic,but so far as I could learn, this could not be cured by any shaman.The only hope of a cure lay in getting the charm undone, or in workinga more virulent charm against the layer of the spell, both of whichwere made unfeasible by certain practical difficulties.LogicaUy enough, the diagnosis of disease and its treatment wereconsidered separate and distinct steps in the curing procedure. Ashas been indicated, separate payments were often made for them,one being offered while the shaman was "getting into his power" todiagnose, and another when he was preparing to extract the diseaseobjects, or after he had taken them out. Sometimes the shamanwould make his diagnosis at one time, for example in the daytime,and his treatment later, most often after nightfall. Some accounts Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 207of specific cases, however, describe a continuous performance with notime interval between the two steps. It is most probable that thecondition of the patient and the humor of the shaman were thecontrolling factors; if it seemed best to proceed with the treatmentwith no interruption the practitioner could do so. One way was nobetter than the other.To cure the sickness, whatever it might be, the shaman had toresume his singing to maintain his contact with the supernatural.If the case called for the extraction of disease objects, certain songswere used which would draw the objects as close to the surface aspossible, and at the same time quiet them so they could not escapethe curer's grasp. For some reason, it was believed that the moredeeply situated objects, and this held true for both maiyali and forobjects sent by wizards, were more easily removed with the hands;the more superficially located ones, by sucking. When properlyimbued with his power, the shaman made his preparations for theextraction. A wooden "chamber pot" was brought him, and withthe urine he washed his hands and rinsed out his mouth. If he didnot already have it on, he put on a wide belt, usually of twisted cedarbark, although it might be of hide (one Kyuquot shaman, who was awar chief as well, wore his elkskin armor in curing). One or twostrong young men were called out to stand behind him, to hold himsecurely by the wide belt, and to catch him if he fell over backward.When he seized a disease object in his hands or sucked it up into hismouth, it was as though he received a violent electric shock?helost consciousness, his body became absolutely rigid, and he eitherfell forward over the patient (or would have if the men did not havea firm grasp on his belt), or was flung bodily backward. After afew moments his body began to tremble, with such force that thestrong young men were hard put to it to hold him. MJ said that onone occasion when he and another man were "helping" the wife ofTuta it was all the two of them could do to hold her, whereas normallyhe would be able to "pick her up with one hand." Gradually con-sciousness came back to the shaman. He spat the object into liishands, if he had sucked it out. Once he had it in his hands, hisarms remained extended rigidly, trembling visibly. At this pointagain there was some variation, which may have depended on theindividual spirit's instructions to the shaman. According to someaccounts, the shaman crushed the disease object between his teeth,or in some way "mashed" it in his hands; some informants stated itwas immersed in the wooden box of urine. Sometimes it was simplytaken out of the house and "sent away."One gets the impression that the patient took quite a mauhng inthe course of the treatment. No matter how gentle the shaman may 208 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144have been when he felt with his hands to locate the disease, partlymassaging the aching area as he worked, he must have been prettyrough when he "reached in" to take out the object. Extraction bysucking was apparently not very pleasant either. Informants saythat the shamans pressed their clenched teeth very hard against thespot over the disease, "almost like they were biting." They suckedso hard they made a round dark-red mark on the skin that lasted for2 or 3 days. Most informants reported a cessation of pain at thetime the disease object was extracted, but several said, "After alittle while it begins to hurt again." The abdomen, the back betweenthe shoulder blades, the back of the neck and the temples, were theusual places from which disease objects were taken.If there were several disease objects lodged in the patient's body,not more than one or two were taken out at a time, and the treat-ments were repeated for several nights. This all counted as one cure,and ordinarily was paid for by the one payment offered for extractingthe disease, although most people, and the chiefs without fail, wouldaugment the fee if the shaman had to give a number of treatments.A shaman kinsman of one informant was most agreeably surprised,when taking out four disease objects from a Salish patient on foursuccessive nights during a trip to the hop fields, to discover thatthose people had the custom of paying what he himself regarded asa full and complete fee on the conclusion of each treatment. Nodoubt shamans would have preferred a much wider distribution ofthat culture trait.The extraction of "bad blood," and of objects sent by wizards,differed but little from that of ordinary disease objects in generalroutine. In the case of the blood, the shaman did not collapseunconscious, of course, and my notes indicate that he did not in thecase of the magically sent objects either. The blood was spat outinto the wooden box of urine, and sucking was continued until theblood came clear bright red, which sometimes necessitated a series oftreatments. Only a few shamans had the right kind of power, orsufficient power, to extract the objects sent by wizards. There wasa sort of undercurrent of thought, seldom clearly expressed butpresent in the minds of most people as they watched such a perform-ance, that a shaman who had the power to extract these objectsprobably had the power to "send" them as well. Unlike the diseaseobjects, the bits of bone or whatever they were, were displayedbefore being destroyed or sent away. Often enough, there wassomeone among the spectators who suggested working contagiousmagic on the objects to kill or at least injure the unknown sender,but I never^heard of an instance in which this was done. The idea Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 209in itself was apparently appealing, but no one cared to admit publiclythat he had the knowledge necessary for carrying it out.The decontamination of a patient who had encountered an evilspirit, or had maltreated a potentially beneficial one, depended onthe fact that the spirit attached itself to its victim's back, and sur-rounded him with its malevolent aura. Some few shamans were sopowerful that they could glimpse the spirit even before they beganto sing, and they would say of the patient, "It's like there were twoof him standing there," meaning that the spirit showed itself in some-thing approaching human form as it clung to the unfortunate. Notall spirits would do this, of course. There were some that were sodeadly potent that the finder dropped dead, or, if he lasted to staggerhome, died before any medical aid could be called. But some lessdeadly spirits could be removed, if treatment was begun promptly.In addition to the various "good" spirits, hunters and canoe makerswere not infrequently afflicted by the Souls of Trees in this way.The ex-shaman Moachat informant once removed one of these froma patient. The following case from Kyuquot is complete enough inits details to serve as an example of how spirit contamination oc-curred, and the procedure for curing it:One winter when the Kyuquot tribes were at aqtis, an uncle(father's brother) of the informant went to ti'ul to bathe. He sawa bird "colored like a rainbow" sitting on a whale skeleton on thebeach. It was a haiyusatkcil ("10 times change," i. e. a being thatchanged into 10 different kinds of birds). The finder turned to pickup a stone to throw at it; when he turned back the bird was gone.This was where he made a mistake: He should not have taken hiseyes off the bird, but should have stood watching while it changed itsform 10 times, and then given a ritual cry. Then he would havebecome a great shaman. He began to feel unwell so he returned tohis house. Someone saw him, and called his brother from breakfast.The latter went out to find him lying on the ground, unable to move.He was conscious, but could not move or speak. They broughthim in by the fire. A shaman was sent for immediately. Althoughthe practitioner could not diagnose the ailment, they paid him $7.That evening they sent for a female shaman named ya'aitsuis ("ya'aiabove the ocean"). As soon as she came in the door, she noddedsagely. "I thought men shamans were supposed to be stronger thanwomen yet I can see what happened to the sick one already," Shesat by the patient and sang four or five songs. Then she said to thesick man, "You made a bad mistake. You saw something good thismorning. It was good for shaman [i, e., a source of shaman power],but you made a mistake. Probably no one can cure you now, but 210 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144I'm going to try to take it from you." (The idea behind her state-ment was that she would do what she could, but did not by any meansguarantee a cure), ya'aitsuis sang, then began to dance. Betweensongs, she told the patient's wife to tear a sheet into strips. Twopersons helped the sick man to sit up, supporting him while the shamanwiped off his body with strips of the cloth wiping from the top of thehead to the bottoms of his feet each time, first the front, then downthe left side, down the back, and down the right side. Each "side"was wiped down four times in all. (The material thus used in ancienttimes was, of course, shredded cedar bark.) The strips of cloth werecollected and placed outside. After this treatment the sick man wasnoticeably improved. He could sit up and use his hands a bit, andeven say a few words, ya'aitsuis told his family to build a boardhut behind the house, in which the sick man would stay 4 nights.She hoped the power would reappear to him?the account does notmake clear whether she expected him to obtain shamanistic powerafter all, whether she hoped to get it for herself, or whether she believedhe might be cured thereby, ya'aitsuis stayed in the hut with herpatient. She said later she could hear singing "all around" but nosupernatural beings came near. The sick man improved a bit,lingering on for some months, then died.Sometimes an ill-timed encounter with a supernatural beingcaused a condition resembling a facial paralysis, in which the patient'smouth "twisted over to one side." There was a remedy for this(applied after a shaman had removed the noxious influence of thebeing) which consisted in rigging a small wooden "hook" with astring by which a human skull was suspended. The hook was put inthe sufferer's mouth so that the skull dangled from the uncontractedside for one night, or for four, and invariably so it was said, a curewas effected.Soul loss was never a prevalent disease among the Northern Nootkantribes; the available remnants of shamanistic memories among the Cen-tral groups suggest it may have occurred more commonly there, and thatthere may have been more shamans with the necessary specializedpower to cure it. Among the groups from Nootka Sound north, theend of the dog salmon run, when the Dog Salmon spirits were return-ing to their home beneath the sea, was held to be an especially danger-ous season. Often shamans would have to sit up all night singing toward off the Dog Salmon spirits who wanted to take people's soulsaway with them. A child who violated even the most minor tabuwas likely to be punished by the Dog Salmon in this way. Other seabeings might steal souls as well. The cure consisted in the mostdirect possible approach to the problem: The shaman went out and Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 211recovered the soul. This was no dramatization of a journey like thatdescribed for some Coast Salish. The Nootkan shaman, in the fullstrength of his supernatural power, ''actually went down under thesea," returning dripping wet and sometimes streaming blood at noseand temples, carrying the stolen soul in a little bunch of eagle down inhis hands. Descriptions of two typical cases contain the significantdetails of such cures.naswinis, chief of the qanopitakamlath at Kyuquot, was harpooningshark and dogfish for oil to sell to the white traders, when he becamesick. Many shamans were called to cure him but none could help: hekept getting weaker. By Dog Salmon time he was so weak he couldnot walk, maiyala'aq, a shaman of the chief's house said, "I'm goingto try once more." All the tribe came in to help him sing, maiyala'aqsang 10 songs. After he sang, he said, "The Shark has got the chief'ssoul." He began to dance around the house. He had on his elkskincuirass (he was a war chief). He sang five more songs. This tookmost of the night. Then they made a very long line fast to him,over his armor. He went out, singing, as they slacked off the line.Then they began to heave in the line: When it came in the end hadparted?maiyala'aq had broken free. They went out to look forhim. Finally they heard 'him singing on an outside beach, and senta canoe to bring him back. He came back still singing, holding thechief's soul in his hands. They put new mats on the floor, and coveredthem with eagle down. The shaman released the soul on the down.Everyone could see it: It looked like a tiny whirlwind, spinning theeagle down round and round. Then maiyala'aq picked it up again.The whole tribe was singing for him. He put the soul on the chief'shead, then blew through his cupped hands (until it went into the chiefonce more). The chief slept well for the first time in many weeks.He began to recover.The Ehetisat shaman, yatsusis, also had the power to recover a lostsoul. M saw him do this on one occasion. An Ehetisat woman wasdeathly ill; she had been lying in a comatose condition "for days."Other shamans had been called, but had not been able to help her.M's mother went to help sing, yatsusis sang over the woman untilhe "saw" what was the matter. He took out a disease object, butsaid that was only a minor ill. He said, "It's only her body here; hersoul is gone." So the woman's father offered a canoe (he had alreadypaid for extracting the disease object), yatsusis sang again, then saidit was the Dog Salmon who had her soul. She must have been in thewater near Dog Salmon. (That faU during Dog Salmon time thewoman had upset her canoe and nearly drowned, remarked the in-formant, "but of course yatsusis couldn't have known about that.") 212 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144The shaman began to sing a Dog Salmon song. He had a wide beltof red cedar bark; they rove a line through that and over each shoulderand across his chest, yatsusis sprinkled the patient with eagle down,then went out of the house. He held a handful of eagle down. Somemen paid out the line attached to his belt and around his shoulders ? they had to bend on two more lengths. He was gone a long time toDog Salmon's home under the sea. He reappeared suddenly, drippingwet, with blood running from his temples and over the collar bones"where the skin is thin." All the people began to sing. He held outhis hand with the eagle down still in it?surprisingly enough the downwas still dry. It was spinning around, so they all knew the woman'ssoul was there in his hand. He put his hand on the patient's head,and sang and sang. Finally he raised his hand: down and all haddisappeared. Next morning the woman awoke refreshed, able to situp, and with an appetite for the first time in weeks. She soonrecovered. BLACK MAGICThe subject of black magic or witchcraft, as one may wish to call it,requires a separate place in a discussion of methods of utilizing super-natural forces to personal ends. There were several kinds of blackmagic known, but all were shrouded in a cloak of secrecy. Possessorsof the power, or the knowledge, were loathe to admit their talentsordinarily, although rarely a witch aflame with venomous hatred andexcited by apparent success when some misfortune befell his "victim"would boast of his deed. More often others made accusations,roundly denied by the suspect or suspects. In any case the techniqueswere seldom told in explicit detail. Witches were secretive; otherpeople, even though they might have some knowledge hesitated toreveal too much lest they themselves be accused of the black art. Toa certain extent that is true today, for belief in certain forms of witch-craft persists. Some informants still do not like to discuss the subjectin anything but the most general terms.One type of black magic was that possessed by shamans. It camefrom a supernatural encounter, just like curing power. A man whohad it could "throw" or "send" small objects into the bodies of hisvictims, a process called ucyilcil. The objects "sent" might be smallpebbles, but were more often tiny gorgets of bone, or claws of ducks,and the like, often in pairs, tied together with a hair. When a curingshaman removed one of these missiles from a patient, or when on thepatient's death his kinsmen conducted an autopsy and found them,there was a great to-do. Accusations were flung back and forth.Even the curing shaman who removed such missiles was not necessarilyexonerated. He might have "sent" the objects in Kope of getting a Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 213fee for curing. If the objects were not his own, how had he extractedthem so easily where other shamans had failed?Actually, barring confession, there was no sure way to learn theidentity of an evil shaman. Any curing shaman might have encoun-tered one of the specific types of spirits giving power to "send" themissiles, or some person who had no curing power and who had neverrevealed having had a supernatural experience might have done so.There were a number of visions known to give this power: a Raven,shaking a rattle and singing, a Squirrel or Mink with two heads,or a spirit in human form who tossed four bright shiny pebbles to thepower seeker. There were probably others, known only to shamans.There was a definite belief that one who had such power was under adefinite compulsion, somehow, to exercise it. Kinsmen of one Kyuquotshaman who "found" the four pebbles, say that when he "had to"send the pebbles he went out into the woods and "threw" them intothe trunk of a standing tree, and thus never used them on humanvictims. Another man, a Moachat, used to kill dogs when he had toutilize his deadly gift, according to a tradition of his family. One maydoubt that people outside these men's families would have been soeasy to convince that none but such unimportant targets were used,had they been aware of the two shamans' powers.Two of the three usual motives imputed to evil shamans are con-sistent with the generalizations that informants make about thesecretiveness with which evil shamans concealed their abilities to doharm. It is said that most of their fell deeds were committed eitherfor personal revenge or spite, or in order to be paid for curing thevictim. The third motive, which is either imaginary or else meansthat shamans themselves contributed to the belief in their evil powersby claiming to have them, is that shamans at times sent the lethalmissiles for hire.There seems to have been a belief among the Central tribes ofanother sort of shamanistic homicide, performed by theft of thevictim's soul. Some people of the Northern divisions knew of this,but were sure none of their own shamans had that power, but onlythose southeast of Esteban Point. I was unable to find anyone whohad a very clear idea as to how thefts were perpetrated, or what spiritor spirits gave ability to do it. Father Brabant extirpated shamanismpretty thoroughly from Hesquiat Harbor to Clayoquot Sound.The second major type of witchcraft, and that in which belief haspersisted even longer than that in the shamanistic variety consisted ofsecret procedures usually involving contagious magic. These seem tohave been hereditary rituals more or less like those for winning goodfortune, making children grow sturdy, and brave, and all the rest,except that they usually involved, along with bathing and formulaic 214 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuU. 144prayers, some act like putting a bit of clothing of the intended victimin a grave box. Performing such an act was called haphtcakcil.Many people are said to have known such procedures (though, ofcourse, it is always someone else, not the person one happens to bespeaking to at the time). The effect of these spells w^s slower thanthe bulletlike effect of evil shamans' missiles. The victims lingeredand suffered longer, but their death was even surer, for no shamancould cure them. Undoing the spell, removing the bit of clothing,hair, or excrement from the grave box in which it had been put, wasthe only way of curing it, but there was no way to find the contaminatedarticle unless the witch chose to reveal it, something that never hap-pened. Ulcerous sores that never healed were the most commonsymptom of this variety of witchcraft.As remarked elsewhere, it seems to have been standard procedurewhen a shaman's missile was removed in time to save the victim'slife, or sometimes, after the unfortunate's demise, for someone amongthe shocked and infuriated spectators to suggest that contagious magicbe worked over the object to kill the sender. The idea was ponderedseriously, but always shelved, say informants, "because no onewanted to admit he knew how to do such things."The motives most often attributed to witches were personal spite,and j ealousy. This latter is said to have figured as motive in a numberof cases in fairly recent times in which two or more families, all moreor less equally and distantly related to some important chief who hadno heirs, tried to insure getting the rank and rights. That is, membersof certain families in that situation have been accused of killing thepotential heirs of the rival family by witchcraft. Performance of theblack art for hire is also spoken of, and, like similar statements aboutshamanistic murder, is inconsistent with the usual remarks as to theextreme reluctance of witches to admit their knowledge. Informantsreconcile the two notions by suggesting that witches came to be Imownwhen some loose-lipped close relative confided the secret of theirabilities to some friend. Thus the word spread, and people knew towhom to go when they wanted to hire a witch. A very few witchesare said to have boasted of their skill, but they were exceptions to thegeneral rule.A variation of the contagious-magic kind of witchcraft which mayhave been a specialization of the Northern groups?I am not certainas to its distribution south of Nootka Sound?was the use of "poison,"administered to the victim in his food. This form of murder wasconsidered by the natives as minor deviation only from the contagiousmagic just described, since knowledge of the poisons, usually believedto have been plants, and the way to prepare them, and presumablyaccompanying rites and prayers, were hereditary family secrets. A Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 215tradition speaks of a woman attempting to poison her stepsons bygiving them raven meat to eat, but most poisons were believed to havebeen herbs. The victim, it is said, invariably bloated horribly, hisskin turned a purplish black, and his swollen tongue protruded fromhis mouth as he died.I have said that the identity of an evil shaman or witch could not belearned, which seems to have been true in a practical sense. Thestatement should be qualified, however, for it was believed that inhis dying moments the victim often (some informants said always)"saw" his slayer, and with his last breath might name him. Actually,of course, since final gasps of a sick man tortured by delirium are notnecessarily clear concise statements, these deathbed accusations re-quired considerable interpretation, and as often confused the mourningrelatives as not. To judge by cases of witchcraft recounted to me,motive was the real key to identifying the guilty person, either asinstigator or actual perpetrator of the crime. Whoever had recentlyquarreled with the victim or the victim's parents (in the case of achild), or who otherwise had most reason to desire the person's deathwas the foremost candidate for accusations by indignant mourners,THE TSAIYEQ RITUALThere was another group ritual besides the Loqwona or Shamans'Dance (p. 386) among the Central Nootkans. It differed not only incontent, but in being essentially a shamanistic affair. Little is re-called about it by modern informants, for it never came to rival theShaman's Dance in popularity. It seems to have been a sort of minorshamanistic society, most like the guardian spirit singing or so-called"tamanawus" performances of the Coast Salish. Boas has pointedout the interesting fact that the name of this ritual, tsaiyeq, seems toderive from the Kwakiutl ts'aeqa, "shaman." ^^ It may be that thetsaiyeq performance was transmitted to the Nootkans by Salishangroups who were endeavoring to imitate Kwakiutl rituals, meanwhile-modifying them to conform to their own guardian spirit singing pat-tern. Of the Vancouver Island Nootkans, the Alberni Canal groups,the hopatcisath and the tsicaath, both of whom were in closer contactwith Salish neighbors than were any other island Nootkans, seem tohave had the most elaborate, and most firmly rooted version of thisceremonial. (Cf. Sapir and Swadesh, 1939, pp. 107 ft'.) That it wasnot a very recently adopted pattern, however, is indicated by thefact that the Makah also had the ritual. One of the fullest accountsof it, in fact, is that by Swan (1865, p. 63).The groups from the Clayoquot to those of Hesquiat Harbor allM Boas, 1895, p. 642. The Kwakiutl term also seems to mean "supernatural being or power (ef. Nootkantctha)."839093?51 15 21Q BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144formerly performed the rite; the Northern tribes knew of it but saythey never had it. It is discussed here because of its very apparentconnection with shamanism, and the fact that it seems to have beenfar more a rehgious than a social rite?just the opposite, as it were, ofthe Shaman's Dance. The somewhat fragmentary data collected fromCentral Nootkan informants are given in the following paragraphs.Hesquiat informants maintain that the tsaiyeq ritual has not beenperformed by their people for a long time, and that to the best of theirknowledge it was never of much importance. They were certain itcould not be used during the Shamans' Dance, nor was it used inconnection with feasts and potlatches. They believed it to be a minorritual put on now and then for general amusement. Of the sevenindividuals that they knew of who belonged (some of whom were stillalive during the childhood of elderly informants) but two werepracticing shamans. The method of recruiting members was notclear either. It was believed that a person might have a dream or asupernatural encounter in which he received a song of tsaiyeq type,whereupon he joined, of his own volition. The whole affair is a rathervague memory. In the rite, it was said, the members wore headbands of undyed shredded yellow cedar bark with long streamersdown their backs, and wristlets and anklets of the same material. Itwas said they used no rattles or other instruments. The memberssang, wept, and performed what seemed to have been sleight-of-handtricks. One person told me he had seen this rite performed by aGulf of Georgia Salishan group, but that there the members dancedthrough the houses, which was not done by Hesquiat tsaiyeqa. Sinceso little is recalled of the complex, the few data recorded about thepersons remembered as having been members will be briefed here:ha'motul was a man who "dreamed" how to handle hot stones(without being burned). He dreamed a "medicine" to put on thestones. He joined the tsaiyeq group because of this (presumably,to be able to display his trick).Lahwidkinic was a female shaman who is said to have found ordreamed an Otter-Spirit from which she got her shamanistic power.She "joined" when she dreamed a tsaiyeq song, it was said (she didnot dream a special power, or trick).yuha was the other shaman member. She also had dreamedtsaiyeq songs.witamis was a war chief. It was said that he simply learned a song,to be able to join.LuxQ'ma was a man who, though not a shaman, dreamed a song,and the power to stick a feather in the ground "and make it 'walk'about the house." Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 217tcutcma'il was a woman who dreamed of a spirit encounter in whichshe was given a tsaiyeq song. "She was proud of her song, so shejoined."titska was a canoe maker, in fact, reputed to be one of the best of hisgeneration. One day, while in the woods looking for timber, a tree(i. e., a Tree-Spirit) spoke to him, and that night he was given atsaiyeq song in a dream. When he danced, he enacted a search for atree suitable for making a canoe.Few Ahousat professed to know of the tsaiyeq, beyond the factthat it was some kind of a ceremonial which had not been used by themfor a great many years. One very old lady (Mrs. Benson) was pointedout to me as the person most likely to know about the rite; she saidhowever, that she herself had never seen it, but had only been told of itby people of her parent's generation. She understood that one of thedancers "began to sing and then to weep, and the rest joined in";afterward, the chief gave them a feast. She had also heard vaguelyabout members of the tsaiyeq putting red-hot stones in their mouths.Her notion was that it was some sort of an initiation, like the Shamans'Dance, but with a restricted, rather than all-inclusive membership.Among the Clayoquot, the tsaiyeq ritual is said to have had aninteresting history. Anciently, so the informants insisted, it is sup-posed to have been much like the rituals elsewhere among the Centraltribes, but in the early historic period it was modified through theintercession of one of the famous Clayoquot chiefs. According to thetraditions of the tribe, long ago a man began to bathe ritually tobring his sick son back to health. One night he dreamed the tasiyeqsongs and the regalia and all the ritual. The name tsaiyeq came, soit is said, from the songs in which that word was repeated over and over(it has no meaning in Nootkan, except, of course, in reference to theritual). He prepared the regalia, a yellow cedar bark head band withfour bundles around its circumference from which depended longstreamers, and a belt of the same material, then sang the songs overhis son. The latter recovered, and then began to use the regalia andsongs also. Other people as well began to dream the songs, andjoined the group when they assembled to sing. Sometimes theysang over sick people?not those suffering from a disease object, norsoul loss, or contagion from having met a supernatural being, but justthose who had some lingering minor ailment. When they recovered,these people were supposed to join. If a child were cured thus, theywaited until he grew up before letting him join. After each perform-ance, the tsaiyeq members danced off in the woods, where they hungtheir yellow cedar bark headdresses on a tall tree. They sang the 218 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144songs while returning to the houses, and sang before eating for 4days. They also bathed daily during this period.The Clayoquot informant who was best informed about the tsaiyeqperformance was not certain as to displays of sleight-of-hand beingintegral part of the rites. He mentioned a similar practice, however,which later came to be an important feature?he believed that an-ciently the members had danced about "throwing" into each otherobjects "like the Supernatural Quartz Crystals, but not the same asthe ones the chiefs used for inviting to potlatches." Some of themembers would be stricken down, and then revived by their fellows.In the early part of the nineteenth century. Chief haiyu'eh decidedthat "it would be a good thing to make the tsaiyeq like the Shamans'Dance." Instead of waiting for someone to become ill, or to dreama tsaiyeq song, he had the tsaiyeq people assemble and select a numberof novices, with the consent of the latter's parents. There is nointimation that he " dreamed" this or gave it any supernatural sanction ;he simply decided it in his own mind. Then all the people were caUedin, and the chief himself danced and " threw" an object into the novices,who fell unconscious (just like the atsa novices in the Shamans'Dance). The society sang over them and revived them, then theyarose and sang their songs and danced. The initiation was extendedto a period of 4 days, after which the entire tsaiyeq society, with thenew members, staged a performance in which all sang and dancedtogether. Afterward the parents of the novices gave presents to thechief and the older members. It became customary for all shamansto become members. This performance was regarded by the Clayo-quot as far more orderly and much more satisfactory in all respectsthan the ancient hit-or-miss mode of recruiting. So far as I am aware,they were the only Nootkan group to make this innovation. SOCIAL LIFEThere are several possible lines ot approach to a description ofNootkan social life. Of these, I have chosen one beginning with anaccount of the large formal groupings into which the people dividedthemselves, the house groups or lineages, the tribes, and confederacies,then proceeding to an analysis of the basic concepts on which thesegroups were constructed, to arrive finally at the reactions of theindividual to the social environment created by him and his fellows.The political groupings varied in complexity, as indicated, througha series from lineages to tribal confederacies. The more complexunits, the tribes and confederacies, seem to have been older and morefirmly established among the Northern Nootkans, although early inthe historic period, if not before, they made their appearance amongsome of the Central tribes. In any case, where the larger divisionsexisted it is clear that the lineage-local group was the basic unit ofwhich the more elaborate ones were compounded. From the dataone cannot but be impressed by the importance of two concepts thatseem to have been interwoven into a core or nucleus about which thelineage groups were organized, and that gave these sociopolitical unitstheir form and function. These integrative concepts were, first, thatof hereditary rank; and second, the importance of kinship, no matterhow distant, as the basis for amicable social relationship. I do notfeel that I have overstated the case in interpreting the social structureas an expression of these two principles. The natives themselvesreckoned them fundamental, and almost every case history bears themout. It cannot be denied that there were other factors and conceptsthat helped to give Nootkan society its particular flavor, but theywere secondary to these two: rank, and the attitude toward kinship.Finally one comes to the examination of the individual in the society ? the basic element creating society and dominated by his own socialrules. If the description of the individual's reactions seems to stressconflicts it is because I believe that major social principles are mostclearly isolated and defined at points at which they are at cross pur-poses or inconsistent, either basically, or, due to peculiar circum-stances, momentarily. For this reason I collected as many cases asI could of individuals who managed to get themselves into difficultieswith their friends and neighbors. As the accounts accumulated, how-ever, it became clear that the social scene was not essentially one ofstress and conflict. The basic tenets on which society was constructeddid not invariably clash. For each person who found himself writhingon a dilemma's horns, there were many individuals of whom inform-ants said, "Oh, there's no 'story' about him. He was a nice man;everybody [i. e., his tribesmen] liked him. He never had a big trouble219 220 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144as long as he lived." To emphasize this point here will, it is hoped,prevent misinterpretation of conflict situations as being typical ofsocial relationships. Nootkan social life, if we exclude the situationsof full-scale intertribal war, was relatively free of tensions and clashesof personalities, and tended to play down such instances of them asoccurred. POLITYBoth tribes, consisting of united local groups (hneages), and con-federacies of formally Unked tribes occurred among the Nootkans.Complex pohtical organization was not rare in the northern portion ofthe Northwest Coast. Formally organized tribes composed of severalsmaller units were known, and sometimes the tribes were merged toform larger entities.*" Various bonds cemented the unions of suchconsolidations. The fundamental Nootkan political unit was a localgroup centering in a family of chiefs who owned territorial rights,houses, and various other privileges.*^ Such a group bore a name,usually that of their "place" (a site at their fishing ground where they"belonged"), or sometimes that of a chief; and had a tradition, firmlybelieved, of descent from a common ancestor. I sometimes refer tothese local groups as lineages, for the Indians themselves consideredthem to be based on kinship, although the precise relationships oftheir members is sometimes difficult or next to impossible to unravel.Among most Northern Nootkans these local groups were not autono-mous. Each was formally united with several others by possession ofa common winter village, fixed ranking for their assembled chiefs,and often a name. To such a formal union the term "tribe" is appliedin the present paper. It was at the tribal winter quarters that thegreat houses, with theu' carved and named posts, were erected, andthere that the important ceremonials were given.Several such tribes might be bound together into a confederacy.The confederacy was cemented by ties of the same nature as thoseuniting a number of local groups into a tribe: a common village site ? in this case a summer one?to which all, or most, of the people repairedfor sea fishing and hunting; seriation of their chiefs, expressed in theorder of seating on ceremonial occasions; and a name. These largestgroups corresponded fairly well to major geograpliical divisions. TheKyuquot confederacy included all the tribes residing in KyuquotSound; the Nootka one, aU those of Nootka Sound (except theMuchalat Arm groups). For a name, one of the local group (place) 9 7 Figure 21.?Potlatch seats of the Moachat chiefs in order of rank. 1, yaliiactakamlatli chief; 2, tsisa ath chief; 3, saiyatca'ath chief; 4, tsawunathchief; 5,tukwit takamlath chief (elder house) ; 6, tukwit takamlath chief (younger house) ; 7, caxmactakamlath chief; 8, na'itsaptakamlath cliief ; 9, haiyanuwoctakamlathchief; 10, Lasmasath chief; 11, nisaqath chief; 12, timiqtakamlath chief; 13,maltsasath chief (9-13, Tlupana Arm groups); to, men (commoners and retiredchiefs; w, women (commoners and chiefs' wives).839093?51- -18 264 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144 Figure 22.?Feast seats of the Moachat. 1-4, First four chiefs (same order ofrank as in potlatches) ; y, other chiefs (not in fixed order) ; x, old (retired)chiefs (not in fixed order) ; w, war chiefs ; z, commoners.were potlatching the Kyuquot, only the chiefs of the 14 local groups(who held the first 14 seats) would be seated; all the rest would sitanywhere along the side of the house. For feasts the arrangementdiffered again. The first 4, 6, or 10 chiefs were seated, occupying,usually, the same relative positions as in potlatches. Ordinarily nomore than 10 were seated. The war chiefs and sometimes the speakerswould be placed in a double row down the center of the house, beginningat the rear wall. Sometimes retired chiefs would be placed herealso. The people without seats sat along the walls, men on the right,women on the left. If no women were present, middle-class men mightbe placed on the right, commoners on the left. The precise arrange-ment depended on the number of guests, which in turn depended onthe amount of food to be given. Figure 23.?Potlatch seats of confederated Muchalat groups, end of nineteenthcentury. 1, match (hohtin) chief; 2, match (maLickowatakaml) chief; 3,a'aminqas (ta'qa'Lis) chief; 4, match (Liq t takamJ) chief (moya group); 5,match (maiyalkwo'ptakaml) chief (hpti) ; 6, ia'aminqas (ta'qa'Lis) chief, secondin the house (cf. No. 3) ; 7, match (maltsa'a) chief (remnants of moya tribe ?) ; 8, match (qomitsitas) chief (remnants of hpti tribe ?). Dpucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 265 Figure 24.?Feast places of the Muchalat groups, during period of confederation(latter half of nineteenth century). M, match chiefs; A, a'aminqas chiefs;Mo, moya chiefs; L, lipti chiefs; T, tsaxana chiefs. Figure 25.?Potlatch and feast seats of the Hesquiat after recent confedera-tion. *?K^^, kikinath chiefs (1-4 from house qiLanictakamhith, 5-6 from housenapwiuktakamlath) ; ?t?M??, ma'apiath chiefs, in local order of rank from 1-4; ???Ho?>, homis chiefs (2 only) ; ^^-o| -05 Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 285second wife, with whom he was living at this time, was a tllath womanwhose daughter was married to an amiaath man.(6) This place was occupied by the family of commoners (the sec-ond of the three brothers mentioned in a previous paragraph). Thehead of the family was related distantly to No. 4 (to whom he wasmamutswinilim) , and also, distantly, to the house chief (No. 1)through kinship with the chief's mother. He was a war chief, (hisfather also had been a war chief), and held various fishing rightsgiven him for his services to the chief. He gave wealth to Chiefnaswinis and also to nayisim to aid them in their potlatches. Helived here with his wife and two sons; a daughter was married to ana'Lic man and her children inherited important rights from thathouse (in the lack of direct lineal heirs).(7) wockwitya, the younger brother of No. 6 lived in this placewith yumotqw's family (mamutswinilim to yumotqw). He wasmarried to an a'Licath woman, and they had two daughters. (Thesetwo brothers had an elder brother, a shaman and war chief, wholived most of the time in the a'Licath house as mentioned elsewhere).(8) wi'paxca'at was a man of low rank, a commoner, who lived withhis wife and son in this house. He was also a war chief (there weresaid to have been more war chiefs in this house than in any other atKyuquot) . His son had an affair with a woman of high rank of thenatcasath, and it was arranged for him to go there to live (the affairwas patched up by this matrilocal residence). When he moved tohis wife's house, his parents moved there also, and subsequently spentmost of the time there. They were always regarded, however, asbelonging to the tacis house.(9) Lanehanl was of intermediate rank. His kinship to the chief'sfamily could not be traced, but his father before him had lived in thissame house. He was more closely, though deviously, related to thechief's mother, and called naswinis "nephew" on that account. Hewas a shaman and a trapper; he accumulated considerable wealth attimes, which he gave to the chief. His wife was an a'Lic woman, andtheir children, a boy and a girl, both eventually married into the housea'Lic. He had some minor privileges, among them a salmon trap intacis River, that had been given to his father by the former chief ofthe house. He lived at times in the Latcwo'stakaml house, insteadof here.(10) nakwi'tinl, a commoner, had lived here, but had died by thetime of these data. He had held a war chief's name given by thechief's predecessor. His two daughters married white men; the eldereventually came back to live in the house. Both women broughttheir children to the house so they could be taken in the chief's Sham-ans' Dance and given names by him. 286 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144(11) owitchamis was addressed as a chief, although he was of ratherlow rank. He also was a war chief. He claimed kinship with thechief's family, although the relationship was remote. His paternalancestors, so far back as they could be traced, had always lived in thishouse. One of them, his great-grandfather, had been renowned as awar chief and as a great eater; people used to tease owitchamistelling him he should try to beat the exploits of his ancestor, owit-chamis was a noted sea otter hunter. Sometimes he gave smallpotlatches (supplementary ones during major affairs) in the name ofhis sister's sons; sometimes he gave the proceeds of his hunting to thechief. He held various minor economic and ritual rights, given to himor to various of his paternal ancestors by the chiefs of this house. Heand his wife had five children, but all died. His sister was married toa cawis chief of intermediate rank (but higher than hers), and her twosons visited their uncle but seldom stayed with him. Sometimes helived in the cawis house for short periods, or in the ciLsya'phath houseto which he was related on the maternal side.(12) qwawin was considered an a'Lic man, but sometimes visitedin this house, spending a winter there. He was a noted carver, amongother things, and was, therefore, popular with all the chiefs. He hadinherited various rights, mostly in the a'Lic house, and was regardedas a chief of the middle class.(13) ustatkw was a commoner who often lived in the tads house.He had no rights, and was commonly regarded as rather shiftless. Buthe helped the chiefs with their traps, and so on, and was well liked.(x) Places occupied by less permanent occupants.MARRIAGEAs was so often the case among primitive people, marriage, in theNootkan view, was a formal alliance between two family groupsrather than between two individuals. That is to say, a union wasrecognized as legitimate only when formally approved by the recog-nized family heads through a series of gift exchanges. There wereseveral types of marriage ceremonial which differed only in theamounts of gifts exchanged and the elaborateness of the accompanyingceremonies. All were equally legal. The only difference was thatthe more elaborate ceremonies reflected the higher rank of the pairand augmented the esteem in which their progeny would be held.Unsanctioned sexual relationships were considered degrading, notonly to the persons involved but to their respective famihes. Thiswas especially so in the case of prolonged affairs from which offspringresulted. Premarital chastity was demanded of girls, and seems tohave been ensured by very close chaperonagc of girls from the time Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 287they neared puberty until their marriage. Most of the early historicsources speak highly of the virtue of all Nootkan women, but thismay have been because the white mariners were not sufficientlycircumspect in their approach; it seems to have been true that adultsof both sexes frequently engaged in casual affairs. This does notcontradict the remark that unsanctioned relationships were dis-approved of if one qualifies it by "if discovered"; the real offense layin being caught. The fuss made by a wronged spouse at such timesmakes clear that such relationships were considered illicit, however;the complaisance common in Southern Kwakiutl situations was nota Nootkan custom.In theory marriages were always arranged by the elders, withoutthe knowledge of the young couple. Actually this was only partiallytrue. A boy's or girl's first nuptials would be arranged for him or her,but a boy might be consulted. The young people were usually tooyoung to have any definite ideas on the subject; girls married soonafter they had completed their puberty observances, and boys at anequivalent age. (There was no formal infant betrothal, though parentsmight have an understanding on the matter.) In later marriages,however, the wishes of the individuals immediately concerned weretaken into account.There were several ways in which one married. The most honorableprocedure, called lutcha, involved a great deal of ceremony and giftexchange. It was nearly always used for the first marriage.The first step consisted of a proposal (tsi'as) made by the groom'sparents, or a party representing them, to the parents of the girl theyhad selected. Two or four men, one a good speaker, comprised aproposal party. Unobtrusively entering the house by night, theywent to her parents' place, and began to talk in low tones. The speechdealt with the rank of the young man. His ancestry was traced andthe kinship of the two families through previous unions was stressed.Close kin (cousins of the first and second degree) rarely married, butmates were deliberately sought among more remote relatives. "That'swhy they [the groom's family! have the right to come to ask for thegirl?^because they are related." During the long recital the girl'sfather sat silent. When the party left they gave him a present of fromone to five blankets. If he kept these, he thereby accepted the proposal ; to send them back signified refusal. As a matter of fact, a chief wouldnearly always refuse the first time, or even several times, as a matterof form. The proposal party would continue coming until he acceptedtheir suit or that of another group.Sometimes several men would be trying to marry the same girl.This comphcated matters for her parents. They would call in all theirrelatives to discuss the suitor families, trying to decide which to accept. 288 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144Various factors were considered. First and foremost was the rank ofthe suitor. The girl's family wanted her to marry as well as possible.Sometimes, however, a chief, if he had an only daughter, would prefera sUghtly lower rank son-in-law who could be induced to come to livein his wife's house. If the suitor had been married before, that hadsome bearing. Her family would not want their girl to be married toa man who was notorious for tiring of his wives and casting them aside.If he were married at the time they would often refuse his suit, formany people objected to letting their daughters be put into the posi-tion of a secondary wife. Personal hkes and dislikes, previous rela-tions between the two families, also carried weight.In one case related to me, there were six suitors for the daughter ofan Ehetisat chief. The situation was made more difficult by thefact that the girl had been married once (to young chief at Kyuquot)and had demonstrated she had a mind of her own by refusing to sleepwith her husband and finally leaving him. Her parents were anxiousthis should not happen again; "they had lost too much money overher already." The girl's mother favored the young chief of the icsaath(Ehetisat) to whom she was related (his father was her mother'sbrother's son). The father did not like the family because he himselfhad once been married to an icsaath woman who had left him. Oneevening one of his brothers came in saying, "I have heard that theicsaath are coming, the Nuchatlet are coming, and one of the Moachatchiefs is coming, all for your daughter. You had better decide quicklyto whom you are going to give her." The problem was too much forthe chief. In despair he said, "Whoever gets here first gets her."The icsaath came over right away. (I suspect a little collusion herebetween the icsaath and this brother which my informant did notmention.) The chief kept their blankets, though he didn't like to.After the marriage they continually brought him presents of salmon,hair seal, etc. with which he had to give feasts. It irked him to haveto announce that "this food comes from my son-in-law, the icsaathchief." But he finally reconciled himself to the situation,A few chiefs never used the tsl'as. Not to send a proposal partywas a hereditary right of the Litcyaath chiefs at Ehetisat. Theyalways came directly in marriage. (One may suppose they oftenhad an informal understanding with the prospective in-laws,) Othershad the right to use an "ih tsl'as" (big proposal party), following theusual type. For this a large group came by day, singing specialsongs, to formally ask for the bride.Once the preliminary arrangements were made, the groom's fathercalled his people to a feast to announce the intended marriage. Hewould outline plans for the marriage ceremony and ask people toaccompany him. The number of persons composing the marriage Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 289party depended on the importance of the young couple. Sometimesa chief asked for contributions to the bride-price; more often peoplevolunteered them. There was another way of recruiting the party,which would likely be used in important intertribal unions. Havingfeasted and consulted with his house chiefs and relatives, the chiefwould send two men to go to all the houses. They would carry staffsand bundles of sticks for the persons to be asked. Standing at thedoor, one proclaimed: "so-and-so is being called to go with a marriageparty." The other said, "Chief so-and-so is asking you [i. e., becausehe is marrying]. Please come with him." At the same time thebride's family met with their tribe to lay plans for their part of theproceedings.At last the time arrived for the ceremonies. The groom's partycame in their marriage canoes. Oftentimxcs they put off in theircanoes even for intravillage marriages. As they approached thebeach they sang their chief's marriage songs. Then they performedcertain ceremonial privileges called topati. The list of these is longand varied. Usually they were dramatizations of display privilegeshereditary in the family, which were shown in different form atpotlatches.Four of these privileges are described in a detailed account of amarriage ritual to follow. Other groom's topati are: "reaching upto the sky"; arriving holding tall slender poles, adorned with streamersof cedar bark, which were "danced" up and down in time to a song;arriving with similar poles, moved in a violent fashion to simulate"heat waves over the ocean" (this phenomenon precedes bad weather;to use this topati means "they will get 'mean' if they are not treatedwell." hinaohsum, "whaling harpoon," was another. The groomdanced carrying his whaling harpoon up the beach, and his partyfollowed, carrying the line with four floats. Before the bride's househe sang two songs, then drove the harpoon into the planks barringthe doorway. (Of course he used an imitation whaling harpoon; nowhaler would treat his cherished gear so rouglily.) qaqawun, "KillerWhale," was performed in canoes, much like the Wolves in thedescribed marriage. Some chiefs had Killer Whales which came onthe beach and became Wolves.After each topati performance, the speaker stood on the beach toeulogize the groom's ancestry, and "tell how the families were re-lated." He declaimed at length, often for hours, while the bride'speople listened in silence. Then as the speaker named each of thebride's kin and tribesmen as recipient, two young men carried thegifts up to the house laying them on new mats. The whole bride-price was thus apportioned out. As a rule the bride's family wouldparry all the property back down to the beach refusing it. This all 290 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144would take the better part of a day. The groom's party camped onthe beach or an adjacent one for the night. No matter what theweather, they were not taken into any of the houses. Next day thewhole procedure was repeated (except that they used a different mar-riage privilege). They might be kept waiting for 4 days, singing,their speaker orating, and the bride-price being carried back and forth.Finally the girl's father's speaker came out. He indicated the ac-ceptance of the bride-price by telling the groom's speaker to ceasetalldng.Now it was time for the bride's side to do their part. They hadcertain marriage privileges to use, also called topati. A bride'sprivileges were usually games, or tests of skill, strength, or courage.Individuals were called from the groom's party until one succeededin the test, when he would be given a prize. The following list is byno means exhaustive, but indicates the nature of these bridal topati : hinimlx.?A dancer came forth with a slender springy rod tied to his head, fromthe end of which there was a string with a feather attached. The contestanttried to catch the feather as the dancer spun around. There was usually onefor men and another for women.mamatcaL, "Shark."?Five pairs of men held burning torches close together.The first few contestants did not really attempt to run this flaming gauntlet.After the torches had burned down a bit, a man went through.patsakum.?For this there were two oval wooden balls, one about the size of afootball, for men, and a slightly smaller one for women. The balls werethrown one at a time, the first into a crowd of men, the second to a crowd ofwomen. The contestants scrambled for the balls. The winner was he or shewho first ran to the chief with a ball.A pair of poles were tied together at the top, shears-fashion. Men stood holdingthem upright. From the apex hung a greased rope which men were called onto climb.inikwits.?A number of the groom's party were brought into the house andseated around the fireplace. Boards might be put around them. A fire wasmade of fine dry wood which blazed very hot, then died down. Whale oilwas often thrown on the fire to make it burn even hotter. Four such fires werelit. The guests were expected to endure the heat with no sign of discomfiture.After this the "contestants" were fed four times. (This topati represented theSun, i. e., the bride's father was giving his son-in-law a Sun-Moon displayright.)Lasa'tsus.?A wide plank was set at a steep pitch, and greased. Contestantstried to run up it.A big rock was brought out for men to try to lift. The strongest man of thebride's party came carrying it; usually it was so heavy he could not lift it,but had two men lift it to give to him.There were many such privileges to be used for brides. Many wereshared by a number of chiefs on the coast, but each had a speciallyowned name for his, usually referring to some territorial right he owned.Any number could be used, but two or four were usual. These Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 291privileges were used only in marriages, except that a chief might usethem in potlatches given for his daughter "so that the people couldpractice what they would do when they came to marry her."Often gifts of blankets were given to each of the groom's group "towarm them" for having stayed outside on the beach for so long.Sometimes the bride, painted and arrayed in finery, danced for hernew people, and was given to them to take home; sometimes herparents announced they would bring her to her new home later on.There was no established usage ; what course her people took dependedon her age (whether she had completed the puberty observances, forexample), or whether they wanted to give the dowry right away.Whenever it occurred, her arrival at her husband's home was theoccasion for further festivity. First her new in-laws gathered todance for her and regale her with all manner of gifts. In formertimes, it is said, the people who danced would heap presents beforeher until she was hidden from view; more recently they gave hermoney. If her family had brought her, she might be asked to dancebefore them with her new relatives to formally identify herself withher husband's group. Then her husband, or sometimes her husband'sfather, would take the floor. He would invest her with all his chieflyrights and privileges, lands, seats, names, songs, and all the rest.This endowing was called tcimpila'kcil. If she had been broughtdirectly back by the groom's party (if her own people had not escortedher to her new home), she would have two "witnesses" whose duty itwas to remember in order to report to her family all the prerogativesher husband gave her. These privileges were not given outright,however, but only on condition she bear children by her husband toinherit them. Now she assumed her status as a married woman.Her family was expected to give a dowry (wiktshatcakcil) at sometime or other. They might give it right away or might wait until she,bore her first child. Wlienever her father decided he was ready, hecalled his people together to ask their aid. All the kinsmen who hadreceived portions of the bride-price were expected to contribute. Thegirl's parents and immediate kin gave the most. In the case of achief's daughter, various privileges would be given in addition to thematerial wealth. Names, dances, seats, and territories might be thustransferred to the son-in-law. There was invariably a conditionattached to this transfer of rights, however, just as in the bride-endowment: that the couple have children to inherit these preroga-tives. Should they be childless, or should they separate, the rights(but not the wealth), reverted to the woman's family without more ado.This completed the marriage ceremonies proper. Afterward,from time to time, both sides made gifts, chiefly of food. The recip- 292 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144ient was expected to give a feast to his group with the present, an-nouncing to them the source of the food.Difference in raiilv accounted for the variation in elaborateness ofthe rites. Naturally, only a chief who had ceremonial and materialpossessions could bestow them on a bride, or transfer them to a son-in-law. Those lower in rank simply had less to give. When com-moners married, very often their chiefs would "lend" marriageprivileges and songs to them. This was sure to be done if the personsor families involved were "good to help their chief"?that is, re-tainers' loyalty was repaid in this way.When the youngest of the three commoner brothers at Kyuquot(mentioned previously, p. 280) married, his brothers furnished mostof the money and blankets. The tacis chief lent him privileges to use.He married a woman of the a'Licath, The a'Licath gave back adowiy of blankets, and other goods and wockwitya gave it to his elderbrother to give away for him.Chief naswinis, of the Kjiiquot taclsath, decided on the daughterof a commoner in Latcwostakamtath.''^ Though she was yet but ayoung girl, she is said to have had a wide reputation for virtue, goodsense, and beauty, all of which overcame his prejudices against marry-ing a commoner. Two of his men came to propose for him. Theyput down a blanket and began to speak. The girl's father justlaughed at first; he couldn't beUeve the tacis chief really wanted hisdaughter, "I am nothing, just a commoner," Finally he gave hisconsent, "If Chief naswinis thinks she can do as a chief's wife should,"The two men went out, leaving the blanket. The girl's father calledthe house chiefs of Latcwostakaml to a small feast, announcing tothem what had occurred. He conferred with them on what should bedone. In a few days a "large proposal party" came (ih tsi'as).The gu-l's father told them they should "buy the girl from the chiefof Latcwostakaml," for he himself had no privileges. So when themarriage party came, the Latcwostakaml chief took charge, usingtwo bridal privileges of his own. Then the girl was painted anddressed in a new blanket, and two men brought her down to the beachsmging. Her father gave his chief all the blankets he had and acanoe for the use of the privileges.There were a number of variations of the usual marriage procedure,most of which were based on specially owned rights. For instance,two noble families, one at Chickhset and the other at Kyuquot, havethe right to bring a daughter to buy a husband (tcaphwa). This '? The effects of this marriage have been cited previously; see p. 283 f.). Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 293privilege came from Chickliset long ago. There was a chief therewho had all daughters and no sons. He was the only one who ownedthe right to "buy a husband." Wanting to "be related" to ChiefhakLisanapcii at Kyuquot, he came to maxqet with his daughterqwoqwatyik. She was sitting on a box of blankets on a raft made bytying two canoes together. Her face was painted black, and herhair was tied up on top of her head with a hemlock branch (this is awarrior's style of hairdress). She was singing a spirit song. Herfather's speaker by her side announced, "qwoqwatyik is seeking to buya husband." Then they performed their marriage privileges just asa groom's party ordinarily did. She was marrying one of hakLi-sanapcil's sons. When the Chicklisets finished, the taclsath broughtout a young female slave (she had brown hair and was, therefore,very valuable), two sea otter hides, and many yellow cedar blanketsedged with fur to pay for bringing qwoqwatyik into their house.She stayed there with her husband and had many children. Herfather gave the right to "buy a husband" with her (as part of thedowry) so now his descendants at Chickliset and the tads line ofchiefs are the only ones who can do this.If the bride's parents were both of very high rank, the groom's tribemight "buy her from both the houses" (i. e., paternal and maternal),performing the full marriage ceremony in each case. There wasessentially no difference between this sort of marriage and an ordinaryone, except that the number of dances and amount of the paymentswould be doubled. This, of course, added to the prestige of all groupsconcerned.The chain of ceremonies and the complex series of gift exchangesthat took place at the marriage of a chief's daughter are well exempli-fied in the account of the informant M's first marriage, which wastypical for a young couple of high ranlv.I'he union had been arranged informally, and privately, by M'sfather, chief of the Ehetisat Litcyaath, and his close friend and kins-man the tacisath chief of the Kyuquot (the relationship was actuallyremote, but they treated it as close). This was one feature thatwas not typical: its informality was due to an emergency situation aspreviously described, for the tads chief was on his deathbed when hoasked for his friend's daughter in marriage for his elder son, insteadof sending a proposal party. M judges she was 11 or 12 years oldat the time, and her future groom was 15 or 16. A year or so later,during the herring-spawning season, a canoe of Kyuquot people cameby, and M's father asked them to a small feast, to learn the news.One of the Kyuquot reniarked that he had heard the tacisath had hada meeting, and decided they would come for the bride soon. "They 294 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144 will ask you once and then 'buy' her the next day," Some days latersinging was heard early in the morning, and a canoe containing eightmen and a woman rounded the point. All the people ran down to thebeach to see; M ran down with them. Some women tried to send herback to the house. Her father heard her asking them what it was allabout, while they scolded her for unseemly curiosity. He told themto let her alone since she didn't know what the Kyuquot came for.The Kyuquot beached their canoe. Still singing, they marched up tothe chief's house. One carried a blanket folded over his arm. Helaid it on the floor, and began a speech. One of M's father's menpicked up the blanket, giving it back to the Kyuquot speaker, andsaid, "We don't know what you have come here for," an obviousuntruth, which stood for the formal preliminary refusal of the requestfor a bride. The eight men returned to their canoe, and paddled away.The woman remained behind. She told the Ehetisat chief, "Almostall the Kyuquot, men, women, and children, are waiting out of sightaround the point. They will arrive soon." The chief sent word tohis people to make ready to receive the Kyuquot. Before long theKyuquot came in sight with a great fleet of canoes. Everyone, Mincluded, ran down to the beach to see.The first groom's topati, or marriage privilege, the Kyuquot per-formed was a hai'i'Lik, "Feathered Serpent," represented by theircanoes formed in a single column, paddling a zigzag course around thecove in a counterclockwise direction while all sang. They made fourcircuits of the cove. Then they beached their canoes, and began tounload blankets, while two speakers stood on the beach recounting thetraditions and glories of the taclsath chief's lineage. Then theblankets were distributed, each Ehetisat, even those of low rank beingcalled out by name and receiving one or more. At dusk, the Kyuquotshoved off, crossing to the point on the far side of the cove, wherethey camped for the night.Next morning the Kyuquot began with a qwaiyatsiq topati, "Wolfmarriage privilege." They wore headdresses of hemlock and firtwigs, and some blew Wolf whistles to accompany their songs as theypaddled around, the cove. They were representing the Two HundredWolves of the taclsath chief. When they finished, a different pair ofspeakers went ashore, while the canoes lay to. They made speechesall the afternoon. All the Ehetisat stayed quietly in their houses,listening. Toward dusk, M's father sent a man down to give a blanketto each of the two speakers. The Kyuquot returned to their camp.One of the Ehetisat chiefs came in to suggest to M's father that theysend the Kyuquot dried salmon for a feast. "No," answered thelatter, "we'll wait until the last night, and then feast them." TheKyuquot sang most of the night in their camp. Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 295The third day the Kyuquot used a topati called meme'yak, "twohuge masks," one male and one female. A man stood behind each,shouting stereotyped phrases through the mouth of the mask. A pairof speakers went ashore after the mask performance, and madespeeches all afternoon.Early the fourth day, M's father called his people in to tell themto make ready for his topati. "I shall not use difficult privileges,because the young chief is my relative," (he called the young man"nephew," although, as has been said, the relationship was notactually very close) . While they were assembling the necessary gear,the Kyuquot came over from their camp to perform their fourthtopati. The old people paddled the canoes. They had two rafts"fixed up like islands," covered with structures of poles and canvasto represent lanaq and mo'kuml, two islets belonging to the tacisathchief. Children danced on the rafts, wearing maskettes in the formof little beaks, and young men, wearing similar maskettes leapt fromthe canoes to wade about in shallow water, blowing whistles. Theyrepresented certain little shore birds called kwokwip, that were alwaysto be seen at the above islets. Four songs were sung about the islets.(These topati, of course, were part of the bride price, and were beingoffered to M to be used by her children.) A fourth pair of speakerscame ashore. They had hardly begun to speak when M's fathersent a man to tell them to stop, thus acceding to their request forthe bride. The eight men of the courting party were called up tothe house. They were seated about a roaring hot fire. This was thefirst bridal topati. Then each was given a blanket.The second bridal topati was to climb a greased rope suspended froma pair of shear legs. This belonged to M's mother, and a chief gave hera canoe for using it. Various Kyuquot young men were called forthto try. The first came up singing, but didn't get far. Several otherstried without success, then finally a young man made it to the top.M's mother gave him the canoe as a prize. The third and fourthbridal privileges were scramble balls, patsaksum, with two woodenballs, one for men, one for women. M's face was painted, and downwas sprinkled on her hair, and she was made to stand between thetwo men who threw the balls down the beach. She was not shy orfrightened, she related, but rather pleased by her prominent position,for she still did not realize that this all concerned her. A sea otterskin, which one of his henchmen had presented her father, was given asa prize to the winner of the scramble among the men, and a thi-ee-mancanoe to the winner of the women's contest. Each time, Ehetisatmen stood by to see that no one was hurt when the contestants got outinto the water as they invariably did on the narrow beach at hohk.After the scramble, M heard her father tell his speaker to announce to -51 20 296 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144the Kyuquot that his (M's father's) daughter was theirs now, to takeback to Kyuquot when they wished (this was a formal announcement,which, like many, was not meant to be taken literally, for M was stillprepubescent and he had no intention of sending her to her new hometill her puberty rites had been observed). This was M's first clearintimation of what was going on. She became frightened, and wantedto run into the house to hide, but could not.Now all the Ehetisat contributed blankets to their chief, each giving1, 2, or 3 pairs, the chiefs giving 5 or 10 pairs. (These were, of course,the bride-price blankets distributed by the Kyuquot the first day ofthe topati). There were 196 pairs of blankets all together. M'sfather danced, wearing a Chilkat blanket. Then he made her dance,and distributed the 196 pairs of blankets among the Kyuquot, giving10 pairs to his son-in-law, 5 pairs to the latter's younger brother, 2 pairsto their mother, and 1 pair each to the Kyuquot men. Kyuquotwomen were given beads, and the like. This was "to warm them"after their 4 nights of camping on the point. The Kyuquot reas-sembled the blankets, turning them over to the tacisath chief or hisspeakers, who then had them carried up to be given in a lot to M'sfather, as the lutchum, or "bride-price." (He later distributed themto the Ehetisat, at a potlatch after the Kyuquot departed.)This ended the bride-purchase part of the ceremonies. It was under-stood that M would remain with her parents until after her pubertyceremonies. Her father invited the Kyuquot to a feast of dried salmonthat night, and next day an Ehetisat came in from Victoria with a bigcanoeload of flour and molasses, which he used to give a molasses andgravy feast. There were so many Kyuquot that he gave the feast onthe beach. Then the Kyuquot went home.Then there began a series of gifts of food for feasts?ya'acuk,"food gifts to one's in-laws"?which were sent back and forth. M'sfather bought 10 big baskets of herring eggs for 5K pairs of blanlvets atFriendly Cove, and sent 2 canoes to the trading post at Ahousat to buyrice, flour, and molasses. This assortment he sent to his son-in-lawat Kyuquot in charge of his two brothers. Twelve men went on theparty. The Kyuquot chiefs were at a feast when the party arrived.The latter were invited first by the Kyuquot Owner-of-the-beach, whogave them a feast while the local affair was hurriedly finished. TheEhetisat turned over the food gift, and were feasted by one Kyuquotchief after another for 4 days. They were also given a canoeload of"left-overs," food given to be taken home, and somewhere along theline, presumably in the tacisath house, each was given a pair ofblankets. When they returned to hohk, M's father gave a feast withthe "left-overs" they had brought, announcing to his tribe that theyhad been sent by his Kyuquot son-in-law and the latter's kin. Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 297Some time later, the taclsath sent 6 big boxes of salmonberries,10 baskets of dried halibut, and 4 baskets of dried salmon to M'sfather, in one canoe, with a party of 6 men. M's father called in allthe Ehetisat to a feast that night, serving them the food he hadreceived from his son-in-law. At the feast, 9 Ehetisat chiefs danced,and each, after his dance, gave each of the Kyuquot envoys a pair ofblankets.It was 2 years after her marriage before M had her first menses.Her father staged an elaborate debut, with a Shamans' Festival andpotlatch, but a hurried one?she wore her hair ornaments only a shortwhile. Then he went to Ahousat with a canoeload of food for hiskinsmen there, to give them a feast to announce that his daughter wasnow a woman, and that he was going to Kjmquot to give the dowry.(This was a request for financial aid, though cii'cumspectly phrased.)One of the Ahousat chiefs rose to announce that he was going to givehis Ehetisat kinsman a new big canoe. "Ahousat," he continued, "let us aid our kinsman here, even though the Kyuquot did notnotify us they were going to marry his daughter to their chief [i. e., theKyuquot had not formally recognized them as in-laws]. All of youwho have property, give our kinsman whatever you wish." Al-together the Ahousat gave him 140 pairs of blankets, 9 sacks of flour,1 large and 2 medium canoes, and several kegs of molasses. Hereturned to Ehetisat with this property. There he gave a feast tohis tribe, to announce the results of his visit, and his plans for the tripto Kyuquot. The Ehetisat gave him more property: 2 sea otterskins, 2 canoes, and 120 pairs of blankets, and 4 big copper renderingkettles for trying out blubber.Soon all was ready. M was taken in the canoe with her parents.Ten Ehetisat canoes made a Feathered Serpent in front of the KyuquotvUlage. All the latter turned out to watch. M was made to sit on abig box in the canoe, dressed and painted her best, with 16 sticksrepresenting privileges she was bringing. The Ehetisat had tiedblankets corner to corner, making a line that extended the length ofthe beach. They danced on the beach, then her father's speakerannounced the 16 privileges being given with her. They have beenlisted elsewhere (p. 290).When the speakers finished, four Kyuquot chiefs, painted, and withceremonial down sprinkled on their hair, came to the canoe in whichthe bride sat, carrying a plank padded with two pairs of blankets.They asked her to sit on the plank to let them carry her to the house.At her mother's urging she got on, and they carried her up the beach,singing. New mats had been placed for her to sit on, while the dowrywas brought up into the house. Once it was stowed, the Kyuquot 298 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144 "Owner-of-thc-bcach" invited the Ehetisat to feast, and M went withthem. She still hadn't seen her husband.After the feast they returned to the tacis chief's house. Thatevening they were invited to another house for a feast of dried halibut,rice, and molasses. During the feast, 10 men, who formed an invitingparty, came through the houses, calling all the people to the tacishouse, where they were going to dance in honor of the Ehetisat,and a party of Quatsino who had been invited to a potlatch by oneof the chiefs. M was asked to dance with her in-laws, as hostess.They instructed her in the part she was to play. The Ehetisat werebrought in and seated across half of the end of the house and down oneside, the Quatsino in the other half of the end and along the otherside, each tribe in order of rank. First the Kyuquot, M with them,came in dancing a dance called holaiyatc. Each dancer carried somesmall object, and after the dance gave it to any one of the guests.Women gave tin cups, plates, and the like; men gave shirts and similarobjects. After this the Wolves whistled once. M pretended to faint,letting herself drop to the floor. Four other women did the same.Drumsticks and planks were distributed. The men drummed fourtimes. There were no songs. After the fourth ruffle, M and theother novices blew whistles and stood up, then danced, making fourceremonial circuits of the house. The bride's new name, "which hadbeen bestowed by the Wolves," was announced; she received thename o'maqiyaxtu'a, and a name for her child, "as though she werealready pregnant," of hinatumyis. This ended the abbreviatedversion of the short "in-the-house" Shamans' Festival. Thenfollowed potlatch songs, and a dance by young men wearing maskettes,after which gifts were distributed, first to the Ehetistat, then to theQuatsino. M's father received a seahng canoe, as did another Eheti-sat chief, and other men were given blankets. Women were givendishes and mats. A chief sang the tacisath chief's potlatch song andannounced that after the guests had departed, the tacisath chief wasgoing to potlatch the dowry wealth goods to the Kyuquot.The Ehetisat escort went home next day, as did the Quatsino.The bride's parents, and three of her father's henchmen stayed on,however. Her father spent four nights teaching the tacisath speakersand singers the songs that went with the privileges of the dowry.When they had learned the songs, M's husband gave a potlatch to theKyuquot. First, the bride was given presents by her new neighbors:the Kyuquot women danced, and gave her mats, dishes, and beads.There was soon a great pile of these gifts (o'ocLitap) on the floorbeside her. Next, she was endowed with numerous ceremonialprivileges by her husband. "There were sticks set up all around thehouse," (representing privileges). This was the proceeding cafled Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 299tcimpilakcil:, "endowing the bride." After these, the blankets givenin the dowry were distributed. The two sea otter hides had been soldfor blankets, which were distributed along with the rest. "Therewere so many blankets that even commoners got them;" a rare eventat Kyuquot where there were so many people.This, to all intents and purposes, ended the marriage ceremonies.M's parents, and the three men who had stayed to paddle them home,were invited to small feasts by friends for several days. Finallythey set out for hohk, having been assured by all the chiefs that theyneed not worry, for their daughter would be cared for as well atKyuquot as though she were in their house.All the elaborate and costly performances went for naught. Mtook a dislike to her husband, rejected his advances, and returned toher parents' home a few weeks later. The privileges, both those ofthe dowry, and those of the "bride-endowment," since they had beengiven for the children of the couple, automatically reverted to theiroriginal owners. The blankets, canoes, and the like were "lost" or"wasted," as M's father pointed out to her in a scolding for her head-strong conduct and unsubmissive attitude.Another sort of marriage was called makcil, which means simply"to buy," or "to pay for." A few kin and friends of the man wouldgo to the woman's family giving them a small amount of blankets ormoney. This was usually done without singing or displaying anyprivileges. No dowry was given. A marriage of this sort was usuallymade to legalize an elopement, or for marriages of elderly people.A slightly more elaborate affair was called "night marriage" (athaitutcha). The groom with a few of his friends went to the house ofthe woman's family taking perhaps 10 to 20 pairs of blankets to givemembers of the woman's family. They sang a few songs but neitherside used privileges. Then the woman's people gave the groom's partya few gifts. Older people at Kyuquot very often married this way.In certain cases a marriage with matrilocal residence (mawi'itph)was arranged. The young man's family brought him to the bride'shouse, gave presents to all her people, and announced they were "givinghim to her father." Then he stayed there permanently. This wasa perfectly proper arrangement which carried no stigma unless itwere common knowledge that it had been a last resort for patching upan illicit affair. If a chief had no sons he might prefer that his daugh-ter marry thus. The young man would then usually be of lower rankthan his wife. In a few cases, a regular marriage performance pre-ceded the "giving of the young man to his father-in-law."The son of wipaxca'at, a commoner who stayed most of the time in 300 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144the tacisath house at Kyuquot, eloped with the (previously widowed)daughter of a natcasath chief. (The "elopement" consisted in bring-ing her to his home.) Next day her people came for her. They werevery angry. Her father scolded her before all the people; he saidnothing to her lover, however. After they left the tacisath met todiscuss the matter. They knew the woman's father would not lether leave his house to marry (a commoner), so they took the youngman and some blankets and went to the natcasath house. Theytook a Wolf along (a man wearing a wolf-head mask) who danced,leaving his blanket with the woman's father. Then they "put theyoung man in the natcasath house." The woman's side used noprivileges. After a while the young man's parents went to natcasathto live.Living together without any payment was called lutcis. This wasconsidered a disgrace to both families. A child born of such a unionwas called bastard (lutclsha'okt). The term could be used as anepithet precisely as its English equivalent.There is a current explanation which some informants offered tenta-tively to explain why illegitimate births were so rare in former times.The notion is that with the ancient full and far from clinging cedar-bark blankets, an unmarried woman could conceal her pregnancy,have her child, and dispose of it with no one the wiser. Pragmatistsassert scornfully that this would be impossible. Aside from certainobvious dijficulties, they maintain other signs indicate pregnancy."When a woman is three or four months along, her face begins to getfull, and she gets dark rings around her eyes. You can tell rightaway if she's pregnant."Abortion was sometimes practiced. Informants unanimouslydeclare that only young widows or divorcees would have need of suchmeasures. Various families possessed as family secrets knowledge ofcertain abortifacients; some medicinal, and some perhaps only magical.Another method was to destroy the embryo by squeezing it. Someold women shamans knew how to do this ; they would be well paid forthey were not supposed to tell. It was very dangerous to do this,and some women died as a result. An unmarried mother's familymight prefer the risk rather than face the disgrace.There was a hunchback girl of a good family at Ehetisat. No onewanted to marry her for a long time. She bore two illegitimatechildren. Finally a man did marry her; she left the two children forher people to care for. They gave them names and had them takenin the Shamans' Dance. Both died before maturity, however. (Byway of dating, a legitimate child of the woman was alive when these Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 301data were recorded, an old man). Another woman who had anillegitunate child was a Nuchatlet (a contemporary of the hunchback)who had a rather tempestous married life. Her last marriage was to achief at Chickliset; she was pregnant at the time and bore a son amonth or two after the marriage. Her Chickliset spouse kept thechild, and even gave a Shamans' Dance in his honor. "In old timesthey wouldn't keep them, though," for bastardy was a great dis-grace. ''The children, and the grandchildren of such a person willbe called lutcisha'okt ('bastard') when someone quarrels with them,and they can't say anything in reply."The feelmg that kinship between two families gave the one "theright to ask for the girl" of the other has been mentioned. Actuallymarriages of kin as close as first or second cousins were generallyavoided, for it was believed that "their children would not be strong."However, such unions aroused no feeling of horror. The incest groupincluded only sibling, parent-child, and parent-in-law?child-in-lawclasses. The Chickliset are reputed to have married first cousins veryoften in former times; the "practice" is passed over with the commentthat "they were funny people. But they were good high-class peoplejust the same, and always gave lots of potlatches." Nor is there anyshame or horror in the fact that two different chiefs at Clayoquotmarried their nieces (younger brothers' daughers in both cases), fordiplomatic reasons: to forestall a schism in the house group. But suchmarriages were definitely exceptional.One informant suggested what he considered an excellent reasonfor marrying within one's kin-group?"not too close of com"se."A couple related by blood could not very well throw ancestral mis-deeds or differences in rank in each others' faces when they quarreled.Ergo, much of the sting of family squabbles would be obviated. I donot know how widely this was recognized by Nootkans as a great socialtruth, but its homely philosophy is quite appealing.Polygyny was practiced, by chiefs especially. A certain esteemattached to having a number of wives, since it implied wealth, but itwas common Imowledge that polygynous households were often nothappy ones. The first wife was the "head wife," subsidiary wives werecalled maol (cf. makcil "to buy a vv^ife" without ceremony; one inform-ant dubiously derived it from matcil, "to bite," or carry off in themouth, in other words, "stolen"). A chief might obtain all his wivesby ceremonial marriages but the secondary ones were nonethelesscalled maol. A subsidiary wife was supposed to work for the firstwife. Polyandry was not practiced; "a man wouldn't stand for that."Both the levirate (kwotcipil) and the sororate (asupit) were prac-ticed, though neither was compulsory. A man often took a kinsman's 302 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144widow if she had children, in order to keep the children in the house.He could marry with full ceremonies if he wanted to, but would bemore likely to give a feast and a few presents to her relatives toannounce that he intended "taking care of their kinswoman and herchildren." If he did not like her he would not have to take her. Ifshe waited a decent interval she could remarry outside of her hus-band's group. It was considered good form for her to inform them ofher intention beforehand. Otherwise their feelings would be hurt,for "they would think she cared nothing about their kinsman" (herdeceased husband). They took no action over it though. A widowerwith children might prefer to marry a kinswoman of his wife on thegrounds that the children would be treated better by their mother'srelative than by a stranger. The woman's people ordinarily would notrefuse his request for another wife. He could marry ceremonially orsimply make a (small) payment (makcil), depending on his wealth.The simultaneous sororate was regarded as advantageous, for twosisters were less likely to quarrel.Although marriage in its fullest form was elaborately ritualized,divorce was simplicity itself. A husband could send his wife home,or she could take the initiative by leaving him. There was no repay-ment by either side. If privileges had been transferred they auto-matically reverted to their original owners. Childlessness was themost common cause of divorce. If a couple had children, theirfriends and relatives did everything in their power to prevent aseparation, for it was considered a disgrace for a child to have parentsliving and be brought up by a stepfather or stepmother. Incompati-bility caused many separations; cruelty and adultery were not in them-selves grounds but might lead to divorce. Both the man and womanwere quite free afterward. Unless a person left so many spouses thathe or she was revealed as having a bad disposition or fickle naturedivorce carried no stigma. Most people changed mates several timesin an ordinary life time without damage to their reputation. Butcouples whose affection was strong enough to weather domesticstorms so that they stayed together all their lives were consideredadmirable.Once in a while a married woman would be "bought" from herfamily, without the knowledge of her husband. The Clayoquotinvited all the Kyuquot to a potlatch. One of the Kyuquot chiefshad an unmarried younger brother. The Kyuquot met and askedthe young man if he liked the youngest of four daughters of a Clayo-quot chief. He replied he did not; he preferred the next youngest,who had just been married. The Kyuquot wanted to arrange amarriage with the Clayoquot "so they would be friends after all thewars they used to have." Four men went to the girl's father to Dnicker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 303propose, taking some money. They waited but the money was notreturned. When the potlatch was over, a large party went to propose,announcing they would come to marry next day. The Clayoquotchief sent her husband (the first) home; the latter had not knownanything about it till then. Next day the Kyuquot began themarriage ceremonies.In case of a man's death, or a divorce, the allocation of childrenpresented quite a problem. Both families wanted them, recognizingthat they would in later life align themselves more definitely with thepeople who brought them up. The paternal claim was usuallystronger. If there were several children, the elder ones stayed ontheir father's side, the younger with their mother.SEX CONFLICTSThe system of parental arrangement of marriages was at the rootof a great deal of marital discord. Young people who were perfectstrangers were united wdthout being given a chance to make anyadjustments and then expected to get along together. Yet it mustbe added, without wishing to be unsympathetic toward the youngsters,that the lot of parents was not an easy one. They wanted to seetheir child happily and permanently married, so that there wouldbe grandchildren to bear the family names and honor. The financingof the marriage ceremonies was no light burden for either the boy'sor the girl's side. Neither profited by the gift-exchange for thepayments were always "given out to the tribe." In fact, the nativeview, repeatedly stated, is that "both families lost a lot of moneyover the couple." So there was no point in arranging a marriagethat from the outset was destined to fail. On the other hand, theydared not wait until their daughter reached the age of discretion toselect the best possible mate for herself?"best," of course, beingthought of in terms of rank. For there was always the fear that shemight meanwhile become involved in some scandalous affair andbring shame upon them all. If a son's derelictions brought a lesssharp disgrace, this was more than made up for by the ill feeling heengendered by them. The parents tried, therefore, to arrange amarriage as well as they could, at the beginning of the children'sphysical maturity, drawing on their judgment and experience inwhat was most valued in the culture. By sage counsel they soughtto help the young couple adjust themselves to the new situation.The fact that some of these marriages were successful, in other wordspermanent, always gave them hope.The way in which the girls were brought up was scarcely ideal toprepare them for marriage. As a girl approached puberty she was nolonger allowed to play with the small children of both sexes, but only 304 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144 ,with girls of her own age. A high-rank girl was scarcely let out ofthe house, and never out of the sight of some older kinswoman. Inthe short time between her puberty observances and marriage, thesurveillance was increased manyfold. She could not go anjrwhereunchaperoned. The theory seems to have been that there was safetyin numbers, for a chief's daughter would usually have several womenwith her constantly. Although a common girl might not have somany chaperones, she was still carefully watched. All this time thegirl's kinswomen would be advising her in ladylike behavior. Sheshould never speak to a young man outside of her immediate family ;indeed she should not look at him if he came nearby, but had to sitwith downcast eyes. She had long since learned that she must keepher body covered at all times when men were about. In other words,all her training at this time was deliberately intended to make her shyand reserved in the presence of males. As informants put it, "by thetime a girl was old enough to be married she was afraid of men." Notonly was the girl kept innocent, but she was supposed to be ignorantof matters pertaining to sex. Her grandparents would regale herbrother by the hour with the obscene myths and tales in which allNootkans delight. "The grandmothers are great ones for that;those old women don't care what they say." But they would nevertell them to her. "Of course," remarked one realist, "sometimes shecan sit a little way off and hear it all, even if she's not supposed to."Whatever the merits of this sytem of chaperonage and training aspreparation for the future, it was successful in one respect. There islittle doubt that premarital unchastity was almost unknown in formertimes, except in the infrequent cases of definitely abnormal girls. Thisis despite the fact that chastity was otherwise not an outstandingNootkan virtue.After negotiations were well under way for her marriage, the girl'smother might begin to instruct her. Along with such generalities onbehavior as remarks to the effect that "she should be nice to herin-laws, and always speak kindly to them," she would be told thatshe must "sleep with her husband and have intercourse with him, forthat is what men buy wives for." It may be supposed that this madelittle impression on the girl, who had been hearing "good advice" of adifferent sort for some time past. Further, there was beginning adistracting bustle of preparation for ceremonies, in which she was toplay a central role?all very thrilling for a young girl, who at the sametime often did not realize that the rites were to mark a new chapterin her own life. Her real awakening usually came when her parentsput her in the canoe of the bridal party, telling her that she was to gowith them, that these strangers were her new family and relatives,and she was to stay with them in her new home. For some days after Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 305her arrival in her husband's home she was feasted and feted so thatshe lost some of her fears and loneliness. Her in-laws all made a pointof being friendly and kind. But sooner or later the festivities cameto an end, and life settled down to everyday monotony and reality.Her husband, little more mature but better trained than she, wasreceiving counsel from his parents during this time. He was told tobe especially nice to his bride, to talk to her, but not to try to haveintercourse with her too soon. Among the Clayoquot (and formerlyamong the Moachat, according to Jewitt), a newly-married couple wasnot permitted to sleep together for 10 days after the wedding. Else-where there was no definite rule, but commonly the groom slept withhis brothers and male friends for some time, sometimes for as long asa month or two, while she slept with his mother and sisters. Afterawhile he would come over and lie down by her. A common re-action was for her to sit up and weep quietly until he gave up andreturned to sleep with his men friends. By day they would talk andeat together, becoming better acquainted. This preliminary skirmish-ing went on until either she yielded to his advances, in which case theywere over the first hurdle to congenial married life, or she resisted sodecisively, perhaps even shaming him by striking or scratching him,that they were at an impasse. In the latter case it was only a matterof time till he sent her home, or her parents heard of it and came toget her.In rare cases a man, especially if older and more experienced thanhis bride, would be goaded beyond the limits of his endurance, andresort to harsher measures. He might even mutilate her; the typeprocedure was to cut off or bite off the tip of her nose. This is re-markable in being the only sadistic behavior, outside of warfare,socially countenanced. Her own parents would do nothing in thiscase, "for they wanted her to stay with her husband." Just how thisact would win the lady's affections is not quite clear, but it is saidinvariably to have been effective. It should be added, in justice, thatinformants can recall having seen in their lifetimes only three womenthus mutilated (an Ehetisat, a Muchalat, and an Ahousat).Although premarital chastity was absolutely demanded, not muchwas said about chastity after marriage. This does not mean thatlicense was tolerated?on the contrary, a virtuous man or womanwould be commended?but there was a feeling that it was asking abit too much of ordinary human nature to expect constant virtue.So all the emphasis was placed on admonishing a couple to avoidjealousy.A woman's grandmother or aunts would admonish her not to bejealous if she heard her husband was having an affair with anotherwoman. "Sometimes people just tell you things like that to make 306 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144trouble. Pay no attention to them. And even if it's true, don't doanything about it: don't quarrel or scratch your husband. When hegoes out somewhere, don't question him about it. A good womanisn't jealous even if her husband does go to see other women. Youcan't do anything about it anyhow. Men are like that."Men got the same sort of counsel. "If you hear another man isafter your wife, don't quarrel with him about it. It's not right tofight over a woman. Don't even think about him. Don't be jealousover your wife; a jealous man never gets any wealth [i. e., when he isaway from home training or hunting he will be thinking about his wifeail the time instead of the business at hand]."There was a great deal of casual philandering among the youngmarried people and the middle-aged and from it arose many quarrels.Wives would berate wayward husbands and might even return to theirparents in a huff. "But they usually came back." A husband mightbeat an adulterous wife, or worse, tear her clothes off pubHcly, up-braiding her the while. This was a great disgrace for the woman.Actually there were more hard words thrown than blows struck.Other people would intervene if a man seemed to be going too far.Separation did not necessarily follow an affair of this kind, in factmore often did not. Only if the adulterous mate persisted wouldthey part. The w^ayw^ard one's behavior would be blamed for anychildren they might have lost.The chief of qwowinasath (Kyuquot) and his wife were staying attacis one dog salmon season with their daughter and son-in-law (atacisath). It was common gossip that the chief's wife was carryingon an affair with her son-in-law. Early one morning the couple wentseparately out of the house, the chief followed and spied them inflagrante delicto. He returned to the house quietly. They returnedseparately, the son-in-law first. When the chief's wife came in herhusband said, "You've been gone a long time. Have you been outfor ritual bathing?" She laughed and went toward the fireplace.He seized her dress at the neck and ripped it from her, throwing thepieces in the fire. "You might as well go naked!" he shouted. All thepeople got up to watch. He seized his wife and began to maul herabout, saying, "I knew it all along, but this time I saw you. Youknow you've harmed your own daughter." (There is a folk tale abouta woman who caused her daughter's death by such an affair.) Thedaughter got up to go to her father's aid. Between them, they gavethe woman quite a pummeling; finally people intervened and stoppedit. The chief and his daughter were very angry. They packed theirbelongings and loaded theu' canoe. They did not say anything to thedaughter's husband, and he made himself as inconspicuous as possible. Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 307All their wrath was directed against the woman. When they wereready to go the daughter said to her father, "Don't let her in thecanoe; leave her here. She's just like a dog. That's why I've lostmy children, because my own mother was having intercourse withmy husband." The woman was sitting on the beach crying, her faceswollen. The chief picked her up roughly and dumped her bodily intothe canoe. They went home. The chief's daughter was pregnantat the time; she had a child which died after a year or so. Then sheleft her husband. Her parents did not separate. They had marriedyoung and never separated. But the mother did not go to feasts andpotlatches for a long time after this.A factor contributing to the prevalence of adultery was that therewere always many unattached women about, widows, divorcees, andduring the fur-sealing days women whose husbands were gone 6 to8 months at a time. By the time a woman reached full maturityand had perhaps been married several times she did pretty much asshe pleased. Her parents and kinsmen might try to control her buttheir authority was weakened. If she did not heed their counsel,their only recourse was to try to shame her into proper behavior bypublic reprimands, but even these were ineffectual in many cases.The tempestuous history of an Ehetisat widow, ti'ukowisaqsu', con-tains some typical examples of the sort of reprimands that older rela-tives gave to express their disapproval. When her husband qanaqam,a minor chief of the Ehetisat house icsaath, was killed by a fallingtree, she stayed for a time in the house because her two sons had in-herited various of their father's rights. She quarreled with the housechiefs before long, however. (She seems to have suspected that one ofthem planned to marry her in order to insure that the boys stayed inthat house, and she particularly disliked him.) She took her sons toher home, the atcinath house. Her father was dead; her "uncles"the house chiefs welcomed her. When time came for the salmon run,the icsaath chief sent a messenger to call her sons (one of their father'srights had been that to a certain salmon trap, and consisted in takingthe first two catches from the trap to give feasts to the people) . Thewidow's uncles urged the boys to go, for the rights were important.They returned with the messengers, she quarrelled with her uncles,and followed her sons to icsa. That winter she ran off with a youngNuchatlet man during a Shamans' Dance. The icsaath felt badlyabout it when they discovered what she had done. Their chief gavea feast to the Ehetisat to announce publicly that she had run off with-out a word to anyone, not even her own sons. "We feel badly aboutit because we have tried to treat her well, and have taken care of the 308 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144rights of her sons (seeing that all the privileges of the boys' fatherwent to them). It would not have been so bad had she waited forthem to 'buy' her properly [i. e., from her 'uncles'], just as we 'bought'her. We had even decided that if she wanted to marry outside of thishouse we would let her take her younger son with her. Had she mar-ried properly instead of showing that she cared nothing about ourdead brother, her husband, we would have done this. Now we shallkeep both boys." Her "uncles" covered their faces with their blanketsfor shame. Soon after they went to visit Nuchatlet relatives, andsent one of them to call her to the house in which they were staying.When she came in and saw them she almost turned back, but did notquite dare. One of her uncles rose, saying, "Well, u'ukowisaqsu', Isee that you are here. How did you get here? Did you walk acrossthe inlet? You left without telling anyone. Your uncles aren't deadyet; you still have relatives. Why didn't you let us know what youwere going to do? We are just like dirt now; anyone can step on us;we're nothing. You have shamed us before all the tribes. You knowthe icsaath made us great when they bought you. You showed allthe tribes you care nothing for our good name when you came herewith no word to us. All right, now you're here?stay here, don'1come back. If those people you went to want to arrange a marriagefor you, tell them not to come, for we won't look at them. If you havea child don't bring it to us saying we're its grandfathers?it will getno name from us. You wanted to come here, so stay. Die here, rothere.""I'm glad to know that's what my 'uncles' think of me," sheanswered. "You want to kill me, you want to see me dead. Allright, I'll go kill myself.""Why don't you? As far as we are concerned you died that nightyou ran off without telling anyone where you were going."The woman walked out of the house, mumbling her suicide threat.Her uncles sent a boy to follow her, lest she be serious about it?hereturned saying she had gone back to her lover's house, and waschatting happily with him.On their return to hohk, her "uncles" invited the Ehetisat to a feastin the name of her younger son. At the feast, one of them announced,"We have just been over to Nuchatlet to see our 'niece.' You allknow how she disgraced us. It's just as though she killed us: shebrought down our high name. Some people told us the Nuchatlet areplanning to come over to arrange a marriage (makcil). I don't wantany of you chiefs to receive them or aid them. The Nuchatlet havemarried many of our women in a proper ceremonial way; this is thefirst the}^ ever stole from us. I am going down to the beach myselfand push their canoe away, when they come." Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 309The wohinuxtakamlath chief rose, saying, "Chief, please don'tspeak those words. That is a bad way to talk. Now you are angryand hurt, but you will change your mind when you think it over. Sheis your niece; really, she is almost your own daughter. When heshas a child it will be a great shame for her and for the child if she wasnot married."The atcin chiefs were finally mollified, and probably would havereceived the Nuchatlet, but the latter never came. It was behevedthat she convinced them not to. Before long she quarreled with herlover, and with several others, and was finally married (makcil) to ayouth much younger than herself with whom she quarreled continuallyand by whom she had a considerable number of children.There was no institutionalized prostitution in Nootkan culture com-parable to that of the Southern Kwakiutl as Charley Nowell (in Ford,1941) describes it. A man would give a mistress small gifts in returnfor her favors?beads, paint, and the like, but nothing of great value.If the recipient were a married woman she hid these from her husband.Men did not prostitute wives or kinswomen, it was maintained.Some men quarreled with their wive's paramours, and sometimescame to blows. They might seize each other by the hair, or maul eachother. Once in awhile their kinsmen became involved, and therewould be quite a melee before other people could separate the com-batants. In a few instances an irate husband smashed his rival'scanoe or house boards. No informant can recall any slayings orserious injuries resulting from these affairs, however. It was definitelyconsidered unseemly "for men to fight over a woman," and people didall they could to prevent it. If a man took another's wife, he couldlegalize the new union by ceremonial marriage or by giving presents tothe parents, not to her former spouse. The latter was out of pockethis bride-price. "If he wanted another wife he had to go buy oneagain."Many Ehetisat men were out fur sealing one season. The rest ofthe people were at Tachu for fishing. A young man told his wifeone night he was going out for ritual bathing for sea otter hunting.Actually he went to spend the night with the wife of Lakicsimo'is(brother of the icsaath chief's father), who was out on a sealingschooner. About daybreak someone came to rap on the wall, forthe schooner was lying offshore at anchor and boats were alreadybeing lowered to put the hunters ashore. The young man crawledout a window in the rear of the house and took to the woods. Un-fortunately his wife saw him. She ran over and set upon Lakicsimo'is'wife. Seizing her and shaking her, she cried, "So you are a sea otter!So you're the sea otter my husband was after! 1 was staying awake 310 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144helping my husband [i. e., as a hunter's wife had to do during hisritual bathing], and here he was sleeping with you!" People came into try to pacify her, but in vain. She was still berating her rivalwhen Lakicsimo'is came in. He scolded his wife, telling her to leave;he was through with her. Someone got the "sea otter hunter's"wife away. Lakicsimo'is' wife protested her innocence vigorously;her paramour came in as though by chance and assured everyonethat he had been bathing in the sea all night. Lakicsimo'is wasalmost convinced, when the young man's wife came in again, spoilingthe whole thing by asserting she had seen her husband tumble outthe window. The latter tried to silence her but she kept on, andgave him a shove. Off his balance, he lurched against the outragedhusband. They seized each other and began to fight. Bystanderspulled them apart. They began to malign each other at the top oftheir voices, keeping it up for a long time. A high-rank kinswomanof the adultress reprimanded her for the affair. "What's the matter,isn't one man enough for you? Look at the trouble you've caused.Don't you know men don't care about women like you? They justwant to be able to laugh about you afterward." Others were repri-manding the young man's wife. "Why didn't you keep still? Lookat all the trouble you've made with your big mouth. If you hadn'tsaid anything Lakicimo'is wouldn't have known about it. Youshouldn't have told him. This is all your fault. Why did you haveto come over and make trouble?" The uproar continued for sometime, till people, tiring of it, made them stop. There was a chief'swife there who had recently lost a child and they did not want her tohave to listen to so much wrangling. A day or two later Lakicsimo'is'elder brother, the retired icsaath chief, came down from the inletwith some dried sockeye for a feast. At the feast the old chiefreprimanded his unruly brother. "I heard good news about myyounger brother, Lakicsimo'is," he began, ironically. "I heard hehas forgotten that he has a good name. What did you bother tofight with that one for? He's nothing, but you have a chief's name,a big name. Don't think about him any more. It's not right for achief to fight about a woman. Don't be jealous. You should thinls:about your good name, and how to keep it good, not about beingjealous." Lakicsimo'is and his wife did not get on well after this,however, finally separating. He and the "sea otter hunter" did notspeak for some time, but eventually "they got over it." The latterand his wife did not part.Another potent source of discord was the institution of polygamy.As has been stated, the first wife was "boss" of her co-wife. Thelatter was likely to resent this situation, especially if she were of as Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 311high or higher rank. The first wife, on her part, was hkely to becomejealous of another woman who shared, or for the time at least, monop-olized, her husband's attentions. As a result there was usually illfeeling, and a continual bickering, until one or the other packed upand left. Sometimes, though, especially if the two wives were sistersor close kin, they got on well enough together.During a discussion of the relative merits of polygyamy andmonogamy, one informant recalled from the time of his boyhood anold Muchalat man who had two wives. Ordinarily in polygamoushouseholds each wife had her own bed, but it was this man's conceitto have them make an extra-wide sleeping mat, so that he mightsleep with a wife on either side. The two women squabbled fromdawn till dark, over their husband, over fetching water and cooking,over household utensils. At night they kept other people in the houseawake by their continual bickering. Only on one matter did theyagree, and that was to turn on their husband if he tried to pacifythem. Once they fell to quarreling about the common bed mat.Their long-suffering spouse happened to be sitting on the object ofdispute, trying to be oblivious to the quarrel. One of the women gavethe mat a yank to emphasize a point, tumbling the husband onto thefloor. This was more than he could stand; sputtering with rage heran to his box of gear and snatched up a huge butcherknife. Otherhouseholders looked on, too horror-stricken to interfere in the blood-shed they expected to see. For once the two women were frightenedinto silence. He pounced upon the bed mat and with a single slashcut it in two. Then he threw a half at each wife, and stalked offto an unoccupied place to sleep by himself.There were many people who adhered to the cultural ideal of notbeing jealous, though it was not always an easy course. In returnsuch a person received the approval of his or her fellows, and theerring spouse sometimes would be shamed into mending his ways, sothat the patient one gained in the long run.DISSENSION AND SOCIAL CONTROLIt is only to be expected that in the course of ordinary human livesconflicts should now and then arise. Men, and women too, fell outover a variety of things, chiefly sex matters (adultery, etc.) andproperty rights of various sorts. Some people were known to bemore truculent than others. But on the whole there was remark-ably little fighting in everyday life.^^ Violence was very definitelynot considered seemly, and was discountenanced. When two mencame to blows (which usually meant seizing each other by the hair), " Sproat (1868, p. 51) was impressed by this fact: "The men rarely quarrel except with their tongues, anda blow is seldom given ... I have never witnessed a fight between two sober natives; when drunk, theyseek close quarters and pull each other's hair."5?51 21 312 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144bystanders would watch a few moments, then intervene before anyreal damage was done. Close kin of the combatants might join inthe battle, but there were always enough people left to separate thefighters. "It's really not right for men to fight." If a chief so farforgot all his training as to come to grips with someone, commonerswould not hesitate to seize him and drag him off. They would evenintervene in such a purely personal affair as wife beating, if the manseemed to be going too far. The usual course of a fight was somethinglike this : first the two persons would loudly accuse and threaten eachother for some time. Sometimes they would grapple until all the by-standers pulled them apart. There was almost never any attemptmade to seize a weapon to obtain really decisive results. Then theysettled down to "jawing," each boasting of his own superiority inrank and all fields of endeavor, and reviling the other with everyinsult and epithet he could lay tongue to (it scarcely need be added,to the great glee of the assembled spectators). This went on untilthey became too hoarse to talk or the audience tired of listening andset about pacifying them. Nothing ever came of it afterward.Even if one got the worst of it all the way around, he did not broodor seek vengeance. "They wouldn't be friends for a while, and wouldnot speak to each other," say informants. "But pretty soon theyforgot about it."^^ The concept of weregild was unknown. ^^ Mendid not potlatch, trying to outdo each other, after one of these "swear-ings." "You can't do that. You give a potlatch for your child(in your child's honor) and it would be a bad name for him if youfought, or had bad feelings in a potlatch."Of course, a man's anger once roused to such a pitch did not die downimmediately. Therefore his relatives, especially those whom he likedand respected most, would set about pacifying him. "Don't tliinkabout him any more. It's not right to fight. You have a good name;don't bring it down. You would be bringing shame to all of us, ifyou made more trouble. Don't think about it?just let it go. If hesays anything to you again, don't answer him. Even if he should hityou, do nothing. Just turn around and walk away." This last bit ? that one should not answer a person seeking a quarrel, and should evenlet a blow pass unreturned?was a well-recognized principle in the artof getting along with other people. It was repeated over and overagain in instruction to the young, pacification of people involved in " A "fight" between mea is called hian (lit., "swearing"). A quarrel between man and wife is qatpftl." Sproat (18&S, p. 51) refers to gifts made after fights. This must have been a practice of the Albernipeople, learned by them from the Coast Salish, among whoma weals form of the weregild complex occurred.(Cf. Barnett, 19.39, pp. 266-2G7.) None of the Nootkans up the coast knew of such a custom. DruckerJ THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 313quarrels, and in general discourses on good social behavior. So wellwas it dinned into them that many people actually practiced it, difficultthough it may be to do.The early explorers and traders considered the natives much givento petty thievery, and did not hesitate to take violent countermeasuresat times. However, it seems clear that such stealing of nails and spoonsand marlinspikes that irked the traders' tlu-ifty souls was not thieveryin native eyes, for after all, the white men were aliens, and their prop-erty was not regarded in the same light as that of fellow tribesmen.Sproat (1869, p. 159) noted this difference, commenting that instancesof theft among tribesmen were rare indeed. It is said by informantsthat some persons possessed magical procedures, apparently someform of contagious magic performed over an object, that caused athief to break out with sores, so that he was singled out and dis-graced, as well as punished for his crime. Actually, whether for fearof such punishment or because of emphasis in early training thattheft is reprehensible and shameful, stealing was and is very uncom-mon. Nowadays, white men resident on the coast, who now areregarded as "belonging" there, leave tools about, seldom lock uptheir boats, and very rarely find anything missing. Robbing traplines (taking mink or marten from someone else's set), is the chiefexception, and with the indifferent woodcraft of the trappers isdifficult to detect. Older informants maintain that this practice ismuch more common in modern times than formerly.Witchcraft constituted the principal crime problem. Since peoplewho could perform it, shamans who had the power to "send" disease-causing objects and persons who knew ritual procedures to harm theirfellows (consisting chiefly in contagious magic), were so secretiveabout not only the techniques involved but also about the fact thatthey possessed them, only rarely did one know whom to suspect.This added quality of mystery, of course, increased one's danger.For this reason the young people were advised never to offend olddefenseless men and women, "for you never know who may know howto do harm to you [magically]." The obvious solution when someonefell ill for some apparently inexplicable reason was to accuse someoneknown to bear him ill will, with whom he might have quarreled.Only in rare instances, and then only long after commission of thedeed, would someone admit he had bewitched his victim, or hired awitch to do it. Shamans in cases beyond their resources to cure oftenhinted darkly at witchcraft, and sometimes openly accused othershamans, who invariably denied culpability and replied with similaraccusations of malpractice. Yet though kin of the victim mightbe convinced as to the identity of the evil shaman or witch, theyseldom did anything about it, beyond harbor a grudge. The most 314 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144common mode of revenge was to employ witchcraft against theenemy. In rare cases pubUc indignation mounted so high, especiallyif a chief were the victim, that the suspect would move awayto another tribe. This was called pumis, usually translated as"scared out." It was not really banishment, for the suspectedperson himself took the initiative, perhaps fearing actual harm,probably hurt by the unjust accusations. Two instances of witch-craft illustrate common occasions for its use. It must be noted thatboth are unusual in one respect: the perpetrators (instigator, in onecase), boasted about their deeds afterward, something that wasrarely done.A widely known "case" supposed to have happened a numberof generations back?about the time of the first white contacts ? concerns a Clayoquot head chief who stood watching another chiefcarry wood from a canoe to his house. Nearby, a man, half-Clayoquotand half-Ehetisat, sat making a stone hammer. The first chiefsaid to him, "I wish you were one of those persons who 'send' magicalobjects. I would ask you to send one into that man. He hates me,and I suspect him of working magic to cause my children to die."The hammer maker, deliberately pretending to have misunderstood,replied, "Yes, I have been making this hammer for a long time. It'sslow work." The chief said, "No, you didn't hear me right. Isaid . . ." and he repeated his desire. The hammer maker staredat him. "Is it possible that you say this to me? Can it be truethat you say this?" "Yes. I want to find a man who can do this.I want that man to die." The hammer maker still protested amaze-ment. The chief (presumably convinced he was dealing with theproper person), repeated his wish several times. At last the hammermaker told him to retire a short distance. The other chief was stillgoing back and forth to his canoe, carrying loads of wood. Suddenlyhe dropped in his tracks. People assembled, shocked. Of course,they did not know what had occurred. They carried the chief's bodyinto the house. The first chief began to praise the wizard. "Sithere and wait, chief," said the latter. "Maybe he's not really dead.When he dies the thing I sent will come back to me." Soon therecame a humming sound like a ricocheting bullet, and a little blackstone dropped to the ground beside the hammer maker. It quivered"as though it were ahve." "That is what I used to kill him," said thewizard. The chief heaped presents on the wizard, giving him a placein his house. Years after, he used to tell of it publicly, praising thepower of his wizard. The latter came to a bad end, so the tale relates,for someone worked contagious magic on him and he died of it. Noone knew who did it, or why. Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 315Another case of witchcraft resulted from the following circum-stance, ailtclnak, of the Moachat tsisa'ath, stole the wife of qalka,a chief of the umiqtakamlath. The tribes were living at their oldwinter villages of kupti and o'is at the time, qalka tried severaltimes to get his wife back, going with a party of his kinsmen to kuptito carry her off by force. Each time, the woman ran off into the bushand hid, and the tsisa'ath men rallied to the defense of their chief.From the accounts, they seem to have staged regular DonnybrookFairs on the beach, qalka and his party came off second best eachtime, retiring from the field bruised and battered. (No weapons wereused in these affairs.) Not long after, a sister of ailtcinak found theplace where qalka bathed ritually, and recovered a bundle of twigswhich he had used to scrub his body. This she used for her spell,qalka soon showed the effects of the magic. He became ill, and greatsores broke out over his body. "His nose rotted off and his eyelidsgrew together." He lingered on in this lamentable condition for anumber of years, dying finally about 1915. The witch herself madeit known that she had brought this ill on her victim, although shenever revealed the method, other than to say that she had used thebundle of twigs in some fashion, qalka's kin did nothing, neither mak-ing her undo the spell, nor taking retaliatory measures. It wasrumored that various people hired her to bewitch enemies for them,but the deals were kept secret, so that no other case in which she wasconcerned was known.With so deeply ingrained a belief in black magic, it is rather surpris-ing that crimes of which witches were suspected were not avengedmore often by open violence. Yet shaman killing, which came nearto attaining the status of a favorite sport over a great part of westernNorth America, was extremely infrequent. Informants could tell meof only two instances in which the bereaved relatives went berserkand took violent vengeance.There was a woman shaman from a'aminqas, who, one day, invitedthe young daughter of a tsaxana chief to go with her to get cedar bark.The chief's daughter was a child of 10 or 12 years of age. The womanand the girl stripped several lengths of cedar bark, and the latter satdown to peel off the inner bark from the strips. As she sat there, shefelt a sharp pain in her shoulder. She looked around, for it felt almostas though someone had stabbed her; she saw the shaman standing somedistance away pointing her hands toward her. Then the older womancame to sit beside her to peel the cedar bark. The pain did not goaway but increased, until the girl began to complain of it. Her com-panion told her that perhaps she had wrenched her shoulder, and paid 316 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144no more attention. When they were ready to return, the shaman hadto carry all the cedar bark, for the child was in too much pain. Atthe village, as soon as she told her father he sent for first one shamanand then another, but they could do nothing for her. Two runningsores broke out on her back. Soon she died. After her death, thepeople began to talk about the old woman sending wizardries into her.It wasn't the first time the shaman had "poisoned" someone, so itwas said; she always chose her victim from the families of chiefs, sothey would call on her and pay her well to cure them. She hadexpected the girl's father to call her but he had not done so. Thechild's father said, "I want to die myself. But before I die I want toknow what happened to my daughter." So he hired two young mento cut open the sores on the girl's back. In one they found a splinterof bone, an inch or so long, and in the other the claw of a duck. Thenthe chief said, "Now that my only child is dead, I don't want to liveany longer. But I am going to kill that shaman woman before I die."He told his people that they would move down to matcli. The shamanand her family moved to liptl, so he did not have a chance to kill her.Then one day she came to matcli alone. She was going to stay withsome relatives there. She beached her canoe at the lower end of thebeach in front of the house in which the tsaxana chief was staying.As she started to walk up the beach, he came out behind her with agun concealed under his blanket. When he was close to her, he shother in the back. Her relatives saw it all, and came running out oftheir house with guns and knives. The tsaxana chief stood still,making no effort to defend himself or to escape. "Go ahead andshoot me," he told them. "I am ready to die. I don't care aboutliving any more. She killed my child, and I have killed her?now youhave the right to kill me if you want to." His people came down tothe beach too, ready to fight if the shaman's family killed him. Therewas some talk for a while; some of the dead woman's kin still wantedto kill him. Finally the matcli first chief came out and stopped thequarrel, and nothing more was done about it. (The informant was asmall child at the time; he remembered having seen the shaman, andlater heard them talk about her slaying, although he did not witnessthe incident.) This was the only instance the informant knew of inwhich a shaman was killed for witchcraft, among the Muchalat Armtribes.Another version of this same incident was related by a relative ofthe murdered shaman. As might be expected, he believed that thewoman was unjustly accused by less successful shamans jealous overthe fact that she had been able to cure the matcli chief of a seriousillness. Her brothers, he averred, were with difficulty dissuaded fromslaying the tsaxana chief, but finally let her death go as a sort of Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 317company (tcitcmo) for their many relatives who had been lost in thewars with the Moachat.A somewhat peculiar story, known to most informants, concerns askeptical chief who tested the shamans. It is usually attributed toclwuc, of the Moachat, but according to one version it was his suc-cessor. The fact that his victim was a slave may be window dressing;one informant was very sure the guilty shaman was a woman of aprominent Queen's Cove family, and that she was not slain, but fledto Ucluelet along with some of her kin, who felt the disgrace mostsharply. Descendants of the family do not like to hear references tothe incident, according to this version.ciwuc, the Moachat chief killed by the Muchalat warrior tuckai'ilam,did not believe in shamans, and once set a trap for them. He pre-tended to go to Clayoquot for a visit?actually he camped at homis fora few days. He returned home, pretending to be ill. His peopleworried about him, and called for many shamans. According toanother version of this tale, he confided in his mother that he was notreally ill, but wanted to test the shamans. She is said to have scoldedhim. "You call many of those old people 'uncle,' or 'grandparent.'You shouldn't do things like that to them." But she kept this secret,it is said. Some tried to cure him, but said they could find no diseaseobjects, and didn't know what was wrong with him. He was contentwith these. Finally a woman slave named nilwilta was called to tryto cure the chief. She sang, then bent over to suck out a diseaseobject. Two war chiefs were sitting close to the chief. As she suckedshe slipped one hand under her blanket, then attempted to slip some-thing into her month. One of the war chiefs grabbed her by the hairand yanked her head back saying, "You have bad luck. Now dropthe disease object from your month." She sat singing her spirit song.Finally they forced her to spit out the object?there were two bits ofbone with some sort of wrappings. She pretended she had takenthem out of the chief, but everyone realized the truth. She had in-tended to send the disease objects into the chief's body(!). Theyasked who had told her to do this. She finally named qwo'inic, one ofthe chief's slaves. Everyone was sure this was a lie. The chiefwanted his war chiefs to kill her there in the house, but the peoplewanted qwo'inic to kill her, and outside. So they gave qwo'inic awar club, and he took her outside and killed her.Witchcraft was enough of a menace, and accusations of it involvedso many families in bitter disputes, that few informants like to discussit even today. However, this does not mean that the Nootkan societywas essentially witch-ridden. They did not go in for black magicnearly so strongly as did their Kwakiutl neighbors across the island. 318 BUREAU or AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144Nootkan informants are not impressed, but think it very funny thatKwakiutl witches have to resort to taking shvers of chairs or bencheson which their intended victims have sat, for the Kwakiutl are soafraid of witchcraft that they take pains to leave nothing about overwhich contagious magic might be worked. It is claimed (by Nootkans)that outhouses at some Kwakiutl villages are habitually padlockedlest witches steal excrement for magical purposes.^*^ There is noindication that the Nootkan fear of witches was strong enough tolead them to try to hide excrement, hair, old clothes, and similararticles that they knew the witches used.Murder (except by witchcraft), either for gain, as a solution topersonal antagonism, or in revenge, was very uncommon. Organizedwarfare, which, of course, always had one or another of these motiva-tions, is considered separately for it involved group action, chieflyby tribes or confederacies, rather than acts by individuals, and theoccasional killing of slaves (war captives), similarly was not consideredin the same light as killing one's own tribesmen. Since the termina-ation of the intertribal wars in the 1870's, there have been remarkablyfew killings among the Nootkans?informants can recall only sevenor eight since that time. Of those, three were wanton slayings com-mitted by one individual who, though not definitely abnormal, wasantisocial, and considered as such by his contemporaries,moqwina was first chief of both the Ehetisat and the Moachat.His father was the Ehetisat chief, his mother, elder sister of the Moa-chat chief. When his mother's brother died without direct heirs (hewas the clwuc killed by the Muchalat war chief), moqwina obtainedhis dual chieftainship. Having thus tremendous prestige andauthority, and apparently a sadistic tendency, he became a tyrantand bully. No one would stand against him because of his rank. Hecommitted three brutal murders and many malicious acts. Finallypublic sentiment at Ehetisat began to rise against him. Almost allthe people moved out of his house; he could scarcely get men to paddlefor him when he went anywhere. One or two of the stronger chiefsstood out before their houses and publicly upbraided him. An oldman whom moqwina called "grandfather" stood up during a feast,saying to him, "My grandson, I want you to tell me what you'redoing. This is the third time you have killed a person. No chief hasever done such things before. It is bad; you will never raise yourchildren if you do that way." moqwina ceased going to feasts andpotlatches. At last after a particularly malicious act (smashing upsome boards a man had spent several weeks making), a victim re- el Boas (1897, p. 441) relates that a piece of flesh bitten from a person's arm by the Hainatsa had to he re-turned to the owner "to assure him that it will not be used against him for purposes of witchcraft." Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 319belled, vowing to kill the tyrant. Only with great difficulty was hedissuaded from this act of lese majesty, moqwina became frightenedand moved to Nootka. He never returned to live at Ehetisat (thoughho did give some potlatches there long after).At the time of moqwina's flight, his old father was on his deathbed.There was a great to-do ; accusations of witchcraft were flung back andforth. One family moved away on account of it. Finally one manstood near the dying man and told him, "Don't say any more aboutanyone bewitching you. No one is killing you [i. e., by magic]. You'redying over your son. We're all ashamed of what he does. He is justlike the beings of mythical times when they killed for nothing. He'scrazyJ' The old man turned his head away in silence. He died withoutaccusing anyone.This r6sum6 of a long biography reveals a number of things con-cerning social control. First of all there was no formal machinery topunish wrongdoers. People did not know quite what to do about thesituation. They talked against moqwina and refused to cooperatewith him, but his rank gave him a certain immunity from physicalharm. To the advice and pleas of his elders he turned a deaf ear.Finally the resentment became so obvious and unpleasant that thick-skinned as he was he had to leave. Informants do not know whatwould have happened to a man of lesser rank who behaved likemoqwina; none ever did.The most common means of control was the counsel given a way-ward person by his kinsmen. They sought to calm his wrath ormend his ways, as the case might be. They appealed to his loyaltyto the family "to do right; not to do anything that will bring down ourname (disgrace us), or involve us in trouble." As a rule this sufficed.If it did not, the public reprimands would shame most people intoconformance with conventional behavior. At a feast or similargathering, or simply standing before his house, a man would give thewrongdoer a dressing-down in blistering phrases. Usually someelderly Idnsman would take it on himself to do this.Revenge did not play much actual part in social conflicts. Afterthe first flare-up of anger, people dropped the whole thing, andgradually even the ill will and unfriendliness toward the offender diedaway. I am convinced that the utter absence of the wergild complexhad a great deal to do with the individual's willingness to let bygonesbe bygones. Both in the north, among the Tlingit, Haida, andTsimshian, and in northwestern California, where the concept ofwergild occurred, it seems to have focused attention on injuries andslights, so that no one dared risk loss of face by letting a wrong gouncompounded or unavenged. Among the Nootkans, if revenge, other 320 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144than in some magical form, were taken it was taken immediately.The relatives and friends of the injured person cursed and threatenedthe wrongdoer; he defied them to kill him, for he had his own kin athis back, arms in hand, ready to attack the moment he should fall.Any act of violence was, therefore, a match over an open powderkeg, for it could easily lead to not just individual revenge but toout-and-out war between the groups. For this reason older coolerheads sought to dissuade their hot-tempered fellows during suchquarrels. The potential danger of such situations was enough todeter many from any violent act.The following tale is the only one told me of a long-delayed revenge.It is, therefore, not typical of Nootkan social behavior in this regard.I cite it because of the picture it gives of the way in which acts ofviolence embroiled large groups of people, not just the persons im-mediately involved. It is very apparent that had the tacis war chiefsrefused to back the killer while he was making his plans, he wouldprobably not have committed his crime. Their acquiescence involvedtheir entire house, of course.In the last century, probably in the 1850's, a Chickliset shamanmarried a Kyuquot woman of the tllath house. The woman borehim a son. The shaman had on various occasions been accused ofsending disease objects into people. At length someone at Chicklisetkilled him (the details were not related, but the instigator was a chiefof importance, who enslaved the child and his mother). The tilathchief hastened to Chickliset, ransomed his kinswoman and her childand brought them to Kyuquot. The boy vowed never to return toChicldiset, although his slain father had had a minor chief's statusthere. V/lien he was grown, the tllath chief arranged a marriage forhim with an amaiath girl. The youth was a good sea otter hunter.He gave his pelts to the tllath chief. Meanwhile, his father's slayerhad died. The chief of the qaqcitath, at Kyuquot, went to Chicldisetfor a bride, and returned with the eldest daughter of the shaman-killer. Her presence in the village was a constant reminder to theyoung man of the murder of his father; he began to brood over it.She became pregnant, and her Chickliset relatives came over con-stantly with feast gifts for theu- in-law, her husband (the type of giftscalled ya'acuk). One summer day, all the people were at aqtis, themen fishing sharks and the women rendering the oil to sell to thetraders. The young man went to the informant's grandfather, andthe latter's brother?both noted war chiefs of the tacisath?whom headdressed as "uncle" (their relationship was actually not close). Hesaid, "Uncles, don't go shark spearing tomorrow. I keep thinkingabout my father all the time [i. e., about his murder]. I'm going to Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 321kill that Chickliset woman tomorrow." The warriors replied, "Allright. We'll stand by you." They cleaned their guns in secret, andmade pretexts for not going out next day.Next morning the young man went to the warrior brothers again."Get ready now, my uncles. Don't come out at the first shot, forI'm going to try my gun on a crow. Come out when you hear thesecond shot." All the women were down on the beach; some of theshark hunters were coming back in. The Chickliset woman was infront of the qaqcil house. The young man went near her, and shota crow eating offal on the beach. The woman was startled but saidnothing. He went back to the tacis house, to tell his "uncles," "I'mgoing to shoot another crow?I want her to say something to me."So he went out and shot another crow from quite near the woman.She shouted at him, "Don't do that! It scares me so." He reloaded,and pretended to aim at the crows again. She put her hands over herears and closed her eyes. The young man put the muzzle of the gunagainst her side and pulled the trigger. She screamed, ran a few stepstoward her husband's house, and fell dead. He ran to his own house,to blacken his face and tie his hair up on top of his head. The warriorbrothers, similarly painted, came out with him. He was singing hiswar song. Meanwhile the woman's husband and a number of otherqaqcilath had come in. They rushed toward the young killer. Thewarrior brothers stood in front of him. He shouted, "Her fatherkilled my father, so I killed her. If she'd stayed home in Chicldisetinstead of coming here she'd have been all right!" (that is, he had notintended to seek revenge, until she reminded him of his father's deathby her presence). Threats and shouts of defiance were hurled backand forth. More and more men were coming in, and they promptlytook sides with kin. The t^iath, the tacisath, and the a'Licath (closelyrelated to the tacis group) sided with the young man; the qaqcilathagainst him. The warrior brothers challenged, "Come over here ifyou want to die! We're ready to die, and will take you along." Theaffair settled down to a long drawn-out bickering that lasted most ofthe afternoon. The qaqcilath took the body of the woman out tobury her, first removing the fetus. Someone notified the Chickliset,and they came next day for her body. They took it to their village.Before reburying her, they carried the body to a little bluff, and,calling her slayer's name, dropped it over. This was magic, of course,to make him fall to his death out in the woods. Then they buriedher. Some of the slayer's friends learned about the spell, and warnedhim to be cautious in the woods. Nothing more was done over theaffair. The qaqcilath, of course, could have taken revenge, in viewof the loss of the woman's unborn child. But they did not do so ? the informant beheved because of fear of the tacisath war chiefs (and 322 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144the rest of that house, committed to the young man's side by theirespousal of his cause). The story was spread, afterward, that whenthey were destroying the dead woman's effects, they found numerousHttle odds and ends?packets of paint, strings of trade beads, andthe Uke?such as a woman received from lovers for her favors. (This,of course, sounds like malicious gossip intended to turn her in-lawsagainst her, to make them less likely to take up her cause.) Longyears after, the woman's slayer tumbled off a cliff and broke an arm,which was attributed to the effect of the Chickliset magic. He diedof old age some years back. SUICIDESuicide, that last ineffectual protest against insoluble conflicts,seems to have been very rare. It is mentioned in traditions: theusual incident is one in which a chief's son or daughter is unjustlyrebuked for something, whereupon he or she commits suicide "fromshame." Hanging, crawling under and tripping a deadfall, wander-ing off into the woods to die of starvation and exposure are theusual methods described in these tales. Variations on the themecome when the would-be suicide encounters supernatural power, orfinds a route to an unknown region (the trails to Kwakiutl territoryare said to have been discovered thus). There seem to have been nosuicides within the memory of informants, save for one person (aKyuquot) who, in what is believed to have been a fit of insanity, shotand killed his wife, their child, and himself. No one knows why hedid it, unless it were that he became deranged.PERSONALITY TYPES AND SOCIAL ATTITUDESIDEALSThe ideal personality to the Nootkans was characterized by mild-ness of temper, lightheartedness, and generosity. They say, "So-and-so was a good man?he never quarreled with anyone, and wasalways laughing and joking. He would always help people, andinvite them to eat with him. Everyone liked him." Whether chiefor commoner, such behavior was expected. The truculent, shift-less, or niggardly individual was looked down on. Such social dis-approval was not expressed except in gossip, however; no attemptwas made to force a mild nonconformist into line. People tried toget along with him with as little friction as possible. Of course, ifhe went too far, his fellows pointedly avoided him, refused to speak,and in general indicated that his company was not wanted. Druckei] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 323Nowhere are the ideals of behavior expressed more clearly than inthe advice given to children. Before a child learned to speak, andcontinuing until maturity, his parents and grandparents instructedhim daily. It was said that if one began when the child was stillsmall (really before it could understand), the facts would be impressedupon him. As he (or she) grew older, mealtimes would be utilizedfor counsel, "for the child swallows the good words with the food.''They would say, for example, "When you are playing with the otherchildren, be careful not to hurt those smaller than yourself [i. e., byaccident], or their parents will think you are mean, and feel badlytoward you. If any child tries to quarrel, saying something meanto you, don't answer him?turn away. Even if he should hit you,go away. Do not fight back; it's not right. When you are playingwith a chief's child, take care of him, see that he does not get hurt."Often at night a boy's father would lie down beside his son coachinghim in good manners; a girl's mother did the same for her. A typicalspeech was one the Ehetisat Litcyaath chief used to give his son atnight. "You must start while you are still young to get up early inthe morning to go bathe. Don't he in bed. That way things willcome easily to you [i. e., you will acquire wealth], and people willthink well of you. Always treat your people well. Feed them andtake care of them so they will help you; otherwise you will be nothing.Be friendly; speak kindly to everyone. When you walk through thevillage and see a commoner with a child, hold the child and talk to it.If you see a man pulling a canoe up on the beach, go help him withouthis having to ask you. Be good to everybody, chief or commoner,young or old. Then they will like you and help you. If the peoplethink you are mean, or arrogant, they won't do anything for you.They may even be behind you working black magic to do you harm.Unless you make the people like you and help you, you will be nothing.Never quarrel, or speak angrily to anyone. Wlien you are grown youmust begin to bathe ritually for wealth and to bring food for yourpeople ... [A description of the proper ritual procedure followed].""There were four things," a high-rank old lady told me, "that achief's child was always told. The first was that he should always bekind and friendly to everyone, of high or low rank, old or young.The second, he should never quarrel. If someone tried to pick aquarrel, he should not answer. Third, he should bathe ritually, tofeed his people [i. e., to bring plenty for them]; and fourth, he shouldbathe for wealth. His parents told him these things all the time,while he was eating, in evenings. As he grew up he would be thinkingabout these things constantly, follow them, and become a big chief."One cannot doubt that such training had its effect. Formerly, as 324 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144now, the Nootkans emphasized the fact that mildness of nature wastheir ideal, and strove to achieve it.^^ABNORMAL PERSONALITIESAs a check on the direct descriptions of the culturally idealizedpersonality, we may consider briefly some types considered abnormalor antisocial. It is obvious that in as large a population as that ofthe Nootkans, not everyone could be expected to conform to a sodefinitely prescribed standard.Insanity, at least in its more extreme forms, was recognized as anabnormal condition. One said of a psychopathic person, "He iswikhtin." Supernatural causes were usually sought to explain thecause of insanity. Certain malevolent beings might when encounteredcause the unfortunate finder to lose his reason. There were not manysuch persons, but a few cases were recalled.One was an Ehetisat girl, slightly older than the informant whotold of her. Before her first menses (she seems to have been physi-ologically retarded; her age-mates were already married), she wentberrying with some other girls and women. She wandered a littleway from the rest. All of a sudden she heard strange laughter whichshe knew could not be that of her companions. Frightened as shewas, she could not resist looking in the direction from which the eeriesound came. Four haqwo'Lum appeared. (These are "female"supernaturals with very long hair. If there are 10 together, they arereally "women supernaturals" who give good fortune. One or fourare males being dressed as women, and invariably harmful.) The girlfainted instantly. After a time she regained consciousness and madeher way down to the beach. Her companions, missing her, had beensearching for her frantically. Among the others was an older womanwho was "beginning to be a doctor." To her astonished eyes thereseemed to be something like a shadow behind the girl; "she was justlike two persons." Though only a novice she realized the girl had meta supernatural of some sort which had attached itself to her. Thatevening at home the girl ate, then became violently nauseated (atypical reaction to a supernatural encounter). Then she began tolaugh wildly. Her parents were alarmed, knowing something musthave happened to her; they tried to take care of her, but she becameprogressively worse. (I did not learn how long she continued so;my impression is that it was over a period of perhaps a year.) Appar-ently she experienced hallucinations; the informant said, "The girl 81 It is worth remarking that in the course of a 6-month association with modern Nootkans I did not see orhear of a single fight, despite the fact that there were altercations?many situations highly charged with pos-sibilities of violence (at least I expected them to result so) but the individuals never actually came to blows. Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 325could see them 'after her' all the time." Finally the woman doctorsent her brother to tell the girl's distraught parents. "She [the doc-toress] had not wanted to tell that the girl had seen a supernaturalbeing, but waited for the girl herself to tell." (The reason is eitherthat the woman feared she might be accused of having bewitched thegirl, to get a fee for curing, or as is more probable, her account of whatshe had seen was a later rationalization. The girl seems never to havetold her own experience.) Her parents tried a number of shamans, allof whom failed utterly in curing their daughter. One pretended toremove the supernatural being, even going through the motions of"sending it away," but the woman who had seen it merely laughed."He didn't take it at all. It's not within her, it's still on her back.When it enters her she becomes crazy." Finally the being possessedits victim permanently. She became quite violent. When peopleapproached her she would clutch at them, trying to claw or bite. Herparents sent to Kyuquot for a famous doctor, but when he arrivedshe had been dead 2 days. Two of her three sisters died in just thesame way within the next few years. "They had got some of thesupernatural's power from her,"About 60 or 70 years ago, there was a Kyuquot woman married toa ciLsyaphath man. She went alone one day to dig clams, though shewas heavy with child. As she dug a strange cry came from the woods.The woman ran to her canoe and put off. Something like a persondashed past along the beach, so swiftly she could not tell clearly whatit was. "It was a puqmis [transformed spirit of a person who nearlydrowns then 'goes wild' in the woods]." Wlien the woman returnedhome, she was afraid to tell; her husband might have been angry withher for going out alone in her condition. Soon after she gave birth toa daughter. When the child began to grow, it soon became evidentshe was "different." She had a peculiar manner of speech, and she"twitched all the time." Yet no one in the tribe, not even the fleetestof the young men, could run or swim as fast as she. As she raced upand down the beach she "talked a strange language that no one under-stood," calling "matatatatata." People began to say she was"wikhtin" (crazy). Her mother finally told the father what had hap-pened: that she had seen a puqmis while carrying their daughter. (Itwas strange, commented the informant, that all the puqmis powerhad gone into the unborn child; the woman hadn't been ill at all.Usually a person who saw a puqmis, or any other supernatural, becamesick and had to be doctored.) After the girl's puberty she floutedevery feminine convention of Nootkan culture. "Her mother woulddress her neatly with a new bark apron; in a little while she would seeher daughter running up and down the beach with the apron lost, or 326 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144clear around to one side. That girl didn't care about anything." Shecould not be restrained from seeking out boys and having intercoursewith them. Soon she became pregnant. When her mother askedwhose the child was, by report she answered, "How do I know? Thereare many Kyuquot boys." (Ordinarily her parents would have beenterribly shamed, but everyone knew their daughter was insane andbeyond all control.) When her time came, she disappeared alone intothe bush, had her child and left it. She recounted how it had beencrying, remarking, "I didn't want it." Shocked, the people beggedthat she tell where the infant was so they might try to save it, but sherefused. They searched but could not find it. Her mother tried tomake her observe the birth restrictions, but she refused, "and soondied as a result."Another case recounted was that of a Kyuquot man who apparentlysuffered from hysteria of the "shell-shock" variety after receiving aterrible mauling from a wounded bear. For some time after recover-ing from his physical injuries (though one arm was permanentlydisabled), he "dreamed about bears" constantly. "Sometimes youcould hear him screaming from one end of the village to the other."One day while going along a trail with some other men, he met a bear;the animal stared at him a moment, then ambled off into the bush.The man "began to act strangely," then suddenly fled into the woods.His companions pursued but could not capture him. People caughtglimpses of him for some days thereafter, still clutching the tin lunch-pail he had been carrying. At last he was seen no more, apparentlydying in some desolate spot in the forest. "Some people thought hewas turning into a bear. But most said the bear made him crazy(wikhtin)." A milder case was that of an echolaliac woman atNootka. The "cause" of her aberration was not known to myinformant. She too was considered insane (wikhtin).There can be little doubt from these descriptions that the term"wilditin" very definitely referred to an abnormal condition. Thefact that such a state was ascribed to supernatural causes is not par-ticularly strange nor unique among primitives. Of more specificinterest is the fact that the designation for these abnormal types isextended in common usage to refer to individuals who were antisocialrather than psychopathic. The most extreme case known by inform-ants is that of the Ehetisat-Moachat chief moqwina mentioned in aprevious connection. (See p. 318 ff.) He was an individual who,taking advantage of his high status, viciously tyrannized his peopleuntil they were near rebellion. His record includes three wantonmurders and many purely malicious acts such as destroying fish traps Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 327and smashing up a man's newly made house boards, all for no reasonexcept uninhibited sadism. He was also the only Nootkan to bitespectators when dancing Hamatsa. Yet it seems that after middleage he abandoned or repressed his sadistic inclinations in greatpart, indicating that he was not actually a psychopath. Neverthe-less, people referred to him as "wikhtin."Other less extreme instances were known. A truculent person iscommonly spoken of as "wikhtin," although there is a specific termhihianik (hian, "quarrel"), that can be used. There was a Muchalatman named haiyupra, the eldest of three brothers, who had thedoubtful distinction of having quarreled with almost every one of histribesmen at some time or other. He was not a husky individualeither, but a small man of no particular brawling abilities. Possessedof an unusually acrimonious tongue, he aroused a number of men tophysical combat, and on more than one occasion got a first-class beat-ing. But neither that nor the many rebukes, public and private, thathe received, had any effect. Once he flew into a rage and fought withhis two younger brothers. When bystanders separated them, hesnatched up his belongings to move into another house. His brotherswere much ashamed, but although they did their best to patch up thequarrel he would not speak to them for a long time. There wasnothing that could be done with him. People simply tried to avoidarousing his temper, "haiyupi'a is -^dkhtin," they said. "If hesays something mean, just don't answer him. That is the best wayof dealing with him."X, at Nootka, was the disturbing element during my visit there.He was referred to also as "wikhtin." His failings can be more spe-cifically described as a pronounced disinclination for work, and chronicthirst. In sober moments he was an intelligent, affable person, andwas a carver of considerable ability. Drunk, he was noisy andabusive. The general attitude was to take his obnoxious behavior assomething of a joke. No one, so far as I know, has ever manhandledhim, although he was small and not particularly strong. It may beadded that he was very careful to avoid the local white men whileon his sprees.Persons of notoriously loose morals in sexual matters ("notorious"in a society where considerable freedom was tolerated) also might betermed "wilditin." Their behavior was really considered foolishrather than insane or wrong. Some informants admit that despitethis mild censure, men like one now living at Clayoquot who is re-ported to have married upward of 20 women seem to have an irresist-ible attraction to the opposite sex. "He can always get a woman eventhough she knows he'll soon tire of her and throw her away." 328 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144Another sort of individual was the lazy shiftless person, (owophai).Such a man was not considered actually abnormal, or antisocial, butsimply as of no account, like a harmless ne'er-do-well in our ownsociety. He was the man who fished just enough to keep from starv-ing, sponged off his relatives, and never got enough wealth together topotlatch. If he had children, his kin had to see to it they got namesand were taken in the Shamans' Dance.matatsawil of Ehetisat was owophai. His forte was getting sea eggs(which does not require much effort). Wlien he got many of them,he would take them to some chief, and thereupon be invited in. Hewas not quite a commoner, but rather of low-rank family. He movedabout from one house to another more than anyone else. He had adaughter for whom he gave a few minor feasts; his wife's "brother"took her in his Shamans' Dance. At her puberty, matatsawil gave asmall potlatch, for which an uncle of his furnished the wherewithal.Although people could say but little good of matatsawil they toleratedhim. He was quite good-natured. He never quarreled with anyone.A close-fisted person was called wi'aik. There were not many suchthat informants knew. One was yumotqw, who "owned" the thirdcorner of the tacisath house at Kyuquot. He was of good family, andreckoned a chief, owning a considerable number of privileges in hisown right. His niggardliness was well known; "it was the only badname in the tads house." People regarded it as irremediable, for itis said that yumotqw's forefathers "had always been like that, andhis grandson today is the same. They can't help it; it runs in thefamily." On one occasion the tacisath chief wanted to give a bigpotlatch. He had a sea otter skin, and asked that other Kyuquotgive him any they had as help. Six men, yumotqw among them, eachstood to announce the gift of a sea otter hide to the chief. For severaldays the seven pelts were hanging over a pole in the chief's corner,yumotqw repented his sudden liberality, for he sneaked over in thenight to recover his sea otter. Wlien the chief was ready to take theskins to the trader to sell for blankets and other potlatch goods hefound one missing. Calling some of his men, he inspected the remain-ing SLX?all were identified, yumotqw's was the missing one. Thechief grew very wroth. He threatened to reprimand yumotqw pub-licly, but his wife advised him not to. "Don't say anything to him.You know how he is; he can't help being wi'aik. Just let it go."So the chief desisted, but in his potlatch speech he could not refrainfrom telling his guests that he had had seven sea otter hides to sellbut lost one somehow. "We don't know what happened to it; probablya dog dragged it off." (It is interesting to note that this was told to Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 329illustrate yumotqw's "stinginess"; it was not regarded as a theft),ytimotqw was also the only person who was ever repaid fully asmuch as he gave a chief for "help" in potlatching. No one elseexpected it. If he were given less he would feel hurt, and might gohome before all the speeches were finished. So the chiefs made apoint of repaying him in full. Sometimes people teased him aboutthis. He would reply, "I don't know why they do that. I neverask to get back as much as I give. I guess the chiefs just want togive me a lot." But everyone knew it was done to avoid ill feelings.Stealing was never common. White men long resident on the coastcorroborate this; guns, tools and the like may be left lying about, orin an unlocked boat or house, in perfect safety. The only habitualthief (kuwik) recalled was a Kyuquot woman who used to steal otherwomen's washing from the lines. Whenever they missed anythingthey knew where it had gone. Usually they did nothing. Sometimesa woman would go to recover her lost articles. The thief wouldusually say she had found the things?they must have blown off theline. Her husband was much ashamed but could not prevent herfrom this petty thievery. She herself was of good family; "she oughtto have been ashamed, but she never was."There was another recognized type?one not looked down on butregarded with sympathetic amusement. This was the "o'ucshaik"person, the bungler, the clumsy one, represented, doubtless, in allcultures. He was the sort of person who always spilled things orfell down, or forgot to take his harpoon when he went fish spearing."If he tried to make a canoe it would turn out all lopsided." Otherpeople teased such persons about their misadventures, but quitewithout malice; in many instances the bungler would tell the storyon himself if no one had happened to witness the mishap. The peoplecomment cannily, however, that the teasing "seems to make themworse; they do more and more funny things." Such a person wasnot persecuted or discriminated against. On the contrary he wasoften well liked, and people were more than usually ready to helphim. I suspect that often this trait, or rather, sort of behavior, wasdue to some physical deficiency, such as defective eyesight, ratherthan a mental one.yaltsixin, of Kyuquot amaiath, for example, was cross-eyed, whichmay account for some but not all of the many blunders he committed.Once he went out early one morning to shoot ducks. He paddled toan outside beach where there was a large flock of ducks, then creptdown a long sandpit to within range?a trying task. Opening thelard pail which he had thought contained his shells, he found he hadbrought instead a pail of sugar. As he later told his delighted audience, 330 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144in disgust he walked to the water's edge waving his arms to drive thebirds away.sasaqto also was known as a bungler. One night he and his wifewent down to the beach before retiring. The tide was far out. Hewas cautioning his wife to be very careful not to fall; the rocks wereslippery and covered with kelp stems. In the midst of his admonitionshe himself tripped, clutched at her, and down they both went. Theysat on the beach laughing till the people in the house heard them,"so they had to tell what had happened when they returned." Onanother night sasaqto went out alone. He and his wife had justmoved into a house at a fishing place, so he was not entirely familiarwith his surroundings. On his return he felt his way to his sleepingplace in the darkness. "Oh, it's cold outside," he said, getting intobed?there was a startled scream?he was in the wrong bed. Everyonein the house realized what had happened and began to laugh, sasaqto'swife, amused as the rest, called to him, "Come over here! This iswhere you belong." Next day they all teased him about it. "Youdidn't really make a mistake that time. You were just pretending inorder to sleep with another woman. Too bad she screamed so yourwife heard it."Jealousy was not included among the abnormalities of humannature, but rather among the frailties. Young men and women, ashas been described, were continually advised against giving free reinto jealous outbursts. Such behavior might well react to their owndisadvantage. In one instance, often recounted to the young as ahorrible example, a dying man called his "cousin" the icsaath chiefto his side, to say, "My 'elder brother', I want you to do somethingfor me when I am dead. I know you have a wife from whom youdo not want to part, but you have no child. I want you to takemy wife as your secondary wife, and bring up my child. We are'brothers'; I know you will care for my child just as for your own."The icsaath chief temporized. When he told his own wife about ithe said, "I would hke to take her on account of the child, but I'mnot going to do it. I'm afraid of that woman?she's too mean.She has always been jealous of her husband [the dying man], andalways nagged him. I don't want her." This was the woman'sloss, of course ; her child would have been well cared for and probablybeen given noble ranking.These descriptions of various personalities do not exhaust the Ustbut they do give a fair cross section of types the Nootkans regardedas deviating from their norm. It is quite clear that truculenceparticularly, and niggardliness and laziness represented the opposites Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 331to those traits of character deemed normal and estimable. Worthyof comment also is the way in which such undesirable personalitieswere dealt with?again we find the cultiu-e consistent with its ownideals. So long as these unesteemed individuals did not becomequite unsupportable, overstepping all bounds, they were tolerated.Others made a point of trying to avoid all possible friction with theseantisocial ones as well as they could.Transvestites, male and female, were known of, but uncommon.There seems to have been no behef that they were sexual perverts;their chief characteristic seems to have been a preference for worknormally engaged in by the opposite sex. Questions about femaletransvestites almost invariably call forth tales of women who becamefamous war chiefs in ancient times, thi'ough a supernatural experiencein which they received medicines and rituals for strength and bravery.NEWS AND GOSSIPNot only was news transmitted by the common and effectiv^e" over-the-back-fence" channels tlii-ough which information is dis-seminated in all primitive (and civilized) societies, but there werecertain formal patterns for its transmission. Visitors from anothertribe, whether of high rank or low, were invariably invited to feastsby the chiefs of the group to which they had come. This was theespecial privilege of the "Owner-of-the-Beach"; he had the right tobe the first to invite them. At such feasts the newcomers wereexpected to recount to their host all the latest novelties. All eventsconstituted news: the abundance of salmon in this or that river; thefact that a certain chief was planning a potlatch; and, in ancienttimes, that the war chiefs were talking of war; who had killed a seaotter; who was having an affair with someone else's wife; who hadbegun to dance as a novice shaman and what his power seemed tobe; vital statistics?all were of interest. Such feasts were as a ruleinformal affairs, unless the visitors happened to be chiefs of highrank; the formal songs and speeches v*^ere not used, nor were thechiefs seated in their ranked places. The recital of recent eventsconstituted the entertainment. Similarly, when a tribesman re-turned from a visit elsewhere, he was called to a feast so that he mighttell the latest gossip to the stay-at-homes. The "left-overs" givenat feasts, that is, the gifts of food that guests were to take home withthem, represented a recognition of this custom. The idea was thatthe guests on their retm-n to their homes would give feasts to theirhousemates, or to tribesmen, in the case of chiefs, at which theywould tell what they had seen and how they had been treated. Itwas expected, of course, that they would dwell on the splendor ofthe festivities they had just witnessed. Thus it worked out that 332 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144although only a relatively small number of chiefs might have beeninvited to a distant celebration, the important events?the namesand privileges announced, and so on?would soon be kno\vn to every-one. The chiefs did not care to leave the spread of their fame tochance.^'^News, retailed at these feasts, thus became a recognized form ofdiversion. The entertainment value of choice bits of gossip was rec-ognized, and incidents that had a ludicrous twist were appreciated.The tale of the Kyuquot gallant who fell in the barrel of rainwaterwhile sneaking out the window of his inamorata's house, spread likewildfire up and down the coast. People often related their own mis-adventures, if they were amusing and not too painful?the instanceof the hunter who stalked a flock of ducks, crawling on his belly downa long sandpit, only to find that he had brought the can containingsugar instead of the one of shotgun shells, was known because hetold it on himself at a feast.Tacit recognition of the extent to which gossip affected publicopinion appears in the instances in which what seem to have beenmalicious falsehoods were deliberately circulated. It is probable that,in the case of the Chickliset woman murdered at Kyuquot, the reportthat presents of the sort given by lovers in illicit affairs were foundamong her effects was deliberately circulated to make her in-laws lessdesirous of avenging her?of course, it might have been true, but nomen could be named although ordinarily persons involved in affairssooner or later came to be known. Similarly, the Ahousat callouslyadmit stoning a young captured chief to death on the beach, thenspreading the story that he died "of fright"; there was, of course,nothing intrinsically wrong about killing a war captive, but it demeanedhis memory to say that he was so weak he dropped dead of shame andfear. WARWarfare was a phase of Nootkan life that stood in a very peculiarrelation to all other aspects of social behavior. In one sense, it maybe said that it had a certain integrative function, since it was con-ducted on the tribal and confederacy level, for it enforced the realiza-tion on united local groups that they had to stand together for mutualprotection. On the other hand it also produced violent strains on " The same customs prevailed among the Kwakiutl, and perhaps among other neighboring peoples aswell. Boas (1896, p. 425), in recounting the adventures of a man who killed some "northern people," tookslaves, and captured some of their ceremonial equipment, quotes his tale, as related to George Hunt: "Thenwe came here to Alert Bay. . . Here we were met by our tribe, the Nimkish. We were invited at onceby Chief Koaxilanokume, together with our slaves. He gave us dried halibut to eat. As soon as we hadeaten, the chief spoke and said: 'My dear, tell us where did you get these women (the slaves)?' Then Ispoke to him and told him what had happened." Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 333individuals who were torn between two loyalties. Which of thesetwo trends, the integrative or the disruptive, predominated in thelong run is very difficult to decide at this distance. Another featureof warfare was the way in which it diametrically opposed every princi-ple of ordinary social behavior. In time of war every tendency towardsadism and violence, repressed in ordinary life, was deliberately calledout and even magnified. The temper of the people altered as thoughby magic. The Nootkans were not unique in this regard: impartialobservers could note a very similar phenomenon in our own culture inthe late unpleasantness, when tales of such neat devices as the razorblades set in trunks of trees favored by enemy snipers were good fora hearty laugh in any gathering. It is easier to report the matterobjectively when describing a primitive people, of course. Perhapsthe most remarkable part of the whole war complex and its attendantattitudes was that so little of it was carried over into ordinary sociallife.Wars were fought for a variety of causes, and sometimes for verylittle cause. Economic motives, however, ranked very high in thescale of importance, a circumstance rather unusual among primitives.A group would want the territories and fishing stations of its neighbors,and if they could share in the rights no other way would send out warparties for the express purpose of exterminating the intended victimsand seizing their property. In the native phraseology, it is usuallysaid that it was a certain chief who coveted the alien possessions, butit seems fairly clear that the chiefs merely expressed, at such times,the sentiments of their people who were pressed for "Lebensraum"either through growth of the group or because of relative poverty oftheir territory. The Ahousat before their war of conquest inliabiteda marginal territory, mostly along the outer beaches of Flores Island,and had no salmon streams; they must have suffered privation moreoften than any of their neighbors. The Clayoquot were a local groupwith rich salmon-fishing grounds but little else, for they were hemmedin on Kennedy Lake, and seem to have had no heiTing grounds norhalibut banks to fiU in between salmon runs. In short, there is abun-dant evidence that some of the wars were based on economic necessity.Vengeance for past slayings or even for slights, particularly to chiefs,provided another strong motivation for warfare. At the same time,revenge invariably reinforced other motives, such as the economic,once trouble had begun, to make the strife continue during a longcampaign. If a group wearied of a war, and became disheartenedafter heavy losses, they could nearly always be roused into continuingit by a few vengeful souls who harped on the necessity of avengingtheir lost tribesmen. Closely linked with clean-cut revenge was theconcept that might be translated "death companion," (tcitcmo); 334 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144when a chief, or a chief's child died, the bereaved tribe might kill aslave, or slaves, on the beach "for tcitcmo" or they might stage afull-scale attack on some neighboring tribe. *^ One of the accounts ofa campaign that follows this general discussion describes just such anevent. The idea seems to have been not only that the dead shouldbe accompanied, but that other people should mourn as well.Whatever the reason for the war, it was decided on formally. Themen met, often outdoors (perhaps to keep the plans secret from thewomen, some of whom might be from the intended victims' group).Inflammatory gossip spread by war chiefs, in many cases, preceded sucha step. At the meeting the leading chiefs or the war chiefs announcedthey wanted to make war. Denunciations of the enemy, and longrecitals of grievances held against them formed part of the speeches.Nominally the decision rested with the highest ranking chief of thetribe. Actually, we hear of chiefs of lesser rank, and of war chiefs ofknown prowess, turning the tide of opinion one way or the other. Itappears that the factor of personality was decisive?the dominantindividual with a strong following would have his way. Some projectsfor war bogged down at the outset because an influential chief, or anoted war chief refused to take part. War chiefs ordinarily acceded,of course, lest their refusal be interpreted as cowardice.Once the war was approved, plans were laid. Usually the menwere told to begin by bathing ritually for a period varying from 1 to4 nights, or even longer. Sometimes each man was left to bathe ashe thought best, or according to his own ritual, but at times war chiefsgave them part of their stock of secret medicines for invulnerabilityor courage. The chiefs and war chiefs usually planned the operationin private, announcing plans at the last minute to avoid possibleleaks of information. Sometimes longer preparatory periods weremapped out, and occasionally war chiefs were astute enough to insiston practical as well as ceremonial preparation. Such leaders madetheir men practice at dodging pikes and arrows, and when planningan open assault, staged dry runs of the most difficult of military maneu-vers: hitting the beach. They made their force practice leaping fromthe canoes and running, zigzagging, up the open slope.The members of a war party painted their faces black with charcoal.War chiefs, especially, were said to use other materials, such ascharred wolf or mountain lion bone, for painting. The hair was tiedup on top of the head with a hemlock twig, and transfixed withsharp bipointcd bone pins which were supposed to keep an opponent " Literally, the term "tcitcmo" was explained as meaning simply "companion." A woman who accom-panied a bride to her new home, and lived there with her for a time for company was referred to as "tcitcmS."Also, if someone were going out into the rain, a friend might say, "tcitcmo'aqs," "I'll come along [and getwet with you]." Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 335from grabbing the warrior by his topknot. The war chiefs oftenwore headdresses made of the skins of wolf or bear scalps "to makethem look fierce." In dances, there were occasions when headgearwith long tresses attached was worn, but these were not from scalpsbut made of hair cut from the dancer's female kin. These articleswere not known in actual war, nor, informants were sure, would scalpsever be used. The war chief's weapon before the days of firearms,and his badge of office, was either a whale-bone club (tci'tul), a heavywide flat blade, sharpened along one or both edges, or a stone skullcrusher (tsitsiqiyaq) . These latter implements were of heavy close-grained stone all of one piece with a haft and guard and heavy conicaltip that tapered to a blimt end. Interpreters often call them"daggers" because of the stabbing motion with which they were used,but they were crushing, not cutting implements. Most war chiefshad special ritual names for these weapons, and referred to them bysuch names, or by some euphemism like "Orphan maker." Ordinarywarriors carried pikes (tsaxyaq), 7- or 8-foot lengths of yew woodwith sharp fire-hardened points, bows (the same bow and arrowsused for hunting), and slings (nutcyaq), made with pockets of spruceroot twining, and long thongs, one of which had a loop at its freeend for holding. These last weapons have not been used in war fora long time, but informants say their elders taught them that theslings were very effective, before firearms; the device has persistedas a toy, and boys are said to become quite accurate with it, killingbirds, squirrels, and the like with stones the size of a hen's egg.The emphasis seems to have been on weapons for close quarters,however, rather than fire power. Since the days of the maritimefur trade, guns, crammed with buckshot and powder to within ahair's breadth of the bursting point, became the favorite arm.Accuracy and range were of little moment; the guns were murderousat close quarters.The war chiefs alone wore armor. The most common form wasa strip of two or three thicknesses of elkhide (a Clayoquot informantsuggested sea lion hide instead) that went about the body, protectingit from the armpits to the hips, and was laced down one side where theends overlapped. Informants disagreed as to whether armor wasever made of woven materials. A Muchalat informant believedespecially heavy closely twined cedar bark was used; a Hesquiatinformant described a sort of rod armor, twined of hardwood twigs.Turney-High (1942) has called attention in an interesting study tothe ineffective nature of most American Indian warfare and the factthat it was merely a murderous game, hardly to be considered realwar. It appears that not only was Nootkan warfare real war byTurney-High's definition, usually (though not always) aimed at com- 336 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144pletely exterminating the enemy, but that in most departments of waractivity the Nootkans performed with more efficiency than most ofthe Indian groups appraised in Turney-High's study. (It is certainthat the Kwakiutl groups, and probably other Northwest Coasttribes, had as effective a war complex as the Nootkans.)The command of a military force devolved upon the chief or warchief who instigated the war, although sometimes a chief delegatedactual field command to one of his war chiefs. The composition ofthe force is hard to define; some accounts speak as though volunteerswere called on, while others indicate that all able-bodied men weresubject to service when called on by the commander. Probablythe latter was true, in view of the authority of the chiefs in all matters.The stamp of approval given the war in the men's assembly madesuch authority valid. The selection of individuals for the nucleusof the striking force, their training, ritual and practice, and theirdisposition in battle all indicate that the orders of the commanderhad to be obeyed. The size of the force depended obviously on themanpower of the group setting out on the campaign, but the com-manders almost always tried to put into the field a force superior tothe foe they were planning to attack. This was usually possibleeven when a small group waged war on a large one, for in such casessmall divisions, such as isolated groups at fishing stations, would beraided.Intelligence was recognized as an important part of any militaryproceeding. The problems of the Nootkan G2 were simplified by thefact that the identity of the enemy war chiefs and able warriors, thelocation and arrangement of the houses at enemy sites, and the prob-able activities of the enemy at any given time (whether they wouldbe assembled in the tribal villages, at salmon streams, or scattered infishing camps along the outside beaches) were all well known. Theimmediate problems were always to determine the number of peoplein each site at times when the groups were scattered, and in just whathouses the enemy war chiefs happened to be living (since they movedaround from one house to another in most instances), and, finally,necessary tactical information just prior to the actual attack. Thedisposition of the enemy was usually obtained from tribesmen, ormembers of a friendly neutral group, who had recently visited theproposed foe. Such persons were called on to brief the warchiefs on these matters, including precise data as to the sleepingplaces of various individuals in each house. Sometimes such infor-mation is said to have been obtained by sending spies?tribesmen whowould go to visit relatives and observe what the disposition of forceswas. This method served only at the beginning of a campaign, as arule, or after a long period of truce, and was always liable to the danger Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 337that the spy might relent enough to warn his immediate kin of theimpending attack. Occasionally it was deemed possible to obtainsufficient information through scouting. "War chiefs often did suchscouting themselves, going by canoe to a point screened from thevillage, hiding their canoe, and creeping through the woods to a pointfrom which they could observe the enemy.Once the necessary information was assembled, the chiefs and warchiefs discussed it and made their plans. The favorite tactic was thefamiliar American Indian night raid, but the Nootkans brought it toa high level of perfection. The attacking party was divided into asmany squads as there were houses, ordinarily at least, and each squadwas assigned a certain house. Since it was recognized that the enemywere most easily demoralized when their war chiefs and chiefs hadbeen killed, each war chief was detailed to kill a war chief or otherimportant personage?it was for this reason that location of thesleeping places of various individuals was important. Each indi-vidual was coached on his mission, so that he knew just what to do.It was assumed that in the confusion and darkness, the well-briefedattackers had an insuperable advantage, and this was nearly alwaysthe case. There were other tactics besides the night raid, however.Bold frontal attacks from canoes that ran in on the beach, from whichthe warriors leaped to charge the waiting foe, were often mapped out,but it must be owned were usually failures, because the attackers didnot have enough fire power, or did not use it adequately, to overcomethe advantage of defenders shooting from the shelter of the houses.The problem in such cases was to get an effective part of the attackingforce at grips with the defenders, and the houses were solid enoughand entrances restricted enough to make it hard to do. One of thefew successful solutions was that of the Chicldiset who, coming in tothe La'isath beach singing, beguiled their enemy into believing theywere coming on ceremonial affairs, so there was no attempt at defenseuntil too late. Other, and more successful tactics, were variationson the encirclement theme. Sometimes an attacking force wasdivided, part of it being distributed across the expected line of retreat(or flight) of the enemy. At other times it was planned for the twobodies to strike simidtaneously from the flanks, or from front andrear. The chief difficulty with such operations was the element oftime: sometimes one element struck before the other was in position.Signals were used to try to overcome this defect?cries of night birds,wolf howls, and the like were all tried. The value of diversionarymaneuvers, both to draw the attention of the enemy and to makethem waste their fire, was well understood. Occasionally plans werelaid that were far too complex to be practicable, like those for theOtsosat attack on the Ahousat village to be related. 338 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144Another sort of tactic was that of out-and-out treachery too baseto be condoned even though it was so consistently successful. Itserved, of course, only at the beginning of a war, or with a foe whowas anxious for peace. The Moachat chief clwuc worked it severaltimes against the Muchalat. The technique usually consisted inoffering peace, and suggesting a marriage be arranged to cement thenew tranquillity. At some stage of the festivities, the plotters ar-ranged to have their men distributed among the foe, each trying tomaneuver himself into a place on the right of his intended victim sothat he would be able to whip out a dagger or club to strike him downwhen the war chief gave a certain signal. This was also, of course,the technique used in the taking of ships, such as the Boston, and theTonquin, in the days of the maritime trade.Defensive tactics consisted principally of posting sentinels, use offortified positions, and interdicting approaches to the village throughthe woods (i. e., from the flanks and rear) through use of deadfalls.Wlienever word came that one group was planning an attack onanother group, sentinels (usually war chiefs), were invariably postedby the threatened group. It was recognized that alert guards werethe best possible protection against the night raid. The trouble withsentinels was that, unless the attack came off soon, they became boredby their vigils, and finally slacked off altogether, so that they wereusually sound asleep when the attack did materialize. Everyoneseems to have been quite aware of this lamentable habit of sentinels;war chiefs planning a retaliatory mission are said to have held off,frequently, until they felt sure the enemy sentinels had become tiredof guard duty. Fortified positions varied from palisades of heavyplanks around the village to use of refuge islands?easily defended bya few resolute warriors commanding points of access, but little morethan traps in case of a siege. Sieges are spoken of in traditions ofancient wars, but must have been very rare for the attackers wouldordinarily starve out before the besieged. No such sustained efl^ort isdescribed in any of the matter-of-fact and accurate accounts of recentwars. At the end of the Muchalat wars, the Muchalat built a houseon a little knoll at a'aminqas, surrounding it with a double palisadeconsisting of a high inner wall, and a lower curtain around it. Simplepalisades, provided with loopholes, seem to have been more usual.The use of deadfalls along trails was not very common, but waspracticed where there were well-defined trails through the woods thatthe enemy might be expected to know and use.On the level of strategy rather than tactics was such a practice asthat of deliberately leaving families or groups of the enemy unmo-lested, if it were known that they were inclined to be friendly to theattackers (because, for example, of close kinship). It was hoped that Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 339this would cause internal dissension among the enemy, and mightlead them to abandon their war projects.In the literature one often meets with references to naval warfareamong Northwest Coast groups, as though enemy forces habituallymet in their war canoes. This was not true of the Nootkans, nor, Ibelieve, of any of their neighbors. They preferred to do their actualfighting on land, using the "war canoes" only for the approach to theobjective, and for the withdrawal. The chief afloat operations con-sisted in one or more war canoes cutting off single small canoes offishermen, either overhauling them by sheer number of paddles, orencircling them. The nearest thing to a sea engagement of which Iheard was the over-elaborate Otsosat plan to draw off the Ahousatwar canoes, cut off one or two of them while the rest were disorganizedby a diversionary action on shore, and then attack the beach. Theplan miscarried, but the Ahousat counterattack dwindled out into anineffectual chase, except for that of the chief haiyupinui, who wasable to overtake one canoe because he had enough guns to pour asteady fire into it till he could overhaul it.Various war tales give good pictures of the carrying out of anattack. For a night raid, a dark stormy night was preferred. Theraiders put ashore around the point from the village that was theirobjective, as a rule, and sent scouts forward to report back when allwas still and the fires had died down. If a ceremonial were beingheld, a Shamans' Dance, for example, they waited till the scoutsreported the affair was at a climax at which all the people would beoccupied singing and dancing. By preference, however, they waiteduntil even later?if necessary, until everyone had turned in for thenight. Some men were told off as canoe guards, to keep the canoesfrom being stranded by the tide, and to hold them ready for a rapidwithdrawal. Some chiefs stayed with the canoes instead of accom-panying the warriors. The warriors set out for the houses assignedthem. On black stormy nights they might form a line, holding handsto avoid getting lost going through the woods and along the beach.They crept into the houses, each to his designated place, to wait forthe signal. Com.panions were posted by the doors to kill foes whoran out. Usually the commander of the forces gave the signal byopening fire on his selected victim. In an instant, pandemoniumreigned. The firing, slashing, and clubbing began, victims screamed,and warriors gave their beheading cries of "hap! hap!" The victimsran wildly about in the darkness, as often as not falling into the handsof the enemy, who killed them or took them captive. Women and chil-dren tried to escape tlirough smaU escapevv^ays in the rear v/all of thehouse, to hide in the woods. Some men followed them; others triedto make a stand. There was usually a group of aides, young men 340 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144and youths, who had not been specifically assigned tasks in the raid,and who in many cases had not been chosen to go on the attack buthad come of their own volition, who ran about pillaging, taking slaves,and so on. ^Yhen the victims were dead, enslaved, or escaped, thehouses were looted and fired, the attackers took their booty to thebeach and loaded it into the canoes, which meanwhile had been broughtaround. Usually the raiders made a conscientious effort to destroyall the canoes and other property they could not take, then shovedoff before the enemy could muster forces for a counterattack, if therewere enough of them left. In attacks on small isolated groups, theattackers tried to hunt out and kill all the members of their enemy,so none remained to go to a related group for help. With the factorof surprise in their favor, and the thoroughness of their plans, it wasrare indeed that one of these attacks failed.A famous attack made by the Clayoquot on the Kyuquot about1855 was one of those that failed, at least in one sense, for the Clayo-quot did not inflict nearly as heavy losses as they had planned. Theaffair has been described in considerable detail by Sproat;^* I shallmerely summarize it here. The Clayoquot had recruited allies frommost of the other groups north of Barkley Sound except the Ahousat.They had also made a deal with a white trader who owned a schoonerarmed with "some kind of cannon" to transport part of their forceand munitions; he was to bring this supporting force at the propertime so that they could be lightered to the beach by canoes while hefired his deck gun for cover. The remainder of the force proceeded bycanoe. They waited in the shelter of an island till night before pro-ceeding to the summer site of aqtis. The schooner failed to arrive intime, so when all was still, they attacked anyhow. The Kyuquot hadbeen expecting the attack for some time, but their sentinels had givenup their guard duty, and one tribe had moved up to a site in the soundfor some reason. One part of the Clayoquot force was to begin atthe west end of the village, and a force of allies at the other, strikingsimultaneously; a mixed force of the Clayoquot and their allies wereto go ashore at the center of the beach as a second wave and strikethe people running in confusion out of the houses. The plan, whichwould have reduced the Kyuquot to a bare handful, fell down becausethe allies on one flank, fearing Kyuquot revenge, did not attack.The Clayoquot force killed a number of people in the houses at thewest end of the village and set the houses on fire, but the rest of theKyuquot had time to form a counterattack, containing the flankgroup, and met the central element on the beach and drove them oft"before they could land. The Clayoquot withdrew to nearby MissionIsland, to dance with the heads they had taken, and taunt the Kyu- '* Sproat, 1868, pp. 188 fl. Moser (1926) gives a somewhat garbled version of the affair. Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 341quot while waiting for the schooner to arrive. The Kuyquot sent acanoe by a roundabout route to bring the people from up the inlet.The Clayoquot waited 3 days, but the schooner did not arrive. It istold that the skipper had put in at Hesquiat Harbor for water, andby chance had engaged a part-Ahousat man to pilot him over the barto the Inner Basin. The pilot, who had learned that his maternalkin had refused to aid the war party, deliberately put the vessel on thebar. Meanwhile between 80 and 100 warriors came down from theinlets to aqtis, so the Clayoquot left. Accounts of losses vary con-siderably; Sproat (1868), who probably had the most accurate andimpartial information, credits the Clayoquot with 35 heads and 13slaves, against casualties of 11 dead and 17 wounded. About half thehouses on aqtIs are said to have been burned, in addition. The Kyu-quot later on raided the Nuchatlet, Ehetisat, and other allies of theClayoquot in revenge, but never made a major attack on theClayoquot.If we evaluate Nootkan warfare on the basis of effectiveness, wemust grant it considerable efficiency. The hisau'isath and the Otsosatwere exterminated within recent times; the groups inhabitingMuchalat Arm were reduced from several hundred to less than fortypersons, and other groups are said to have been wiped out completelyin ancient days, all by the type of warfare described. Yet the complexhad serious deficiencies too. One of the most noteworthy was the poordiscipline and lack of succession of command that caused attackingforces to withdraw when on the verge of victory because of the lossof their commander. It was not customary to give up readily atthe first casualty, as did many of the putatively warlike Plains tribesand others, but the death of the leading war chief tended to demor-alize the force. They did not necessarily give up the campaign onthis account, for the chief of the war chiefs always had a successorwho generally carried on, but excellent opportunities were often lostin these withdrawals. Poor discipline was also responsible for thecareless watch stood by the sentinels.While the war party was away, the warriors' wives assembled inone house to sing all night long. They had no magical tokens to indi-cate the fate of their husbands, as did Kwakiutl warriors' wives.They simply sang, beating on boards with sticks. Their songs wereof "killing" and "cutting off heads." When day came, they wentquietly home to await news.Warriors beheaded their victims?not just war chiefs, but aU men,women, and children that they killed. The heads were taken home,to display and rejoice over; they were out on a rock at one end of thebeach for 4 days, after which they were hidden in the woods. The 342 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144custom of setting them up on poles is said to have been practiced onlyby the tribes of the Barldey Sound district. The Chicldiset had aspecial method of stringing heads like beads on a long cedar withe(apparently punching holes through the cranium to insert it), andhanging them up on a tree near the village. The body of an enemy,usually that of an attacker who was not carried off but remained inthe hands of his foe, was often mutilated. Several tales describe suchbodies being set up on poles, and subjected to various indignities.Only women and children were taken as slaves. Sometimes they weresold, sometimes they were taken to the home of the raiders and clubbedto death. Men were not ordinarily enslaved, for they would be toolikely to seize an opportunity to avenge themselves. They weresometimes taken captive, however, to be killed at leisure. It wasconsidered highly amusing to make a captive plead for his life, espe-cially were he a chief of high rank, or a war chief. With a refinedcruelty, his captors would promise to spare him if he performed somedebasing act. If he refused, they killed him; if he demeaned himself,they mocked him for his cowardice, and killed him just the same. Abrave man was one who stood singing his war song, or his spirit song,disregarding his captors' taunts, until he died. So died a youngKyuquot chief (kidnaped by a white man and turned over to theClayoquot for a reward some years after the attack just described).He sang while they jabbed him with the pikes, "in the arms and legsfirst, so he wouldn't die too quick." Finally one of them drove apilce through his belly.A war party returned singing, with the heads they had taken heldaloft on sticks. When they landed the war chiefs danced on the beachwith the heads and sang their victory songs, and boasted of theirprowess. Some would hold a head up to lick the blood from thesevered neck to show their savagery. Even though the party hadsuffered losses they celebrated. The bereaved kin took no part inthe proceedings. None of the members of the war party were subjectto any restrictions, except that they refrained from handling theirsmall children for fear of maldng them ill. If there was much loot,the chiefs gave it away in potlatches. The situation as to ceremonialcannibalism is not clear; it may have been practiced after successfulraids, although modern informants deny it unanimously. If it everwas customary, as so many of the early explorers maintain, it wentout of use early in the historic period.War created many difficult social situations, aside from the dis-comforting Imowledge that an attack was impending. A single localgroup or tribe contained at any time women from and individualsclosely related to the various neighboring groups, so that many peoplewere torn between two sets of loyalties. Women tended to favor their Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 343blood kin, rather than their husbands and in-laws at these times, andthus it was that plans were often betrayed, and information wasgiven to attackers. Some men wavered in the balance for a long time.The property?lands, fishing rights, and even ceremonial priv-ileges?of a group that was completely liquidated could be claimedby the victors. It is said that as long as any of them remained, exceptas slaves, such properties could not be claimed. However, in caseswhere the few survivors fled to relatives in other groups, as did thelast of the Sidney Inlet people, they obviously could not do much toenforce their claim. Rights obtained by conquest were regarded as"having a bad name," i. e., not so noble as those obtained by inherit-ance or in marriage. Captured rights were called tcinokt (as opposedto tcimokt, "patrOineally inherited," and lutchaokt, "obtained inmarriage"). "In quarrels a man will say, 'Those rights you claim arenot good, they are something stolen. They are just tcinokt.' Hisopponent can make no reply, even if it was his ancestors way backwho got them in war."I have dwelt at some length on the ruthlessness and the savageryof Nootkan warfare because everything about it runs counter to theattitudes esteemed in ordinary intragroup social life. In distinctionto areas such as the Plains, where ineffectual war colored normalsocial patterns, among the Nootkans the two fields of activity and theattitudes and values that went with them were sharply compartmentedoff from each other. There were only slight overlaps : The fact thatthe war chiefs retained their identity and functioned ceremonially atfeasts and Shamans' Dances was one of these. Yet it is worth notingthat the war chiefs seldom carried their traditional savagery andbrutality over into intragroup social contacts. Informants agree thatthe herculean war chief tuckai'ilam of a'aminqas, who battered Chiefciwuc to death on the rocks of the beach with his bare hands, wasotherwise a mild-mannered kindly individual who never quarreledwith his housemates and neighbors. One informant described how,as a small boy, he and his playmates constantly tagged about aftertuckai'ilam. They liked him because he would always tell themstories?he spent hours spinning yarns about his exploits at huntingand trapping. The informant affirmed he could not recall a singletime the war chief had told of his war deeds. And so with most ofthe others. They did not use their strength nor their reputations askillers to bully their fellows.The other point of overlap lay in situations of violent personalconflict passing, or about to pass, the normal verbal quarrels andminor scuffles. When someone committed one of the infrequent in-group murders, or was threatening to commit one (as happened farmore often), he painted and tied up his hair for war, and appealed to839093?51 23 344 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144his war chief kin to stand by him. He was thus making war, or threat-ening war, and making an appeal to his lineage or tribe to back himup in opposition to the adversary's group, so it was no longer a matterof an individual squabble. The fact that he threatened to put theaffair on the war level was the real danger that made the more level-headed tribesmen exert every effort to smooth over the matter, evenif it meant overlooking slights and injuries.Finally, it is worth emphasizing that war did not provide an essentialoutlet for sadistic and violent tendencies. Had it done so, we shouldfind some other manifestations of aggression and brutality in socialrelationships since the wars have stopped, but the modern Nootkansare as little given to violence in ordinary social situations as v/ere theirforefathers who could vent their spleen by waging war on some othertribe.To depict the Nootkan war complex in its full color and vigor, Ipresent in the following paragraphs accounts of some specific cam-paigns. One of them tells of the Ahousat conquest, that changedthem from a small poor group to a dominant tribe on the coast; theother relates the adventures, or misadventures, of the various localgroups of Muchalat Arm, who received one drubbing after anotherfor a couple of generations, and who would undoubtedly be extincttoday had not gunboats, missionaries, and other outside influencescalled a halt to the wars. In the accounts many of the featuresdescribed in general terms in the preceding discussion will be noted.THE WAR BETWEEN THE AHOUSAT AND THE OTSOSATUp to the earl}^ decades of the nineteenth century, the Ahousatwere a local group who owned only the outside beaches and foreshoreof Vargas Island and a smafl area across Hecate Pass below CatfaceMountain. They owned no important dog salmon streams, and, it issaid, often suffered privations on this account. They resolved toobtain a wife for the chief second to the head chief in rank, from theOtsosat, whose winter village w^as maktusis, the site of modernAliousat. The Otsosat were a powerful tribe whose chiefs owned richfishing grounds not only on Flores Island, but also up Herbert, North,and Shelter Arms and Sidney Inlet. It would appear that they wereprobably a tribe?a confederation of several local groups who assem-bled at maktusis in the winter. The Sidney Inlet people are oftenreferred to as a separate group, the Manoisat (mano'i'sath). Atlength a marriage was arranged for the second chief, haiyupinul,with the daughter of an Otsosat chief. Despite this formal alliance,the Otsosat did not let the Aliousat fish dog salmon (I presume thismeans that the bride's father, in giving the dowiy, did not include Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 345any fishing rights in his dog salmon streams), haiyupintil quarreledwith his wife that fall, and she returned to her home. The followingspring the chief sent some young men to bring his wife back. Herfather refused to let her return. The young men, offended, broke thetips of their paddles on the way home, and reported on arrival thatthe Otsosat had not only refused to send the woman back, but hadbroken their paddles (i. e., had treated them roughly), haiyupinulwas much angered. He chanced to find two Otsosat men on TwinsIslet, and killed them both. Their kin, when their canoe drifted in,knew at once on whom to lay the blame. The head chief of theOtsosat sent six war chiefs out to seek revenge. They found sevenAhousat men cutting cedar poles for drying racks for herring eggs,killed and beheaded them, then displayed the heads from their canoewhile paddling back and forth in front of the Ahousat village. Allthe Aliousat assembled in their chief's house. Only haiyupinul, ofall the chiefs, still wanted to wage war. The first chief, moqwina (whowas against war at any cost because his mother was Otsosat) prevailed,insisting on the tribe's moving to kwatsuwis (on Deep Pass), andsending word to the Otsosat that his people wanted peace. To insurethe peace, arrangements were begun to obtain wives for the Ahousatwar chiefs from the Otsosat. There was one Ahousat war chief whowas, or who fancied himself, slighted in these arrangements, andduring a visit to the Otsosat slipped off into the woods near thevillage, circled around to the back of the houses, and was just lining uphis sights on an Otsosat chief when two Otsosat warriors who hadseen his stealthy departure shot and killed him. They were em'agedat his attempt at treachery, and dragged his body down to the beach.There, before the Ahousat visitors, who, knowing nothing of the deadwar chief's plans, were quite unprepared, the Otsosat set the corpseup by driving a yew stake up its anus, slashed the belly open so thatthe guts fell out onto the sand, and cut off the private parts and tiedthem to the corpse's nose (through the perforation in the septum).The Ahousat first chief, moqwina, forbade his people to fight(and of course they were for the most part unarmed). They returnedto their village and held another meeting. Some chiefs still spokeagainst war?it would cause hard times (for fishermen would notdare go out often), haiyupinul lay on the floor covering his headwith his blanket. When the others had finished speaking, he rose tohis feet and addressed moqwina. "Where is your 'younger brother'?[The Ahousat, being a single local group, were all closely related,and their chiefs addressed each other as siblings.] Did he have adecent burial when he died? No, he's still out there on the beach,propped up on a stake, with his guts all over the beach. You can dowhat you want to; I am going to make war if I have to do it alone, 346 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144hiding by myself in the bush Kke a wild dog to kill every Otsosat Ican catch." Then the war chiefs Lehaisim and qamma stood upsinging their war songs, and calling for others to go with them. Allbut moqwina's immediate family offered to go. So they sent wordto the Otsosat that they were coming to fight. In reply, the Otsosatsent a war party out in their war canoes, who cut off a party of sevenAhousat fishermen, killed them, and displayed their heads to theirrelatives. (The informant insisted that this was a second party ofseven killed by the Otsosat, making a score of 14 to 2, a rather in-auspicious beginning for the Ahousat after their declaration of war.)The Otsosat considered attacking their enemy by a mass landing onthe beach, while displaying the latest collection of heads, but deferredit because the racks for drjdng herring roe formed an obstacle whichwould give the Ahousat time to establish a defense. They never gotanother chance quite as good, haiyupinul selected 40 young men, andbegan a period of ritual training which was to last 8 months. Theyremained continent this v/hole time. During the waxing of the moon,they climbed Catface Mountain, where they sang war songs and prayedfor success, haiyupinul would stand singing while the young menthrew dried leaves and gravel (representing buckshot) at him. Theyalso did more practical sorts of training, practicing landings on hostilebeaches, and going through maneuvers in which they shot at eachother with blunt, untipped arrows. One version of the war statesthat during these mock skirmishes one of the young men was unsuc-cessful in dodging an arrow, which came at him with enough force togo clear through his cheek and into his mouth. His comrades in armslaughed hilariously, and a Clayoquot who was watching shook hishead and said, dourly, that it was a poor way to prepare for war.(Obviously, he was wrong.) haiyupinul's mother, a Nuchatlet woman,seems to have been the party's chief advisor in magical protection,for she gave them numerous medicines to make them invulnerable.When they were ready, she had them send a half-Otsosat messengerwith the false news that the Ahousat were giving up the war, andwere moving away from their village at tsatikwis. The tribe movedinstead to the site on Deep Pass (tcitapi). Some Otsosat scoutedtsatilvwis, and found it abandoned. The entire Otsosat tribe movedto their sites along the outside of Flores Island, to begin fishing forhalibut. An Ehetisat relative of the Ahousat came by and saw themthere, and carried the word to the Ahousat. haiyupinul himself issaid to have scouted the foe, and found a large camp of them onBartlett Island. He assembled his m^en for a last dry run, and thatnight they launched their war canoes. Off the southeast tip ofBartlett Island, the canoes drew up in a line, and haiyupinul calledon the other chiefs to follow him around to the eastward of the island Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 347(the Otsosat camp was on the northwest tip of the islet), and forqanima to proceed up the west side and attack. His plan was tocapture many women and children as slaves, qanima was put out,for he felt that he would have to carry the brunt of the attack, buthe went anyhow. (The m.aneuver actually would seem to have beenthe proper one, though it did not turn out as well as it should have.One may guess, though we have no information on the point, thatthere was a lack of coordination, haiyupinul's group not havingestablished contact when qanima staged the attack.) The latter ledhis party through the channels, and found the Otsosat men sleepingin their canoes (to make an early start for the fishing grounds) . Thewar canoes laid alongside the fishing craft and began killing andbeheading the sleepers. One fisherman awoke as his companion wasbeing slain, and seeing no escape possible, said, "Be careful, don'tkill me. I'm tsiltsihauk, of the Clayoquot." The warriors called oneof their party who was half-Clayoquot. He looked at the man inthe canoe and said, "He is tsiltsihauk, the Otsosat." So they killedhim. They caught another young man, who told them, "Now youdon't have to worry, for you have got the principal Otsosat war chief.I am qemictup." He was really qemictup's younger brother, who bystalling for time hoped to enable the real qemictup to escape. Whilethey killed him, his brother the war chief dove into the water andbegan to swim to Flores Island. One of the war party canoes saw orheard him, overtook him, and speared him in the water as though hewere a seal. (These attempts to conceal one's identity, the onepoltroonish, the other heroic, seem puerile since these people allknew each other well, but it must be remembered the attack wasmade in the dark of night.) Only one of the fishermen escaped; heswam to Flores Island (a mile and a half or so at the nearest point),and ran along the beaches warning the rest of the Otsosat, who allassembled at autsos, near Rafael Point, qanlma's party seems to havespent some time pursuing Otsosat who took to the water. Finallythey assembled at the camp with 78 heads. The chief's party camedown from the woods back of the camp with only two slaves?twowomen, whom they killed on the beach. Only one of the force waswounded: one of qanlma's men who got a spear through the throat,qanima pulled the spear out, and they tried to stop the bleedingwith herbs and "medicines." The wounded man's brother fainted,watching him, and qanima stood over him and said, "Don't faint, situp like a man. We're fighting the Otsosat now." At daybreak thewar party displayed the 80 heads to the Otsosat. War chiefs of thelatter tribe danced on the beach to show they were not afraid. (Bothforces were apparently careful to keep out of range.) On their wayhome the Ahousat encountered a Clayoquot chief returning from 348 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144Nootka Sound. He seems to have thought the Ahousat were on oneof their practice runs for he said to them, mockingly, "Let's see whatyou caught last night." qanima stood up holding a head in eitherhand, and one in his mouth, and the Ahousat chiefs held up headsand spat on them. The Clayoquot sat down in his canoe and coveredhis face with his blanket for shame. He was friendly to the Otsosat,and was sure the Ahousat could not win the war. He turned backto the Otsosat village. There, lying to off shore, he had his war chiefcall out, "Otsosat, show me how many fighting men you have left."The Otsosat warriors came down to the beach; there were still manyof them?"some people say 400, some say 600, some say there were800 left," said the informant. The Clayoquot went ashore andassembled the Otsosat chiefs. He hated the Ahousat. He said to theOtsosat chiefs, "I'll give you my place on a'a'iLis (WikennanishIsland) to hide your war canoes." He anticipated an Ahousat movefrom tcitapl; he was right, for on the return of the war party, theAhousat moved to ahaus, outside Vargas Island (expecting a retalia-tory attack to be aimed immediately at tcitapi). The Otsosat madetheir plans, and moved a large force stealthily to Wikennanish Island,where they hid. They selected four young men, gave them pitchtorches, and landed them on the southeast tip of Vargas Island. Thefour were to cut through the woods, and watch till the Ahousat menset out in their canoes, then rush the village to fire the houses. TheOtsosat war party after a time left their hiding place. Nearingahaus in their canoes, they first tried to cut off some Ahousat fisher-men who had shoved off just before they came around the point. Thisseems to have been another good opportunity they slighted, for theAhousat apparently did not expect an attack so soon at ahaus, andwere unprepared. According to the principal informant, several ofthem saw the Otsosat canoes, but thought they were a Clayoquotwhaling party, and stood idly watching them for some time in thedim early morning light till they realized the canoes were in pursuitof the fishermen, who were frantically paddling for their lives,haiyupinul had eight loaded muskets in his canoe; as he was launchingit to go to the rescue, moqwina tipped it over. But haiyupinulrecovered his muskets and set out, drying them as his crew overhauledthe Otsosat. Meanwhile, the Otsosat had overtaken one or morecanoes, killing several men, and transferring two women to the warchief's craft. The Ahousat pursuit cam.e up. haiyupinul opened fire(he had someone to reload for him) . He followed the big canoe withthe captive women, picking off the occupants one by one. By mis-chance he killed one of the women. The other was ordered by theOtsosat to plug the shot holes in the canoe, which she pretended todo, but really let the canoe make water. Meanwhile, the four young Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 349men with the torches, who were supposed to create a diversion anddemorahze the counterattack, had got lost in the woods, so theOtsosat force gave up the attack and, scattering, took flight in earnest.(The Otsosat had obviously planned a complex operation, and onethat might have worked had the young men not "got lost," or what-ever happened to them. The main force was to make a feint to drawa counterattack, incidentally knocking off the fishermen, then whenthe houses were fired they expected that the counterattack wouldwaver, some canoes would turn back, and in confusion the Otsosatwould be able to strike decisively.) haiyupinul continued pursuit ofthe crippled canoe; when there were but four men left he shouted tothe captive woman to jump into the water. She did so, and haiyupinulpassed her, calling to the canoe following him to pick her up. Thenhaiyupinul closed the canoe, finishing off its occupants. All but onewere dead as he laid alongside; this man lay feigning death, thenleaped up with a spear and hurled it pointblank at haiyupinul. Thelatter's uncle interposed an elldiide cuirass shield-fashion, deflectingthe spear. Then haiyupinul killed the survivor.The other Ahousat were pursuing the remaining Otsosat canoeswith no success. The latter swung outside the islets, and in trying tocut them off, the Ahousat lost ground among the reefs and isletsflanking Flores Island, so their foe escaped, beached their canoes, andran along the beach to warn their people. The Ahousat made a fire onthe beach to dry their guns, and made plans. They resolved on anall-out frontal attack on the Otsosat to press the advantage of theirvictory. They knew the Otsosat would be assembled expecting them.The war chiefs told them not to falter under any circumstances;"If you see your elder brother die, don't stop or go back; leave himand close the enemy. Don't run straight; run up the beach dodgingand zigzagging." So the force proceeded by canoe to the village wherethe Otsosat were gathered, a place called wo'aihsi. They beached.An Otsosat sharpshooter began to pick them off from a hiding placein a tree, and the rest of the tribe, in the houses, were holding their fire,so the charge bogged down. Someone suggested sending a partyaround behind the houses, where they fired, shouted, and blew Wolfwhistles, but the Otsosat refused to be stampeded.The Ahousat chiefs devised a new scheme; two volunteers were torun along the beach to draw the enemy fire, and others were to be readyto dash up to each house before the defenders could reload, squatwith their backs to the walls and lift, wrenching the boards loose toexpose the defenders. A fire party was told off to open fire as soon asthe boards came away. The men who ripped the boards loose wouldbe shielded, it was believed, by the boards, which would probably fallon top of them. The plan worked as scheduled, the Otsosat letting 350 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144 jthemselves be duped into wasting their shots, the boards were rippedoff, and the Ahousat shot all the people they could see in the houses.The Otsosat were not done yet, though, and began to rally. Chiefmoqwina, of the Ahousat, broke from cover and ran the length of thebeach to a vantage point on the far end, where he threw himself downhappy to find himself intact. A young slave he had brought withhim flopped down beside him, having followed him under the enemyguns, to the chief's surprise. When he inquired why, the slave repliedhe took the chance "because if you had been killed, your people wouldhave killed me anyhow." A group of Otsosat now counterattacked,trying to drive the Ahousat off the beach, moqwina shot three of them,breaking up the attempt. (The pressure of Ahousat pubHc opinionseems to have impelled him to take an active part, finally.) Finallythe Otsosat burst out of the backs of the houses and fled into the woods.The Ahousat looted and then burned the houses. They had lost fourmen killed, and had a number of wounded. Then they departed.The Otsosat held a meeting. Some were in favor of abandoningtheir territory on the outer coast, which they thought would stop thefighting. Those who had lost close relatives, however, insisted oncarrying on. They moved to nahwaksis, around on the west shore ofFlores Island. From there after a time they sent a war party totsatikwis, where they found a few Ahousat ; they killed eight men andone woman. The Ahousat resolved on immediate retaliation. Theysent scouts to nahwaksis, who returned reporting the Otsosat wereall there, and had set deadfalls along all the trails leading to the sitethrough the bush, so the beach was the only possible approach. Asizable party landed on the beach one morning at dawn. No mentionwas made of it, but the Otsosat must have had sentinels out who gavewarning, for the attack was met and driven off. The Aliousat hadno one killed but a considerable number wounded. I was not toldwhat damage they inflicted. Meanwhile Lehomalnl, the Otsosat warchief who had killed the Aliousat whom they had set up on a stake anddisfigured, died of a wound received in the fight at wo'ailisi (he seemsto have been the sniper in the tree there). The Ahousat found thebody, being informed of its burial through relatives at Clayoquot.They brought it home, announcing that Lehomalni was coming tovisit, set it up on the beach on a stake driven up its anus, and dis-figured it amid a general feeling of satisfaction. The Otsosat hadretreated to a place called opnit, whose location I do not know.Ahousat scouts reported it was palisaded and surrounded with dead-falls. The Ahousat did not relish the idea of another frontal attack,so they carried on a war of attrition, watching for and picking oft'fishermen from time to time. Meanwhile, they laid claim to and beganutilizing the various fishing stations of the Otsosat. It is not clear Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 351just how these were parceled out among the Ahousat chiefs; haiyu-pinul got the places on Herbert Arm because he had personally killedthe entire family of chiefs who had owned it, but it also seems that thefirst chief, moqwina, got a lion's share of the remainder because of hisrank (although he had been opposed to the war in the first place, andhad taken little part in it, except, apparently, for the affair at wo'aihsi).It may have been, too, that he claimed these places by virtue of hiskinship to the Otsosat chiefs.After some time, the Ahousat seem to have become careless. TheOtsosat survivors, who were still numerous, were living up at the headof Shelter Arm and on the Megin River. They fitted out four bigcanoes. But three or four men paddled in each canoe; the rest hidin case they met any foe. They did meet a Clayoquot, and told himthey were going outside after clams. That night they attacked anAhousat village or camp, killing many, among them the third chief,kwatyihnalni, and they made the grievous error of hacking thischief's wife, a Clayoquot woman, to bits. They did not enter thehouse of moqwina, however. The son of kwatyilmalnl fled to tsatikwis,where he informed haiyupintit of the raid, haiyupinut was as eagerfor trouble as ever; he and qanlma assembled a force and proceededdirectly to the Otsosat village on Megin Lake. In a surprise attackthey killed many of the enemy, and took alive a chief of rank equal tothat of the slain kwatyilmalnl. They told him they would spare hislife if he would perform certain degrading actions, which they dictated.He did so, and after ridiculing him, they clubbed him to death.In the fall both tribes got ready to dry salmon. The Otsosat beganto come out of their refuges, and the Ahousat caught and slew anumber of large parties of fishermen. And now new troubles were instore for the Otsosat. The Clayoquot relatives of the wife of thechief kwatyilmalni resolved to avenge her slaying. In the spring alarge party of them proceeded, in small canoes, with their womenfolk,to opnit, where they found a large camp of Otsosat. The Clayoquotsaid they were on the way to Hesquiat to purchase dried fish?theirstores had run short. They spent the night feasting and visiting withthe Otsosat. Early in the morning, the leader of the Clayoquot partyclimbed on the roof of one of the houses and shouted, "Claj^oquotwomen, get up now to cook our breakfast!" This was the signal thathad been arranged, and the warriors fell on their unsuspecting hosts.They butchered the entire camp. On their way home, the avengerspassed the Ahousat village, and displaying the heads they had taken,they shouted, "Look, qanima, here are some of the wild ones youcouldn't catch!" qanima came down to the beach to reply, "I haven'tgiven up pursuing them; I am just resting a bit. I'm going to waragain and will kill all the rest of them," qanima now seems to have 352 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144taken the initiative and organized a war party (we may suppose thatthe vengeful haiyupinul, if he did not aid, at least put no obstacle inthe war chief's way) . They found a group of Otsosat at a place calledqicnehqos, up Sidney Inlet. The war party crept up close to thehouses under cover of darkness, and as they lay peering in through thecracks in the walls, scouting the situation, they heard a young Otsosatsay, as he hefted a spear he was making, "I'd like to see that greatqanima?I'd run this into his guts and take his head." qanlma'speople were in position, and this was too good a cue to miss: hebounded in the doorway shouting, "Here I am! Now go ahead andkill me!" The young man dropped his spear in his fright, and qanimakilled him, while his force swarmed into the house and killed all theOtsosat except a few who bolted into the woods. They took somecaptives, among them a young chief who owned the west shore ofFlores Island from Rafael Point to nawaksis. Returning to Ahousat,they brought the young chief out on the beach, and called on moqwinato come down and kill him, so that he would be the owner of thisterritory, moqwina refused, for the young chief was a kinsman of his.qanima sang his war song, then brained the young Otsosat. Subse-quently he claimed the beach line. However, the Ahousat met withthe Clayoquot, and gave them the salvage and sealing rights to thisarea (i. e., the rights must have been given to the Clayoquot chiefs whoinstigated the treacherous attack on the Otsosat).By now there were but few Otsosat left. Some of them movedout, going to live with kin, either at Hesquiat, or down around BarkleySound (they no longer dared go to Clayoquot). A few assembled ina fortified site on a knoll, and let it be known they were in an impreg-nable position, and that they planned to assemble the scattered war-riors (those who had moved elsewhere), and then attack the Ahousat.haiyupinul looked the situation over. He seems to have profited bypast experience. He mapped an operation with alternative plans ofattack. The primary plan, which they tried first, was the obviousone of landing on the beach and rushing the position. This did notcome off, for the Otsosat fort commanded the beach too efficiently,and the slope was too steep for an effective charge. The Ahousatwere unable to establish a beachhead, haiyupinul withdrew his forces,then proceeded with the alternative plan. He sent marksmen toplaces some distance on either side of the fort on the high hill behindit. Then he detailed a party of axmen to fell the biggest trees on thehill back of the fort. Several trees fell, doing but minor damage tothe fort, which the defenders were able to repair, but finally one hugetree came crashing down and stove in the whole rear wall. The treeitself is said to have killed a considerable number of the Otsosat;others were killed by the sharpshooters, moqwina, who once more Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 353was taking an active part in the war, most likely to vindicate himselfin his people's eyes after his refusal to murder his kinsman, distin-guished himself by picking off an Otsosat chief at 100 yards?remark-ably long range for the weapons of the time, cheap trade musketscrammed full of buckshot. Only a few of the Otsosat managed toescape through the woods.This was the end of the war. The Otsosat were practically extermi-nated; the few survivors were scattered among other tribes, and nolonger offered even a threat to the Ahousat, who took the territory,and soon came to be one of the important tribes of the coast. Thelast incident, some time after, occurred when qanlma while on a visitto Barldey Sound encountered a man named anls, who had been oneof the four who had been sent to burn the village at ahaus (on theoccasion on which four men were sent tlirough the woods, and failedto arrive) . qanima seized the man and brought him to Ahousat. Inthe morning, he had some men bring the captive to the beach, while hehimself stood on a house roof and sang. He called, "Ahousat, comeout, I have something to show you." When the people turned out,qanlma told them they had a visitor, anis, who once had planned toburn their houses. They began to mock anls, but he stood silent,refusing to plead, or to perform degrading antics for his life. AnAhousat threw a stone hitting him in the head, and he died. TheAhousat spread the story that he had died of shame and fright.The Ahousat informants, doing injustice perhaps to the war chiefqanlma's energy and haiyupinul's military genius, attribute theirvictory to the fact that although they were a much smaller groupat the beginning, they had more firearms and ammunition, whichthey obtained through their relatives the Moachat. They were rein-forced on several occasions, too, by Nuchatlet kinsmen of haiyupiniihTHE MUCHALAT WARSChief tsaxhwosip, successor to the Moachat chief moqwina ofCook's and Jewitt's day, married a daughter of the chief of thematcllath. She bore him two sons, the elder of whom took his father'sname, tsaxhwosip, when he succeeded to the chieftainship, and theyounger eventually took, and is most commonly remembered by thename of ciwuc. The elder brother acted as chief for but a few years,when he died, leaving no sons. His brother ciwuc succeeded him.It is related that the elder brother's body was wrapped in severalprime sea otter skins and lashed high in a tree, whose branches werethen lopped off, on Hecate Channel, where all the tribes might see theburial and mourn. Soon after, it was noted that the lashings of thegravebox were changed. A man climbed the tree to investigate, anddiscovered that the furs had been stolen. Word got about that a 354 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144man from tcccis had passed by not long before, on his way home fromEhetisat, so he was accused of the deed.Chief clwuc assembled the Moachat men telling them they mustavenge the outrage. He sent two canoes, under his leading war chiefs,to Muchalat Arm. They found no one at tcecis, but came on amatchath man and his son out fishing, so they beheaded them andleft their canoe adrift. The kinsmen, when they found the bodies,assembled at match demanding vengeance. Their chief did not speakfor a long time. After all. Chief ciwuc was his grandson. At last hesaid they should let the matter go unavenged. If a war began itwould not stop.Not long after, a Nimkish war party made a surprise daylightattack on tsaxana, up Gold River. They killed a dozen or so men andcaptured a number of women and children. The rest took to thewoods; one man ran down the trail to a'aminqas with the news, andrequested aid. He had kin among the matcliath, so he went on torecruit help from them too. A joint force was made up, but by thetime they got to tsaxana the Nimkish had too much of a lead to beovertaken. A wounded man they found hiding told them the enemyhad seen the runner start down the trail, and had wasted no timeassembling their loot and slaves and starting back over the mountains.The match warriors stayed at a'aminqas visiting. Meanwhile amatch man, hatsutamul, who had been camping down the inlet ata'os encountered a Moachat war party coming up the channel. Itis said that he had climbed a tree for a look before setting out, butthey were hugging the shore and he failed to see them. He was in acanoe with his wife and a kinswoman when the war canoes roundedthe point. He snatched up an old paddle, holding it like a gim, andheld the enemy off while the women paddled for shore. All three raninto the woods. The Moachat caught and killed the wife, hatsutamul,unaware of her fate, climbed a little knoll from which he could see upthe channel. To his dismay, he saw a group of his tribesmen in a covepreparing to lash fir boughs to their canoes to make a drive of shinersand small perch. The Moachat also spied them, and from his vantagepoint hatsutamul saw the Moachat land a group of warriors below thedown-channel point of the cove, out of sight of the fishermen. TheMoachat canoes begin to round the point and disappeared from hisview. lie knew what they were doing, of course. As soon as sufficienttime had passed for the landing party to work into position along theshore of the cove, the canoes would dart out to take stations acrossthe mouth of the cove, then close in. If the fishermen attempted toescape by water, they would be overhauled ; if they made for the beachto escape tlirough the woods, they would fall into the clutches of thelanding party. The watcher ran down closer to the water's edge. Drueker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 355and then began to shout, "Enemy, enemy! (wina, wina!)," at the topof his lungs. It seemed to take a long time before his tribesmen heardhim, but the moment they did, they slashed the branches loose fromtheir canoes and made best speed up the channel. The war canoeswere too far below the point to head them off; they made a brief vainattempt, then turned back. The landing party seeing their quarryescape set out through the woods to catch the one who had given thewarning, but he easily eluded them.The Moachat warriors expected the fishermen to carry the news,and assumed that a large force would soon be mustered to opposetheir raiding party. They did not know that many of the war chiefsand able-bodied warriors Avere at a'aminqas. Some of them wantedto turn back. Chief ciwuc's leading war chief, wai'enaq, who was incommand, said, "No, we shall not go back yet. We are going to playwith these people. But now we shall go to 6'is instead of match."So they turned toward o'is. As they approached that village, wai'enaqbegan to sing his war song. One of the local war chiefs, a mannamed kwowic, went out to meet them in a small canoe, accompaniedby two other men, to see if they came in peace or in war. He foundout soon enough, for the moment they came in range the Moachatopened fire. One of th(im broke his arm with a musket ball. Hedropped in the canoe and his companions turned back, paddling fortheir lives. Some other men in the houses snatched up arms and randown to the beach. Four ran to a little bight above the villagetoward which the war canoes were heading. As the enemy nearedthey opened fire, but the Moachat paddled on, beached their canoeand went into the woods before they could reload. By that time theother men had come down from the houses, and they established aline of sorts along that end of the village. They had only a few gunsamong the lot of them. The Moachat began to close in, keeping upa steady fire. The defenders tried all the old tricks to make themexhaust their ammunition?tossing pebbles into the bush, movingbranches to one side of themselves, and so on?but to no avail. Thefoe had plenty of powder and ball. Several of the defenders werekilled and some others were wounded. Meanwhile one of the princi-pal o'is war chiefs, a man named tceha, was waiting in a house at thelower end of the village. He expected an attack from that flanlt,and intended to contain it by himself (!). A man wounded in theleg came hobbling in, beside himself with pain and rage. "This is afine time for the great war chief to be sitting in the house," he snarled."Why aren't you out helping us? They just killed your youngerbrother." The younger man had crept around a windfall near thebeach where the Moachat canoes were, and had been shot at point-blank range (by one of the canoe guards ?) . tceha ran out of the house 356 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144and along the beach, then turned into the brush not far from theMoachat canoes. He saw a figure move, and fired. The man fell,and tceha saw it was the enemy war chief wai'enaq. A shout wentup that the war chief had been killed, and the Moachat warriorsabandoned their attack, making for their canoes. They had losttwo other men by this time, who had been killed while attempting tobehead fallen o'is men, but were not deterred until the war chief waskilled. As they shoved off, the defenders dragged wai'enaq's bodyto the beach, and called to the Moachat to ask why they were leavinghim behind. They did not behead the war chief, but drove a stakeinto his body and propped it up on the beach. They had lost a num-ber of men, but they were happy that they had killed wai'enaq.The failure of the raid enraged Chief clwuc, but he resolved to bidehis time. He knew that all the Muchalat Arm villages would beexpecting attacks, and would have their sentinels out. About a yearlater he sent a party out to attack the fishing camp at a'os. Theycrept into the houses at night, then began to shoot and club theirvictims. More than 20 match men who had come there for the fishingwere killed, and a considerable number of women and children weretaken captive.Following this attack the chief carried out a war of attrition, sendingsmall parties of warriors to haunt Muchalat Arm, picking off lonefishermen. It was on one of these forays that hatsutamul, the man whohad warned the matcli fishermen of the ambush, was killed. Oneday he came on a Moachat in a small canoe, hatsutamul stalked theenemy, keeping close inshore behind some rocks. At last he dartedout from behind the shelter, driving down on the Moachat to kill himwith his sealing harpoon, hatsutamul had failed to see anotherAloachat canoe close to the beach, however, and as he emerged fromconcealment he was shot through the head by a man in the othercanoe.With the waters unsafe for small parties, and fearing a major attackat aii}^ time, the sites on lower Muchalat Arm were abandoned. Thepeople moved up to matcli and a'aminqas. At about this time thetsaxana people, up Gold River, were attacked by the hopatcisath,who came overland from Sproat Lake to avenge the slaying of five oftheir men during a visit some years before. The men had come tovisit kinsmen at tsaxana, and were camped on Gold River, abouthalfway between that place and a'aminqas. The a'aminqas peoplehad killed them from ambush "because the strangers might frightenaway the salmon." The news eventually reached the hopatcisath.It is not known whether they held the tsaxana people responsible, orwhether the information had been distorted so that they thought thosepeople had done the killing, but at any rate, it was tsaxana they Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 357attacked. They killed a number of men, and looted the houses.Then they set out overland with many captives. A large partyconsisting of tsaxana survivors and relatives from a'aminqas set outin pursuit. The war chief sent scouts ahead, accompanied by youngmen who were noted as swift runners to maintain contact betweenthe scouts and the main body. As soon as the scouts picked up thetrail the runners came back, and the force went directly to the spot.The scouts went on, and soon sent back word they had come on veryfresh tracks; in other words they were overtaking the enemy. Thelatter camped, to feast on some of the looted sockeye, then slept,leaving a few sentinels to watch over the captives and to give warningin case of attack. The a'aminqas war chief sent half his force on awide detour around the camp to form a line across the hopatcisath lineof retreat. After a time, he sent two of his swiftest runners around tomake sure this group was in position. By the time the runnersreturned dawn was not far off. The enemy sentinels were asleep.The war chief moved his group in close, then gave the signal, a wolfcall, and opened fire. The hopatcisath leaped to their feet and ranright into the jaws of the trap. About half the raiding party wasslain, the rest escaped. The tsaxana captives, realizing they werebeing rescued, scattered like quail at the first shots, and came out ofthe woods to rejoin their kinsmen when the affray was over. How-ever, the two raids, that of the Nimkish and this one, had so reducedthe number of tsaxana eft'ectives that they moved down with theirkinsmen at a'aminqas, rather than remain in their isolated site.Chief clwuc now devised a new plan. He called the Moachat to afeast, to announce to them that he wanted to put an end to the wars,and to do so, he wanted to marry a daughter of one of the rankingmatcli chiefs. He sent a small party as messengers to match toannounce this. Meanwhile, he assembled his war chiefs to tell themhis real plan, which was for a treacherous attack to wipe out thematcllath. The marriage was simply a blind for this scheme. Therewere two young men whose mothers were from matcli. When theylearned of the scheme they set out to Ahousat, for they knew thewar chief qanima would take steps to prevent the attack, for hisdaughter was married to a matcli man and he had other relativesamong the group. The two young men went to him, for they fearedthey might be observed should they go up Muchalat Arm, and wouldbe killed, qanima sent a party to warn the match people, but theycommitted either a blunder or an act of treachery, for they let theirbig canoe be stranded at a high spring tide so that they had to waittill next day to launch it. Meanwhile clwuc had gone by with hisparty.Many people at match were opposed to the idea of letting their 358 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144 chief's daughter marry ciwuc, for they did not trust the Moachat.The match chief insisted, however, and when the Moachat proposalparty came he soon assented. The Moachat, who had camped aroundthe point meanwhile, came immediately to perform the marriageprivileges of the groom, while blankets were carried up to the chief'shouse. The girl's father gave his formal assent by beginning theperformance of the bridal privileges. He used only the two privilegesconcluding the formal wedding, then invited the Moachat chiefs to afeast. Other local chiefs invited other members of the large Moachatparty. The son of the slain wai'enaq had arranged that he shouldbe called into the house in which tceha was staying, for none of theMoachat knew exactly in which houses the match people were livingat the time. Wlien he went into the house, he contrived to walkbehind tceha, and, whipping out a whale-bone club from beneath hisblanket, struck him down. At the same time he gave his war cry.This was the signal : each Moachat in the house, who had managed tosit next to a matcli man (on the latter's right, if possible, to strikewith more facility) drew a knife or a club and killed his unpreparedvictim. The men in the other houses began to do likewise the momentthey heard the war cry. The losses of the matcli were heavy; oneMuchalat informant said they lost more than 60 men, another hadheard a figure of nearly 100. Some men, and a number of women andchildren, escaped into the woods. Many women and children weretaken as slaves. The Moachat looted and burned the houses, thendeparted with their captives. Shortly after daj^break they passedthe Ahousat warning party, who had just launched their canoe.The Ahousat war chief's daughter and her child were among thecaptives, qanlma set out immediately for ktipti, with a large party.There he had men carry blankets and other goods up to Chief ciwuc,while he himself announced he had come to buy his daughter's free-dom. After a time. Chief ciwuc himself brought the woman and herchild down to qanima's canoe.The matcli survivors, augmented by a few families who had remainedup to this time in outlying sites, moved to a'aminqas. The need fora united defense was becoming clear to them now, although it wasnearly too late. After a year or two, however, during which theyseldom if ever went down to the lower end of the inlet, and were almostunmolested, they split again, the matctiath and the survivors of groupsdown the inlet going back to matcli. More time passed, and thenanother of ciwuc's war parties struck at a'aminqas in a night raid.They succeeded in killing only a few men, however, and took fewslaves. About the same time the Ahousat war chief qanima died.His influence had sufficed to restrain the Ahousat chiefs who covetedthe rich holdings of Muchalat Arm, but no sooner was he dead than Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 359they planned a blow to capture it practically from under the noses ofthe Moachat. They made a plan. Messengers were sent to matchto tell qanima's Idn that he was ill and wished to see them (news ofthis death had not reached the isolated group). Fifteen or twentymatch men returned to Ahousat with the messengers. The chief metthem at the beach, and asked about the rest of the people. He wastold that match and a'aminqas were the only sites occupied. Thiswas the information he had wanted. He drew his war club as a signalto his warriors, and he himself killed the man who had given him thenews. His warriors made short work of the rest. The war canoeswere ready. The party delayed only long enough to behead theirvictims, then set out. Early the following day they reached the lowerend of Muchalat Arm. In a sheltered cove, they beached their canoesunder the overhanging branches of trees at the water's edge. A fewbranches were cut to complete the camouflage, and their craft wereeffectively hidden. The warriors rested until nightfall. In the shelterof the night they set out, dividing, according to plan, into two units,one to strike at matcli and the other at a'aminqas.One man was awake at matcli when the Ahousats arrived. Heheard someone fumbling at the door of planks near his sleeping place,so he got his gun and waited. The planks were pushed aside as helistened in the darkness. He heard someone move cautiously throughthe opening, so he aimed as best as he could in the dark and fired.Then he ran for another gun which he had loaded near his bed. Bythe time he found it war cries and sounds of strife filled the house.The attackers had all the advantage; the best maneuver for the matclipeople was to escape if they could. Eighteen men were killed, asagainst one Ahousat. A considerable number of women and childrenwere captured. At first light the Ahousats left, after looting andfiring the houses. In the strike at a'aminqas a dozen or so men werekilled. The only Ahousat to die was slain by an old man who drovethe blade of an old wornout knife he carried on a string about hisneck through the leg of the warrior who stepped over him. As thelatter fell, the old man stabbed him to death. Then someone smashedin the old man's skull with a war club. The striking force looted andset fire to the houses, then set out with their many captives to rendez-vous with their companion unit.The news soon spread that one of the captives taken at a'aminqaswas a relative (a classificatory nephew) of ciwuc. The latter sent aparty immediately to ransom the boy; he did not want it said thatany kinsman of his was a slave. The Ahousat captor gave him upreadily enough and ciwuc himself took the boy to match, where heturned him over to kinsmen, announcing as he did so that he v/ould neveragain make war on the Muchalat tribes. But while he promised peace,839093?51 24 360 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144he still plotted for war. He believed there were too few people left forany retaliatory measures against him. A short time afterward ciwucand a party of his warriors encountered a lone fisherman, ninlqac,down on Nootka Sound, so they came alongside his canoe and killedhim. On their return to yukwot they found another Muchalat, a mancalled tatcwohai who had come visiting, ciwuc told his warriors to killhim, and they did. Then he assembled the Moachat men, to tellthem he had a new plan. It was taking a long time to exterminate theMuchalat Arm people. He intended to kill the a'aminqas chiefs.Then he would seize Gold River and its rich fishing rights, and enslaveor kill off the people of less consequence at his leisure. He himselfwould do the slaying of the first chief. Many men volunteered to gowith him, but ciwuc said he wanted only a few. A large party wouldfrighten the victims, or at least put them on the alert. He chose threewarriors as his companions. His plan was bold enough to seem likelyto succeed. For four men to walk into a group of several times thatnumber (there were not, of course, many men left at a'aminqas), killtheir leading chiefs, and face down, or frighten off the rest, requireddaring and imagination. The principal flaw would seem to be thatciwuc failed to provide himself with a supporting party, but pre-sumably he feared they might be seen and thus give the plan away.There was a man at the meeting whose wife was from a'aminqas.On his return he told his daughter of the plan or she overheard himtelling of it, so she found two other women who had relatives amongthe Muchalats, and the three went to matcli to bring the news, underthe pretext of going to pick salmonberries. Despite their haste,ciwuc passed them (but they hid in time, and were not seen). Wlienthe matcli people heard the plot, they sent five j^oung men toa'aminqas. The five arrived, and found the Moachat chief there.The tsaxana chief asked them what they had come for. "To bringbad news," was the reply. "We have learned that ciwuc has come tokill the chiefs titsqenuqe and ami'Lac." ciwuc was at a feast given himby one of his intended victims, and did not even note the arrival ofthe young men. After the feast, ciwuc told his men, "Get ready, fornow we must go." Then an old man, the grandfather of the boyciwuc had ransomed, spoke, "Chief ciwuc, I give you these foursticks. Each one is one hundred driedsockeye. They are foryou to takehome to your people, as a present from their friends the a'aminqasath.My people are packing the fish now to be taken down to your canoe."ciwuc requested that the sockeye be packed in four bales, and, as onewho graciously returns a gift, he gave four men sticks representingblankets for carrying the bales to his canoe. Among the four were thechiefs titsqenuqe and ami'Lac. The two had no inkling of their fate.The people were not living at a'aminqas itself, but at an old site just Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 361across the river which they considered more defensible, so it wasnecessary to ferry clwuc and his party across to the village beach wherethey had left their canoe. Meanwhile, one of the young men frommatch w^ent to the a'aminqas war chief, anapintil, telling him that thematch war chief stasaxsos had sent word for him to kill ciwuc. Thiswas not quite true, but anapinul believed the young man, and gothimself ready. Two of the warriors with ciwuc went ahead to launchhis canoe. He intended to kill the two a'aminqas chiefs the momenthe had boarded his canoe and was ready to start down river. Whenciwuc with his henchman and the intended victims were in midstream,one of the matcti messengers fired. He had aimed at the companionof the Moachat chief, but missed, merely breaking his arm. At theshot, ciwuc tipped the canoe over and dove under water. Thewounded man tried to swim to the opposite bank. The two by thebig canoe dove into the river, swam downstream, and made theirescape through the woods, ciwuc came up, then tried to wade to asmall island in the river. He did not discard his blanket although itimpeded him. The war chief anapinul ran from his hiding place. Hewas stripped, and carried his war club. Throwing himself into thewater he soon overtook ciwuc. anapinul caught the Moachat by theblanket as the latter reached the edge of the islet, yanking him back,ciwuc had a gun concealed under his blanket; it fell into the river,anapinul tossed his war club aside, grasped ciwuc about the body,lifted him high in the air, and then slammed him down on the rockybeach, anapinul was a big man, and tremendously powerful, ciwuc'sstruggles were in vain. He did not plead for mercy, but gasped, "Ithought no one would dare kill so great a chief as I." The war chiefanswered, so the story goes, "You killed many of our people. This isthe revenge of the Muchalat." Time after time he picked the chiefup bodily and dashed him on the rocks, until he battered him to death.(It w^as for this deed that he took the name of tuckai'ilam, wliichreferred to the Sky Cod Fish that caused an eclipse by swallowing theSun.) Meanwhile, the matcli men caught and killed the woundedman.The five young men returned to their village with the news. Thesecond chief, to whom the three women who had brought the warningwere related, told them that they had best leave right away. He gaveno reason, but the women suspected that ciwuc had been killed.When they arrived at Friendly Cove, most of the men were on thebeach to meet them. A volley of questions was fired at them?wherehad they been, had they seen Chief ciwuc, or did they have news ofhim. The women were frightened, but tried to laugh the matter off ? one of them said she did not know where Chief ciwuc was, "for he 362 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144hardly ever tells me where he is going." They managed to maintaintheir pose of ignorance of the whole matter, and were left alone.The two men who escaped through the woods came out on theshores of Muchalat Arm, at a camp site. They found an old canoeand one paddle. One found a piece of board to paddleVith, and theyset out. As they rounded the point in Friendly Cove, they signaledby waving their paddles overhead that they brought bad news. Thepeople gathered on the beach: They knew now that the chief musthave been killed. The two men shouted the tidings as they nearedthe beach. TheMoachat war chiefs began to mutter, "Let's send thesetwo along with our dead chief. Let them accompany him." Someonegave the two a warning sign, so they jumped from their canoe andran into the woods. Later on they returned, but by then the warchiefs no longer wanted to kill them.All the survivors of the Muchalat Arm tribes who had moved in tomatcli now moved to a'aminqas. The confederation of all the groupscould muster less than 40 able-bodied men. There was not a familythat did not mourn its dead, and hope for the return of its enslavedmembers. They dared not go down Nootka Sound to go to othertribes to ransom back their kin, nor, truth to tell, did they have any-thing to ransom them with. They built a house, a makeshift affairfor the time being, in which the whole group lived. They kept look-outs stationed to watch for the Moachat, whom they expected at anytime.The Moachat, meanwhile were in a state of turmoil, clwuc haddied without an heir, so for the time being the second chief acted inhis place, until a proper successor could be designated. There wasassembly after assembly, to make plans to avenge the death of thechief. Some men wanted to attack the Muchalat right away, but itwas decided to suspend the operation for a while. Sager heads pointedout that it would be useless to try to attack soon, for the Muchalatwere sure to have lookouts, and it would be impossible to surprisethem and prevent their escape. They would make war on the Much-alat, yes, but later. In the meantime, they resolved to kill the firstpeople who came to the village, and then go make war on their tribe,whoever they might be. This was tcitcmeya (or tcitcmo), "forcompany for the dead chief." The first arrivals were a group of unsus-pecting Ehetisat. They were set upon without warning as theystepped on the beach, and slain to a man. The Moachat warriorslaunched their canoes to go to Ehetisat, and there they attackedimmediately, killing many men and taking many slaves.After a time, as the Moachat expected, some of the Muchalatbecame restless. Several families made short visits to camping placesalong the salt water, to fish cod and gather shellfish for a change in Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 363diet. Parties of Moachat were already beginning to come up to fishat the mouths of rivers in Muchalat Arm, and one group of twoMuchalat families was discovered and promptly attacked. The menwere killed, and a woman and her two children were captured to betaken to Yulcwot. (The two children, a boy and a girl, were stillalive when these data were collected.) A Moachat relative of thewoman secretly aided her to escape a few days later, providing herwith a canoe. When she arrived at the Muchalat village the menquestioned her as to what the Moachat were doing. She reportedthat many of them were going up Tasis Canal to pick salmonberries.The Muchalat men set out in four canoes, three small ones, with threemen in each, and one big canoe with eight men. The big canoe putin at a cove called tsawun, where its crew concealed it and themselveswith a screen of branches. The three small canoes crossed the chan-nel and were concealed on the far side. After a time, two canoes, onelarge one and one small one, were seen coming up the channel undersail. The three canoes put out to cut them off, forcing them to turninto tsawun cove. Once the Moachat entered the cove, the trap wassprung?the eight men threw aside their camouflage of branches andput out to meet them. There were three men in the small canoe,and the warriors killed them all and cut off their heads. In the largecanoe were a number of women, and ha'iyah, the war chief who hadkilled tceha. He, in a fashion most unbecoming to a war chief, pleadfor his life. The Muchalat mocked him for a short while. "You'renot worth killing," they told him. "You like to talk like a braveman, but all you do is talk. You are weak, worthless. You knowyou have relatives among the Muchalat, yet you let the Moachatcome kill them."Since there were no more attacks for some time, the Muchalatmoved back down to a'aminqas, which was a more comfortable, if lessdefensible, site. To remedy the matter of defense, they set aboutfortifying the place. They had only one house there: a makeshift,like that at their emergency site. They cut cedar trees, and splitout timbers half a foot to a foot thick, which they set up to form adouble palisade. The inner wall was between 8 and 10 feet high,the outer one 5 or 6 feet high, (This was in the early 1870's; theinformant MP was a small child at the time.) After it was finished,some men surprised a group of three Moachat kinswomen at a berry-picking place down the Arm. They brought the three back to theirfort, and the chief gave them a feast. The women were surprised atthe place, and perhaps at the savage spirit of their kinsmen?this wasthe first time anyone had seen the Muchalat since the incident attsawun several years before. The chief stood up to make a speech."Now you women have seen our place here. When you go home, 364 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144tell the Moachat we are ready for them. Tell them to come andmake war on us?we are ready to die. They are many, and we arefew, so let them come exterminate the Muchalat tribes. We will notrun away into the woods again; they may come by day to make waron us. So tell them this." When the women returned, they toldtheir husbands, and when the chief heard of it, he gave a feast, tohave the news announced. Whether the Moachat feared some trick,or, as the informant suggested, some supernatural power that theMuchalat had acquired, or whether they too were tired of the long-drawn-out war, is anyone's guess. In any event, they did not acceptthe challenge, and the Muchalat were left unmolested. After a time,some of the warriors decided to "go see what the Moachat weredoing," so six men, tuckai'ilam among them, shoved off on a scoutingtrip. At llpti they saw two fires on the beach. There were a numberof women there, and one man. Leaving a canoe guard, the warriorsstalked the group, and suddenly pounced on the man. He wasfrightened, the more so when he found himself in the clutches of thegreat tuckai'ilam. The war chief made him tell whether the Moachatstill talked of war against the Muchalat. The prisoner told him theytalked of war, but always put it off?they had finished the war withthe Ehetisat and made peace with them?he did not believe theywould come to attack the Muchalat. The scouts let him go. Theyreported to the chief, who assembled the group to announce that theMoachat were using Muchalat fishing places on the Arm. Mean-while, since no attack came, the Muchalat became more and moreconfident. The Chief Qma'La'a decided he would build a big houseat a'aminqas. It took him 2 years to complete it. When hefinished, he gave a Shamans' Dance. In his potlatch he announcedthat the Wolves had told him to invite the Moachat and the Ahousat.The following year he sent canoes to invite the former foes. About60 Ahousat and nearly 80 Moachat came. The Muchalat greetedthem formally?everyone was careful to avoid any remark that mightbe taken amiss. The Muchalat were not wholly confident of theirguests' good faith, it appears, for they sent all the children (the infor-mant MP among them) out to hiding places in the woods, anddid not bring them in until the Moachat and Ahousat had shownthemselves friendly. There were dances and feasts for 4 days, andthen before the chief gave his potlatch, tuckai'ilam danced. He had ablanket filled with eagle down, which he released as he danced. ThenQma'La'a spoke, saying, "Now you see the sacred eagle down he is scat-tering over the tribes. That is good sign. It means he is putting awayall the evil things the warriors used to do. He covers with the eagledown the old hates and desires for revenge. He wants no more war," Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 365The Moachat chief (the second chief, for they still did not have asuccessor for clwuc), and the Ahousat chief each replied, pledgingthemselves for peace. Then the chief gave his potlatch, and theguests went home. There were no wars after that. FESTIVALS AND DIVERSIONSFESTIVALSThere were three major ceremonial forms in Nootkan culture whosesignificance was social rather than religious. These were: Feasts,potlatches, and the Shamans' Dance. The bare theme of each ofthese was most simple. Feasts and potlatches were gathered assem-blages of people for distribution of food or wealth goods. TheShamans' Dance was the dramatization of a legendary abduction ofchildren by Supernatural Wolves, who brought them back endowedwith various gifts. The Nootkan talent was not for devising quanti-ties of new rituals, but rather busied itself with adding to the minutiaeof the small stock in trade of rites. For example, to the simple basictheme of feasts and potlatches were added complicated sets of rulesfor inviting the guests, conducting them to theu' proper places, andentertaining them. Each chief had his own set of feast and potlatchsongs, dances, and names.The societal importance of these ceremonials is that they were groupperformances in every sense of the word. One person was the nominalgiver, and actually provided most of the wealth and privileges to beused, but all his people?local group, tribe, or confederacy (dependingon whether the guests were from the giver's confederacy or wereoutsiders)?aided in the preparations, in the singing and dancmg, andwhatever else was to be done. There was no such thing as exclusionof a group or class. Even slaves could attend Shamans' Dances, ifinitiated, and might sing and dance if they liked. Group cooperationin the actual performances was essential to stage the affair. This isthe reason why every ceremony was inaugurated by a formal publicannouncement of one's plans to one's group.ANNOUNCING INTENTIn tacit recognition of the strength of public opinion and the needof having the solid backing of one's group there was the feeling thatbefore one did anything of importance it was necessary to "let hispeople know what he was planning." Chiefs and commoners equallyobserved this rule. It was invariably the first step in the proceed-ings, whether one planned a marriage, a potlatch, or a war party.Informants' descriptions of the routines of ceremonies always begin:"WTien a chief wants to give a Shamans' Dance, he calls the otherchiefs together to announce his plan." These meetings to state one'sintentions were the nearest approach to formal councils the Nootkanshad. It may seem at first blush a minor point to stress, but thisannouncing of intent was a very important aspect of social life. From366 Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 367the social standpoint, it was a sensible procedure. In any affair ofmoment one needed the assistance of housemates or tribesmen; eventhough a man had enough wealth to finance a potlatch alone, he hadto have "help" for songs and dances, and the like. The assemblageusually assented as a matter of form whatever the scheme. \Miatmattered was that they, representing public opinion, formally ap-proved the ceremony, marriage, or war. The principal knew he couldcount on their support. If the group disapproved, they would expressthemselves to that effect, trying to dissuade him. Again the initiatorof the scheme knew just where he stood. They could not prevent hisenterprise, for example, a war expedition. But he would clearlyunderstand that they would neither assist him nor defend him froma return attack. If he wanted to go on a raid by himself, that washis affair. Usually he desisted.This feeling was so strongly developed that it carried over to quitepersonal matters. It is constantly expressed in accounts and legends;a man would not even disappear into the woods to seek supernaturalpower without telling someone (usually a close kinsman) beforehand.The latter would then allay the anxiety of the rest of the group whenthe person's absence was noted. One should tell someone before heset out on a journey, or engaged in an illicit love affair. In a sense,it was an affront to one's relatives not to do this. The implicationwas that one did not value his people's opinion, did not want theiraid, and did not care about their anguish if some misfortune befellhim.The procedure for announcing one's intentions naturally variedconsiderably depending on what those plans were. When a manintended to give a small feast on an occasion of minor importance henaturally did not stage an elaborate performance to make the an-nouncement. He might call in a few of his close relatives and friendsto eat with him, and tell them then. Men of low rank ordinarilyincluded one or more of their house chiefs at such gatherings. If, onthe other hand, some major festival was being planned, the announce-ment was more formally made. There were a number of devices ormethods for doing this. The simplest was to give a formal (thoughnot necessarily a large) feast, to which the principal chiefs were asked,or the lineage chiefs, if one intended to invite other divisions of histribe or confederacy. At the feast the host would rise to make aspeech, relating his plans in some detail. Another method, usedprincipally in connection with potlatch invitations to other tribes, wasto give a feast to the leading tribal or confederacy chiefs, and beforethem, to "send a Supernatural Quartz Crystal" to the intended guests.Supernatural Quartz Crystals (hai'na), possessed of various miracu-lous powers, were believed to "grow" in caves on mountain tops. 368 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144They made weird humming noises, and had the power of movement.Men sometimes were able to take them from such places, at least inthe ancient heroic epochs. Other men were given crystals in super-natural encounters with Wolves and other powerful spirits. Topossess one of the objects brought great good fortune and wealth.However obtained, the crystals were guarded in the chief's treasurechest for special occasions.The only public display of the crystals was to invite other tribesto potlatches and/or to Shamans' Dances. When a chief began hisplans to give a major festival invariably a year or two or even longerin advance, one of the important steps was to assemble his owngroup (usually tribe or confederacy), announce his intent, then dancebefore them displaying his Supernatural Crystal (or as informantsinsist, a replica of it, for "the real Crystal would be too strong, andmight harm the people"). At the climax of the dance, he "threwthe Crystal" or "sent it" to the guest tribe. As well as can be madeout from the descriptions he did this by pointing the crystal in thedirection of the guests, gesturing as shamans were supposed to do to"send" supernatural missiles, then palmed it so that it disappeared.He or his speaker would announce that the Supernatural Crystalobtained by such-and-such an ancestor on a certain occasion had goneflying to such-and-such a tribe. It must be emphasized that therewas no notion that the chief had shamanistic power. The power ofmiraculous travel, insofar as any was believed involved, was thatof the Crystal itself, or rather would have been had the real crystalbeen used. People realized that the performance was a form only.Several informants were explicit on the point, saying that the chiefonly pretended to throw the imitation crystal.^^A variant method of using one of these objects was to have thechief's child appear with one after his return from the Wolves, in theShamans' Dance. It would be announced to the people that theWolves had instructed the novice to invite such and such a tribe,and had given him the Supernatural Crystal to "send" to them,whereupon the novice, or some dance official would take the Crystal,dance with it, and "send" it to the guests.The sending of the Supernatural Crystal constituted a formal invi-tation, in a sense; at least, it was a commitment. When the timecame for the festival, an invitation party was sent to the guests.When these guests arrived at the village of their hosts they were re-ceived with songs and dances, and, where a crystal had been used,there was always a performance to represent its return to its owners. " The crystals never represented the "spirit of the ceremonial" nor had any other connection with theShamans' Dance than that described here, although Sapir (1911, pp. 23, 24) interpreted them as representingthe ceremony itself. Drncker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 369The guest chief of highest rank danced in his canoe, displayed a crys-tal, then "threw" it to his host, who made a gesture as though catchingan object in the air, then in turn displayed a crystal. Usually he "sent"it back, and had it returned to him several times (four as a rule),then kept it. Then the guest chief came ashore, or was carried up,canoe and all.These performances with the supernatural crystals had their counter-part among various Kwakiutl divisions, where small doll-like figuresrepresenting spirits were "sent" to guests, and returned by the latteron arrival. (See Boas, 1897, figs. 156-158; also Drucker, 1940, p. 215.)While at first glance this "sending" seems pointless, it really had avery practical function. Each winter various chiefs (and their groups)gave festivals, inviting neighboring groups. Attendance at a Shamans'Dance and the potlatch following it meant a stay of 2 or 3 weeks, andoften more, so there was a limit to the number of festivals a groupcould attend. By giving notice in a dramatic unequivocal manner ayear or two beforehand a chief made sure that his prospective guestswould be expecting the visit of a formal invitation party?that theywould be at their winter village, and not 40 miles down the coastattending the ritual of some other chief. It was a way of capitalizingon the amorphous but effective gossip channels through which newswas disseminated up and down the coast. The crystals obviouslywent nowhere on being "sent" except, after a bit, back to the box inwhich the chief kept his ritual paraphernalia. Nor did the chiefsend messengers to his prospective guests. He knew that beforemany days, as people visited kin from one tribe to the next, wordwould reach the guests, and everyone else on the coast, that, forexample, "Chief moqwina sent his Supernatural Crystal to theClayoquot and the Kyuquot to invite them two winters hence."Also the fact that such news became common knowledge enabled achief to make plans that would not conflict with those of other chiefs.Two invitation parties arriving simultaneously would create an em-barrassing situation. Thanks to the Supernatural Crystals such thingsdid not happen.Obviously the same result could have been attained by simplermeans, say by a simple formal announcement. But that would havedeprived the chief of an opportunity to display a hereditary treasure,and would have robbed his audience of a dramatic spectacle.Another method of making formal announcements was the use oftwo masks representing "ancients" (ma'ixtuq). There appear tohave been more of these OA\Tied by chiefs of the Northern Divisionthan by those of the Central group (of course only a chief who owneda set of these masks might use them). At a feast or minor festivalgiven for the purpose, the two "ancients" came into the house, wear- 370 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144ing the masks, and dressed and acting like a very old man and woman.They spoke unintelligible phrases in low tones; the chief had to callon several men before he found one who could understand them andserve as their speaker (of course, the whole performance, includingwho was to be called on, had been arranged beforehand). The an-cients proclaimed themselves to be the chief's ancestors, naming someancient chief and his wife among his forebears. Then they woulddescribe some festival they had given, asking their "descendant" ifhe could do as well?they hoped he "would be a real chief, and keeptheir high name up." The chief would ponder awhile, and perhapsconfer with his guests, before accepting the burden the ancients wereputting upon him. Finally he would agree to attempt to invite cer-tain tribes to a potlatch, or Shamans' Dance (or whatever he hadintended announcing).The Shamans' Dance itself provided techniques for making an-nouncements: a chief could arrange to have his heir abducted by theWolves during a performance that one of his fellow chiefs was puttingon, and have him announce on his return (with or without use of aSupernatural Crystal, as described above), that "the Wolves hadtold him to do thus and so [give a potlatch, or whatever it might be]."Finally, there was an abbreviated version of the Shamans' Dance, inwhich the "novice" (atsa) was not kidnaped but struck unconscious,and when revived could announce that the Wolves had instructedhim to give a certain festival. This could be telescoped to a singlenight's performance, and was a frequent device for making one'splans known. FEASTS "Every time the chief got a lot of food of any kind, he gave a feast(Litsu) to give it away to the people." Thus one informant summar-ized the occasions for feast giving. If there is a flaw in his generaliza-tion it is that the statement is not quite sweeping enough. Some-times feasts were given as a preliminary step in making plans, orannouncing them, as described above, in addition to the many givensimply to celebrate a rich haul. A chief gave a feast to announce, forexample, that he was gomg to give a potlatch, that he was going tobuild a house, or get another wife. Depending on the circumstances,and no doubt the state of the larder also, a man might invite anynumber of guests from the whole tribe to only the four head chiefs.This was true for any kind of a feast.For the sake of brevity some of the more common occasions forfeasts other than to announce one's intentions will be listed. Thefu-st class may be called feasts of rights. When a chief obtained food-stuffs from any of his territorial possessions, he had to use it in a feast. Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 371Thus the fii'st catch of salmon in his traps, the tribute taken once ortwice a season from fishermen on his fishing grounds, the first pick ofberries in his berry patches, and the owned shares of bkibber of strandedwhales were all so used. The purpose of such a feast was to recounthis claim to the territory from which the food came. Another sortwere those in which the chief obtained the food as a gift. It might bea gift of food from affinal kin, or extra food given at a feast to be takenhome and distributed, or it might be a gift fromone of the people in hishouse (e. g., from a sealer or a deer or bear hunter). Feasts were alsogiven at various periods in his child's life?at teething, at weaning("when the child ate its first real food its father would call the peopleto eat with the child"), at a child's first successful hunt, etc. Com-moners might substitute feasts for the more elaborate and expensivepotlatchesat major crises of their children's lives (birth, puberty, death).A chief might do the same for the sake of variety. In addition, nu-merous feasts were given during the various stages of a potlatch, andduring the Shamans' Dance.When a man gave a feast to celebrate his wife's pregnancy, theoccasion was called "becoming an elder sibling" (mama'mitsic).People would tell each other, "Eat lots; we have to eat lots. We'remama'mits." When a child is "ma'mits" it is "cranky" and hungryall the time, and must be given much food to keep it quiet.When a man was giving a feast he sent two men to call those hewanted to invite. The important guests entered and were taken totheir proper seats. At a large feast, the chiefs sat along the backwall, usually on both sides of the central post; people without seatswere divided, men on the right, women on the left. War chiefs wereseated in a double row down the center. Long narrow cedar-barkmats the length of the house were unrolled before the guests. Thehost would sing one of his feast songs, announcing through his speakerwhat the feast was for (an event in his child's life, to demonstratecertain ownership rights, etc.), how he had obtained the food (fromhis own lands, from a brother-in-law, or as "left-overs" from the feastof another chief) . If it were an important occasion, he might use histwo great named feast dishes, singing their songs, and reciting howthey had come to him. Two chiefs or war chiefs would be designatedto eat from the dishes and others to eat with them. The recipientsarose to give thanks and a payment, called "for putting his hands in[the dish]" (Luiasit). The food was served from the large dishes tothe smaller ones from which two or three men ate. These smallerdishes were distributed among all the guests. War chiefs and speak-ers were supposed to eat enormous quantities.After each course the waiters, young men of the host's group,served cups of fresh water for rinsing out the mouth, and larger 372 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144wooden vessels with water for washing the hands. Napkins con-sisting of bundles of finely shredded yellow cedar bark were providedto dry one's hands with. If the amount of food was large, additionalportions w^ere given to be taken home, the larger ones to the chiefs.This was the "left-overs" (mamutskwlunl, literally "for carryingunder the arm"), with which the recipient was obliged to give a feastto his people at home. The host's group might perform some dances,receiving presents from the guests. Any talented person, one of thespeakers or clowns, might dance or sing an amusing song, for Vv^hichhe would get gifts. All these paj^ments (for the dishes, to dancers),had to be refunded by the host. Otherwise there was no propertygiven away. In recent times there has been a tendency to give moneyand gifts at feasts, but that is not the old style; informants distinguishsharply between feasts, at which only food is given (the "payments"do not count), and potlatches, where wealth is distributed. At theconclusion, the host spoke again, thanking the people for coming,and "asking them to remember his words" (i. e., if it had been afeast from property right, "to remember that such-and-such belongedto him"). Then one of the guest chiefs replied, thanking the chiefin the name of all the guests.There were other important types of feasts. One was that inwhich people asked that they be feasted by a certain person. Torequest a feast was called kwisi'i. Usually the speakers, clowns orwar chiefs, would make such a request; other men might suggest it tothem. "They would ask for a feast when they knew the chief had alot of some kind of food." A favorite occasion was when a chief'schild was seen carrying or eating something. Someone would shout,"I wish the young Chief so-and-so [naming the child] would ask meto a feast of what he is eating." Then the child's parents, hearing ofit, would invite him. Other men, or sometimes the whole tribe,would be asked to come with him. Chiefs would not always beincluded in such feasts?sometimes just the warriors, or just the oldmen, etc., would be asked.It is related that once the Kyuquot war chiefs began to remark thatthey wanted to be invited to a sockeye feast by the owner of the firstsockeye rights at Queen's Cove, the Ehetisat-Moachat chief moqwina.(The Queen's Cove group was independent, not belonging to either theEhetisat or the Moachat confederacy; Chief moqwina held rights therefor a time following a marriage to the daughter of a Queen's Covechief). Chief moqwina heard the news. This occurred long afterhis previous troubles caused by his antisocial behavior, and he wasagain well-regarded by his people. He announced that he intended tobathe ritually to bring a good sockeye run, and delegated 4 men to Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 373make 200 bundles of nettles to rub his body with. He began hisritual bathing, and as a result the sockeye were soon jumping all overQueen's Cove. His next step was to set his 4 traps, and to have somewomen cut and dry 400 of the sockeye for him. He sent a party toKyuquot to invite the war chiefs. Meanwhile he readied his feastdishes wi'ta'aik and wolwotwohai. In a few days the Kyuquotarrived in three large canoes. The combined Ehetisat and Queen'sCove people assembled on the beach to meet them. The war chiefs,with faces painted black, danced, flourishing guns and knives. Chiefmoqwina gave his guests a small feast of sockeye and dried herringeggs announcing that the real sockeye feast would be on the followingday. In the morning the war chiefs assembled in the house of theLitcyaath chief to break their fast, and to practice their songs. Thenthey were called to Chief moqwina's feast. The two great dishes werebrought in, one filled with rice and molasses, the other with herringeggs and whale oil. The 400 dried sockeye were piled in a great heapnearby. All the Ehetisat had assembled, in the role of hosts; theysang as the Kyuquot entered. Then an Ehetisat chief stood up tospeak for the host. "Chief moqwina was very glad to hear you peoplewanted to eat dried sockeye from Queen's Cove, because the Kyuquotand Ehetisat tribes are just like one family, and you can ask for any-thing you want. All Chief moqwina's tribe, the Ehetisat, have helpedhim prepare these sockeye for you." Then the Ehetisat sang achantey. The Kyuquots replied with a song. Then the chief whoacted as the host's speaker called on one man for each of the twodishes, and the two named, with half the party to assist each of them,sat at the dishes. They arranged themselves so there were 20 menat each dish (10 on either side). After they had eaten, the two warchiefs to whom the dishes were assigned gave gifts to moqwina, onegiving him a gun, the other a good woolen blanket. They moved backaway from the dishes, sitting on long mats. Each man was given 20dried sockeye, only 2 of which were cooked. They ate the cookedfish, then made ready to leave. m5qwina gave a sealing canoe and aniron kettle to the men who had given him the gifts. In addition to the18 uncooked sockeye, which each man was to take home, they weregiven other "left-overs" including baskets of herring eggs. Nowthey were ready to go home, but it was stormy and raining so theystayed over a couple of days. Other chiefs feasted them. Finallythey set out for Kyucjuot, and that was the end of the affair, except forthe gleefully told sequel that the war chiefs were stormbound for 6days on the way home, and ate up all the sockeye, reaching Kyuquot atlast with nothing but the herring eggs, which they had been unable toclean of the fir needles. 374 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144There were many variations of this pattern of asking for feasts,consisting chiefly in special occasions for asking. The following isone example: There is a certain bone in or just behind the head ofthe spring salmon called "tsikita." When, at a spring salmon feast,this bone happened to fall to the lot of a war chief, he might hold it aloftshouting, "I have him by the hair!" (as though for beheading), thenthe name of some chief's son or daughter. The parents of the childnamed had to invite the war chiefs, or the chiefs and war chiefs, to afeast. People sometimes told war chiefs privately, beforehand, "Ifyou get the tsikita, name my child. We want to invite the chiefs inhis [or her] name." It is also rumored that nowadays some womenwho are out of sympathy with the old customs remove the tsikitabefore serving spring salmon at a feast.Another method capitalized on local pride in special foods. "The 'rivers' [local groups] used to brag about who had the best kind offood," say informants, referring to the specialties of different places.The qa'opincath at Kyuquot had the best place in Kyuquot Soundfor hunting waterfowl with lights (whether because there was bettershelter for the birds, more feed, or just why, I do not know, but thesuperiority of their place was admitted by all). Tribes of the lowersounds used to twit the Gold Eiver divisions of the Muchalat, accusingthem of believing halibut were supernatural (because those peoplesaw halibut so rarely that they were amazed at the fish having botheyes on the same side of the head) ; the Gold Eiver people claimed topity the coast groups who had to live through the winter on deadshiners and codfish heads that washed up on the beaches instead ofeating good fat deer and elk. For the most part this local pride wasa matter for jest and not taken seriously. When a chief heard thatsomeone had maligned his special local food source, however, he pre-tended to become angry and invited him to a feast of the food hehad insulted. It is clear that in most cases both insult and resultantire were matters of form, and occasionally were even arranged be-forehand.When the qa'opincath chief got many waterfowl (his right as chiefand owner of the inlet gave him as tribute all of the first two catchesof his hunters each spring), he ordinarily invited all the Kyuquot chiefsto a feast; there were so many, counting all the house chiefs, that hedid not invite the speakers and war chiefs. One spring day, when astorm was brewing (making ideal duck netting weather), a flock ofgeese passed over aqtis. A war chief looked at them and called, "Flyaway, you birds. We never get a chance to eat you when you go toqa'opinc. I think you're probably nothing but feathers and bonesanyhow, not worth eating." When the qa'opincath chief heard this Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 375 "insult" (a kinsman promptly came to tell him), he told his peopleto make a special effort to get many geese. They came down to thevillage in a few days with 220 of the birds. This time the chief didnot invite the chiefs, but instead the war chiefs and speakers. Heinvited two or three from each house, so they would have more thanthey could eat. So for once they had their fill of the famous qa'opincgeese.Long ago there was a young mo'yaath (Muchalat) man renownedas a hunter of sea mammals. He came on a deer one day at thewater's edge, and hurled his sealing harpoon at it. The deer jumpedcausing him to miss; his harpoon struck a rock, splintering the delicateheads. Angrily he landed to retrieve his harpoon, saying, "All right,jump and run through the woods, deer. You're just a poor leanthing anyhow; not fat like the animals I hunt in the sea. You'renot worth bothering w4th." Some time after, the a'aminqas chiefheard the story. Resenting the slur (the a'aminqasath were noted asdeer and bear hunters) he sent some young men to hunt for him, andinvited 10 mo'yaath to a feast. His men got four or five deer. Nowhe was in a quandary, for it was springtime, and the deer were verypoor. He solved it by cooking them with great quantities of deertallow which he had stored. When the mo'yaath came they wereserved venison floating in melted tallow, so rich they could scarcelydrink it.A gruesomely humorous sequel has it that the men wanted tobathe in the river immediately afterward. Their host advised themnot to but was ashamed to tell them why, revealing his trick. Onlyone heeded him; the other nine went into the cold water, the tallowhardened in their stomachs and they died. The survivor had to gohome with the sad news.One summer some relatives of the chief of the tacisath, at Kyuquot,came to tell him that one of the La'a'ath war chiefs had made fun ofthe tacisath during a halibut feast. The war chief had held up ajuicy morsel called tohma (from some part of the head of the halibut),saying,"Too bad the tacisath aren't able to have good fat fish like this.Poor things, they're so dry up there up the inlet, with nothing fat toeat. I feel sorry that they should be so hungry." The chief saidnothing, but after the dog salmon season, he sent 15 young mensecretly over the trail to the Nimkish River to buy olachen oil. Theparty came back 6 days later, each carrying four kelp bottles of oil.When all the qanopittakamlath were assembled in the tribal villageof maxqet he told them his plan. He sent a party to invite theranking tribal chiefs and war chiefs. Meanwhile he had the kelpbottles hidden under the sleeping places along the wall. He selected 376 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144a group of young men and instructed them in what to do. They wereto dance before serving the oil, and were to pour some of it about onthe floor. He coached them carefully, however?and this is therevealing part?that they were to be careful not to give seriousoffense to any of the guests by splashing them with the oil. When theguests arrived and were seated they were served dried salmon. Thenoil dishes were set out. They did not know where he had gotten oil;no whales had drifted in for a long time. A few kelp bottles had notbeen hidden. They were brought out and the guest chiefs wereserved proper portions. Then the leading taclsath war chief stoodto call to the young men, "qanopittakaml, let us play for these people;let us give them a dance." The young men went to the fire to getcharcoal for blackening their faces. They formed a line to dance,singing, "Become angry, tacis; for one shows jou a halibut bone,"They danced about, then at a signal ran thi'ough the rows of gueststo bring out the kelp bottles. These thej brought to the war chiefs,filling their oil cups to overflowing and spilling oil on the floor. Thenthey knotted the mouths of the bottles shut, and laid them with theremaining oil at the chiefs' places. The qa'opincath chief stood tellinghis people to sing. He took off his blanket and gave it to the tacisathchief. Other chiefs did likewise, giving either to the chief or to hiswar chiefs. Most chiefs had come prepared, wearing two blankets.After they had eaten, the taclsath chief sang his feast song, andreplaced the blankets of the chiefs.Instead of inviting another group to a feast, a chief could take thefeast to them. This was called Lies. He would use the house of somekinsman at the guests' village. The procedure was the same as foran ordinary feast, otherwise. Wlien a man did this he was, of course,stressing his relationship to the guest tribe, pretending to be one ofthem. It became customary in these feasts to distribute smallpresents afterward, saying that the gifts were napkins (titinilicil, "forwiping one's hands"). It is not clear whether this was an old customor a fairly recent modification.POTLATCHESThe potlatch (nucil) was one of the more spectacular aspects ofNootkan socioceremonial life. The general principle was the same asthat of the feasts: when a chief accumulated a quantity of propertyhe gave it away. It is likely that in pre-European times potlatcheswere far less frequent and far less elaborate than in recent years whentrade goods abounded. Informants recognize this, remarking, "In oldtimes they had more feasts, and not so many potlatches, because theydidn't have much to give away. The 'old-timers' didn't have blanketsand money; all they had to give out were canoes and house boards, Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 377cedar-bark blankets, and things like that. It took a long time to getenough of these together to give a potlatch." The real heyday of thepotlatch was probably during the years to which the present accountrelates, from 1870 on.Potlatches were given on numerous occasions. Their prime overtpurpose was to transfer a chief's privileges to his children. At variousperiods of their lives he gave a potlatch in a child's honor to announcethat he or she was assuming a new name and new rights (seats, dances,properties). The potlatch thus served as a device for transferringhereditary property. It was an invariable concomitant of theShamans' Dance, which, as will be seen, served the same end. Thecommonest reasons for potlatching were as follows : Life crises (birth,puberty, marriage, death), minor critical stages (wife's pregnancy,child's fii'st tooth, first game, when some accident befell the child),or sometimes for no very obvious reason at all, except just to be givingone. There was no competitive potlatching of the Kwakiutl variety:"You couldn't fight or quarrel in a potlatch. That would give a badname to your child, and be a disgrace to your whole family." Allchiefs were expected to give potlatches, and anyone else who was able.Informants say, "It gave a good name to potlatch," that is, it gaveone honor and a good reputation. The whole spirit of Nootkan pot-latching was very different from that described as typical of theirSouthern Kwakiutl kin and neighbors.An intricate system of rules governed potlatching procedure. Thefirst step was to announce one's intentions, as previously described.Then, if the chief were potlatching a different tribe, when he hadeverything in readiness he gave a feast to his group, calling on variousmen to paddle him to the territory of the other tribe to actually givethe invitation. He usually asked for 8 to 10 men. He did not haveto go in person, but often did, and sometimes took along the child forwhom he was giving the affair. The invitation party went to theintended guests' village, singing as they arrived. The chief's speakerwould announce from the canoe to the first chief of the village thathis chief had come inviting. If a Supernatural Crystal had been used,he might say that his chief had come to recover the Crystal he hadsent. The guest chief would send down his speaker, or someonewho knew the order of seats among the village chiefs, to assist theinviters. As this person named them, the inviter's speaker would callout their names. The latter had two bundles of small cedar splints,one for the chiefs who were to occupy their own seats, one for theother guests (old chiefs, lower-rank chiefs, speakers, commoners). Ashe called each name, he threw down one stick. After all the chiefswho were to be seated formally had been called, he invited each otherperson who was to come, calling on them with a phrase meaning each 378 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144was to "paddle for his chief." Very often after the speeches of in-vitation the villagers carried the canoe and crew up to, or even intothe chief's house. The inviting chief stood erect in his canoe singinghis potlatch song.^^Now each of the chiefs in turn, beginning with the Owner-of-the-Beach, called the visiting party to a feast, where dances and giftswere given them. The chief who was inviting received the principalgifts, of course. Each man had to remember how much each chiefgave him. After all the chiefs had entertained them, they set outfor home. There the inviting chief gave a feast, told what each ofhis hosts (his future guests), had done for him, and made final plans:what they should do when the guests arrived, the songs and dancesto be used, and so on.The approach of the guests was heralded by singing, and in historictimes by gunshots. All the local people assembled in front of thehouses, singing and dancing. If a Supernatural Crystal had beenused for invitation, the first chief of the visitors danced, displaying aCrystal and "sending" it; the host danced and received it. Thevisitor would give a blanket or two to each of the local chiefs, and thehost gave presents to the visitors, in honor of the crystal. "Youhave to give away some property every time you show any kind ofsupernatural object." The people of the host's tribe went down tomeet their friends and kin, inviting them individually to stay withthem, and assisting the guests with their belongings.If the potlatch was to be in conjunction with a Shamans' Dance,as was usually the case in recent times when outsiders were invited,the Wolves appeared to carry off the first novice as the guests arrived.After the ceremonial, a few days might be spent in feasting andsmall potlatches. Various chiefs would invite the guests to give thempresents. When the time came for the main event, a man ascendedto the roof of the host's house, where he fired two shots (it is said thatanciently he drummed on the planks with a stick) . Then he shoutedthe name of the guest of highest rank. (An assistant with a bundleof small sticks usually aided him in checking the names he called out.)Two men went to call the chief whose name had just been shouted,escorting him to the house.^^ These messengers (ha'animashsi) eachcarried a plain staff. When they came for the chief they were givena small present. They escorted him to the house, calling his name atthe door as he entered. At the door an announcer met him and re-peated his name. Two "ushers" (kwokwotsa'luk) took him to his *? They also sometimes carried the canoes of guests to a feast or potlatch, or those of men who came withfood gifts to in-laws in the same way." The guest tribe would ordinarily be assembled in some house at a feast. If the chief was potlatchingto his own tribe, the two would naturally go to the chiefs' home. Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 379seat, where they wiped his feet with shredded cedar bark. After allthe young chiefs had been brought in, the messengers went to get thosewho had no formal seats (the retired chiefs and commoners) . As theynamed each guest they threw down a stick from a bundle they held.The retired chiefs and commoners (latwi, "the paddlers") went unes-corted, by families or houses, usually, to the potlatch house, findingthemselves places anywhere. It was customary for men to sit on theright-hand side of the house, women on the left. The host's house ortribe sat on the door end, when they were not dancing, manipulatingdisplays, or handhng the gifts.While the host's young men brought out the blankets and property,the host stood up, announcing through his speaker a number of veryimportant facts: first, in whose honor the potlatch was being given,and the occasion, (having been rescued from the Wolves, taking thepotlatch seat, and the like), how much he was giving away, and wherethis wealth came from. He reported how much "came from hispotlatch seat" (had been given to him in potlatches), how much camefrom various rights he owned such as the"pubescent girls' hair-tie"of the Kyuquot taclsath chief, how much had been contributed as"help" by house and tribemates, how much had been given when hewent to invite, etc. Second, he told what display privileges he wasgoing to use, and how he had come by them.When the privilege had been displayed and its dances danced, thehost "thanked his guests for looking at his supernatural treasure."Then he sang his wealth song, and gave out his property. The giftswere distributed in the order of rank of the guests. The host wasassisted by his speaker, tally keepers who counted out the blankets,and young men who carried the gifts to the chiefs. The speakerannounced to each seated chief in turn, "Here is your present, Chiefso-and-so, from Chief? fthe host], so many blankets." The recipienthad to stand and sing, as the young men brought his gift, then say"Thank you, thank you, chief" (La'kao, La'kao, ha'wit). A youngchief's speaker did this for him. The chiefs sat up, pohtely payingattention all during the affair. They did not lie down with theirblankets over their faces in Southern Kwakiutl fashion. In givingto those without seats, the speaker used a different phrase, "tsilan,so-and-so." The person named came forward to take his gift, alsosaying, "Thanks!"A chief might show a number of privileges. With the first he mightreturn the gifts given at the time of invitation; with the next, giveout the real potlatch money, and finally make presents to those ofhis people who had assisted him. The host usually gave only to men(except in the case of a gu'l who sat among the chiefs) ; his wife or kins-woman gave to the women, though sometimes women were given 380 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144small presents by the chief himself. After the final distribution hesang his property song once more and recounted again the reasonfor the potlatch and his right to use various privileges. Then he wasanswered by the highest-ranking chief of the guests, who thanked himfor all, saying, in substance, that they all knew the chief's words weretrue, that the privileges he had shown were rightfully his. Com-monly, one of the guests closely related to the host would act as theranking chief's speaker to make this speech, "for he had to knowabout the chief's property and where it came from." No 2-minutespeeches were these, but elaborate orations of an hour or two.There were several features of potlatch etiquette that merit discus-sion. One was the rule governing misseating. It was maintainedby informants that a young chief had to go to the seat to which theushers took him, even though it were the wrong one. Once seated,he should rise, then announce through his speaker that he had beenseated wrongly, and give the host and one or two others of the host'sgroup small gifts. Informants suggested that from $3 to $5 for thehost and $2 to the other chiefs of his group would be adequate. Themisplaced chief remained in his place during the rest of the potlatch;it would be a breach of etiquette for him to shift during the proceedings.The whole attitude would be that such an event would be a painfulblunder. The wronged chief would point the fact out, for the sakeof the record, but would not attempt to make it more embarrassing.There was no suggestion that it was necessary for the misplaced chiefto destroy property or stage some other spectacle. The fishwifelysquabbles of the Muchalat during the days they were trying to estab-lish chiefs' precedence within their shotgun confederacy were consid-ered reprehensible by all their neighbors. Later in the course of thepotlatch, the host would make a special gift to the offended chief, torestore the gifts the latter had made. This repayment was called"atonement for an error" (haiyumiiac) . Similarly, if on entering the house the young guest chief shouldstumble, or fall, or if something fell on him, "even water from a leakin the roof," he had to announce the fact and make a small gift tothe host, and two or three of the latter's fellow chiefs. This, likethe preceding, was returned later on by the host. For this reason achief always took some money along to any formal social affair;before cash became common he would wear two or three blankets,in case of an accident. The old (retired) chiefs did not have to makegifts in these circumstances. "It didn't matter about them."There were no positions of precedence comparable to the SouthernKwakiutl "Eagles." The nearest approach was an institution atKyuquot in which two men had the right to be invited whenever thechiefs were, but after the latter. They received no special gifts, and Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 381never were given gifts before the chiefs got theirs; they did, however,receive gifts before other commoners. These two men were calleda tcaLim, "prop, or brace" (the same term is used for a brace againstthe end of a pile of cordwood). I could not discover the origin ofthis honorable office.The financial aspect of potlatches is not particidarly complicated.There were no competitive potlatches in which sums to be given backand forth were pjrramided until one rival was broken. In a generalway it was felt that a potlatch ought to be returned but it was notnecessary to return more or even as much. As has been said, giftswere given according to rank. The exact amounts were very obviouslyregulated not by how much had been received from any person butby how much the giver had to give away. For instance a man with$200 to give to his own tribe, might give the first chief $20, eightother seated chiefs $10 each, and divide the other $100 up among thepeople without seats, $1 to $2 per man. Or he might give the fourhighest chiefs $15, five others $10, and divide the remainder ($90) amongthe people. The proportions were not fixed at all, except that thoselower in rank did not get more than their superiors. If he had doublethe amount to give he might alter the ratios somewhat, perhaps evengi\dng small amounts (e. g., 50 cents to $1) to the women. Even if achief potlatched but rarely, he would continue to receive gifts suitableto his station. This was true up to the disuse of.potlatching, followingthe Canadian legal prohibition against it in 1913.When one of the chief's tenants had some property, he would often"give to the rear of the house" (ta'qaqtilpitaph). To do this he wouldstand up, either in his place or outdoors in front of the house, singing.He would say "so-and-so [his own child] is giving so many blanketsto his chief to potlatch with." Then when the chief gave a potlatchhe would tell how much his tenant had given, and would give thelatter's child a name (or if he gave a Shamans' Dance would take thechild as one of the novices). The gifts to the chief had a specialname, "assistance for potlatching," or as interpreters say, "help"(hinalyaq) . Or else the chief could, when he was giving a Shamans' Dance, askfor the tenant's child. The tenant would give him some money orblankets for "help" in giving the dance (financial assistance for thisritual was called "for shamanizing," Lukwatqen).All these gifts for "assistance" had to be reciprocated, but by smallergifts, not full equivalents. A man who gave the chief a sea otterhide might get a medium-sized canoe in return (the canoe being worthconsiderably less, in recent times, at least). If a man was continuallygiving "help" to his chief, he might be given some sort of property,as, e. g., a minor fish-trap site, spearing rights on a creek, a war- 382 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144chief name, and the like. Thus would he not only be "repaid" butwould be bound closer to the chief. These repayments for "assistancein potlatching" were called "putting a belt on" (tapwinap).It is necessary to note that all the "repayment" of gifts to inviters,gifts to the host's tribe, "help" to the host, was not at all a matterof giving back the same amount. A chief might tell his inviting crew,as one Ehetisat chief did, "Be sure to save the money you receivedfrom them. Our guests are coming to get presents, not to give them."But on the same occasion later, in discussing with an aide particularsums given by the guests, he was more explicit, "We must not giveit all back at once (i. e., in one lump sum). They are our relatives;it would not look well. We must give it (the amount of their gifts)back in a number of smaller amounts, $2, $3, $5, at a time to each one.Otherwise they will feel hurt, and be ashamed." In other words,the various potlatch gifts were not mere loans to be handed backand forth, but were considered to be real presents to express thestrength of the kinship ties. Even though the identical blankets orcoins were given, returned, and given again, the processes were notregarded as "paying back loans"; each gift was thought of as a sepa-rate and distinct one. The physical return of the tokens simplymade the sums go farther. The concept of "loans" and "repaymentsof loans" was not involved.There was another type of potlatching superficially reminiscent ofthe Kwakiutl system. This was the nucmis potlatch. "nucmismeans 'to go to another tribe to nucil' (potlatch)." A chief wouldtake his money or blankets and display paraphernalia and give apotlatch, just as at home, in the house of the first chief of anothertribe. Then the various chiefs who were given gifts one after anotherinvited the nucmis party, performing dances for them, and givinggifts. This is the only time repayment was expected; the chiefswere supposed to return double or more. The head chief usuallywaited till last. Before he gave his repayment potlatch he gave allthose without seats an opportunity to dance and repay their gifts(they returned about as much as they had received). Then he gavea final affair, and the nucmis party went home. There, the chieftold of their adventures at the other village, how much propertythey got, and so on. Then he announced he was going to invite thetribe he "went nucmis to," and did so. Actually, he was committinghimself to invite the tribe he had visited when he went to them w^ithhis "nucmis" potlatch. Basically the nucmis was simply an unusuallyelaborate invitation party. A chief of tribe A might nucmis to tribeB with $200, and return home with $300 to $400. With a little"help" from his own tribe, he could give a $500 potlatch to tribe B,which would make a far more interesting affau- than a $300 one. So Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 383in the end, the tribe B came out ahead, unless the chief of A neglectedto give the return potlatch, as some of the young modern chiefs arereputed to have done.Property destruction was not practiced nor was there competitivepotlatching. There was no purchasing of coppers or other objects atfictitious cumulative values. Two instances involving competitivegifts were recalled, but their tenor is obviously different from that ofthe Kwakiutl custom.nawinaqc, chief of the qa'opincath at Kyuquot long ago, had aslave who tried to run away tliree times. Each time he was caughtand brought back, nawinaqc tired of this; he said to his slave, "Doyou really want to go home?" The slave said, "Yes." Then thechief said, "All right. Tomorrow we'll send you away." The nextday they dressed the slave in a new blanket, put beads on him, andpainted his face. Then they put him ina httle canoe with no paddle andshoved him off the beach. Wlien the canoe had drifted out far enough,nawinaqc sent his speaker to announce to the chief of the tacisath,naswinis, who owned the offshore water, "Chief, there is somethingadrift where you have your salvage rights." So a canoe put off totow the slave in as salvage for the tacis chief, "nawinaqc got a goodname for this." The following winter, when naswinis was giving apotlatch, he gave nawinaqc a special present which he announced was"pay for bringing in salvage."The grandson of nawinaqc used to think about his grandfatherand what he had done. Finally he hu-ed a man to make a 6-fathomcanoe with four grooved lines around the gunwales. People used togo down to the beach to watch as it was being finished; it was a goodcanoe. When it was done, the young chief hired some boys to shoveit out, empty. He had a hard time keeping people from going afterit for him. When it was far enough out he sent his speaker to hak-Lisanapcil, the tacisath chief, to tell him to send men to recover hissalvage. "He was throwing the canoe away, just as his grandfather."Next time hakLisanapcil gave a potlatch after a Shamans' Dance hegave the qa'opincath a sea otter hide.It is interesting to note that what idea of competition there was,was directed toward one's ancestors. The concept was really that ofliving up to their record, rather than contesting with one's contempo-raries for status. The idea is brought out in a slightly different con-nection, but is worth repeating here.The owitchamis mentioned elsewhere, who lived most of the timein the tacisath house naniqs at Kyuquot, was of low rank, a tenantwho did not "own" a place, but had a good reputation; he and hisfather and grandfather had been sea otter hunters and sealers, andalways helped their chiefs. They had been given a good many minor 384 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144privileges for this. There had been an owitchamis who was his great-grandfather. This previous bearer of the name had been renownedas a hearty eater; at feasts he always performed gargantuan feats,swallowing incredibly long strips of blubber, consuming piles of driedsalmon and quantities of oil, to the edification of the populace. Peo-ple always used to tease his great-grandson at feasts, telling him totry to eat as much as his famous ancestor, or to beat him if he could.Of course, this was all for a joke.The only slave killing for display in a potlatch of which my in-formants knew was one in direct imitation of the Kwakiutl, on anoccasion supposedly about the middle of the last century, when aKwaldutl chief made an attempt "to go clear around VancouverIsland, beating all the chiefs" (i. e., beating them at potlatching).The Chickliset, the first Nootkans he came to, were easily "beaten"though they were noted as a rich tribe, because they did not under-stand what he was doing. There was a Kwakiutl woman with himrelated to the Kyuquot tacisath chief. She came to Kyuquot aheadof her party, and coached her nephew very carefully. He called hiswhole confederacy together, asking for all their sea otter skins; theyassembled about ninety. He told them what he had learned fromhis aunt that he must do. If he did not need to give away the skins,he would return them. When the Kwakiutl arrived, the tacis chiefsent a young slave woman to dance on the beach; then his war chiefskilled her. They wrapped her body in new blankets, "then used herfor a canoe-roUer," dragging the Kwakiutl's canoe over her. (This isspecifically stated to have been the "aunt's" idea.) The Kwakiutlchief became angry "the way those East Coast people do." First hewas going to break the copper he had with him, but desisted whenthe Kyuquot's "aunt" told him how many sea otter hides were inthe tacis house. Then he was going to give the copper away, but thewoman said, "No, don't do that, for these people don't care aboutcoppers^?they don't know what the}'- are for. They'll just laugh atyou, and cut it up to make fishhooks." So he kept his temper, andhis copper.It is not impossible that the Kwakiutl version of this incident mightbe considerably different. This account, however, expresses theNootkan attitude. They, or at least the groups of the Northerndivision, were thoroughly aware of the Southern Kwakiutl competitivepotlatching of the latter part of the nineteenth century, but wereneither interested in it nor could they fit it into their potlatchingsystem with its well-fixed orders of precedence. The Kyuquot chief'spride was strong enough, and he was able to appeal to the nationalpride of his people as well, to try to keep from being bettered in thecontest. It is interesting to note that he simply protected himself by Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 385assembling the sea otter hides in his house; when his potential rivaldid not react to the challenge offered in the slave killing, he did notgive the skins away. I rather believe a Kwakiutl chief would havepotlatched enough of them to effectively face down a rival rather thanto have left the matter in a stalemate.In all truth, the Nootkan potlatch did not really deserve beinglegislated against, for it lacked all the traits that made the Kwakiutlcomplex objectionable. Even Father Brabant, as arbitrary and asprejudiced as he was against most aboriginal customs, says that hecould see no great harm in the system. About all it did, in termsof national wealth, was to periodically assemble and redistributeblankets and cash. Middle-aged men say wistfully today that in theday of the potlatch they "always had lots of money." The fact isthat they were continually receiving it, a pleasant enough custom, butthey do not stop to consider that they were continually giving itaway again in their own potlatches or in the form of contributions totheir chiefs, for the recognition they received from giving more thancompensated for the loss. As long as the potlatch continued in theclosed circle of the Nootkan tribes, there was httle real loss to anyone.When we note that during this time there was a continual flow ofwealth tokens (cash, trade blankets) into the culture from external(European) sources greater than the facilities of the day for ordinaryexpenditure, it is clear no great damage could be done.If we consider our hypothetical chief and his $200-potlatch of afew paragraphs back, the point becomes clear. To begin with,probably most of the $200 was his to begin with, although a smallproportion came from his junior chiefs and tenants. He distributedin the neighborhood of $100 among his guest chiefs. If each of theminvited him, eventually he could expect to get about this same amountback, assuming that his own potlatch seat in his tribe was amongthe first 8 or 10. The remainder of the sum he distributed amongthe retired chiefs, chiefs of low rank, and commoners, so that itwas apparently lost. This part as well would eventually come backto him, however, for the recipients would give various sums to theirown chiefs, who would distribute them among the low-rank peopleof our hero's group. These people would, in the natural course ofevents, be giving him the money again to help him in his potlatches.Thus the potlatch wealth simply was circulated considerably, to theaccompaniment of festivities and much ego satisfaction for all con-cerned, and everyone ended up about even. Of course, actually itdid not work out so simply, for only rarely would a chief and his groupbe invited by each and every one of the chiefs who had been then-guests. That is, if a Kyuquot chief gave a potlatch to the Moachatchiefs, each of the latter might not in turn invite the Kyuquot, even 386 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144over a long period of time. Some would, perhaps, but others mightgive their potlatches to, let us say, the Ehetisat, and others to theNuchatlet. Some of the latter chiefs would give potlatches to theKyuquot, however, so it would eventually all balance out. As nearlyas one can make out, the Nootkans simply got more action for theirmoney than did most other people, without its actually costing themvery much.The Nootkan data are in very close harmony with Barnett's (1938 c)appraisal of the potlatch. The gifts were essentially expressions ofesteem, given to a group of guests (in native theory, kinsmen invitedbecause of their relationship ties to the giver), who were called uponto witness the host's hereditary claims to certain honors. Becauseof theif kinship they were expected to know something of his ancestryand the truth of his claims (even though actually they might notknow); by observing the display and listening to his claims, and byaccepting the gift, they were made public witnesses to his claim. Thereal test of their approval, of course, came when they or some ofthem in turn potlatched to their ex-ghost's group, and recognized hisstatus within his group by conducting him to his proper potlatchseat (the one he claimed), and by giving to him in his proper turn inthe distribution of gifts. Lesser members of the chief's group did nothave to content themselves only with a vicarious enjoyment of thechief's glory. They could actively participate by contributing to hispotlatch funds, and still better, have their aid, and thereby theirassociation with his high status, called to public attention through hisannouncement of their contribution and his publicly bestowed re-ward. Their physical participation as singers and dancers addedstill more, of course, to their esteem as members of a prestigeful group.THE "shamans' dance" (LOQWONA)The "Shamans' Dance" or "Shamans' Festival" (Loqwona) wasthe most spectacular and most important ceremonial in Nootkanculture. It was staged, usually but not invariably, in midwinter,whenever some chief wanted to signalize an event of importance inhis or his heirs lives, and was followed by a major potlatch.The name Shamans' Dance is used in the present report in prefer-ence to the term "Wolf Dance" commonly met with in the literature,because the Nootkan term Loqwona means "The Shaman." "WolfDance" is an entirely artificial designation. As the native namesuggests, numerous features of the ceremonial refer to the localshamanistic pattern.Details of the rite varied from place to place. Each tribe or con-federacy had its own traditional account of the origin of their versionof the ritual in their own territory (the same origin myth relating to Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 387the capture of a young chief by Wolves, is shared by all, but thename of the hero, and the places, differ). There were even differencesbetween the procedures of tribes of the same confederacy, and betweenlocal groups of the same tribe. This was due to the fact that num-erous details and acts of the ceremonial were privately owned prop-erty. Each chief, as representative of his lineage, inherited specialsongs, dances, display rights, and other performances to be used inthe ritual, and sometimes these rights overlapped, that is, two ormore chiefs would each own a different procedure for accomplishingthe same result. Nonetheless, the major outlines of the Shamans'Dance were the same among all the Nootkan tribes, so the basicpattern of the ritual can be outlined here, and supplemented by ac-counts from the various divisions.Briefly, the ceremonial can be characterized as a dramatic perform-ance in which the entire local populace participated. The plot wassimple: children (the "novices") were kidnaped by SupernaturalWolves (sometimes accompanied by other spirits), then rescued bytheir relatives and ceremonially purified. During the novices' cap-tivity each was supposed to be taken by the Wolves ** to the ancestralhome of his lineage and there instructed in the origin of some heredi-tary right: a song, a masked dance, a display privilege, or the like,which he was to claim and use on his return (this slight discrepancy inthe plot?that the Wolves planned that the novice should return tohis people?did not disconcert the Indians in the least). In this wa}^the ceremony served as a vehicle for conveying hereditary rights.From the time the ceremonial began until it was concluded, a specialset of rules of conduct were in force. Certain usages of normal orsecular occasions were prohibited. One of the most striking was theprohibition on use of some important prerogatives of rank, such asthe established graded seating arrangements of the chiefs at publicgatherings and feasts. For this reason the major potlatch associatedwith the affair was not given until the ritual had been concludedformally, for it was deemed proper to observe the normal deference torank in the seating of the chiefs and the order in which gifts weregiven at the potlatch. During assemblages for the ritual, peopleseated themselves "anywhere they wished" with no regard for rank.Usually one sat with members of his age-grade club. The jealouslyguarded rights of chiefs to certain portions of hair seal meat werelikewise disregarded; when someone brought in a seal they cut it upinto little bits and gave everyone a share. Such deviations from nor-mal secular rules did not mean that the society became temporarilydemocratic, nor did it mean that a separate group of aristocracy ?8 In the description of the ritual, the word "wolf" will be capitalized to make clear that reference is to thewolf spirits and the men representing them, not real beasts. 388 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144came into power. Basically, the ritual was built around the system ofrank: chiefs sponsored the performance on the basis of hereditaryright to do so, and similarly owned nearly all the important ritualacts. And these were the same chiefs that held highest rank in thelineages and in the tribes. The disuse of certain attributes of heredi-tary rank was a method of expressing the importance of the supernat-ural atmosphere of the Shamans' Dance but it did not really modifythe social structure.Another series of rules provided substitutes for certain secularwords. The ordinary terms for "wolf," "teeth" (because the Wolveswere said to carry off the novices in their mouths), and "tail" (becausethe bull-roarer was said to be the Wolf's tail) were invariably tabu.In all reference to the Wolves during the ritual the word "Crawlers"(sa'ishsi) was used instead of the normal term (qwaiyatsik), and therewere similar established euphemisms for other tabu words.*^ Personsviolating these tabus were punished by the group policing the rite,who mauled the violator and tore off his garments. One of theMuchalat informants, with cynical glee, stated that often middle-aged women sang little improvised ditties in which they deliberatelyused the secular word for "wolf" so that they would be stripped tothe buff in public. This may or may not be so, but it brings out apoint which will be dealt with later on: the deliberate violation of thetabus as a dramatic mechanism to accomplish some special act.To eat alone, even a single mouthful of some delicacy, was strictlyprohibited. All meals were eaten as feasts. It was not necessary toinvite any given number of guests, but guests, many or few, there hadto be. In mornings and evenings there would be dozens of feastsgoing on in the village. Chiefs, of course, gave them on a larger scalethan men of lower rank. One common punishment for eating alonewas to have one's mouth "stretched" by two husky individuals, one ofwhom hooked a finger in either corner of the mouth and gave a yank.Food boxes and dishes of the offender would be smashed up, contentsand all, in addition. Other common tabus prohibited quarreling(especially by spouses), chewing gum, wearing a hat, or carrying a(wooden) bucket by the handle (it had to be carried in the arms). Ifa woman worked at weaving mats or baskets, her handiwork wouldbe taken from her and torn up. Afterward, in the Sponsor's potlatch,special gifts were given to compensate for these maulings and thedestroyed property. Mourning was not permitted. Should someonedie during the ceremonial the body was disposed of quietly, and itwas announced that he had been kidnaped by the Wolves. Hisfamily were permitted to show no sign of grief. "It was said that if a person's name contained one of the prohibited terms he was to use another nameduring the ceremonial, but that except for such cases there were no special ritual names or titles. Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 389An obvious question in this connection is who acted as pohce topunish offenders. One would expect a simple answer. Strangely, itis difficult at first to discover who the police were. The common replymade by informants is that it was the novices, who came out frombehind their curtain. This is obviously improbable, since most ofthe novices were small children. There can be little doubt that intheory the novices functioned as the police, just as in the KwakiutlHametsa series, the Hametsa and other novices "became excited" andbit people or smashed up belongings when certain tabus were broken.^"The actual punishment of offenders was delegated to certain men, butby a fiction of the ritual these men were regarded as the novices them-selves, just as a masked dancer was thought and spoken of as being acertain spirit, not the Nootkan equivalent of Joe Doakes, even thoughthe spectators all laiew who he was. The i\.housat and Moachatinformants maintained that the men who played the part of Wolveswere the real "police," representing the novices; the Kyuquot in-formant maintained the "War Chiefs' Club" had this function.Probably there were local differences in this feature as in so manyothers.One of the duties of the police was in connection with what inter-preters call "spearing" in English, or in Nootkan, "hiltakcil." Thiswas the practice sometimes designated "hook swinging" after certainSouthern Asiatic rites of ceremonial torture. Slender skewers (in re-cent times metal blades of sealing harpoons) were jabbed through theskin and superficial layers of flesh of the upper arms, sides of thethighs, and over the ribs. This was done, according to the fiction ofthe ceremony, to persons who violated tabus and then resisted thenovices (really, their representatives), who came to maul them anddestroy personal belongings. The "novices" then led the "speared"person about by the lanyards of the harpoons while he sang his spiritsongs. Here again conventionalizations of the ritual obscure the realprocedure, for it is also said that being "speared" in this fashion wasa hereditary prerogative of war chiefs, and also that certain chiefs"owned" the right to insert the skewers or harpoons. I suggest thefollowing as a possible interpretation of the way this was really done : First, I believe that as informants insist, being "speared" was anowned right of war chiefs?the candidate had to be one who inheritedthe privilege, or perhaps could pay a war chief for permission to useit. To satisfy the Nootkan dramatic sense, such a person arrangedto be discovered violating some ceremonial tabu during a dull moment ?o The Kwakiutl novices who performed acts of violence were young men, and physically capable of suchbehavior, unlike the majority of the Nootkan Shamans' Dance novices. 390 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144in an assembly of the people.^^ He was brought out in front of thepeople by the police group representing the novices. The "owners"of the privilege of inserting the harpoons (one "owned" the piercingon the right side, one that of the left) had to be paid by the "spearee"for the exercise of their right, though often one of the police groupactually bit the pinched-up ridge of flesh to numb it, then jabbed theharpoon through. After the "victim" had been led about, and hadsung his songs, he was released by cutting the flesh over the skewers.Later on he was given a special gift called "putting on a bandage," bythe Sponsor as payment for his suffering, and the "owners" of inser-tion of the harpoons were also given special gifts.It should be added that it seems likely that not only was the pro-cedure a theatrical device, but in all probability the "skewering" itselfwas often a stage effect. Though war chiefs may have displayed theirfortitude thus (and informants insist that many bore lifelong scarsfrom "spearing"), in recent times effective use has been made of rub-ber bands to hold the harpoons in place. It is difficult to believe thatthe carrying about on bayonets of the 12-year-old boy that Jewitt(1931, p. 59) describes could have been anything but a trick.The foregoing may seem to be a lengthy and not particularly sig-nificant diversion from the description of the Shamans' Dance. I havedwelt on these policing and "spearing" features because in my opinionthey illustrate the extent to which the ceremonial was conceived ofand handled as a theatrical production. To appreciate the perfor-mance as a whole, it is necessary to realize the extent to which it waswell-planned and organized drama in which entertainment valuespredominated. It had its social significance, validating hereditaryrights, but the spectacular aspect was extremely important. Con-sidered from the theatrical point of view it is interesting to note suchdevices as the deliberate building up to a climax, the heightening ofdramatic tension by comedy relief, and the dramatic interruptions ofperiods of play by awe-inspiring spectacles such as the gory "spearing"incidents.Informants' descriptions of the way the ceremony was given usuallybegin, logically enough, with a secret meeting of the chiefs, called bythe one who intended to give the festival. Here plans were laid forthe carrying out of the rite, and the principal novices were designated.Normally, the first of these meetings of what we might call the plan-ning committee occurred several months or even a year or more in '> Northwest Coast ritual is replete with such frame-ups?in the Kwakiutl Hamatsa performances it wasarranged beforehand who should say the tabued word, who should be bitten, whose canoe would be smashed,and so on. Though these performances were made to appear quite casual, every detail was as carefullymapped out as the action of one of our theatrical productions. I never heard of an instance in which some-one was ''speared" during a serious passage of the ritual when everyone was occupied. Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 391advance. As plans progressed, spokesmen were sent to speak pri-vately with fathers of children of suitable age who had not taken partin the performance. In a sense the Shamans' Dance was regarded asa sort of tribal initiation through which everyone, male or female, ofhigh rank or low, had to pass. Even slaves had to be initiated, it issaid.^^ There was a good deal of pretence of mystery; referenceswere made to the affair in veiled terms "so the uninitiated would notunderstand." For instance, the first appearance of the Wolves in theMoachat rite was heralded by the announcement by the chief'sspeaker that, "Smoke will drift through the village tonight." How-ever, the only real uninitiated persons (taqmoxa) were small children,and occasionally a non-Nootkan slave. Children were ordinarily"taken" when they were "about 7 or 8 years old, that is, when theyhad sense," in other words, when old enough to do as they were told,to be able to learn their songs, and not reveal the "secrets" of theceremonial. Tiny infants, especially the heirs of chiefs of high ranktoo small to talk or misbehave were initiated sometimes. The father(or near relative in the case of orphans) of each novice gave wealthto the chief in whose ritual the child was inducted. There was nofixed fee?a man gave what he could so that the chief would have anabundance of property to distribute in the ceremonial and at thepotlatch afterward.While every person had to be "initiated" at least once there was nolimit save that imposed by his or her family's wealth on the numberof times he might be taken into the rite. Most chiefs and noble womenwere "taken" many times during their lives, even as adults.Of course, secrets are pointless unless they are exclusive, and thegroup of uninitiated small children was not of enough importance towarrant all the pretense at secrecy. Therefore, the guests invited tothe affair played the role of uninitiated spectators although they werequite as aware of what was going on as were their hosts. There hadto be formally invited guests, even if they were but those of the localgroup who lived in the winter house next door. Ordinarily, of course,the guests were from another division or confederacy. They mightbe asked to take part in certain dances or other steps in the procedure,but out of courtesy and to maintain the illusion would not do certainthings prohibited to uninitiates, such as going behind the curtainwhere the novices were concealed.The actual beginning of the ritual was made in various ways. At ?2 People of the younger generation who have read Jewitt's "Captivity" (1815, p. 23) interpret the occasionon which he and Thompson were sent out to the woods during a Shamans' Dance as an initiation, thoughthe two did not understand what it was all about. Afterward, they were permitted to remain in the village,it will be noted (op. cit., p. 59). 392 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144Kyiiquot, the Sponsor ^^ invited all the people to a feast. The chief'sspeakers walked about restlessly, trying to give an impression of nerv-ousness. They said they were chilled, were hot, were hungry, weresated. ''The people knew something was about to happen." Thespeakers began to sing, then locked arms and danced, and all thepeople joined in, around and around the fire. Suddenly the Wolfcalls and whistles (supposed to be the howling of the Wolves) wereheard. The people pretended to be frightened, running about wildly,or huddling in little groups. Some stood by themselves singing theirspirit songs (tsiqa). Cedar planks and drumsticks were brought outand distributed. The people drummed fom- times, to drive the Wolvesaway. Then announcements were made as to plans, for example,what dances the age-grade clubs would use.At other places, for instance in the Muchalat ritual and that ofmost Central tribes, the affair was initiated by the kidnaping of theprincipal novice by Wolves who pounced on him without warning andcarried him off. Of course, this was all staged: the novice had to bein the right place at the right time. According to the Muchalatdescription, the Wolves slipped unobserved into the house during afeast; at other places the novice was stationed on the beach, usuallyclose to the woods.The role of the Wolves was played by commoners. Alost informantsasserted that the right to act as Wolf was a hereditary one of certaincommoner families; others, speaking from the point of view of chiefs,maintained it was the chiefs who "owned the Wolves" and couldtherefore designate any person they chose. I believe these apparentlycontradictory views are both correct, although somewhat obscured byconventional fictions of the ritual; commoners of the various lineagesdid inherit the right to play the Wolf roles, but as members of thelineage, not strictly speaking from their immediate family. TheWolf roles were basically lineage property just as were the other dis-play rights which the chiefs used and claimed. The chiefs, on theother hand, owned the right to have special varieties or numbers ofWolves appear with their heirs, and also supplied the distinctivewhistles used by the Wolf performers. A summary of the principalKyuquot informant's remarks on the variety of rights in whistles inthat confederacy will give some notion of the range of these rights,and the basis for the designation of the Sponsor of the ritual as the"Wolf Owner" (otsic qwaiyatsik, hterally, "are his. Wolves").Each chief used his own set of whistles when he gave a Shamans'Dance. The amiaath chief in addition to many Wolf whistles and a ?> The term "Sponsor" is used for the chief actually giving the aflair to correspond to the various nativedesignations such as the Kyuquot "Wolf Owner" (otsic qwaiyatsk). Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 393few that imitated the cawing of ravens, had a set of Hamatsa whistlesthat had come into his family as part of a dowry given by a chief ofthe Lacqenhath of Quatsino Sound. The La'a'ath chief had nothingbut Wolf whistles, but these he had in great number, to represent the200 Wolves that brought the lineage ancestor home in the originalceremonial. The a'Lic chief had a Woods Sphit (tclnlath) that hada peculiar whistle of its own. This privilege came from a Muchalatchief via the qa'oqwath. (Although among the Muchalat, certain ofthese Woods Spirits abduct novices, and later are displayed in thehouse at the potlatch, this one only whistled in the night, and dancedaround the novice on the latter's return from the woods.) The qa'-oqwath chief had a deep-toned whistle, always accompanied by ahigh-pitched shrill one (it may have been a double whistle). Inbrief, any adult Kyuquot would know what chief was giving theceremonial the first time the Wolves came through the village by thecombinations of whistles, assuming that he had somehow missed allthe prior announcements and gossip.At Ahousat, the Wolf roles were more sharply allocated. Therewere 12 men (commoners) who had the hereditary right to serve asWolves ; 2 of them had the special hereditary designation of leaders(tohtsltl, referring to "head"). The chiefs notified the two leaderswhen the ritual was planned, and the leaders notified and directedtheir companions. The principal Ahousat informant was quite sureof this procedure, and he was quite as sure that it was an innovationestablished by a chief "75 or 100 years ago." Before that, he said,there had always been disputes and considerable confusion as to whowere to be Wolves and who was responsible for their activities, butonce they were organized as just described all went off smoothly.The Wolves, called "Crawlers" (sa'ishsl) during the rite while theusual word for "wolf" was tabu, had faces, arms, and legs paintedblack on public appearances, and v/ore gray or black blankets tiedover their backs with one corner tied to project forward over theirheads to represent snouts. They did not wear masks.^* Apparently informer times real wolf pelts were worn?Jewitt (1815, p. 120) mentionstheir use?but only blankets have been used for many years. TheWolves ordinarily went about on all fours. Their whistles referred toabove were made of two pieces of cedar fitted together to form a tubewith a long flat mouthpiece, the two halves of which vibrated toproduce the sound. Some of these Wolf whistles (especially the elab-orate ones of Kwakiutl origin) had reeds of thin strips of "wild cherry"bark, or sinew. The whistles were called tslqyakw, "supernatural '* There are masks, or rather, headdresses carved of wood into a form suggesting an animal's head, thatrepresent Wolves. These were used, however, only in dances displayed in the house at the end of the ritualby certain chiefs, and were not used by the Wolves who abducted novices. 394 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144thing." They also used a bull-roarer (ctihyak), which was supposedto be the tail of the Wolf. These instruments were used mostly atnight, or out of sight when the Wolves appeared in the daytime, andconstituted the chief Mysteries of the ritual.In addition to Wolves, a number of chiefs among the NorthernNootkans "owned" Grizzly Bears, who appeared with the Wolvesand might be used to kidnap the chief's heir. All these GrizzlyBears were known to have been obtained in marriage from SouthernKwakiutl neighbors. They wore costumes of bearskin with snarlingmasks. Muchalat chiefs, and others who had got the rights in dowriesfrom them, could use a "Woods Spirit" or "Wild Man Spirit" (tcinl-yath), impersonated by men wearing masks with "sharp" features ? long hooked noses and pointed chins?and long shaggy hair. Theyalso wore neck rings of shredded bark dyed a bright red, with longstreamers behind, had their arms and legs painted red, and carriedlong sharp staves. None of the Central tribes had any such person-ages in their Wolf packs, so far as I could learn.Wlienever the Wolves appeared, the people feigned great terror.They ran about wildly, pretended to hide, sang spirit songs, anddehberately created a tremendous confusion. In the turmoil boxes offood and property were tipped over, and cooking boxes and dishes wereupset whenever opportunity offered. Each time a novice was abductedsome men pursued the captors at a safe distance or shot at them withblank charges, then went about boasting of "almost" having killedthe foe. If a novice were carried off unnoticed, the Wolves would takehis or her garments, rip them to shreds, and scatter them along thebeach, so they could be found and identified. This simplified the"kidnaping," of course. A pregnant woman (chiefs' wives were takenas novices at times to "initiate" their unborn infants) could simply slipaway unobtrusively, then send her clothing to be strewn on the beachby one of the Wolves. However done, once the loss of the novice wasmade known to the people, they set upon his parents, berating them"for their carelessness in allowing the child to be stolen," maulingthem, dragging them down to the beach and throwing them bodilyinto the water. Even chiefs of highest rank and their highborn wiveswere not exempt from this rough treatment. The only recourse of theparent was to sing a spirit song; he was not permitted to defendhimself. Old people were sometimes put in a small canoe with nopaddle and given a hearty shove. With an ebb tide running, theymight be some time getting back ashore. After the kidnaping of thefirst novice a gi'oup of armed men, dressed and painted for war, wentthrough the houses "searching for the novices" (there were localdifferences in the time for this?among the Kyuquot and Moachat itwas done after the last novice was taken). In the Moachat ritual, Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 395this party made four trips through the village. The first timethey simply walked through the houses, after announcing they weresearching for a missing person; the second time they menaced thepeople with their weapons; the third time they shoved people aboutroughly; and the fourth time they tipped boxes over, and smashedhousehold effects (which were later paid for by the Sponsor). In-formal searching parties could be organized at any time, usually inthe small hours of the morning. It was considered great sport todrag people out of their beds, if any were found who had been sooptimistic as to think they could sleep a bit, make them stand singingtheir spirit songs, or else drench them with buckets of cold water.This horseplay and rather rugged practical joking went on for thefirst 4 days of every Shamans' Dance, and during the same period thenovices were being carried off. This phase of the rite was called "theShamanizing," (LULukwatqa, the same term used for the prehminarysinging of a curing shaman when he was "calling his power"). Mean-while, the novices, as they were kidnaped, were concealed in comfortbehind a curtain of mats across the end of the Sponsor's house. Intheory they were kept out in the woods, and many informants believethat in ancient times they actually were hidden far from the village.Formerly it is said they might eat only dried salmon during theritual, but this restriction was disregarded pretty generally in theinformants' times.There was a short variant of the kidnaping procedure, sometimescalled "In-the-house Shamans' Dance" (hitil, or ta'qil Loqwona),which could be used independently as a minor ceremonial, but alsowas an essential part of the major form. In this variant, the Wolvesran through the village at night, giving their ritual howls, soundingtheir whistles, and whirling the bull-roarer, while the people wereattending feasts in the various houses. The usual pandemoniumensued. As the Wolves passed certain houses they struck the wallboards with clubs, and, by the prearranged plan, the child whosefamily lived in that space blew a tiny shrill whistle he held concealedin his mouth, then collapsed on the floor, pretending to have beenstruck dead by the supernatural power of the Wolves. These noviceswere called by a special term, "atsa," and their small whistles wereqlqyakw. The child's father or other near relative would carrythe "dead body" to the Sponsor's house, where he would announcethat a tragedy had struck his family. The "victims" were laid behinda curtain across the back of the house, and a rite called "Resuscitating"(taltitcap) was begun. The following descriptions by a Moachat andby a Kyuquot informant give a picture of typical performances.When all the unconscious novices (atsa) had been brought to theMoachat Sponsor's house, a group of men painted their faces black, 396 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGl [Bull. 144put on cedar-bark head rings with two vertical feathers, and put ontheii- blankets in warrior fashion (under the right arm and with thecorners pinned together over the left shoulder) . The informant statedthat the Wolves themselves took this part, and they probably havedone so in recent times when there were not enough people to enactthe ritual adequately. There was one man for each novice. Thegroup marched into each house in the village, beginning at the leftend and proceeding to the right, and, lining up in the center of thehouse, each in turn announced the name of one novice, saying, "(so-and-so) has been killed by the Wolves." ^^ Then the leader of thegroup asked the chief of the house to bring his people to the house ofthe Sponsor to take part in the rite of titcap, "healing." The peopleof each house then had a meeting to decide how they would dressand dance (sic, they undoubtedly had everything ready long beforethis point). Then they put on their dance ornaments and paintedtheir faces, and went dancing in to the house of the Sponsor. Eachhouse group danced around the fire, then broke up, the people seatingthemselves wherever they pleased. Everyone shouted or sang, drum-med and made all the noise possible. Meanwhile the parents of theatsa brought a set of eight wooden vessels for each novice to presentto the Sponsor. The set was called tsutsuyukwo'tsa, "toilet articles,"and could consist of any sort of small dishes, boxes, and the like.These were sorted into eight piles, designated tcutsutumas, "rightside of head"; ka'tsutumas, "left side of head"; satcqas, "comb";ha'tama', "hair oU"; tsuyukwats, "wash bowr';moyapilam, "curtain"(e.g., behind which the novices were concealed); teqa'tsus (platformon which novices were to be seated) ; and ma'alLum (a string fastenedto something). Various chiefs owned the right to receive one oranother of the eight piles of articles, and the person who received andsorted the vessels out, in the name of the Sponsor, also owned thistask as a special privilege.He was given a part of each pile by the chief owning it. It was hisduty to know to whom each pile belonged, and he called on that chiefby name to make the presentation. Then the articles were carriedout, and a great wooden drum was set in the place where they hadbeen piled. Finally the Sponsor's speaker quieted the people down,and had planlvs and drumsticks brought in. Seasoned billets ofhardwood were used for drumsticks; it brought very bad luck if one'sdrumstick should break. Men sat or knelt by the planl^s formingthe first (or inner) row, all the way around the house, the womenwho were singers were behind them, and the rest of the people, men,women, and children, remained behind the row of singers. Two men " The ritual term "sa'ishsi" would be used in all such speeches, of course. Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 397who were to lead the first songs were called forward. They weredressed in black blankets, with thick belts of shredded cedar bark,and head rings with large pompoms of shredded bark on either side.These men owned the right to sing their songs. From the time theyappeared, everyone became serious, except during periods designatedas rests. No one might shout or smile or talk needlessly. The firstleader sang a phrase of the first song, his assistant sang the wholesong, then the leader and all the people in the house sang. The menwho drummed the accompaniment on the box drum had to guardagainst mistakes. There were four of these songs; between them,a rest of "5 or 10 minutes" was given, during which people mightchatter and laugh and shout. After the four songs had been sung,the speaker said, "Quiet!" and everyone listened intently. Not asound could be heard above the wind in the trees and the lapping ofthe water on the beach. The speaker then said that the singing hadbeen in vain, the Wolves had not heard it. The song leaders tookoff their ceremonial dress, which was the signal for the whole audienceto shout abuse at them. The speaker said, "We need another songleader." All the people volunteered, each proclaiming loudly thathe knew how to do it properly, although, of course, everyone knewwho the person was who owned the right to lead the second set ofsongs. The speaker pretended to consider various of the volunteers,and then at last called on the proper person. As the song owner andhis assistant put on the black blankets and cedar-bark ornaments,people threatened them with all sorts of punishment if they failed.With the second pair of song leaders, two dancers appeared. Theyalso owned the right to perform their dance. They wore whiteblankets, shredded-cedar-bark head rings with large bowlilce loops onthe sides, and rings about their necks, wTists and ankles from whichlong fringes depended. In their hands they held bunches of shreddedbark tied in the middle, with loose plumelike ends. They danced intime to the songs, taking short quick steps. Another four songs weresung. At the end of the fourth song the novices were heard to whistle.Each novice in turn was brought forward, and sang his spuit songwhich the Wolves had given him. Some then told how the Wolveshad killed him, and had taken his spirit to a certain named locality(from which his ancestors had come), had given him a name, and hadtold him, for example, to give a feast. The speaker repeated thespeech to the people. A novice who did so was through?he wouldlater give his feast, or rather, his parents would give it in his name,and could contribute something to the Sponsor of the affair to begiven in the potlatch. Poor people often had their children initiatedthrough this procedure; there was no particular onus attached to it.The child of a chief of high rank might be initiated the same way. 398 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144Those of the novices who were to be abducted by the Wolves latermerely sang their spirit songs.At Kyuquot there were three chiefs who owned this part of theceremonial. Any one of them could be asked to perform it. Theway in which the matsuwaiath and the hilinatoath did was almostthe same, only that the songs they used differed. The amaiath hada different procedure. The way of the first two chiefs was this: Allthe people of the house matsuwai, or hilinato, whichever it was,came in and formed in a row behind their chief. All wore red cedarbark headbands with an upright feather on each side, and had abroad black stripe painted across their faces at the eyes. They allstood while their chief sang his spirit song. Then they marchedaround the fire counterclockwise four times, each singing his ownsong. They stopped and formed up once more behind their chiefwhile he sang, and then seem to have made a round of his spirit song:the man at the right end of the line began the song, the second beganit before the first finished, the third came in before the second hadended, and so on, until the song had gone all the way down the row.Then drumsticks were passed out, and they and all the rest assembledin the house drummed on planks, directed by the chief, until after avigorous roll the whistle of the first novice was heard.The matsuwaiath found this "Resuscitating" rite long ago. Twoof their ancestors found the ya'ai performing the ritual at a campingplace. The feathers and face paint of the dancers represent the ya'ai.The amaiath procedure for the same rite was longer and moredramatic. The people of their house sat in a row behind the curtainin front of the novices. All wore red-cedar-bark head bands withtwo vertical feathers, one on either side (they also represented ya'ai).Two women who were to dance during the singing of the ritual songssat in front of them. They wore special head bands with a largeserved bundle in front. The amai chief came in, carrying a harpoon.Two men came with him, one holding the harpoon line, the other apaddle. All three represented ya'ai, and moved together to give theappearance of hunters in a sealing canoe. They approached the cur-tain four times. Each time the chorus behind the curtain sang anddrummed, each singing his own song and drumming his own tempo,thus creating a wild uproar. The fourth time the chief gave the ritualcry and struck the curtain of mats with his harpoon. Unseen as-sistants cut away the line supporting the curtain as he struck, so thatit fell revealing the chorus seated with bowed heads. Then the chiefbegan his song, the two dancers rose and danced back and forth be-fore the chorus, and then the chorus and all the people in the housedrummed on planks four times, until the novices began to whistle.The giver of the Wolf Dance then thanked the chief who had re- Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 399vived the novices. Each novice came out from behind the curtain,(or from behind the chorus) and sang the song that the Wolves hadgiven him, and danced whatever dance they had told him to display.If they were having the short version of the Wolf Dance, the chief'schild came out last. For the short form of the ritual the noviceswere restricted for 4 days, remaining behind the curtain, and then thechief gave his potlatch.If the Wolves were to abduct the novices, they came rushing in assoon as the novices had finished singing their songs, snatched them upand carried them off bodily. At Kyuquot, this was the beginning ofthe ceremonial. A similar mass kidnaping of the revived atsanovices was customary in most Muchalat performances.At Ahousat, this short rite was begun differently, though it wasconcluded in similar fashion. A man took the designated childrendown to the beach, a few at a time, and pretended to brain themwith a club. The Wolves appeared immediately to carry the "bodies"to the woods, where the children were given their small whistles andtheir faces were painted with blood. Then two Wolves carried themback to the beach. The Sponsor himself carried them up to the house.The youngsters had been instructed to hold themselves rigid whilebeing carried, and to lie motionless where the chief laid them. Thepeople were assembled to sing to revive them. After each song, oneof the novices sounded his whistle and a speaker announced that thechild had been revived, that he said he had been killed and while dead,the Wolves had taken him to such-and-such a place, and had toldhim that henceforth he was to be called by a new name, and, for exam-ple, that he was to give a feast, or perform some dance.In all the ceremonials, on at least two of the nights of the Sha-manizing period, the age-grade clubs (otopalinik) performed. Thesewere rather amorphous informally made-up groupings, nominallybased on age and sex lines, that functioned at various times duringthe Shamans' Dance. Usually there were three women's groups, forthe young, middle-aged, and old, and three for the correspondingage classes of men, plus a men's group composed of the war chiefs.At times children were organized into boys' and girls' clubs to put oncertain dances but these clubs were not self-sustaining, as it were ? they did not continue to function without the aid and coaching ofadults, so were impermanent. For special stunts, some old men mightbe asked to dance with the young men's group, and for the time beingwould be considered members of that club. Essentially, member-ship was based on individual choice?a person ordinarily aligned him-self with the persons with whom he had played as a child and withwhom he worked as an adult. The term for these clubs suggests thebasis of relationship: otopal is the plural form of opal, a term used 400 BUBEAU OF AMEmCAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144both in address and in reference to mean "pal," or "buddy," or"partner" (in the colloquial sense), "-inik," is a suffix which gives thesense of "representing" or "imitating." Part of the amorphousaspect of the structure of the clubs came from the lack of any formalprocedure of joining, and lack of a well-defined procedure for movingfrom one to the other. When a man who usually danced with theyoung men's club found his daily associations and friendly contactswere coming to be more and more with men of "middle-age" he wouldbegin to accompany the latter in the dances and with no more adowould be regarded as one of them. There were no formally designatedofficials of these clubs. Persons of high or of low birth might becomeaccepted leaders on the basis of natural qualities of leadership, andingenuity in devising novel performances.The performances given by these clubs were of three types, althoughall were referred to as o'ocinuk, which seems to refer to "imitating."The real "imitating" dances were but one of the three types. Themembers of each club costumed themselves to represent a certainspecies of animal, and mimicked its behavior in their dance. Aclub representing codfish would dance slowly, moving their arms upand down to represent the gaping mouth of that fish ; a young men'sclub dancing as squirrels would climb the house posts and crawlalong the beams. In representing cormorants the dancers flappedtheir arms to indicate the heavy rapid wingbeat of the birds, andthrew handfuls of flour behind them (often aiming at spectators), torepresent the trail of white droppings cormorants leave as they fly.Most of these animal representations were supposed to refer toproperty rights of the Sponsor of the Shamans' Dance, and at timeschiefs indicated their wishes to the clubs. Thus, in one descriptionof a ceremonial given at Nuchatlitz, the Sponsor requested that oneclub represent frogs, alluding to a sockeye lake he owned on whosemarshy shores frogs abounded.Strictly speaking, each club took its name from the name of theanimal it was representing at the time (plus the suffix -iniq, "imitat-ing"). Most clubs were commonly referred to by the name of oneparticular performance, which, informants believed, was the mostpopular of the various dances a club gave. The following list givesthe names and some of the more frequent representations of the clubs:The otopahnik at Kyuquot were usually but not always designatedby the dances they performed.All Chiefs Imitators (ha'wehanik), consisted of the eldest sons (?)of each family, whether of high or low rank, hence the name "chiefs."They often used Deer Dance, and were called moqwinik.Codfish Imitators (tuckoiniq) were the old men, who often danceda codfish dance. Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 401Devilfish Imitators (tilupiniq) were the middle-aged men, andwar chiefs. A dance representing devilfish was one of their favorites.It was this group that "harpooned" people (hiltakcil, to insert a seal-ing harpoon point through the flesh of arms, legs, or back) . Certainnovices who had inherited the right to be war chiefs would be toldby the Wolves that they were to be "harpooned." Other peoplewere "harpooned" for breaking tabus of the Shamans' Dance?theKyuquot informant believed that they thereby became war chiefs.The "harpooning" was done by the usual method of pinching up aridge of loose skin and flesh, biting it until it was numb, then insertingthe harpoon point. Two people did this, one on the right side, oneon the left. A third freed the victim, after he had been led about,by cutting the strip of flesh over the harpoon. All three were paid adollar or two by the victim. Most recently, a painless variant hasbeen used, in which the harpoons are held on with rubber bands.This group was also referred to as the War Chief Imitators (witwo-qiniq).The young men's group was usually referred to as "Red-headedWoodpecker Imitators" (tsituciniq) , after one of their more populardances.The old women danced "Periwinkle Imitators" (Latckwuniniq),and "Sea Cucumber Imitators" (ta'entiqiniq) dances which did notrequu'e a great deal of agility. For the former they sat or squattedon the floor, singing, and pounding with canes to keep time; for thelatter, they wi-apped themselves from head to foot in blankets androlled about.Middle-aged women often used a Sea Gull Dance, dressed all inwhite, and a Kelp Dance, in which they wore yellow silk kerchiefson their heads with long streamers down the back.Young women could dance "Salmonberry Imitators" (qa'wikiniq)and "Hummingbird Imitators" (hathatkwutiniq) . Sometimes a group of children was gotten together, to dance aSawbiU Duck Dance, or a Moth Dance, in which they imitated thelittle gray moths that bring sleep.The above list refers to imitating dances, commonly used in thetads house, that of the second chief. In the first chief's house, asimilar group functioned, but with some difTerences in the dancesperformed; for example, the young women would not dance "Salmon-berries" or "Hummingbirds," as the first chief did not own berrygrounds. They would use some dance, such as Kelp Cod, etc.,that referred to the first chief's far-flung marine property rights.The dance clubs at Ehetisat in the informant's time were six innumber. The old men's group was usually called " Codfish Imitators"(tuckohiniq) . The middle-aged men, the "Red Cod Imitators" 402 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144(wanuliniq), often danced to represent squid (ti'lupiniq), killer whale(qawotqeiiaqiniq), and a woods spirit called maLoh (the dance wascalled maLohiniq). The young men were called hu'uliniq, after somesmall bird they represented in a frequently used dance. They alsohad a performance called qaqamaliniq, referring to sinking canoesin rough play, and also acted as "Drowned Spirit Imitators" (pukum-isiniq). There were but two women's clubs, apparently because ofthe drastic reduction of population of the tribe. The older women,"Kelp Cod Imitators" (suma'iniq), also used a dance called "CutHair" (humcitsmis), which the informant herself had invented.The young women's club usually danced a representation of Wood-pecker (Le'hama'), Butterfly (qatsiqaman), or Snipe (tsino). Inaddition to these, there was a War Chiefs' Imitating Club(witwokiniq)made up of hereditary war chiefs. They were always the first orlast to dance and always dramatized war, or "mean" animals.The Moachat informant listed seven age-grade clubs that hadfunctioned during the last Shamans' Dance held at Friendly Cove.It is not certain whether one of them was a more or less permanentinstitution, or made up for that particular ceremony alone. It wascalled the ni'Lictciiniq, "Salmon-roe Imitators(?)," and made up offour very old men and all the initiated small boys, who had been taughtto do certain dances by the four old men. The rest of the old menwere the "Codfish Imitators" (tuckqhiniq). They came in with canes,it was said?they were too old to dance much. The middle-agedmen, "Pitch-on-the-face Imitators" (icoliniq), used a variety of dances.Sometimes they used a Squid Dance, coming in with their facesblackened, their hair tied up on top of their heads, and carrying longpoles with hooks on the ends (like those used to pull squid from underthe rocks). They danced about, now and then dragging objects,such as baskets and mats, and even people, out into the middle ofthe floor with their hooks. The objects had to be left there until theclub finished dancing. Another of their dances was "Two-winds-meeting" (taqenaqcil). They came in naked, again with their facesblackened and hair tied up. Part of them linked their arms to forma circle about the rest of their group. Those in the circle danced aboutin a counterclockwise direction, singing; those within the circle movedabout slowly at first, then more rapidly, chanting, "Wu'hu'hu'hu!,"then all together threw their weight against one side of the circle.Eventually one of the charges broke the ring, and the whole groupwent sprawling across the house. People had to watch the dancestanding, so they could get out of the way, lest they be knocked downby the dancers. Children were put in a safe place when this dancewas given, so they would not be hurt. The performances of thisgroup seem to have taken over the tenor of those used elsewhere by Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 403the war chiefs' club. The young men were the "Woodpecker Imita-tors" (tsltuciniq) . They had a Woodpecker Dance in which they woremaskettes on their foreheads from which projected long beaks. Thesewere held on by wide bands of red cloth. They wore black blankets,and had whistles that made a sound resembling the woodpecker'scall. They danced about in lively fashion. Those agile enoughclimbed up on house posts, pretending to peck at them with theirbeaks. Others pretended to chase people in the audience, also peckingat them. Another of their dances was "Lake People" (a'okwiath,referring to "Jewitt's Lake" back of Friendly Cove.). They dancedthis when moqwina was giving the Shamans' Dance, for the lake wasone of his properties. The dancers painted their faces white, withlarge black circles around the eyes, and big wide mouths. They tiedblankets or shawls across their bellies and stuffed them (with pillowsin recent times) to give themselves a froglike rotundity. Then theyentered, hopping about and croaking like frogs. Then old womenperformed the "Strawberry Imitators" (kelkintapiniq) . At the lastperformance of the ceremonial at Friendly Cove they announced thatthey were going to dance a "Quileute Dance," which was supposed tobe a very violent performance involving a lot of energetic hoppingabout. So the club came in with canes, hobbling even slower thanusual, sat on the floor in a row, and "danced" by jiggling their canesup and down in the air. The spectators applauded enthusiastically,it is said, assuring them that they were dancing even better than thereal Quileutes. The middle-aged women's club was called "Fat Ones(?)" (LukwaLskwi) . I neglected to record any of their dances (itmay be that this is the name of a dance they put on, and not thatusually used for the club). The young women's club was usuallyreferred to as "Seagull Imitators" (kwini'iniq) . They had, amongother performances, a Seagull Dance in which they dressed in whiteand came dancing in with arms extended to the sides, swooping andsoaring like gulls.The Muchalat had six age-grade clubs. The young men useddances that required considerable agility: Swallow Imitating, LandOtter Imitating, and Marmot Imitating; middle-aged men dancedDeer Imitating and Black Bear Imitating; and old men had a favoriteGrouse Imitating Dance which did not require too much exertion, andan Owl Imitating performance. Young women danced a Red-HeadedWoodpecker Dance, which gave their club its usual name, and oldwomen were "Crane Imitators." I neglected to record the name anddances of the middle-aged women's club?perhaps there were notenough people to maintain it as a separate group. It is noticeablethat the popular Muchalat dances refer to their old riverine and inlandhabitat. 404 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144Another type of performance put on by the clubs was the acting outof humorous or ludicrous skits. The humor of these sketches washeavy at best; in some instances they were frankly obscene. The"obscene dances" that scandahzed Mozino in 1791?he mentions askit portraying an impotent old man, and another of a commoner toopoor to have a wife (Mozino, 1913)?were undoubtedly age-gradeclub performances. There was no esoteric motivation behind theseskits. Their aim was amusement only. Sometimes such stunts werewoven into serious phases of the ceremonial, as on an occasion inwhich a dance group at Moachat brought in the maul for the tongsmaking in a specially made cradle in which the old man who owned theright to provide the maul was lashed like a baby. The tongs makershad to sing lullabies to the "baby," loosen the head-presser and rubhis head, and take off the lashings to "clean" him and "change thedirty cedar bark" before they were allowed to find the maul, hiddenin the cedar-bark "cradle padding" liberally smeared with mud torepresent excrement. As the tongs makers always had to pretend tobe very serious about their ritual duties this interlude was receivedwith glee by the spectators.The final variety of club dances were for gift giving. At times inthe later part of the ceremonial each club came in, dancing somesimple form such as the "yatsyatsa," which could be used "for fun"outside the Shamans' Dance. (Some people consider this a danceborrowed from the Makah.) The dancers wore their finery, paintedtheir faces, and wore miniature canoe paddles in their head bands.Women danced with the elbows bent; the hands were at the sides atshoulder height, palms forward. They swayed the body from thewaist up from side to side in unison. After the dance, the clubmembers broke formation abruptly and began giving gifts to thespectators, sometimes to all, sometimes to guests of the age andsex corresponding to that of the club members. There was no orderfor these gifts; each member gave to whomever he or she pleased,though an effort was made to see that no one was left out. Women'sclubs gave such things as dishpans, teacups, and handkerchiefs inrecent times. Men might give store-bought shirts, cloth, and the like.Rarely, a few sizable gifts might be made to ranking chiefs among theguests, so that the recipients could distribute them later among theirpeople.Among the Central Nootkan tribes any of these age-grade club per-formances were called either o'ocinak or nunuiapkwo, a (pluralized)form referring to "nulam." It is interesting to note how consistentlythe word nulam, meaningless in Nootkan, is associated with the Sha-mans' Dance, although never with the Dog Eatmg performance of Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 405the Kwakiutl ritual of the same name. (Cf. Boas, 1897, passim;Drucker, 1940.)The first 4-day period was brought to a close by a rite usuallydesignated "The Calling" (na'i'yap). All the people, villagers andguests, were assembled in the Sponsor's house. Among severalgroups, the Moachat, and Ahousat, for example, a preliminary rite,"The Tongs Making," was done first, then the "Calling" was per-formed. A series of songs were alternated with en masse drummingon planks. The drumming was supposed to increase in volume untilit shook the mountains, the sea, in fact, the entire universe, at whichpoint the Wolves with their captives would be drawn to the village.A vivid account of this "Calling," the details of which differed fromtribe to tribe, follows. It is one given by the principal Moachatinformant, and includes a description of the subsidiary rite of TongsMaking which was used at one part or another of the ceremonial bythe Moachat and the Central Nootkans.Among the Moachat (and the Ahousat), during the afternoon beforethe "Calling" there was a performance known as " Getting-A-Stone"(mo'qwil) that was a preliminary part of the Tongs Making performedin the evening. A group of people, who owned the right to participatein this act, formed on the beach wearing tall bushy headdresses of firtwigs. A long plank was provided, and each took hold of it with onehand and drummed on it with a drumstick with the other. A certainchief marched ahead of them shaking a rattle. Two men wearingmasks representing Wolf heads, ran around and around them on allfours as they marched along the beach singing and drumming on theplank. When they reached the end of the beach the real Wolvesappeared from the woods, then disappeared from sight four times.After the final disappearance of the Wolves, the chief with the rattle"found" a certain stone (that had been put there in preparation forthe performance). He picked this up, and they carried it down thebeach again, and into the Dance house, where they sang another song,then buried the stone close to the fireplace. This stone was to be theanvil on which the tongs were laid to split them in the Tongs Makingrite.That evening, four speakers, dressed in black blankets and wearingshredded-cedar-bark ornaments, went through the village. As theyentered each house, the leader said, "Chief, we are going to na'i'yaptonight. So arise from your place by the fire." The second speakersaid, "Chief, we have come to ask you to bring all your people." Thethird called out, "Chief, bring them ready to dance." The fourthspeaker finished the invitation by saying, "Chief, come at once."The chiefs and their people had made all their preparations, and wereready to go to the house of the Sponsor. As the first group approached 406 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144the dance house, the central fire, already laid, was lighted, and thepeople came in dancing yatsyatsa. The men tapped two stickstogether with a beat of one, two, rest; the women held their armspartially extended to the sides and swayed their bodies as they danced.Everyone came into the house?chiefs, commoners, and slaves; men,women, and children. Each house had its own kind of cedar-barkornaments and face paints, but all danced the same dance. After oneceremonial circuit around the fire, they seated themselves about thesides of the house. While people from other houses were entering,they could chatter and shout and laugh all they liked.When people from all the houses had entered, the rite of La'mal-sna'al, ''Tongs Making," had to be performed. The speaker calledon the eight men who owned parts of the rite. Then he asked fornew white mats of cedar bark, which were provided by the Sponsor ofthe ceremonial. The eight owners seated themselves on the matsnear the center of the floor. Then the speaker called on the variousdance clubs, asking them to search for and bring a series of articles,viz., two long straight sticks (for the two pairs of tongs), small wedges,a wooden block, a stone hammer, and an adze. There were specialritual terms for these objects, which seem to have been the same wher-ever this Tongs Making was performed. For "tongs," kitsmaL wasused instead of the ordinary Lamal, wocnat for Lanat, "wedge," andkwinc was used instead of the secular term, pinaxpinax, "maul."The groups went out on their errands. Actually, of course, the articlesin question were already provided and in the possession of a certaingroup. Each age group came in, dressed for the performance theyhad planned, and danced around the fire. When the owners of theTongs Making asked for their gear, the group would pretend not tounderstand, or would reply, for example, that they neither knew norcared, they just wanted to dance. Finally they went out of the house,and returned with some unserviceable object?for instance, the groupthat was to bring the stick for making the tongs might return with abit of a twig, or a chunk of gnarled, cross-grained wood that could notbe used. At length they brought in the pole for the tongs, butrefused to give it to the eight chiefs. They teased the chiefs, askingthem what they would give for a fine pole like that, etc. and at laststruck a bargain: one of the eight chiefs would have to "sing for thepeople." When the offer was accepted, the tormentors called on oneof the eight and ordered him to act out a specified scene. The goalwas to select a serious person who would be a bit embarrassed atgiving a ludicrous performance: at one performance a few years agothey gave one chief a big doll, and made him imitate a woman nursinga baby, suckling it, changing its diapers, and so on. Another had topretend to be a small boy, standing on a box and shouting the equiva- Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 407lent of "Mamma!" until all were satisfied he had attained just theright tone of anguished appeal. Finally the horseplay came to an end.Six of the owners of the Tongs Making held one of the poles, three oneither side. One chief held the wedge, the eighth, the hammer.Plank drums and drumsticks were brought out. The eight chiefsbegan a song, in which all the people joined. At the end of the song,the chief who held the hammer blew a whistle and struck the wedge.Four songs were sung in all, and four blows were struck, then the tongswere completed (they had actually been made up beforehand). Theother pair of tongs was made in the same way. The leader of theeight owners inspected the tongs, announced that they were wellmade, and tossed them over by the fire. Someone picked them upand stowed them away for future use. The eight owners took thewhite mats and returned to their places in the audience (the matswere their payment).Then the speaker arose and quieted the audience. When they werestill, he said, "Now I am looking for a man to drum for the songs."He pretended to look over the crowd, and finally called on the manwho owned this privilege. Planks and drumsticks were passed outto the audience, and a great box was brought in as the "drum" ofthe man who had been called on for the drumming (actually he ledthe drumming). The leader painted his face, put on a shredded-ceder-bark head ring with feathers projecting from it, hitched hisblanket up short with a shredded-cedar-bark belt, and took two longfeathers for "drumsticks." Meanwhile, another man, also owner ofhis role, was called on to go up on the roof as a lookout, and roofboards were moved aside so he could call down his reports. Whenall was ready, the "drummer" took his place on top of the big box.All the men who had drumsticks and planks before them had towatch him closely, for once the drumming began his commands couldnot be heard, and so he indicated the tempo and volume of the drum-ming by a set of stereotyped gestures, something after the fashion ofan orchestral conductor among ourselves. (The informant did notknow all the signals, nor all the varieties of beats, but those he re-called indicate the complexity of the pattern. He named two startingbeats, kiktcil, a heavy beat, a rest, followed by a roll; and aLatcil,"two", a heavy beat, a rest, a beat, a rest, followed by a roll; and aperformance called wisip, in which the men went through the motionsof drumming without touching the drum planks. Some of the signalsmentioned were: a drumming motion made with arms extended atabout shoulder height from side to side, which mdicated a light beat;a similar motion made with arms raised high, a harder beat; and adrummmg motion with the arms held low, called for the hardestpossible drumming.) The leader seems to have performed a sort of839093?51 27 408 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144dance, to accompany the drumming. Between "songs" or drummings,he squatted on the box, facing the fire, resting.During a break in the first drumming (or perhaps making himselfheard over the noise before the men really began to drum hard), theman on the roof shouted down, "You're not drumming hard enough!Only the grass, and the little bushes around the cove can hear you!"At the end of the first drumming, there was a moment of silence.Everyone listened intently. Then the one on the roof called down,"You people still are not drumming enough. Only the trees at theedge of the woods could hear you!" The people shouted back, heap-ing insults on the leader of the drumming. "I Imew when he wascalled out he couldn't do it! He's no good! My dog could have donea better job of drumming!" After the second drumming, the one onthe roof shouted, "You did a little better, but it was still not enough.You people must make more noise. You woke up the birds up onthe mountains, and now you must drum still harder." There wasmore shouting and joking, but it stopped as soon as the leader roseto his feet and prepared to give the opening signal. By this time, themen were keeping better time, and pounding hard?the noise musthave been deafening. At the end of the third drumming, the manon the roof called down, "This is your last chance! Out on the oceanthe water is boiling, up on the mountains the rocks are trembling, upin the sky the stars are falling?if you do well now the Wolves willhear you!" The final drumming thundered forth. Meanwhile, theWolves and the novices assembled behind the house. With a gesturethe drumming leader stopped the pounding of the drums, there wasan instant's silence, and then the whistles of the Wolves were heard,and the novices blew their whistles and then began to sing spiritsongs. They marched around outside the house four times, whistlingand singing, then retm-ned to the woods. The Sponsor had thespeaker tell the people to get ready in the morning, "We will try torescue them early in the morning." He told them to bathe, to washtheir hair with urine, and to paint their faces.As a rule, the "Calling" was prolonged so that it lasted most ofthe night. By the time the people had washed their hair, bathedritually in the sea, and got their canoes ready dawn came. A numberof "rafts" were rigged by lashing planks to make a platform acrosstwo canoes. If the weather was very bad the rescue party might goafoot (this was said to be normal procedure at Ahousat), but the raftswere used when possible. Women, who formed the majority of thepeople who went on the rafts, wore tall headdresses made of whitefeathers attached to slim limber wands secured in a cedar-bark headband, and new yellow-cedar-bark robes, or in recent times, gailycolored shawls. As they shoved off from the beach they began Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 409to sing, bending and straightening their knees in time to the songuntil their feather headdresses swayed in unison and the raft bobbedup and down in the water. In addition to the rafts a flotilla ofcanoes set out.Meanwhile, the novices were made ready. Rings of cedar bark,twisted rope fashion, with twigs of the soft-needled white fir caughtbetween the tm-ns of the strands, had been prepared for them. Thehead rings had the twigs projecting forward on both sides to meet ina point in front. In addition to head rings the novices wore neckrings, brief kilts, and rings about their upper arms and wrists, kneesand ankles, all made in the same fashion of cedar bark with insertedbalsam fir twigs. Girls wore in addition a little cape of the twigs.Their faces were blood-spattered. The usual method of producingthis effect was for the attendant to cut his tongue and spray a mixtureof blood and saliva on the novice's face.Since most of the winter villages were situated in coves, there wasusually a point coming out on one side of the village or the other thatprovided an effective natural stage for the pageant. As the raftswith their escort of canoes approached the point, the Wolves appeared,running out of the woods down along the beach and back into thewoods. There were several variations on procedure at this point.Among most of the Northern tribes, the Wolves made four appearances : first with only the principal novice, then with the four of highest rank,and finally with all. Among the Central tribes there might be aseries of eight appearances of the Wolves, first without, then withthe novices. At Hesquiat a certain chief owned the right to stepashore the first time the Wolves appeared. The instant he set footon the beach he "dropped dead," struck down by the power of theWolves. Four other chiefs went through the same procedure nexttime the Wolves appeared. Whatever the number of appearances,the final time the Wolves came out they brought all the novices withthem, and tarried on the beach.During their apparitions the novices indicated what sort of privilegesthey "had been given by the Wolves" and would show subsequently.There were various ways of doing this. Some privileges were repre-sented by a dancer dressed in the costume to be used, such as GrizzlyBear, "wild man" (tcinlyath), and so on, who accompanied thenovice. Several Northern Nootkan chiefs had special kinds of Wolves,represented by a framework made of poles covered with canvas inrecent times, on which the novice rode. Other display privilegeswere represented by special dance steps performed by the novice,or by some object he carried. At Kyuquot, a certain dance indicatedthat the novice would display the Supernatural Canoe (wlnatcict) ; at Hesquiat a novice with the same right appeared with a small 410 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144model of a canoe to indicate the same thing. Novices who were togive a potlatch to another tribe carried, or danced to indicate thatthey carried Supernatural Quartz Crystals. Any tribesman could tell,if he did not know in advance, what sort of privilege would bedisplayed by each novice.Each time the Wolves appeared, some of the people in the canoesmade ludicrous "attempts" to capture them. Some of these men, andsome women, had brought such armament as outsize halibut hooksbaited with sea biscuit, sea urchin poles (in lieu of harpoons), ducknets, or lassos representing the loop snares for ducks. These peopleannoyed the Wolves into chasing them down the beach. They fledin mock terror, screaming for their lives, into the water to theircanoes. If a man could manage to tip a couple of canoes over whilescrambling for his own he counted the day a success. This horseplaywas said to have a serious purpose: that of attracting the attention ofthe Wolves to a far end of the beach so the novices could be rescued.Descriptions suggest that the fun of the thing outweighed any seriouspurpose. In any case, the last time the Wolves appeared with thenovices, they pretended to be distracted to the extent of allowing mento leap ashore from the rafts to seize each novice bodily and take himaboard. As soon as the Wolves saw their "prisoners" had beenrescued, they mauled any of the "trappers" they could catch, andtipped over any canoes in shallow water, then dashed back into thewoods. At Hesquiat, the chiefs who had been struck down by thepower of the Wolves, who apparently had lain on the beach enjoyingthe doubtful honor of risking being trampled on in the various skir-mishes, were resuscitated by the people on the rafts, who clappedtheir hands and shouted four times to revive them. Then the raftsset out across the cove to the village with songs of rejoicing.From this point on there was considerable difference from one tribeto the next. The novices were purified by ritual acts and a period ofseclusion, but there were numerous ways of accomplishing this end.Almost invariably there were processions through all the houses. Thefirst of these was made directly after the return of the rafts to thebeach, at Ehetisat, among the Muchalat, and at Hesquiat. Ordi-narily there was a chief who had the hereditary right to lead the pro-cession, singing spirit songs proper to the occasion. The novicesformed in line according to their rank and, accompanied by theirattendants, followed him. At Hesquiat the attendants held ropes theends of which had been tied about the novices' waists when they werecaught. This party usually marched to one end of the row of houses,then into each house in turn, making one or four counterclockwisecircuits of the central fireplace. While in the houses, each novice sanghis spirit song and danced a few steps indicative of the kind of priv- Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 411ilege he was bringing back. In rituals in which the party went directlyto the Dance House from the rafts a similar performance was staged.Finally, the novices were seated on boxes set in a row across the rearof the house. A breakfast of dried fish was served, the novices beingfed first. Among several of the Northern Tribes certain personsowned the right of being the first to eat at this time. The owner ofthis privilege danced around the fire, singing, not heeding the peoplewho begged him to begin eating and tempted him with choice morsels.Finally he let himself be persuaded, then all ate. At Hesquiat thisfeast was called titcpol, a word used for a meal served "after youhave had a hard time, like being out in a storm." Probably "pick-me-up" would be the best translation.After the meal, a speaker stood by the novices and announced,"Now listen, for they who have returned from the woods will sing forus." Each novice in turn came forward to sing his supernatural song,then his father or grandfather, or, in the case of novices of low rank,the chief sponsoring his initiation acted as his speaker, announcingthat the Wolves had taken the novice to such-and-such a place, theancestral home of his hneage, and there had taught him the song hehad just sung, had given him the name thus-and-so by which he wasto be called henceforth, and had told him, for example, that he was togive a feast, or invite another tribe to a potlatch, or display certainprivileges. The inheritance of each prerogative was recited, estabUsh-ing the novice's legal right to the name, the mask, or whatever itmight be.Some novices "brought Supernatiu-al Quartz Crystals from theWolves," by way of demonstrating that they had been instructed togive a potlatch. The person speaking for the novice would take theQuartz Crystal from him (it might be in the novice's headdress, or inhis hands, or the speaker might produce it by sleight-of-hand), then"send" it to the tribe that was to be invited, dancing and going throughthe motions of shooting the crystal magically. Sometimes at Ahousat,for example, this was done on the beach after the novices were rescued,then repeated in the house. This, of course, was standard procedurefor announcing intent to invite another tribe (or confederacy), and isoften spoken of by informants as being the invitation, although a party-was always sent to make the formal invitation later on.Usually it took most of the day to go through this with each of thenovices. Afterward the novices made a second procession through thehouses, just as they did following their rescue.From this point on there was even more variation in procedure fromgroup to group. In broad terms the pattern called for a removal of thefir-twig garments of the novices, and a series of 4-day periods withdecreasing restrictions until the rite ended. Usually the fir garments 412 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144were bui-ned during the waxing of the first moon after the ceremonial, arite was performed to "send away the power of the Shamans' Dance,"and the Sponsor gave his potlatch at which normal secular rules wereobserved as to seating and the rest. It is possible that there has beena trend to curtailment of this long dwindling away of the rite. Inform-ants spoke of timing the beginning so that 4 days after the rescue of thenovices the "new moon" (first quarter, to us) would appear and thefir garments could be removed and burned.At Kyuquot, according to the description given, after the removalof the fir garments, the novices wore cedar-bark bands and ornamentsof various types and danced Shamans' (uctaqlyti) Dances for oneday. A list of these that could be used by novices of the house a'Licwas given as follows: The first listed in my notes (there was no defi-nite ranking of these dances, but this one was apparently consideredof a lesser category, for it was stated that not much property had tobe potlatched when it was shown) was itself called uctaqiu, or yat-syatsa. The dancer wore a head band ring of red cedar bark withfour long feathers over the forehead and long streamers of shreddedcedar bark down the back. He wore thick wristlets of red cedar bark,and his face was painted with thin vertical stripes of red. A stepcalled Lasa was used for this dance; the word refers to "sliding" thefeet, in a sort a slow shuffle. The arms were held out to the sides,elbows half bent, hands at about shoulder height. The body wasswayed from side to side to the time of the songs. A second type ofdance was called nulim, and was supposed to represent a deer (sic, cf.the Kwakiutl nulam, or "Fool Dance"). This dancer wore a thincirclet of red cedar bark with thick rings with projecting ends, in theform of figure 9's, placed one on either side of the head. His facewas painted red down the sides of the jaw and across the mouth. Heheld his arms bent at the elbows, one extended to the side, the otheracross the chest, first on one side then on the other. The step wasone called kimilkimil, sliding one foot forward, then giving a quickhop. The "Wolf Imitator," (qwaiyatsiniq) held his arms extendedforward, fists clenched, and danced by hopping with both feet to-gether, a step called tuhtuh. He wore a cedar-bark head ring with athick double loop, like a figure 8, projecting from the back.His face paint consisted of a broad horizontal streak across the cheeksand over the nose. The "Grizzly Bear dancer" (nana'qiniq) shuflaedabout ponderously?he scarcely danced at all. He made clawinggestures with his hands. He wore a small head ring, and his facewas painted solid black. The winatcictiniq, or "Supernatural CanoeImitator," used the same step as the Wolf Imitator, but held hisarms out first to one side, then to the other, extended at full length,thumbs extended vertically. He wore a thick head ring, with feathers Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 413stuck in vertically all the way around. His face was painted inbroad vertical stripes. A hametsa dancer wore no head ring, but hadhis hair tied up in a bunch on top of his head (something after thefashion of a warrior). His face was painted black. He danced ina squatting position, hopping about, apparently much like the Kwak-iutl Hamatsa dancers. He did not bite spectators nor eat humanflesh. Another type of dance was that of the "Land Otter Dance Imi-tator" (woxna'qiniq) . The dancer wore a wreath of hemlock twigsinstead of red cedar bark, and had a face paint consisting of hori-zontal streaks of black. He danced with little quick steps, crouchingto the floor, rolling over, then bounding upright, in imitation of theplay of the otter. The last type of dance recalled was the maiyaliniq,"Disease Object Imitating." This was owned by only a few peopleof the a'Licath. The dancer wore hemlock branches and red cedarbark head and wrist rings. He walked with long slow steps aboutthe fire, making four circuits in the ceremonial direction. He extendedhis arms as though grasping at disease objects in the air. Finally heclasped one in his hands, brought it to his mouth, and pretended tobite it. As he bit, blood spurted from the object, spattering his handsand face. (Actually, of course, he bit into a small bladder of bloodwhich he had concealed in his mouth or in his hands.) Then he sang,and danced back and forth across the house four times. This dancewas known to have come from the Fort Rupert Kwakiutl in fairlyrecent times.These dances were performed by the novices in the course of aritual called Lasmas. Two groups of men carrying two long boardstook their places along the sides of the house. The chief's speakerstood by the door to tell the audience to make ready. A group ofsingers came in with rattles, and then the novices came in with elderkinsmen. The kinsman of each novice sang the ritual song which theWolves had given his young relative, and the latter danced whateverdance he had been given, as above. After this performance, thenovices were restricted to the house for 3 more days (making 4 alltogether in this period), when the giver of the Shamans' Dance gavehis potlatch. After the potlatch they were released with no moreado. (If it is true that the "curing" and burning of the hemlock-twiggarments is out of place in this account, it probably was performedat this point, just prior to the potlatch. After the power of the Sha-mans' Dance had been sent away by the smoke purification andwhistling, the chief giving the performance would have been free tohold his potlatch with the ordinary secular rules of behavior andetiquette.)According to my notes, prior to the uctaqiyu dances, the fir gar-ments of the novices were burned and the novices themselves were 414 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144purified in the smoke, in a rite called either "The-Sending-with-Fire(?)" (matmisinap) or "The Curing" (qamatciL). I suspect I musthave misunderstood: one would expect this to be the conclusion of theceremonial. Whenever it occurred, it was done in the following way:early in the morning young men were sent to cut four hemlock sap-lings. These were brought untrimmed into the Dance house. Whenthe people had assembled, the novices were made to group themselvesabout the fireplace into which their costumes of fir twigs were thrown.The four fresh-cut saplings were held crown foremost over the fireso that their green needles increased the smoke. The head of ajunior branch of the a'Licath lineage danced around the circle ofnovices with an assistant to the accompaniment of two special songs.Then he and his helper blew whistles over the heads of the novicesfour times, to drive away the supernatural power of the Wolves.The novices were restricted to the Dance house the following 3 days(or if my notes are correct, for the days of uctaqiyu dances plus 3more), then were released and the chief gave his potlatch. At thispotlatch, various masks, dances, and other privileges "brought fromthe Wolves" by principal novices were displayed.In the Ehetisat version of the ceremony, after the 4 days of pro-cessions, and dances by the clubs, the novices, their costumes removed,were taken to the river to bathe. Meanwhile, four spruce (?) saplingswere cut and stood one in each corner of the house. The noviceswere marched back with their hair combed forward over their faces.They joined hands and circled the fire to the beat of a special song.Certain chiefs who owned the right to do so came forward withbunches of shredded cedar bark, with which they gestured as thoughdrying the bodies of the novices as a second song was sung. Thebunches of shredded bark they raised over their heads, and shoutedritually four times to drive away the power of the Wolves. This endedthe ceremonial, except that with the "new moon" the fir costumes hadto be burned, after which the novices made a procession throughthe houses, facing to the eastward in each house to sing their spiritsongs. After this the chief gave his potlatch.The Moachat account reports that there the costumes of fir twigswere removed after 4 days of processions, and then when the "newmoon" appeared, were taken to a special place out in the woods,divided into four piles, and burned, while the people stood by singingspecial chants to slow time. The giant tongs that had been madeearly in the rite were used as pokers, to stir the branches until theywere consumed. The people returned to the house (the tongs weremeanwhile taken to another place and left leaning against a tree),where they drummed on planks with batons, then shouted, "wo + 1"four times to drive away the power of the ritual. Then the potlatch Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 415could be given. The Muchalat procedure seems to have been aboutthe same, but there were no tongs used, for they had no rite of makingthese articles.Descriptions by Hesquiat ceremonial informants specify longerperiods for concluding the ceremonial with a series of gradual stepsfor the removal of the novices' restrictions. I believe that such aprocedure was more like the ancient one in days before Shamans'Dances were given so frequently. In recent times one or more mightbe given each winter in one of the larger confederacies, and in additionthe people would be invited as guests to others, which would hardlyhave been possible had each ceremony lasted as long as at Hesquiat.Following their rescue and the first display of their privileges, thenovices spent 4 days in the house dressed in their fir-twig garments,singing their supernatural songs daily at dawn, and marching throughall the houses twice a day. On the fourth night, their garments wereto be removed. According to one of the accounts, on this same nightthe two pairs of tongs were made (the other account has it that theywere made on the first night, the day of the kidnaping of the principalnovice, and after the atsa novices had been revived). Both accountsare in accord on the procedure for making the tongs, which was inevery respect like that described for the Moachat, even to the substi-tution of the same special words for the secular ones for "tongs,""wedge," and "maul." In any case, on this night the fir-twig cos-tumes were taken from the novices, who were dressed in blankets andhead bands of dyed, shredded red cedar bark with two vertical tufts,one fore and one aft. For the next 4 days, they sang their super-natural songs daily at dawn. During these 8 days, feasts were given,and the clubs gave Imitative dances and other amusing performances.The next step, after this period, was the washing of the novices' hairand burning the fir garments. Each novice was provided by hisparents with new mats, a wooden bowl for washing, a small dish foroil, and a comb. These objects were given to men who owned theright to receive them. Women were delegated to comb the novices'hair out with their fingers. All this, of course, was done to the accom-paniment of songs. Then other men, owners of the right, took thetongs from the corners of the house in which they had been stowed,and burned or partially burned the fir garments. The unburnedremnants were taken to a special place in the woods and left. Thenovices were adorned with head bands with a single vertical tuft,and had a vertical black streak painted down the middle of their faces.For the next 4 days they bathed daily, then were escorted to theirhomes. That night, the chief's house was darkened, and dancersappeared from behind a screen, preceded by a man who scatteredwhite down over them. Then a Wolf came out dancing on all fours. 416 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144also accompanied by a person who scattered white down. The dancersacted as though they were frightened. The Wolf whirled aboutrapidly, whistled, and disappeared. Then the chief showed his displayprivileges. On the following day he potlatched.The two accounts of the Ahousat ceremonial are somewhat con-fused, or rather, they confused me, although the sequence of eventswas doubtless very clear in the minds of the informants. Accordingto my notes, both accounts set a 4-day period during which the noviceswere restricted to the Dance House, and wore special types of shredded-cedar-bark head bands and new blankets, while the fir twigs they hadworn were lashed into a bundle and suspended over the door. Oneinformant maintained that a young man was concealed in this bundleduring the festivities, and sounded a whistle whenever anyone passedthrough the door. The dance clubs performed until the fourth night,when a rite was held that involved the striking down and resuscitatingof atsa novices (like that performed elsewhere in the first 4 days ofthe ritual; at Ahousat a similar performance was staged but desig-nated by a difi'erent name). One informant described this as beingdone by the Wolves, who came through the village whistling and strik-ing on the houses ; the other said dancers were struck down by whistlessounded by the novices. The atsa novices, on being revived, dashedabout the house, kicked out the fire and ran outside.Sometime later, either next day or after 4 days, there was a rite inwhich the novices were seated on a row of boxes to be ceremoniallycombed. Each gave an object representing a comb, an oil dish, hairoil, and red paint to certain persons in payment of this service. There-after (after 4 more days?) the novices joined hands to dance aroundthe fire while their fir-twig costumes were bm-ned. Two men, ownersof the privilege, danced inside the circle carrying poles with whichthey poked the blazing twigs, making them squeak and whistle (thetwo dancers blew whistles, of course, pretending the noise came fromthe fire). The incompletely burned remnants were taken to thewoods to be hidden. Then the novices made a procession. Oneversion has it that they marched down the beach to the place wherethey had appeared with the Wolves, danced there, then marched backin front of the Dance House. Finally each novice was escorted tohis home, and the ceremonial was over. Next day the Sponsor gavehis potlatch.Though the precise sequence and duration of the concluding actsat Ahousat are not clear from the preceding, it does seem that theceremonial must have resembled the Hesquiat one in lasting longerthan those of the Northern divisions, and, if my supposition is correct,was truer to the prehistoric pattern.The foregoing outline of the Shamans' Dance is based principally Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 417on generalizations by informants who, in response to both generaland direct questions, attempted to give outlines of the way, accordingto local standards, in which the ceremonial should have been staged.I do not want to leave the subject of the ritual without recounting atsome length the descriptions of two specific Shamans' Dances asgiven by the Ehetisat informant M. The reader will have encountereda number of lengthy ciuotations of her memories and opinions already.My chief hope is that I have not entirely stultified them in my attemptsat making them a bit more grammatical, for M had the gift of viva-cious story telling, and her accounts of the ceremonies make them morereal than any synthetic descriptions could be. It is necessary to pointout that her frequent reference to the amounts of gifts distributedgives a somewhat more mercenary tone than the ceremonial ordinarilyhad (to everyone except the Sponsor), but I had asked her aboutamounts involved in various potlatches, having learned that she hadheld the unofficial post of auditor for both her husband and her brother.But even despite this financial detail, her descriptions brought outthe hilarious good fun of the ritual that gave it its appeal and impor-tance in the cultm-e.AN EHETCSAT SHAMANs' DANCE "When the informant M's last child was about a year old her husbandwanted to give a potlatch. He had been planning the potlatch fromthe beginning of her pregnancy, and had gone on a fur-sealing voyageto get money for it. Her younger brother's son was several yearsold at the time, and the brother, who was first chief of the confederacy,had been planning to give a Shamans' Dance for him.M's brother sent eight men to invite the Kyuquot. The partywas weatherbound, and did not return for some time. When theycame back, they brought a considerable amount of gifts of money andvarious objects which had been given to them as wiko'asats, "tgiftlfor the canoe." (On their arrival, the inviting party was called in bythe Owner-of-the-Beach, who gave them a feast and some smallgifts, some for themselves, and some to take back to the chief, whohad sent the invitation. Then the other chiefs, in order of their rank,called them in, to do the same. This money was kept separate, tobe given to the chiefs of the visiting tribe, at a small feast to whichthey are invited later on.) There was $145 altogether of "gifts forthe canoe." Then M's brother invited all the Ehetisat in to a feast,to announce what he planned to do. He told them he wanted themto assist him by singing and dancing only, he did not want anyfinancial aid, for he had $700 in cash, and his sister M had a lot ofwomen's articles to give away. M's husband stood up and said,"Ehetisat, letusnothstento the chief. We all know that the Kyuquot 418 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144are many. Let us help him a little, giving him money for the prelim-inary potlatches. If the chief wants to give the main potlatch alone,we shall let him do so." So he contributed $20; others gave whatthey wished?$20, $15, $5, down to $1. Altogether they assembled$600 to help the chief (the informant knew the sums involved be-cause she always handled the money for her brother and for herhusband whenever either of them potlatched). They waited a longtime for the Kyuquot to arrive, because of bad weather. Everyonewas out digging clams one day when a shot was heard, indicating the ar-rival of the Kyuquot. There were 12 big canoes and a sailboat ortwo (about 200 people had come) . All the Ehetisat assembled in thechief's house, and with them, a considerable number of the closelyrelated Nuchatlets, who had come to assist them. The chief toldthem that they would give their guests a little dance outside, andthat he was sending a canoe to tell the Kyuquot to come ashore, andarrange places to stay without ceremony, for it was late in the day.The guests could make their ceremonious arrival the following day. Allthe people lined up along the beach, singing and dancing, and theguests came in singing also. There were a score or so of Moachatthere, who gave a brief dance, then collected $12 among themselves,which they gave to a brother of the Kyuquot first chief, saying, "TheMoachat give you this" (naming no specific individual as the donor).Then the Ehetisat scattered, going down to the canoes, looking fortheir friends, to carry the latters' gear up and arrange sleeping quar-ters for them. For the most of the night people went about visiting,hunting up acquaintances, singing, and enjoying themselves?"Noone could sleep for all the noise." At daybreak, four Wolf whistleswere heard. The Kyuquot shoved off in their canoes, out past thepoint off the village beach, and lay to. When everything was ready,M's brother had two cannon fired as a signal for the guests to come in.He himself appeared on the roof of his house, w^earing a Thunderbirdmask and a blanket covered with feathers, and danced as the canoescame in. For their part, the Kyuquot had a man in a Grizzly Bearcostume dancing on a platform built on their first chief's canoe. Mdanced on the beach, wearing a maskette and a Chilkat blanket. Asshe danced, she displayed a Supernatural Crystal (hai'na) whichshe "threw" to one of the visiting chiefs. He pretended to catch it,displayed it (really, displayed one of his own), and pretended tothrow it back. Each threw and displayed the Crystal four times.This represented the return of the Supernatural Crystal that had beensent to invite the Kyuquot. All the while, two Ehetisat GrizzlyBears were dancing in front of the houses. The canoes beached.M's brother gave a small gift to each of the 10 leading Kyuquot chiefs,for the display of the Supernatural Crystal (i. e., for their watching Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 419his display of it), and the Kyuquot first chief likewise gave a few-dollars to various of the host chiefs, "to pay for his use of the hai'na."Then the Ehetisat Beach Owner invited all the Kyuquot to a feast,as was his right; he sent the Grizzly Bears to call them in. Therewere so many Kyuquot they filled the great house to overflowing.The Beach Owner displayed a dance after the feast, and then gaveaway $140, giving it in small amounts, dollars and half-dollars, sothat every man received something. No sooner had he finished thananother chief in the same house invited them; the guests went outsidefor a short while and then came dancing back in. This chief justgave a feast; he gave four kinds of food: dried salmon, rice, saltedsalmon, and sea biscuit. Toward dusk, Wolf whistles were heardwith increasing frequency. A pack of Wolves, accompanied by theGrizzly Bears, swept down through the village and snatched awayM's brother's young son. The excitement began?people caughtthe chief (M's brother) and his father's brother, and mauled themabout "for not taking care of the young chief." That night two menwent about asking parents for children to be taken by the Wolves.They wanted "good-sized" children, or even adults, for they wantednovices who could sing their own songs, and sing well. The men wentabout while people slept. Some people might refuse (on some pre-text or other) if they did not have enough money to give away. Thenext day the Wolves could be heard close by. That night they weregoing to atsacil. The Wolves made four processions through thevillage, striking on the houses, outside the living spaces of those des-ignated as atsa (novices who were struck down magically). Asthe novices pretended to drop dead, they were carried by their parentsto the chief's house. The informant, with her child, was among theatsa. Then four men, with their faces painted black, went throughall the houses to announce the names of the atsa, "who had been struckdead by the supernatural power of the Wolves." Following them,four men, with blackened faces and white head rings, went from houseto house to call in the people. The Kyuquot entered in a group,singing, and dancing yatsyatsa. The first chief of the Kyuquotstepped forward and gave a present of $10, called ocitepitap, "cover-ing up" to M's husband, "to cover the body of his child." Next,the few Moachat who were there came dancing in as a group, thenthe Nuchatlet, and last, the Ehetisat (all those who were not busywith the ritual). Finally all were in and seated, each person sanghis own song, making a tremendous racket?^"you couldn't hear your-self." Then planks and drumsticks were distributed to the Ehetisatand Nuchatlet men, and the song leader (hamatcil), was called for-ward. He owned the right to lead these songs. He had nine songs,four with fast tempo, and five with slow heavy beats. After the first 420 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144four songs had been sung and drummed to, an old man was calledforward. He danced over behind the curtain across the rear of thehouse, where the atsa were lying, picked up one of them, and carriedit out into view. The child had been instructed previously to holdhimself rigid when picked up. The old man sang, then told thepeople that they must drum and sing harder. This particular taskwas not owned by any one person; anyone could be picked out to doit, and afterward would be paid for it. He would have, or wouldmake up a song for the occasion. For the last song they sang anddrummed with all their might. Then the novices blew their whistles.The informant, carrying her child, and followed by the rest of thenovices, came from behind the curtain dancing the yatsyatsa dance.Each novice sang (M sang for both herself and for her infant), and aspeaker announced their new names. There were 23 atsa in all.Two women gave presents of money to the Kyuquot. Then allwent to their quarters to sleep for a while.The following day, all those who had been atsa walked in a group tothe far end of the village. A Grizzly Bear and two Wolves appeared,abducting one of them. The rest fled in mock terror, but before theygot back to the houses, more Wolves appeared, and snatched away twomore. By nightfall, more novices had been "lost." Parties of war-riors were sent through all the houses, searching for the missing chil-dren. Even at night, groups went about, dragging sleepers out oftheir beds, making them stand up and sing while they searched."They were just like fighting," that is, they pretended to be enraged,and handled their victims pretty roughly. No one got any sleep.In the morning, the chief invited the Kyuquot to a feast. M left herinfant in his cradle in the rear of the house, close by the curtain, sothat it could be "abducted" without too much handling and jostlingabout. In the midst of the feast, someone shouted that a strangecanoe was coming, and everyone ran out to see. M's child was carriedoff at this point, that is, he was moved, cradle box and all, behind thecurtain. While everyone was on the beach, looking about for the non-existent canoe, two men came up and grabbed M roughly, one by thearms and one by the hair. They said, "Where did you hide your childand your nephew?" They began to drag her down to the water'sedge, to tlu-ow her in, yanking her about so violently she could notsing as she was supposed to. Two Grizzly Bears and two Wolves sud-denly appeared, knocked her tormentors out of the way, picked her upand carried her off to the woods. The last thing she saw on the beachwas a group of women setting upon her mother and throwing her inthe water, "for not taking care of her daughter." M was the last ofthe novices?she had arranged to wait until the last, so she would nothave to be in seclusion too long. Back in the woods she found some Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 421people from her house. They had her brush garments all ready forher, so she put them on, giving her dress and shawl to the Wolves.The Grizzlies and Wolves took the clothes to a little bare knoll in sightof the village, ripping them to shreds, to show the people she had beenkilled. Five warriors were sent to look for her body. Their faceswere painted black and they were armed to the teeth. They fired twoshots, and displayed a wolf tail, claiming to have killed one of the crea-tures. The informant was back in her brother's house behind the cur-tain by the time the five warriors came dancing in with the wolf tail,singing and bragging of their prowess. All the people were at a feastin the chief's house. Various j'^oung women who were known to beshy and bashful were called on to examine the trophy and sing a songabout it, while bystanders shouted that it was only a dead squirrel thatthe five "heroes" had found up on the hill. Apparently part of thisbusiness with the wolf tail was for the purpose of trapping someoneinto saying some tabu word, such as the ordinary word for "wolf," or "tail." "They played with the wolf tail all the rest of the day." Inthe evening, the people returned to the houses in which they stayed.The chief sent men to call each house chief (each Ehetisat chief) , askinghim to bring his people for the singing. Each chief brought his peoplein a group (including everyone who was staying in his house at thetime, guests as well as his own tribesmen). Each house group camein dancing. As soon as all were in, they began to plan for the nextday. Some men arranged with two or three others to get gear for a"trap" for the Wolves, others devised ways to harpoon the beasts, andso on. Finally they were quieted down. A song leader and hishelper were called on to go up on the roof, while planks and drumstickswere being passed out in the house. Then the fire was put out, so thatthere was no light at all. The song leader sang a song, then held arattle down through a gap where the roof boards had been shoved asideas a signal for the men to drum. After each song, the helper went downto tell the people to be silent, to keep the children quiet, and to listen.Then retm-ning to the roof he would report a storm, thunder and light-ning over the mountains, a tidal wave, or something of the sort. Theysang and drummed all night; "by dawn they were pounding with bothhands." M and her brother's child and the rest of the novices cameclose to the house. She told her nephevv^ to call out as loud as hecould, "Grandfather, come rescue me, the Wolves are all around me."The child did so. He was a little frightened by all the noise. Thenthe song leader on the roof shouted to the people, "Now we can hearone of them! Everyone drum as hard as you can!" The men beganto drum with all their strength, not trying to keep time?the din wasterrific. Then the Wolves began to whistle, and the novices sang theirspirit songs. The drumming was stopped so that the people might 422 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144hear. They began to sing for joy. The song leader and his helper weregiven a dollar each for their services. A man came in with a halibuthook on a length of heavy rope, asking for two strong men for partners(otopal) to help him catch a Wolf. Others went to the beach tobathe ritually, to be able to kill Wolves. Others set about riggingthe rafts. There were to be 10 rafts, 1 for each big house then stand-ing at Ehetisat, plus 2 especially for the Kyuquot. When all wasready, the rafts set out across the cove to a beach on the far side.Men in canoes went ashore to set their traps and snares, and to set upambushes from which to shoot or harpoon their sworn foe. The firsttime the Wolves appeared, they came alone (without any novices).Some of the hunters turned and fled at their approach, tripping theircomrades, and tipping over those who were offshore in the small canoes.The Wolves returned to the woods, then reappeared, bringing withthem two Grizzly Bears and the chief's child. The next time theyappeared, they brought with them a giant anis, "Crane," by whichthe informant, carrying her child, and accompanied by her nephew,marched. Other novices appeared at this time also. The fourth time,all the novices appeared. All the novices wore garments of fir twigs,and their faces were spattered with blood. This time a wmatcict, or"Supernatural Canoe," appeared with them, coming halfway down tothe beach, and then disappearing into the woods. The people dashedashore to carry the novices back to the rafts. Once aboard the canoesthey began to sing their spirit songs. Arriving at the village beach,the novices made a procession from house to house, marching in,circling about the fire. This was called kwomas. Then they went tothe chief's house, A big fire was burning there. The novices wentto the far end where they took their places on a platform, facing thewall. The people assembled, M's brother ordered some of his mento distribute dried salmon. One woman owned the right to be thefirst to eat; until she began no one might start eating. No matter howhungry the people were, they had to wait until she began to eat (theinformant added that children would sneak bites of fish when no onewatched them) . She went around the fire four times singing her songs,although the chiefs pleaded with her to begin to eat. Finally a kins-woman brought out some food that the owner of this right was espe-cially fond of, so she ate it, and then everyone could start.After they had broken their fast, M and her nephew were calledon to sing. They, and the rest of the novices, all sang the chief'schild's song. M, her child, and her nephew were together (apparentlyshe spoke for the three of them). She said that the Wolves had giventhem the song that they had just used, and told them to display theprivileges that their ancestor saiyatcapis had found long ago. Malso danced, then displayed a Supernatural Crystal (meaning that Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 423she was going to invite them to a potlatch). All the people pretendedto "drop dead," then sat up making a ritual cry, "ho:!" to indicatethat they had been brought back to life. Then the rest of the novicessang and announced the new names that the Wolves had bestowedupon them. After this, the people formed themselves into groups todecide what sort of Imitating dances they would have.That evening, the novices were made to sit on their platform facingthe fire. They still wore their garb of fir twigs, and had their novicewhistles. The guests from Kyuquot came in and seated themselvesabout the house. The Ehetisat and the Nuchatlet were going todance Imitating dances. First a group of young women came inwearing white sheets with multicolored stripes painted on them, andheaddresses with two long projections which represented antenna.They were imitating Butterflies. They danced around, and then atthe end of their dance, each gave gifts to the Kyuquot women. Therewas no particular system to their giving: each gave to whomever shewanted to, although they tried to be sure that each of the womenguests got something. Next the old women came in, dancing KelpCod. They came in without singing, holding their arms outstretchedbefore them, then raising one and lowering the other, then bringingthem together again, keeping time to a drum beat (this representedthe opening and closing of the cod's mouth). When they were all in,and had completed the circuit of the fire, they sang. Then they gavedishpans to all the Kyuquot women. There was another women'sgroup that danced, but the informant did not remember what theydanced, nor what the old men danced. The latter, in their turn gaveguns, blankets, and money, to the older Kyuquot men. Two mendressed as Red Cod danced for the middle-aged men's group. Theywore red blankets, padded out to represent enormous belHes. Theycalled on the speaker of the Kyuquot first chief to come forward"to gut the Red Cod." He danced forward, took a knife, and pre-tended to cut, then grasped an end of a piece of cloth under the edgeof the blanket. He kept pulling out yards and yards of "guts"(which was a bolt of cloth unrolled and wadded up). Another Kyu-quot man was called out to clean the other Red Cod, and given thecloth as his gift. The young man danced a Woodpecker dance, atthe end of which they gave new shirts to all the young men fromKyuquot. All these gifts were furnished by the dance group them-selves, of course. Then they were through with the Imitating dances.They made ready to open the curtain at the back of the house.M's mother began to sing for her grandchild (M's child). As thecurtain opened, the people all gave a ritual cry, and they saw a greatCrane standing there (a dancer wearing a Crane costume). The m-formant and her nephew went over to the Crane and began to sing839093?51 28 424 BITREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144their spirit song. When they finished, the people began to drum,and to sing the song, and the Crane began to dance. It danced whilefour songs were sung. Afterward, the chief's speaker recounted howan ancestor of the family had encountered the Crane Spirit, and howthe right to display the privilege had descended to those who nowshowed it. The chief gave the four leading chiefs from Kyuquot $2each, for looking at the privilege. Next he gave money and articlesof value to all the Kyuquot chiefs who had given "for the canoe" tothe inviting party. He was very careful to give different objectsback; for instance, to a chief who had given a canoe he gave a gun,to another who had given a trunk of white-man's manufacture, hegave a canoe, and so on, for it would not look well to give back thesame kind of things, nor to give the same objects away?^"it wouldlook as though he did not care for what they had given him." Thenhe thanked the Kyuquot for coming, saying he was glad they all hadcome and thanked them for all their gifts. He did not use a speaker,but spoke himself. The first chief of the Kyuquot replied, sayingthat the two tribes were always good friends, and tracing out theirrelationships, showing that they were kin. Then he said his youngerbrother wanted to give a dance and give a few gifts the followingafternoon.The next afternoon the Ehetisat and the Nuchatlet assembled inthe chief's house. He had told the guests to use his brother-in-law'shouse to make ready for their dance. While they waited, the chieftold his people (this was especially for the younger ones), "When youget money from the Kyuquot chiefs, don't spend it or lose it?save it,for we have to return it to them. They were invited here to be givengifts, not to be sent home empty-handed." Three Kyuquot chiefscame in with their people, those of each chief in a group. The firstchief's housemates wore head bands with little paddles stuck in them.Each of the three groups had distinct ornaments and dances. Afterthey had danced, the Kyuquot chief took his place at the rear of thehouse. He made a speech saying, "Now I am using the back end ofthe house, just as though I were in my own home. If my kinsmanthe chief of the Ehetisat comes to Kyuquot he can have my houseto use if he wishes." Then he gave a (woolen) blanket to M'sbrother, a shawl to M, and money to all the Ehetisat and Nuchatlet,a dollar to each man and a half-dollar to each woman. His youngerbrother came forward to dance, wearing a maskette on his forehead.He had four helpers, tlu-ee of whom danced with him, the fourthcoming forward at the end of each dance throwing a double handfulof silver dollars and half-dollars among the audience. He dancedfour dances. Then the second chief of Kyuquot gave a canoe to theinformant's brother, and a dollar or a half-dollar to each man of the Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 425Ehetisat and Nucliatlet. The third Kyuquot chief gave money to themen also, and no sooner had he finished than two other Kyuquot,one after the other, began to dance, and gave money to the men.Only the first chief had given to both men and women. Then whenthey had finished, two Nuchatlet chiefs danced, and after them,several Ehetisat chiefs, each giving presents to the Kyuquot whenthey had finished. Gifts made after a chief had danced were calledLuptskwl, "sweating." As he made them, each chief had his speaker"talk about old times," and thank the people for watching the dance.Next evening, the chief was going to display his SupernaturalCanoe (which he had indicated he was going to show at the time thenovices were rescued). When the guests were seated and the fii-ewas burning brightly, the Ehetisat and Nuchatlet came into thehouse dancing the Supernatural Canoe Imitating Dance. They worewreaths of hemlock, and their faces were spattered with blood. Theydanced holding their arms extended forward, fists clenched with thethumbs extended upward. After they had entered, the SupernaturalCanoe itself appeared. It was all of wood, with 10 paddles on eachside, which moved by themselves. (Apparently the object was amechanical device made to move by means of concealed lines andwires.) The canoe appeared four times during the dance. Then thedancers gave presents of money to the Kyuquot. This was to returnthe gifts of the five Kyuquot chiefs on the preceding day. TheEhetisat chief gave money to the guest chiefs "for looking at his dis-play privilege." Then a Nuchatlet chieftess wanted to dance. Firstshe had her speaker announce that she was related to the Ehetisatchief, tracing out the relationship. This was why, she said, she hadthe right to dance and give away property in the house of the Ehetisatchief. Then she danced, and gave away $140 to the Kyuquot menand women, giving them dollars and half-dollars. When she hadfinished, a Nuchatlet chief gave a Hamatsa dance. All the Nuchatletwomen formed a chorus, dancing with him. He gave $3 to each ofthe leading chiefs of Kyuquot, and 50 cents each to the rest of theguests, giving away about $100 altogether. Then M's husband stoodup and began to sing. He was carrying their infant. Then heannounced that his son was giving property to the Kyuquot. Hegave 5 pairs of wool blankets to the first 5 chiefs, then gave the first10 chiefs $10 each, and gave $3 to each of the rest of the men. Hegave away more than $300. Two more Ehetisat chiefs danced thatnight. It was daybreak by the time they finished. The people wentout to their houses and slept a little while. Then another Ehetisatchief invited the guests to his house. The novices were not allowedto leave the house during this time, but M and two other womenslipped out the back way and watched through a little window. The 426 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144Kyuquot were given a breakfast of dried salmon and whale oil.Their hosts sang while they ate. Then the Ehetisat women dancedwearing headdresses with long wands to which feathers were attached.The chief who had invited them gave the first chief a shotgun, a pairof wool blankets to each of the next three, and a canoe to the fifth.The informant learned afterward that he also gave $130 in cash to theguests, and cloth and dishes to the women, but she did not see thispart because she had to return to the Dance House before she wascaught. In the afternoon, the guests came back to M's brother'shouse, after a short nap. The novices were content, for now theycould watch the dances. The guests were given food when theyarrived, and the novices shared in the feast. (In ancient times, saidthe informant at this juncture, novices could eat only dried fish, but inrecent times people were less careful about such things.) They atesteamed clams, dried fish, boiled fish, boiled potatoes, salmon eggs,and tea. It had been planned that three Ehetisat chiefs shoulddance and give away property. The one who began made a speechthanking the Kyuquot for coming so far when his "nephew" invitedthem (he called M's brother "nephew" on the basis of some distantkinship). One of the Kyuquot chiefs replied that they were glad tobe there, and that because of the close relationships between all theKyuquot and the Ehetisat families, they felt themselves to be athome when they came to visit the Ehetisat. The Ehetisat chiefwho had made the speech announced he wanted to show the peoplewhat the Wolves had said should be displayed in honor of his daughter(who had been one of the novices). The curtain opened, revealingtwo wooden Wolf-masks (i. e., dancers w^earing masks), standing oneon either side of a slender pole from which a feather was suspended ona string. He then announced that the Kyuquot were to play at catch-ing the feather, the winner to receive a pair of wool blankets and $2.(The pole from which the feather was hung was set in the grbund.There was probably some rigging of cords to move it about so thefeather would be difficult to catch. This was, of course, a marriagetopati, or test-game; these privileges were sometimes used by theNorthern Nootkans in honor of a female novice in the Shamans'Dance as an announcement that they would be used on her marriage.)Several young men tried before one of them succeeded in leaping upand catching the elusive feather. He was given the prize. Then thepeople began to sing for the Wolf Dancers, who turned around counter-clockwise, then began to dance. The chief who had displayed thetopati sang his "property giving song" (hahaulatcaknoq), and gavethe Kyuquot two canoes, three big rendering kettles, three pairs ofwool blankets, and $120 in cash, and announced he was going toinvite them to a feast next day. The two other chiefs danced and Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 427gave away money, but the informant recalled few details. Then thepeople scattered to the various houses for a short rest.After a short time the first chief sent two men from house to houseto announce the conclusion of the Shamans' Dance. The novicesremoved their garments of hemlock branches, then went to the riverto bathe ritually. While they bathed, a spruce sapling was stoodin each corner of the house. The novices were marched back to thedance house, and made to stand in a circle around the central fireplace.Two men, who owned the right to do so, brought each tree out closeto the circle of novices. The two men were singing, while a thirdstood in the center, leading the song with a rattle. The novices hadtheir hair combed forward over their faces. They held hands andmarched around the fire. At the end of the singing, men who hkewiseowned this duty, came forward with bunches of shredded cedar bark,and went through the motions of drying off the bodies of the novices.There was a special song for this. Then the men with the cedar-bark"towels" raised the bundles of bark over their heads, giving four ritualcries, to "drive away the supernatural power of the Shamans' Dance."This' was called matsap. The moon was aheady waxing (in the firstquarter), so the hemlock-branch garments were burned right away.The novices sang their spirit songs while the things were burned. Toconclude the ceremony, the novices had to go through the vdlage,entering each house, facing toward the east, then sing their spiritsongs. Then they were free of all restrictions.Meanwhile, the chief of the Queen's Cove group had been makingpreparations to invite the Kyuquot to a feast. The Ehetisat womenassembled; they wanted to give presents to the Kyuquot women.The informant was content, for now she could go about and take partin all the feasts and dances. She joined the Kelp Cod group, andarranged that they should give cloth to the Kyuquot women. Mwanted to give away dishes herself, at the last (when her brother, thechief, gave his potlatch). So at the feast given by the Queen's Covechief' all the Kelp Cod women came in dragging long streamers ofcloth representing the streamers of the kelp. They danced, thengave the strips of cloth to the Kyuquot women. The Butterfly groupcame in with brightly colored silk kerchiefs, which they gave awayafter their dance. "They had to give away pretty colored things,because butterflies are prettily colored." M called both these women sgroups to her brother's house to a feast (and for a meeting). Onewoman told her, "The chief of the Kyuquot wanted to buy some po-tatoes to take home, I heard him say. Let's give them a lot ofpotatoes " So all the women contributed sacks and half-sacks ofpotatoes; those who had none, gave something else. The mformanthad no potatoes to spare, so she gave three new long feast mats. 428 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144Then it was arranged that they would dance when a relative (clas-sificatory nephew) of the informant invited the Kyuquot. Heplanned to use the chief's (his classificatory uncle's) house for this.The chief, M's brother, came in, saying, "I heard that you womenhad a big meeting." M replied, "Yes, and we decided to give themsacks of potatoes." For a jest, he told her, "All right. But rememberthat I am part Kyuquot. I want some potatoes too." At the"nephew's" potlatch, the Kelp Cod women came in for their dance.Each had little sticks, which represented one sack of potatoes each,and smaller sticks which represented miscellaneous delicacies, such asbladders of smoked salmon eggs, and the like. They did not hire aspeaker, but had one of their number speak for them when theirdance was over. Various women gave M's brother sacks of potatoes,including him with the guests. One woman said, as she gave him ahalf-sack, and a bladder of smoked salmon eggs, "Now you go homewith the rest of the Kyuquot." The joke was enjoyed by everyone.Then M's nephew made ready to give his potlatch. First a dancerwearing a headdress representing a Killer Whale came dancing intothe house, circled the fire, and sang two songs. Then two Ravensappeared from behind a curtain. They wore wooden headgear withlong beaks, carved to represent ravens, and capes of unwoven shreddedcedar bark. These dancers were paid by the man who was givingthe potlatch. M's "cousin," who was actually giving the potlatchin the name of his son (her "nephew"), spoke. He announced thathe himself had obtained these display privileges that had just beenshown. The masks he was leaving in the chief's house, but the guestsmight use the dances if they cared to (i. e., the Kyuquot could use thedances, songs, masks, and all, but could not claim them or transferthem, e. g., in marriage). He did not, he added, have much to giveaway, but he had just wanted them to see what he had obtained forhis son by his spirit-quest. Then he gave away $115 (giving the firstand second chiefs $5 each), and his wife gave cloth and dishes to thewomen. The Kyuquot chief through his speaker, thanked him,sajdng, "We shall be glad to use the dances. We need not be ashamedto do so, because we Kyuquot are closely (sic) related to your house.We are proud of you, our relative, for 'finding' these privilegesyourself?you have shown yourself a real man. Many try, but findnothing in the spirit-quest."Afterward, at a meeting of the Ehetisat, M's husband announcedthat his brother-in-law, the chief, wanted to give his potlatch nextday, so that would be the end of the affair. He himself intendedinviting the guests to a feast in the morning before the chief's potlatch,and he wanted all the Ehetisat to give "going away presents" (atsaqil), Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 429at that time. So in the morning he called the Kyuquot to a feast ofsalted salmon and sea biscuit. People came in, a house group at atime, to dance and give presents. Men, women, and even childrenbrought gifts?men brought blankets, clothes, and the like; womenbrought dishes, food, and women's apparel, the children brought matsand food. Each person gave to some friend among the guests. Asone house group finished, another began. One house gave nothingbut sacks of sugar and of flour?they gave away a great number ofsacks. The guests sat with their gifts piled up all about them. Thefeast and "going-away gifts" took so long that the chief could notbegin his potlatch, but had to wait till next day,M's brother sent men to call the Kyuquot to his house early in themorning. (He had told their individual hosts to give them breakfastvery early.) For the first time during the ritual, the precedence ofrank was observed. The first and second chiefs were called first,and brought in to be seated in their proper places. Then 10 otherchiefs were called in order of ranlt, and shown to their seats. (Theinterpreter remarked that the chief had undoubtedly called on some-one from Kyuquot to tell them the order of seating, so no mistakewould be made.) Then the rest of the Kyuquot were called in, themen seated on one side, the women on the other. The chief sang his"property song," and gave the first chief of the Kyuquot $40, thesecond, $30, and the other 10 seated chiefs $10 each. To the remain-ing men he gave $5 each, and $2.50 to each Kyuquot woman. Theinformant and her brother's wife gave cloth, dishes, and various house-hold articles to the women. There were $80 remaining of her brother'spotlatch money, so he sang his song again, and all the Ehetisat sangwith him. He distributed it among the men, $1 each as far as it went.Finally he began to speak (he seldom hired a speaker for he alwayspreferred to speak for himself). He said that he had invited theKyuquot in honor of his child and his sister's child, and that he had aright to invite them, for his tribe (the Ehetisat) and the Kyuquot wereclose kin. They had bought so many wives from each other that theywere just like one tribe. The first chief of the Kyuquot replied,through his speaker, thanking the host, and reaffirming the kinshipof the two tribes. Then all the people gave a ritual call, four times,to conclude the Shamans' Dance. It was announced that they coulddance "play dances" and play lahal now, for the ceremonial was over.All went to eat, then the age groups danced, and gave away house-hold goods. After this they played lahal, and the Kyuquot won twogames in a row. At daybreak, they stowed all their gifts aboard theircanoes and shoved off. All the Ehetisat, said the informant, did littlebut sleep the next 3 or 4 days. 430 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144A NUCHATLET SHAMANS' DANCEThis account, not altogether complete, of a Shamans' Dance of theNuchatlet, was given by the Ehetisat informant. It is included herebecause it brings out certain points of interest as regards the ritualpattern, and because the informant's knack of spicing a narrativewith colorful detail adds to the picture of what these performanceswere really like,A short time after the Ehetisat Shamans' Dance given by the in-formant's brother, previously described, the people were at a smallfeast, when they heard the sound of singing out on the water. Awoman went out to see what it was, then returned, saying there wasa canoe approaching, with a man standing in the bow singing. TheEhetisat knew something was going to happen, so the men blackenedtheir faces, tied their hair up with fir twigs, and got some long polesto lift the canoe. As the canoe came in, they saw the singer was achief of the Nuchatlet with six of his men. The Ehetisat waded outwaist deep in the water, holding the canoe off before it touched thebeach. They put their poles under it, and, chanting, lifted it outof the water. They carried it up into the house in which the feast wasbeing held. The Nuchatlet chief never once stopped singing. Whenhe was inside the house, he called all the Ehetisat chiefs by name,asking them for assistance. He announced he was inviting the Moa-chat and the Muchalat to a potlatch to celebrate the conclusion of hisdaughter's puberty rites. Since, he said, his daughter was half-Ehetisat (her mother was an Ehetisat woman), he was calling on themfor aid. The Ehetisat felt somewhat embarrassed, for they had justfinished a Shamans' Dance, and had little left in the way of moneyand valuables. Then the visiting chief made clear what he meantby "help." He wanted the Ehetisat to come to reinforce his owntribe (who were very few in number) for the singing and dancing;to assist, in other words, with their physical presence and not withmoney and goods. In a sense he was inviting them to the celebration.The Ehetisat chief had his people sing, and then he gave the canoemen$2 apiece. The Beach Owner called the Nuchatlet to his house,where he gave them a feast of four different kinds of food, anddivided $10 among them. The Nuchatlet stayed for 3 days, duringwhich various chiefs gave feasts and dances in their honor, and gavethem the customary "payments for the canoe." When they wereready to return home, the informant's brother gave them $20. Thenhe called his people to a meeting. He announced, "The Nuchatletchief has invited us all to the Shamans' Dance he is giving in honor ofhis daughter. Although he said he was asking us to help him, hewas really inviting us as guests. Therefore we can't just go there Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 431in an everyday manner?we have to arrange something special.We will arrive as though we were strangers, coming up to the beachsinging and dancing. The Nuchatlet chief is going to practice theperformance he intends to use for the arrival of the Moachat, so wewill sing to answer him." On the day arranged, the Ehetisat set outin their medium-size canoes (they had given away all their big canoes).They came in to the beach singing. The Nuchatlet women were linedup along the beach in all their finery to greet them. The young mencame out from one side and the older men from the other, each groupleading a Grizzly Bear dancer with ropes (the Nuchatlet chief wasgoing to use his Grizzly Bears in the Shamans' Dance). The twogroups met in the middle of the beach. The Grizzly Bears becamewild, broke loose, and disappeared into the woods. It looked veryfine. Then the Nuchatlet chief danced to display his SupernaturalCrystal, which he "threw" to the Ehetisat chief. The latter dancedin his turn, then returned the Crystal. This was done four times inall, to show that the Supernatural Crystal which had been "sent toinvite the guests" had been brought back. The Nuchatlet gave fourEhetisat chiefs each $1 "in honor of the Supernatural Crystal," andM's brother gave several Nuchatlet chiefs the same amount each.Then the Owner-of-the-Beach, a woman, invited the Ehetisat to afeast of two kinds of dried salmon, beans, and tea. The chief whohad invited them told his plans. He said they would have severaldays in which to learn and practice the songs. He wanted to dance aFrog Imitating dance, and asked for "partners" (otopal) to dance andsing with him. The young men were going to dance a Red HeadedWoodpecker Dance, while the old men planned a Codfish ImitatingDance. The Women's groups were going to dance ti'ulinik (u'ul,some kind of small bird), a Red-Winged Blackbird dance, and a SeaGull Imitating Dance. The Ehetisat aligned themselves with thevarious groups that they wanted to dance with. They practiced thesongs and dances for 3 days and nights. One night they learned theMoachat had arrived nearby, and were waiting for daylight to cometo the village. They had just finished an early morning feast ofspring salmon when they heard four shots. It was the Moachat.Two men were sent to meet the guests, to tell them to stop in a coveacross from the village until they heard a signal for them to come in.The messengers took a quantity of dried salmon and sea-biscuit, onwhich the guests might break their fast while waiting. The peopledressed and painted as rapidly as possible. When they were ready,they fired two cannon as a signal. The Moachat came paddhngtoward the beach. As when the Ehetisat arrived, the women werelined up along the beach. The Nuchatlet chief stood in front of thecenter of the line with his daughter, singing, while the two men's 432 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144groups came in with their captive Grizzly Bear dancers. Four Wolvesappeared and sounded their whistles. At the sound, the GrizzlyBears became enraged?they struggled and fought, and then, burstingthe bonds with which they were tied, they ran over, seized the chief'sdaughter, and carried her away bodily into the woods, A Nuchatletman came forward and said, "You Moachat have come for nothing.You saw the one in whose honor the chief invited you; you saw theGrizzly Bears take her away. I think you'll have to go home. It'stoo bad you came all this way for nothing." Some one among theMoachat replied, "Yes, we'll go home now. It's sad that this hap-pened. We are sorry to have come so far to no purpose."All this time the Moachat canoes were lying to off the beach. Sud-denly the Nuchatlet chief appeared on the roof of his house in aThunderbird costume. The Moachat danced in their canoes in frontof the beach. One of the Nuchatlet chiefs danced to display and"throw" a Supernatural Crystal; it was returned by one of the guests.This was done the proper number of times, after which the secondchief of the Moachat and one of the Nuchatlet chiefs each gave smallgifts of money. The Beach Owner then invited the guests to a feast.That evening the Muchalat arrived.^^ Two men were sent to tell themto come ashore informally, to spend the night, then to make theirceremonial arrival in the morning. They were met by friends at thebeach who helped them bring their gear up to the houses, and gavethem places to stay. During the ensuing commotion, one of theMoachat chiefs overheard a slighting remark someone made aboutthe Moachat. He became angry, and began trying to find out whohad made the remark, to answer him, and start a fight. TheEhetisat chief got him to one side, and said to him, "Chief, it was thechief of the Nuchatlet that invited you here. Why should you payattention to what some commoner says? That must have been somecommoner that you heard, somebody without a name [i. e., someonewhose name was not respected]. Pay no attention to people likethat. It is not right to fight and make trouble during the time offeasts and dancing." Finally the Moachat chief regained his calm.A group of Nuchatlet men went about from house to house, to an-nounce the abduction of the chief's daughter. They told the Mucha-lat, "The girl who invited you [the chief had invited them in hisdaughter's name], has been kidnaped by the Grizzly Bears. Youpeople must decide for yourselves what you will do. You can goback home if you want to; we won't stop you. It's too bad that youcame so far for nothing. If you want to stay, that will be all righttoo." In the middle of the night when everyone was asleep, a man " I do not know whether the "in-thc-house" performance was omitted, i. e., the rite in which the itsadropped "dead" and were revived, or whether the informant skipped it. Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 433went shouting through the village, "Wake up, everyone. A canoe,with two men and a woman, is leaving the beach. We must followthem." Two canoes set out in pursuit. At daybreak the two canoesreturned, towing three pieces of canoe. They amiounced, "Thosethree people ran away, leaving the broken canoe adrift." All thepeople went down to the beach to try to fit the three pieces together,to see whose canoe it was. Various men claimed it. Actually, thethree pieces were from three different old broken canoes, but thepeople kept on pretending to fit them together, and speculating onwho the run-aways were. The Muchalat made their formal arrival,during which the Supernatural Crystal was displayed and returned.The Beach Owner invited them and the Moachat to a feast. Afterthe feast, the Beach Owner sang for the guest tribes, and danced forthem wearing a maskette. Afterward she distributed $40 among thechiefs of the Moachat and the Muchalat. She made a speech to theguests, not using a speaker, telling them of the source of her right ofBeach Owner. She said, "I shall continue to exercise my right to givefeasts to all the people who come to the beach as long as I am able. Ihave no children of my own, but I do it to keep my name respected.When I am too old, I will give the privilege to one of my youngerbrother's children." As the people were leaving the house, a GrizzlyBear suddenly appeared and seized a young man whom he draggedaway into the bush. The people all fled to the beach. Someonespied the young man's parents there, so they all began to maltreatthem. They threw the mother into the water; the youth's fatherthey put into an old canoe with no paddle, and shoved him out toget back ashore as best he could.The Nuchatlet and Ehetisat assembled for a meeting. Behindthe house the Wolves could be heard whistling. When the peoplehad made their plans, they sent men to call in the guest tribes. TheMoachat were seated on one side of the house, the Muchalat on theother. The second chief of the Moachat spoke, saying that he wantedto display a dance also. So they gave him time to make ready.Then he began to sing, and a Hametsa dancer came out on the centerof the floor, with a chorus of women. They sang one set of songs andthe Moachat chief gave away $20; after a second set of songs, hedistributed $80. Then another of the guest chiefs gave a dance.Four of them in all displayed dances and distributed small amountsof money among their hosts. When they were through, the Wolfwhistles could be heard very close by. Without warning four Wolvescame into the house, seized a child, and ran out. The people, aftertheir first fright, set upon the child's mother for her failure to carefor the youngster, and finally dragged her out of the house and threwher in the water. The foUowing night, in the midst of a feast, some- 434 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144one came in shouting, "A canoe is coming! A canoe is coming! Itlooks like the Kyuquot!" Everyone ran out to see. Suddenly fouri'iniqwol, "Fire Tenders," appeared among them. These were beingswho tended the chief's fire. They were represented by men wearinglarge masks, and old ragged blankets. The Nuchatlet chief was theonly one on the coast who owned the right to use four of these, thoughseveral other chiefs had two of them. The i'iniqwol seized fourwomen, including the Beach Owner, and carried them off amidst achorus of Wolf whistles. There was great excitement. A mob ofpeople set upon the relatives of the four women pretending to betrying to drown their unfortunate victims; some men got guns andspears to kill them with. Children, who believed that the fightingwas real, were frightened and began to cry.Twelve novices were taken altogether. A party of men was sentfrom house to house to search for them, making four rounds. Theywere very rough, dragging people out of their beds, mauling themabout, and making them stand up and sing. They took some women"captives," making them march around with the searching party,singing. Then a group of men was sent through the houses to callall the people to help in the singing. The father of the Moachatsecond chief came to the informant's husband, saying, *T want youand your wife to come dance with us. The men and women willdance separately, using different dances. The Muchalat are goingto do the same." M went to her dance group to tell them, "I haveto dance with the Moachat. You can do as you please. I won't bethere to tell you what to do." Then she went to join the Moachatwomen. They went into the house dancing yatsyatsa; the Moachatmen danced a dance they called nulam. When they finished dancing,the dancers gave presents to individuals among the spectators (theNuchatlet and the Ehetisat). A few people didn't give anything, butjust left the center of the floor and sat down. Next the Muchalatmen and women came in, in two groups. They danced and thengave away presents to the hosts. Most of the men gave one or twodollars, but Muchalat Peter gave more than anyone else. He dis-tributed $100. Then the Nuchatlet chief announced that all thetribes were to help with the singing, and ordered planks and drum-sticks distributed. When all was ready, one man went up on theroof. He stood facing the east, and prayed to the Four Chiefs. Thenhe gave the signal to begin drumming. During the first rests, hecalled down to ask them if they had been able to hear any answer totheir drumming, saying that he could hear nothing. The people wouldshout, "Let me go up there on the roof. You come back down.You're no use! You are the one who must hear something?whydon't you wash your ears so you can hear?" Then he would give Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 435the signal for them to begin again. In later rests, he would call downto tell them what he saw and heard : great trees trembling, lightningflashing across the sky, peals of thunder. He exhorted them to drumharder, to finish then- task. Some would answer, "We don't hearanything yet?you must be crazy, or dreaming. Why do you wantto finish so soon? Is your woman home in bed, that you are in sucha hurry? We'll finish when the right time comes." Finally theyheard a whistle resembling the call of an owl (a special property ofthe Nuchatlet chief). All drummed their hardest, until the voice ofthe chief's daughter was heard, singing a spirit song, and then all theWolf whistles sounded. The chief who had led the drumming camedown from the roof, to announce, "They are pretty close now. Icould hear all the lost ones. You people all bathe ritually early inthe morning, and we will try to kill the W^olves." The people wentto the houses in which they were staying for a few hours' sleep. Theinformant and her husband were staying in the Nuchatlet chief'shouse, and what with the to-do of dressing the novices, and givingthem their last-minute instructions, and so on, no one in the housemanaged to sleep. Before daylight the novices were taken stealthilyout of the house. In the morning, rafts were prepared, and theNuchatlet and Ehetisat set out on them and in canoes to cross thecove. The Moachat and the Muchalat went dancing along the beach.A Nuchatlet woman came to ask the informant to be steersman of hercanoe; she had a sea urchin pole, with which she intended to "harpoon"a Wolf. When the Wolves came down on the beach, she went ashore,M remaining in the canoe, holding the bitter end of the "harpoon"line. When the Wolves came running toward them, M's companiongot herself tangled up in the line and fell flat on her face. On theirsecond appearance, the Wolves brought out the chief's daughter anda young man, both of whom had been "given" the Hametsa dance.Finally, on the fourth round, all the novices were brought out, res-cued, and taken back to the village on the rafts. The novices weretaken to the chief's house, where the people assembled to eat. Themale Hametsa novice danced first (because males took precedence,although the girl was of higher rank), and his father gave gifts of moneyin the young man's name to 15 chiefs, 5 Moachat, 5 Muchalat, and5 Ehetisat. Next the chief's daughter danced. (When a woman"danced Hametsa," she stood singing in the center of the floor, witha dancer actually doing the dance for her.) Her father likewise gavepresents to the guests. One by one the privileges of the other noviceswere shown, the origin of each right was recounted by a speaker, andthe novice (or a kinsman acting in his name), distributed small amountsof money. The Nuchatlet chief was singing, and about to distributegifts to return the "payments for the canoe," that had been given to 436 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144his inviting parties, when one of the Moachat committed some viola-tion of the rules of the ceremonial. All the novices (probably theirrepresentatives) became angry, and came dancing down among thepeople carrying short spears. They seized an Ehetisat war chiefinstead of the erring Moachat, and prepared to "harpoon" him. TheNuchatlet chief called on certain Moachat men to do the actual"harpooning." These were men who owned the right to make thecuts and insert the harpoon. One of the Moachat chiefs stood up toadmonish his people, "See, now, Moachat, see what I have beentelling you?you must always be quiet and careful when you go vis-iting. These people's ways are different from ours. See now thetrouble you have caused by your carelessness." According to theinformant, "The Nuchatlet chief lost a lot of money over the 'har-pooning.' " He had to pay a number of people for their services, theMoachat who cut and inserted the harpoon points and later thosewho cut the harpoon points free, and the war chief who was harpooned(this latter payment was called "putting a bandage on"). The warchief distributed $25 of his own money among the chiefs present.(It is quite probable that the whole incident had been arranged before-hand, of course. Otherwise the Nuchatlet chief would hardly haveknown who, among the Moachat, had the right to insert the harpoons,etc.) . Finally, the chief was able to finish his song, and to give giftsto those who had made payments for the canoes of the inviting parties.Then the dance groups came in. First the young women came in,with their Seagull Imitating Dance. They had "beaks" made ofcloth sewn onto head bands so that they projected forward, and worewhite dresses, with arm-long "mittens" of white canvas, which theyheld extended to represent wings. They danced and gave away pres-ents. Another women's group came in dancing and dressed to repre-sent the small birds called u'ul. The chief's group came in hopping,costumed as Frogs. The chief had wanted this dance, because theFrogs represented, or better, alluded to, the frogs that abounded inthe swampy area surrounding a "sockeye lake" (a lake into whichsockeye ran to spawn) which he owned.This group gave away a great quantity of things?money, utensils,and food. They gave to all the guests. The chief himself calledout the informant's name, held up a stick, saying, "This is 40 sockeye,when they run." He threw the stick out on the floor, and the in-formant had to go pick it up, saying, "La'kao, ha'wil (Thank you,chief)." (Gifts were commonly given thus during the Shamans'Dance. In a formal potlatch, of course, the gift or the token repre-senting it, had to be carried to the recipient, who did not stir fromhis place) . The old women's dance group came in next. Their giftsconsisted principally of food. One of them gave a sea-biscuit box Drncker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 437of dried and smoked clams to the second chief of the Moachat, anda similar box to another chief, and gave them a dollar each as well.She gave the most of all of the old women. The old men came indancing their Codfish Imitating dance. They had a young womanwith them to sing and dance. They gave away presents of cloth,and a little money.When the Imitating dances were over, the chief made a speech.He told his guests he had the right to invite them, because he wasrelated to all three of the guest tribes, the Moachat, the Muchalat,and the Ehetisat. He thanked them for coming to honor his daughter,and to "make her name big," as the interpreter expressed it. TheMoachat second chief's father replied, saying that they all knew thechief of the Nuchatlet, and were proud to be related to him, and thatthey were happy to see that he was making his daughter's namerespected. Next a Muchalat chief spoke, tracmg out the numerousties of kinship between the Muchalat and the Nuchatlet, and bringinghis history up to date by including a marriage recently contractedbetween two families of the two tribes. "Some of these old menused to talk for a long time," remarked the informant. "Theybegan with the beginnings of history [i.e., as opposed to myths].This was done to instruct the young people, who were supposed tolisten and learn the history of the tribes."When the speech making was done, the people whose children hadbeen abducted in the ritual began to give the chief their Lukwatqan,payments for the novices (literally, "shaman's fees"). This was aNuchatlet custom, to give these gifts or payments to the chief duringthe ritual. Elsewhere this was done prior to the opening of theceremonial. They gave from $10 to $50, as they wished. Therewas no set amount, of course. Altogether they gave him $250.A few people who had no children among the novices gave smallamounts (the informant gave him $5).The chief of the Nuchatlet then announced that the Wolves hadgiven his daughter, among other things, some games for the people,and the people were to practice them now, so they would be readywhen they came to get her in marriage (i.e., these were marriagetopati, or tests). He was going to use four topati, two from hisfamily, and two from his wife's side. The first he showed was theShark (mamatcaL), in which 10 pairs of men lined up with blazingtorches, forming a gauntlet through which the aspirant to hisdaughter's hand (or his representative) was to run. Then he calledout two common men from among the guests, giving them presentsof money which he said were payments for running the gauntlet.These two did not have to brave the torches to get their gifts.The next was an inclined greased plank which had to be climbed. 438 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144As before, two men were called out and given presents referred toas "payments" for successfully completing the ordeal (althoughthey did not really undertake the test). The third and fourthtopati were described but not shown. One represented a rockyislet (one which belonged to the chief, of course), which had to beclimbed; the other was a greased rope suspended from a tall tripod.There were songs for all these topati. Although these deviceswere not shown, men were called out and given gifts for successfullypassing them.That night the Shamans' Dance was formally concluded. Nextday, in the afternoon, the chief sent formal parties to invite the gueststo his potlatch. The guest chiefs were called first, in order of rankwithin their own tribal assembly, and escorted to their places. TheMoachat chiefs were called first, and seated in proper order along theinland wall of the house. The Muchalat chiefs were similarly called,and seated across the rear end of the house, and the Ehetisat chiefswere conducted to places along the seaward wall. Then the rest ofthe people were called in, and made to sit in the part of the housewhere their chiefs were. The Nuchatlet seated themselves at thedoor end. The chief sang, and showed certain display privileges"which the Wolves had given his daughter" and then commenced togive to the chiefs. He gave to the Moachat chiefs, in order of rank;then to the Muchalat chiefs; next the Ehetisat; and finally, to theother Nuchatlet chiefs. Then he sang his potlatch song, and gaveto the rest of the people. The gifts were not unceremoniously thrownon the floor this time, but carried to each recipient. It was nearlydawn before the potlatch was finished. The guests were ready toleave, but the weather turned bad so they stayed a few days more.Since the Shamans' Dance was finished they could play cards andlahal. Finally the storm lifted and they went home.Comparisons with previous accounts oj the ceremonial.?Before leav-ing the subject of the Shamans' Dance, it is necessary to account forsome differences between the present descriptions and those publishedsome years ago by Sapir (1911). Some of these are explicable on thebasis of different usage of the groups at the head of Alberni Canalwhose rituals Sapir saw as well as had described to him. Others,such as the statement that all the Nootkan groups attribute the originof the ritual to a locality in Barkley Sound, are due to misstatements byhis informants?as I have remarked, a member of each tribe orconfederacy can take you to the precise spot in his own territory wherethe Wolves carried off the ancestral chief who "found" the ceremonial,and, as well, to a specific place in the same territory where the shortform of the rite was fu-st obtained from the supernatural beings.Likewise, the statement that the tribes north of Barkley Sound have Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 439only recently borrowed the " age-grade clubs" (otopal) from the Bark-ley Sound groups is to be ascribed to the overweening local patriotismof the informants. There is no evidence that they are earlier oneplace than the other.Sapir's interpretation of the Supernatural Quartz Crystals asrepresenting the spirit of the ceremonial is a point more difficult toresolve. The concept smacks more of Kwakiutl usage than of thatof the Nootkan tribes up the coast, and may have come to the Albernigroups via the Comox. The other Nootkans end the ritual by "send-ing away" the spirit or aura of the affair, but use no material objectto represent it. Among them, the Supernatural Quartz Crystalsare wealth spirits, and "sent" only for the purpose of inviting othergroups to potlatches (at a futm-e date). Also, Sapn's use of theterm topati to refer to rights held in the Shamans' Dance runs counterto usage among the groups from whom I collected data, among whomtopati refers only to wedding privileges?special tests or games usedby the bride's group, and displays by that of the groom. Otherdifferences in the accounts are probably due to actual differences inlocal custom, with varying sequences of events, different methods ofrestoring the novices to normalcy, and the like.SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SHAMANs' DANCEIn introducing the description of the Shamans' Dance, I remarkedthat it was the most important ceremonial of the Nootkan tribes.That it was, but its importance was social rather than religious.Although it was supposed to be a period in which supernatural powerswere close at hand, the attitude of the Indians seems to have beenabout as Uttle imbued with religious awe or fervor as a Carnival (MardiGras) crowd in modern Latin-American countries. The social aspectof the ritual had two sides. The first was that of the chiefs whosponsored the affairs. For them the Shamans' Dance was at once aheavy duty and a source of gratification. The duty was that ofvalidating the hereditary prerogatives of their heirs; the gratificationderived from the respect and admhation of the people of high and lowdegree for one who commanded the resources to stage the ceremonial.For people of lesser rank the Shamans' Dance was the ultimate inentertainment and good fun. There was no work to be done (thepracticing of songs and dances, and the labor of preparmg stage prop-erties was not counted as "work" by them), food was abundant at theinnumerable feasts, horseplay and buffoonery went on wen-nighendlessly to delight then- risibHities, and now and agam, they hadopportunities, flattering to the ego, of occupying the spothght m theperformance of some dance or special act. Appreciation of this high 440 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144entertainment value of the affair is implicit in chiefs* opinions, oftenrepeated in advice to their heirs, that it was necessary for a chief togive Shamans' Dances to maintain the allegiance of his commoners onwhose support he depended.shamans' dance miscellanyFrom the descriptions of the Ehetisat informant of various Shamans'Dances she had witnessed, several were of special interest in indicatingthe flexibility of the pattern, and the way the ceremonial, or shortforms of it, could be adapted to events in the lives of the people.Although the ritual normally had nothing to do with death rites ormourning for deceased relatives, it was occasionally used in connectionwith them. Such usage, with its prestige implications, did greathonor to the memory of the deceased. The tale of the errant housepost is included to illustrate the ingenuity expended in developing newfeatures to enrich the performance.At a Shamans' Dance given by the chief of the Ehetisat Litcyaath,for an unborn heir, a novel feature was added to the performance.On the morning of the fifth day, when the people were making ready togo on the rafts to rescue the novices, a man came running down to thebeach shouting, '* I bring bad news! One of the (named) house posts ofour chief's house has disappeared!" So they had to go in with poles toprop the beam up (presumably the beam was already propped up, andthis was just a gesture, for effect). Scarcely had they finished whenanother man called to them to come outside, for something strangewas happening. When they got outside, they saw the house postgoing along the beach, dressed in white fir branches, like a novice, andsinging a spirit song. It marched to the place at which the noviceswere to appear, then disappeared into the woods. (This was, ofcourse, a copy of the house post made of canvas and light poles.)The post did not appear with the novices, but after the latter hadbeen rescued, brought to the beach for their preliminary dances, andthen taken to the house, they found the errant house post standing inthe middle of the platform arranged for the novices. Afterward, inthe potlatch, among the other privileges which the chief's heir was tohave, the post was included.The daughter of an Ehetisat chief (the informant's great-grand-father), died in childbirth at Nuchatlitz. When they cut her openthey found her baby was turned head up. They buried the babyseparately. Her parents' grief was made the more bitter by theagonized girl's accusations. She had been married off against herwill to the son of the Nuchatlet chief, and on her deathbed shethrew her parents' insistence on her marriage in their faces. "Now Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 441you are going to lose me. It's your fault, because you made me marrythis man. I'd have lived if I hadn't married him."Her father told her husband's father, "Don't destroy any propertyover your daughter-in-law's death. It was my fault, for making hermarry against her will. I wanted to make our tribes close in kinship,but it turned out badly. Don't throw anything away for her, and Iwon't either. It is just as though the Wolves carried her away."When he returned to hohk the news had preceded him. All hispeople were in the house wailing. He walked from his canoe tothe door, then began to sing his Shamans' Dance song. He had agun fired to call all the people in, then called his daughter's name,saying, "She will be brought back by the Wolves." They had mendress up as Wolves out in the brush, and dressed up a slave girl torepresent the chief's daughter. The people, some wailing and somesinging Shamans' Dance songs, made rafts. They crossed the cove,and the Wolves, with the slave who represented the chief's daughter,appeared four times, but the fourth time, instead of waiting for the"novices" to be rescued, the Wolves carried her away into the woods.(It is probable that they killed the slave double, though the informantdid not so state.) The people returned to the chief's house. Heannounced, instead of making the usual lengthy speech, that, "Twohundred Wolves came to abduct my daughter, and will never bringher back." Then he gave away all his wealth.After this he began training to bring whales up on the beach.That first winter he got one. He told the people, "You can cut afew pieces to eat. The rest I am going to throw away [in memory ofhis daughter]." A few people began to cut off small pieces, but theirchiefs stopped them, saying, "He must want the whole thing for hisdaughter." The next winter he got two whales. One he "threwaway," the other he let the people cut up. They thanked him forthis. His own share he sent to his ex-son-in-law at Nuchatlitz, togive a feast to the people there.On another occasion, much later, a small party of Ehetisat men andwomen had gone to Friendly Cove to visit their Moachat friends andto trade at the store. During their visit one of the women becameviolently ill, and died despite the efforts of a number of shamanswho were called in to her aid. The informant M hired five men tobring the body back to Ehetisat, while she and the rest of the partyreturned, bringing the dead woman's daughter, a child of 5 or 6years. The dead woman's mother was an Ehetisat; her husband, aNuchatlet chief, and her father, had shipped aboard a sealing schoonersome months before. The dead woman's mother gave a small feastafter the funeral, at which she gave away everything she and herhusband owned to the five men who had brought the body home. 442 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144After this she burned down their house. The old woman went downto the beach day after day, with her httle granddaughter, to cry.She kept on for two or three months this way, eating little or noth-ing. Other women feared she was not taking proper care of thechild, and would ask permission to take care of her granddaughter,but she always refused. Finally the informant gave a feast to letthe people Imow she intended to take care of the old woman and thelittle girl. She had them brought in, and gave them a pair of woolblankets, a new shawl, and a small amount of money. Then therest of the people, both men and women, gave them presents: money,clothing, blankets, household utensils, and the like. The old womanthanlved them, saying she would never forget the way her people tookcare of her. Afterward, M persuaded her to accompany a group ofwomen who were going up the inlet to plant potatoes. A month orso later the sealing schooner stood in. The dead woman's fathercould not eat or sleep, so shocked was he at the news. On the secondmorning after his return, he composed his feelings. He invited 10chiefs to a feast, and announced to them, "I will not kill myself[as parents sometimes did when they lost an only child], because ofmy little granddaughter. I am going to do as I have always done,go hunting hair seal, but I shall not bring them home when I killthem; I shall throw them away, in memory of my daughter." Thenhe asked the cliief (the informant's brother) for two Wolf whistles touse for his granddaughter (i. e., he asked the chief's permission togive a short form of the Shamans' Dance for the child. He was notof high rank, and although he owned certain privileges, he could notgive a Shamans' Dance himself. His wife was of higher ranlt than he,and had certain Shamans' Dance privileges, which he wanted to useat this time) . The chief gave the necessary permission. Messengerswere sent by canoe to the various stations at which people werecamping to assemble them. A canoe was sent to Nuchatlitz to invitethe parents of the dead woman's husband. Early one morning allassembled in the chief's house. They seated themselves withoutregard for rank, for it was to be a Shamans' Dance. Soon the whistlesof the Wolves were heard around the house. Two ma'yixtuq appearedsuddenly in the doorway, and shuffled to the center of the house,(The ma'yixtuq are the masks representing an aged couple. Thispair belonged to the mother of the dead woman.) The two beingspointed here and there about the house, whispering and mutteringto each other, until someone went forward to ask what they wished,offering to serve as their speaker. The ma'yixtuq then announcedthat the whistles that had been heard were the voice of the deadwoman saying that she wanted her parents to give to those who had Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 443given presents to her mother and daughter, and to all the people whohad cared for the child. The woman's father and daughter cameforward. The child carried a small sack of money. The grandfatherannounced that the child was going to pay to save her grandparents'lives, and for being cared for. Everyone was glad to learn he wasgoing to remain with the people, and not kill himself. One Wolfcame into the house, making four ceremonial cu-cuits about the fire,then went out. It was announced that this meant that the deadwoman wanted the Shamans' Dance to be used at her daughter'spuberty. (This apparently had been arranged by the girl's father,who had the right to give the ritual at his home.) The dead woman'shusband was called forward. His father-in-law announced that heshould retain the various rights that had been given to him in marriage(including the ma'yixtuq, and some other privileges). This meantthat they were to be retained for the child, and would become herproperty, which, of course, was understood from the time they weregiven to the son-in-law. The young man replied, saying that hewould not forget his wife's parents, as some men did, but would alwaysconsider them his parents-in-law; nor would he forget the kindnessof the Ehetisat who had taken care of his daughter after his wife'sdeath. Then he began to dance, and displayed a SupernaturalCrystal which he "threw" to the Ehetisat chief, to invite the Ehetisatto a potlatch in honor of his daughter dm-ing the coming winter. Toconclude the affau-, the dead woman's father gave away $190, givingspecial gifts to those who had given presents to his wife and who hadtaken care of his grandchild. The people gave a ceremonial cryfour times to drive away the power of the Shamans' Dance, and itwas over. The affair had taken most of the day and they had noteaten, so the chief invited them all to a feast of spring salmon.OLDER FESTIVALSThere is a tradition to the effect that before the Shamans' Festivalwas introduced, there was a ceremonial called the tc'eknakatsaL.In this rite, the novice was said to have been carried away by "birds,"apparently into the sky, and then "came down" by himself (i. e.,appeared after his fictional abduction), at which time a potlatchwas given for him. "They had some kind of dances for him [thenovice] to dance when he came down." It is just possible that thisfragment represents a real bit of folk memory referring to an ancientceremonial, especially since the references to birds, and the novice's"coming down" hint at a performance similar to the Northern Kwaki-utl dluwulaxa or miLa ritual. (See Drucker, 1940, passim.) 444 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY l Bull. 144GAMES AND AMUSEMENTSThe Nootkans had a considerable variety of games, ranging fromstrenuous athletic contests to rather simple pastimes to see whichof the two people could keep a straight face the longer. They alsohave been enthusiastic gamblers for some time, but I believe thatgambling games are a recent innovation. A rough classification oftheir games can be made into: gambling games, guessing games,athletic contests and other games of skill, laughing games (by whichis meant contests to see who could be made to laugh first) , and miscel-laneous diversions (like cat's cradles). There are a few hints thatsome of the games may have been played only at certain seasons,having thus a sort of ritual significance, but this feature if more generalhas gone out of use for some time past.Of gambling games, the two most popular now and for some timepast are blackjack (played with cards by both men and women, accord-ing to Hoyle's rules, that need not be described here), and the stickgame, "lahal," popular over a wide area of the Northwest Coast(there are said to be some bitterly contested games with very largebets at some of the canneries where many different tribes assembleat the end of the fishing season). Lahal is called hana, a word thatsounds un-Nootkan. The marked bone of each pair is calledhana'atcak, the unmarked, su'yik, neither of which terms is trans-latable. Two pairs of the bones are "shuffled" behind the backs andconcealed in the clenched fists of two men on the "team" winning theinitial play (in which one man of each side holds the bones and both"guess" each other simultaneously, trying to point to the hand in whichthe unmarked bone is held) . The proper number of points for a game is21, but by agi"eement a lesser number may be set. Sticks repre-senting the points are divided into two equal lots, one lot for each"team," the odd counter being stood up in the middle of the floorand a 10-stick lot of counters being placed in front of each team.The side winning the initial guess and the bones wins the odd stick.The side holding the bones wins one point if their opponents failto guess the position (right or left) of one of the unmarked bones,two points if they fail to ascertain the position of either of the bones.Guesses are indicated by gestures: a motion of the hand toward theguesser's right means both bones are thought to be in their holders'left hands; to the guesser's left, the opposite; moving the hand down-ward with a chopping motion means they are believed to be "in themiddle", i. e., in the right-hand holder's left hand, and in his partner'sright; a gesture in which thumb and little finger of the hand areextended means they are both "outside" (opposite to the preceding).All sorts of feints and incomplete gestures are permitted to betray Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 445the holders into indicating the position of the bones. The guessingside can win no points; by guessing both bones they have the privilegeof concealing them in their turn. "When a team has won a point,they draw one stick from the pile of counters in front of them (halfthe total number less the odd one, usually 10); when all 10 havebeen drawn, each additional point scored must be paid from thecounters of the other team. When one team has all 21 counters,they have won. Bets on the outcome of a game are often sizable ? anyone can bet whether he participates by singing on one side or theother or not at all. The teammates of the pair of men holding thebones sing lustily, drumming on a board placed in front of themwith short batons. The songs are invariably nonsense syllables.Cheating (that is, it would be "cheating" in our view) by switchingthe bones after the guess has been made is part of the game if onecan get away with it, but because of the size of the bones (about aninch in diameter and three inches or so long?about as large as canbe effectively concealed in the hand) is quite difficult. If someonewere to be caught cheating there would be quite a squabble. Theevidence suggests that this is not an ancient game. The oldest ofmy informants, a Muchalat, claimed to remember that when he wasa small boy, a part-Muchalat man from Hesquiat came for a visitand taught the game to the Muchalat. That tribe, of course,might well be expected to have been the last people to have receivedan innovation during the period 1850 to 1880, for they were keepingto themselves, not venturing down the Sound for fear of their Moachatenemies. Other Northern Nootkan informants could not recall havingheard of any time when their people did not play the game althoughthose from the Central tribes believed it to be fairly recent, thoughintroduced before their time. The game is not recorded, so far asI know, in any early historic account?yet it could scarcely passunobserved, with the "teams" sitting singing at the tops of theirlungs, if it had been anywhere near as popular as it is nowadays.Further, Swan (1868, p. 44), in speaking of Makah games, mentionsa gambling game in which but one bone was used as a relativelyminor guessing game, minor, at least in relation to the disk "slahal,"which he describes at length. I am of the opinion that the entireNorthwest Coast distribution of this bone game, or hand game (thedisk form may be older), has probably taken place since the middleof the nineteenth century, although detailed evidence of its spreadis difficult to collect nowadays.The corresponding woman's game was played with beaver-toothdice, tuLtuya (sometimes they were made of sperm whale teeth) . Thedice themselves were called tutcak, and consisted of two pairs, onemarked with circles, the other with lines (sometimes zigzags, some- 446 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144times rows of lines parallel to the long axis of the tooth). One of thepair marked with circles had a ring, or a double ring, cut around itscircumference. It was called maLwan. The others were plain on thebacks. The plain-backed mate to the one just described was calledtiltilyu, the pair with lines, tciqol, "striped." Two women playedfacing each other over a mat; their friends lined up in a row alongsideof one or the other. I do not know how the game was begun; which-ever of the two won the right to tlu-ow first threw the dice until shefaOed to make a pass, then gave them to her opponent. Play w^asordinarily for 42 points, marked by stick counters. The scoringmethod differs slightly from that recorded from neighboring groups,but I do not know whether this indicates misunderstanding on mypart, or Nootkan specialization. Of the 16 possible combinationswhen the dice were thrown, the following six scored: The encircleddie (maLwan) face up, rest face down, 4 points; encii'cled die facedown, rest up, 4 points; all dice face up, 2 points; all down, 2 points;one pair up, one down (either pair, i. e., two possible combinations),1 point. Any other combination lost the dice. The same informantwho believed lahal a recent introduction asserted that the beaver-toothdice game was learned from Coast Salish during his youth. Othersthought it an old game.The mention of cards, made previously (p. 444), brings up the mat-ter of the time of their introduction. Unfortunately this complextoo could not be dated exactly, though informants were quite awarethat it was a white man's, not an Indian diversion. The people hadbeen playing cards ever since the informants could remember.^^These were the only gambling games, properly speaking. Moderninformants say that small bets were sometimes made on guessinggames and some athletic contests, but they always make much of thepoint that the bets were small and not an important feature of thegames. That such bets were made in their day is probably true enough,but it suggests that anciently gambling may have been unloiownentirely.The guessing games suggest forms of a sort of elementary lahal.One of these, played in evenings in the house, was called ti'titsakal.The players formed two groups. One group or "team" covered theu-heads with a blanket while the others passed a small stone alongfrom one to the other behind their backs. When they were ready,their opponents uncovered and tried to guess who had the stone. Ifcorrect, it Avas their turn to pass the stone along; if wTong they lost apoint. Children played for an indefinite number of points; adults, " The Ilev. Jos. Nicolaye, in an appendix to Father Brabant's "Reminiscences," mentions a trip he madeto the Ehetisat village of h5hk (on December 20, 1885) , where "gambling with cards was the order of the day,"with no indication that this was novel or unusual (Moser, 1926, p. 145). Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 447usually for 10. Adults sometimes made small bets, it was said. Avariant, described by a Muchalat informant, was called huLa'an.The game was played about the same way, except that the guess wasmade as to which hand the stick or pebble was in; the man holdingit did not have to be pointed out. This was played for 4 or 10 points,counted as before. Central Nootkans said no bets were made in thistype of game, but the losers were said to be *'bald-headed" (asquinl)and jeered at. Another game, though perhaps it should be considereda memory test, according to one description of the way it was played,was called unatsaq, or unu'plan (from unu'pal?, ''how many?"). Tensticks were laid out on the ground in groups of one, two, or more, orfrom another description, in ones and twos. The opponent looked,then faced away and recited the numbers in each group (i. e., "two,one, one, three, two, one," or however they were arranged), or, ac-cording to the informant who described them being placed in singlesand pairs, guessed the sequence without lookmg at them (they wereconcealed under a piece of mat) . Athletic games were more varied. They included a kind of shinnyplayed by the Central Tribes with a ball made of cartilage (?) from adead whale. It was hit with clubs curved at one end, the aim beingto drive it across a goal, which was marked by poles set up on thebeach. Teams consisted of equal numbers of men, usually more than10 on a side. Each side defended its own goal and attacked that ofthe opponents. Shinny was known as Laphstal. It was not playedby Northern Nootkan tribes.The hoop-and-pole game (a'anshwo'yu, or anatswis) was played bymen with a small hoop wrapped with cedar bark, and long slenderlances. It was said to have been a favorite sport formerly, intertribaland interconfederacy contests being staged at times. Such occasionsmight be accompanied by betting. Four men usually comprised ateam, taking turns at rolling the hoop and throwing the lances at it.The exact method of scoring was not recalled, but it was said that thelance had to transfix the hoop and stop it to score; if it passed clearthrough, it did not count. According to one informant, after a gamethe winners threw the hoop into the au", and the losers had to catch iton their lances; if they let it drop to the ground they were jeered at.Another informant had it that the winners of a game had the right tochase the losers, beating them with the lances.There was a widespread game consisting of throwing a bundle ofgrass into the air, catching it on the points of long two-pronged"spears." The bundle, or "ball," was not passed back and forth, buttossed in the air after each catch. This was said to be a rough game,any sort of interference with a potential receiver being permissible.Young men used to play it during the dog salmon run, it is said, those 448 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144of one local group competing against another. Ten catches won thegame (or ten successive catches?). This game was called qawo'asik.A dart game was called tsaxhwa. There was a target consisting ofa cedar board about 4 inches wide by 18 high, set up in the ground(I understood one informant to say each player had his own target).Each player had 10 darts made of eagle plumes with sharp points ofyew wood inserted in the quill. In recent times wire nails, set withpitch, were used. The darts were painted with identifying marks.The players took position at whatever distance was agreed on. Eachthrew his set of darts in turn. Each time a dart stuck it was laidaside; for example, if on his first turn a player stuck two darts in thetarget, on his next turn he threw the remaining eight only. The onewho used up all his darts first won. "This was a nice quiet game.They used to play it all day long."A rough and tumble game, a sort of "King o' the Castle," calledta'nitsma' was very popidar with children. Both boys and girlsplayed. One team made a pile of sand in which they buried a clamshell. One of their number sat on the sand pile and his partnersdefended him, while the opponents tried to drag him off and get theshell. When they recovered it, it was their turn to bury it. Youngmen used to play this at times, also. Wlien they tired of this game,they changed it into hu'hwo'an, by throwing the shell as far as theycould down the beach, then running after it and scrambling to seewho got it. When someone recovered the shell and broke from thetangle of players, they chased him till he threw it away again. "Thiswas a fine game for getting warm on cold days."There were numerous games involving marksmanship, either withlances or stones. Young men often set up bundles of grass on sticks,and, forming two sides, threw at them with two-pronged lances. Thefirst side to score 10 hits won. Many of these games were less for-malized, but consisted in throwing or shooting at targets of variouskinds.Tugs-of-war (hitcukwona; also, canaiyu, referring to a hook) wereheld, using either a stout stick, which two men grasped while theirteammates lined up behind them grasping each other around thewaist, or wooden hooks made of forked yew branches fastened to longropes. The opposing teams had songs which they sang while dancingwith their hook before the contest. One informant, a Moachat, saidthat he understood that in former times tugs-of-war were held onlyduring the herring-spawning season. Pushes-of-war, in which poles wereused, were also reported by Central Nootkans. Foot races, canoeraces, wrestling with backholds, and lifting contests were other popularamusements of young men. The lifting usually involved lifting aheavy stone, then seeing who could walk the farthest with it. The Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 449men were proud of their strength or agility, but did not bet on thesecontests.Children had a game of tag called haiylqo'an. They joined handsin a ring, and began to run sideways, revolving the ring until theywere going as fast as they could All at once they let go of hands.Those who were dizzy or off balance and consequently fell do^\^l, were"it" (aitciL, "rotten"). They chased the rest. Each one caught alsobecame "it" and helped catch others, until all had been caught.Perhaps the most popular of the games of skill was a form of thering-and-pin game played with a slender stick and a seal humerus.It was called cacaiyiktsokuc. The bone was hooked over the stick,flipped into the aii', and caught, if the player were skillful, through thesmall perforation at one end. There were several ways of playing.Two groups of men, numbering up to 10 in each group, formed thesides. Each player took one or two tries, depending on the playagreed upon. If each player tried once, the game was 10 points; iftwice, 20 points. There was another procedure that might be used,for a 20-point game, in which a player tried until he missed a catch.Some men, it was claimed, could make 20 consecutive catches, butthis was very unusual.Another game of skill was called yahyahc. A stick about 16 incheslong had a small hoop fastened to one end, the plane of the hoop atright angles to the axis of the stick. The stick was set up in theground like a miniature basketball goal. The players stood overthe hoop holding overhead at arm's length a bundle of fine splints(a little longer than the distance from the hoop to the ground), thenreleased the sticks trying to drop them through the hoop. Probablyluck counted more than skill in this game.Jackstraws (aphapc, also called qoqoth by the Kyuquot) wereplayed by the Northern tribes, but not by the Central ones. Abunch of small sticks were dropped in a pile. The players took turnsat seeing how many they could lift off the pile with their fingers orwith small bent sticks, without shaking or moving the pile. As oneworked, the other players alternately cheered and jeered. Men,women, and children all played this game.Another game of skill was a sort of battledore-and-shuttlecock,called Lathatyak (at Kyuquot it was called Limo'an). The cockwas a small cylinder, that is, a short section of a branch of somehard wood, with three feathers lashed and pitched at one end; thepaddle was small, with a short handle. The game consisted in seeingwho could bat the shuttlecock up into the air the greatest number oftimes, without letting it drop to the ground. People could competeindividually, or form teams.The laughing games were considered great sport. They could be 450 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144played by individuals, but usually the players formed "teams"(adults as well as children played the games), tsumh was one of thesimpler of these. One of the players shouted, "tsumh!" and they allstood staring at each other with as complete lack of expression asthey could manage. The first to smile or laugh lost. Sometimes twopersons, for example, a husband and wife, played this. A moreelaborate form was necessarily played by teams, and was calledno'awa (or mano'an, as the Kyuquot called it). One team set up astick in the sand on the beach, forming up behind it. One of themknelt behind the stick. They had a song they sang, then called thename of one of the opponents. The person named had to walk for-ward toward them slowly, and lift the stick out of the sand, with aserious expression. The side "defending" the stick made gestures,shouted humorous remarks, made faces at him, and everything theycould think of to try to make him smile or laugh. Should he do so hewas sent back and another of his teammates was called forth. Whenone side finally got the stick they set it up and called on their oppo-nents to come forward to get it. An even more hilarious game waspah. The contestants belted their blankets up tight, and one fromeach team walked forward until they met in the middle of the field.The teams each did what they could to make the champion of theother side laugh; the two contestants could likewise gesture, but couldnot speak or change expression. When they were face to face theyticlded each other until one or the other laughed and was sent backto be replaced by a teammate. There were a number of othervariations of these games, and they were said to have been playedquite frequently.Among the miscellaneous diversions were cat's cradles (tciltcilnukw,"weaving together"). There were said to have been a wide varietyof these, with both moving and stationary forms. Most of the namesof the figures mentioned were of animals. People tried to see whocould make the most of these figures, at times. Several people men-tioned that it was believed that children of fishermen and trappersshould not make cat's cradles while their fathers were fishing or hadsets out; presumably the snarls in the strings would foul the fish lines,and the trip lines of the deadfalls. A game called pina'an was atest of lung capacity. A group of children picked the longest frondof bracken fern they could find, and broke out the alternate branchesdown the stalk. Each in turn took the frond, touching one branchletafter the other with his finger saying "pina" each time without takinga breath. The one who went farthest down the stalk won. Theyall clapped and shouted in derision when someone ran out of breathearly. A form of hide-and-seek was called hapsokstal. The playersformed two teams; one hid and then the other side searched for them. Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 451If someone hid so well he or she could uot be found, the searcherscalled his name, shouting, "so-and-so is bald!" or like insults to makehim answer and give his hiding place away. Another children'sgame was hu'ukti'il, "pretending geese." Two "hunters" joinedhands, holding their arms up in the air while the others filed pastunderneath, singing. At Kyuquot, they took turns "trapping fatgeese" by dropping their arms over them in the fashion of our LondonBridge game; at Ehctisat, the two hunters were the largest childrenof the group, and made the smaller ones lie across their joined arms,rocldng them back and forth in time to a song. Those who fell off(or were dropped), were the "fat geese." Finally when they hadenough fat geese, they made them huddle up in a bunch and coveredthem with a mat "to cook them." The others became guests at afeast. When the fat geese were thought to be "cooked," they werereleased from under the mat, and then assisted the leaders at passingout the clamshells from which the guests pretended to eat. Mis-cellaneous toys and amusements of children included drawing straws(trying to choose a marked stick from a bundle); making popgunsof kelp stems; staging mock battles between sides who threw kelpstems, seagull eggs, or clamshells at each other; spinning tops madewith a wooden disk (and spun by hand, not by a string) ; and trappinghummingbirds by smearing slug slime on twigs in the vicinity offlowering plants. The unfortunate birds so captured were fastenedto a string, threaded through their nostrils, so the children couldplay with them, making them fly round and round. Other smallbirds, when they could be caught alive, were similarly maltreated,the string being sewn either through their nostrils or through fromone eye to the other. I did not hear of the custom reported by Gun-ther for the Makah of breaking captive birds' wings; it may have beendone, but the preferred sport was to leave the birds in conditionto fly when made fast to a string.In addition, children played at various things that were imitationsof their elders' activities. They were often encouraged at some ofthese "games," such as the play feasts and potlatches, and the play-Shamans' Dance, although their elders sought to exercise some controlover them, especially in regard to the last named. They were notsupposed to use the real Shamans' Dance songs in their game, but hadspecial play songs for it. Nor were they allowed to use whistles.They actually did use real songs and whistles, however, when playingaway from the viflage where adults did not notice them. They alsoplayed mamaqin, "playing house?," imitating the everyday activitiesof grownups. A game called qaiyickin, "sheUs playing," was a sortof sohtary "playing house." The personages were shells picked upalong the beach rather than children; the operator usually played 452 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144alone. Feasts, dances, and the like were all performed. Shamanizingwas a favorite theme. A child often used songs he had heard realshamans sing. Sometimes a shaman, the o^'^ler of the songs, wouldpretend to be angry if he overheard the singing, to tease the child,"but afterward he just laughed about it."No discussion of diversions would be complete without referringto mythology and tales. Many evenings were whiled away by yarnspinning, and the characteristics of the lay figures of mythology ? Raven's gluttony and Mink's lechery, and the like?were so wellknown by everyone that ordinary speech was, and is, frequentlyflavored by allusions to the characters, and even to specific incidents.When someone goes on an errand, a friend will often call after him,"Don't duck your head!" to the amusement of the rest of the com-pany?the reference, which all know, is to a myth incident in whichthe Wolf Messengers duck under a fallen tree across the trail andforget what they had been sent for. Anecdotes, both personal adven-tures and the private affairs of others, furnished the substance of manystory-telling sessions. Any tale with a humorous twist, or one thatcould be given a humorous twist, was received with glee by the appre-ciative audiences of young and old.Myths (hemo'itsaqeq, as opposed to "true stories," i. e., traditionsand anecdotes, anaqhmis), included a very full cycle of the commonNorthwest Coast Raven myths, and a companion cycle in which Minkwas the protagonist. Kwatyat was not the Culture Hero of all theNootkan Indians, as Sapir and Swadesh (1939, p. 217, note 107) weretold. In the myths of the Northern tribes, and the Central groupsabove Barkley Sound, he was a buffoon only. Snot-boy (antokt)was the Transformer-Culture Hero of these divisions. The Kyuquothad a tale of two Creators, an Elder and a Younger Brother, whosenames were said to be Kwakiutl, not Nootkan words. Characteristicof all the myths are the special types of speech that were used by eachof the lay figures, as Sapir (1913) has pointed out. THE PATTERNS OF THE CULTUREIt is interesting to review the sanctioned patterns of social behaviorwhich functioned as prime determinants in the personaUty formationof the bearers of the culture, or to phrase the matter in another way,the social patterns that defined the culturally approved personalitytype or types. Our discussion of social life has brought out a varietyof traits and sanctions which were of importance in this regard. Inordinary social situations the predominant pattern required avoidanceof aggressive behavior and included a strong feeling against physicalviolence in conflict situations. Our data from social life reveal apeople who regarded as ideal the individual noted for mildness oftemper. This was more than a vague ideal. The many cases recordedof social situations show that for chiefs of high and low degree, andcommoners as well, the amiable, nonaggressive individual held theesteem of his fellows, and?this is important^?^because of their esteemsecured their very essential cooperation in economic and ceremonialmatters. Person after person of whom informants tell, and who wereregarded as estimable, were in all their lives involved in no conflictsmore serious than the "swearings," the verbal quarrels in whichangered people indulged. It appears that these vituperative out-bursts usually provided sufficient outlet for overwrought emotions.To come to blows, to tussle with an adversary, was to overstep boundsof propriety. To carry physical conflicts into the rituals associatedwith status and hereditary honors, that is, the potlatches, was con-sidered disgraceful. In other words aggressiveness was not fostered;it was inhibited at every turn. That it was pretty thoroughly stifled,not just repressed on the overt level, is indicated by the relatively lowfrequency of witchcraft. The black arts were practiced, it is true, butless than among many Indian groups in which the cultm*e providedmore outlets for aggressive tendencies than did the Nootkan one.In harmony with its own ideals, the culture provided no formalmechanism supplying force to deal with nonconformists. There wereno police powers to regulate social behavior (there were ceremonialpolice to punish tabu-breakers during the Shamans' Dance). Any-one?and everyone?intervened to separate quarrelers who came togrips. Any close kinsman whose age and level-headedness inspiredrespect set about placating an angry person, advising him to forgethis grievance. Any person high in pubhc esteem would take it onhimself to reprimand a malefactor. The weight of pubUc opinion thusexpressed was implemented by knowledge that people would pointedlycease to help the nonconformist in his daily affairs. Were he a chiefthey moved out of his house. They could not send him into exile,453 454 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144but they could make life so unpleasant that he would have to moveaway of his own accord. Thus it was that public opinion served as acontrol on the quarrelsome, self-assertive, and rebellious. It was not100 percent effective, but it had a very high degree of effectiveness.The reasons for this pacific pattern of social behavior are not alto-gether clear. I believe that the absence of the wergild complex wasone factor, negative in a way, of course. At least, attention was notfocused on injuries as it was among people who exacted compensationfor injury?the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian, for example, and thenorthwest Californians. Lacldng the concept that something had tobe done about a wrong?a payment exacted or vengeance wreaked ? the Nootkans, after loudly and profanely expounding their displeasure,nearly always let the matter drop. Thus we hear from them so manyanticlimactic conclusions to instances of conflict. Wrongs that else-where often stirred men to drastic action, such as witchcraft, adultery,and the like, usually ended after an exchange of insults. Informantssay of the principals, "They just let the matter go. They weren'tfriends for awhile, and didn't speak to each other, but after a bit theyforgot about it."Another factor that may have had a more positive effect was theinteraction of several traits: first, the absolute o^vnersllip of all im-portant economic and ceremonial rights by the chiefs; second, theclear recognition that cooperation of many individuals was necessaryto exploit these rights; and, tiiird, the fluidity of group membershipand rules of residence. In other words both the chief and his tenantsknew that the former's effective performance of his role, his greatness,depended on the assistance of his tenants. If he offended them andtreated them ill, they would help him but little, or even move away.This was the reason for the advice to young chiefs to "be good totheir people, treat them kindly, and give them mi.any feasts to makethem happy." A person of low rank could be made to feel the pres-sure of unfavorable opinion as easily as a chief, or perhaps moreeasily. There is, of course, little that is novel in a society in whichone class rules and owns, and another class does the productive work.There are many such in the world. The exceptional feature was notthe symbiotic relationship, but in other aspects of their relationship:the freedom of the lower class to affiliate them.selves with whateverchief they pleased (on the pretext of some remote, or perhaps fictionalkinship), and the very practical recognition of the fact that the chiefhad to consider their welfare and treat them well to win their aid.Young chiefs were told time and again, "That is the way with a chief.If his tenants are good to him, and help him, working for him andgiving him wealth, then he can make his name great. If his tenantsdon't care for him, he is nothing, no matter how high a name he has." Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 455I have deliberately left warfare out of consideration up to thispoint. For one thing, intertribal warfare had been abandoned at thetime to which most of the present information refers. If we now stepover the time boundary to consider the cultural scene when the ruth-less wars were fought, we note first of all that along with the complexof weapons, head taking, tactics, and the rest went a set of attitudesthat were completely and thoroughly the opposite of peacetime socialbehavior. Violence was honored, savagery and sadism esteemed.Yet the evidence very plainly indicates that the attitudes of war werekept separate from those of ordinary social intercourse, just as thewar chief kept his whale-bone club and his "medicines" for war in aseparate box, to be taken out at certain times. We have as evidencethe clear statements of observers during the fighting days?Sproat,Jewitt, Mozino, and others?that the same lack of violence charac-terized relationsliips within the group in their day as in the times myinformants described. That warfare did not provide a necessary out-let for othermse repressed aggressive tendencies is clear from the factthat with the coming of peace, the Nootkans did not develop newoutlets?they did not become more prone to violence in intragroupsituations.Concomitant with the major social attitude were two others ofdifferent order of importance. The main trend served to regulatethe contacts between the individuals in day-to-day hfe; these otherscame to expression elsewhere. The fkst was a very keen interest inceremonialism. As has been noted in connection with the importanceof chiefs' ritual prerogatives, one receives the impression that cere-monies were the axis about which all Hfe revolves. Modern Nootkanssay, "That's all they used to do all winter long in the old days; haveShamans' Dances, potlatches, and feasts. That was all they caredabout." And they often add a bit wistfully, "They always werehaving a good time; not like us today." The Nootkans are not, ofcourse, unique in the area in their emphasis on ritual. Just whateffect this may have had on the rest of the culture is diflacult to say.The neighboring Kwakiutl had just as much interest in ritual elabora-tion. Nevertheless, the contrast between the groups from CapeFlattery northward and those to the south of that point and inland,where ritual was at a minimum, is worth noting.The second subordinate strand characteristic of Nootkan Hfe wastheir very weH-developed sense of humor. They were and stiU are alight-hearted people, quick with a jest or a laugh. The subject mat-ter of their jokes is often ribald; favorite anecdotes are still told withglee at feasts and other gatherings. Horseplay and buffoonery wereused to give relief to the seriousness of the Shamans' Dance. Nootkansatire, exemplified in some of the clown performances and in the t'ama -51?30 456 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144songs, was of a rather high order. This may seem a strange matterto stress, yet it was so prominent an aspect of daily and ritual lifethat it gave the typical personality a cast quite different from thegloomy sullen one sometimes pictured as characteristic of the North-west Coast.This appraisal of the Nootkan personality?nonaggressive, ratheramiable, disliking and disapproving violence in conflict situations,with a deep interest in that type of ceremonial that was essentiallya theatrical performance, and a keen and Hvely sense of humor ? differs radically from that depicted for the neighboring and closelyrelated Southern Kwakiutl (Benedict, 1934). Only in the warfaresituation, in which the Nootkan social values were drastically alteredwith aggressiveness substituted for mildness and sadism for amia-bility, do the two personality types correspond. In view of the re-markably close general cultural similarity between the two nations,this contrast is the more surprising. Our Nootkan data is too full andtheir pattern is too clean-cut for there to be any doubt regarding thecorrectness of our appraisal. Possible explanations for the differencesbetween the Nootkan personality pattern and the "Dionysian" oneof Benedict's appraisal of the Kwakiutl, are these: The appraisal ofthe Kwakiutl pattern may be considerably overdrawn. There arenumerous points in Ford's (1946) recently pubhshed Kwakiutl studythat indicate that the Southern Kwakiutl had many other fields ofinterest in addition to the one of competitive potlatching so stressedin Benedict's analysis. Such interests as that in ceremonialism for itsown sake, similar to that of the Nootkans; in humorous situations;and strong sexual interest; all seem to have had an important placein Kwakiutl life to judge by Ford's account. Indeed, in the materialof Boas which Benedict (1934) used as source material, there are tobe found numerous hints as to the importance of these same fields ofinterest. Mention might be made of the feature of horseplay andbuffoonery during the dancing society rituals (which both Nootkanand Kwakiutl informants have assured me were of the same ribaldsort that delighted Nootkan audiences). The use of terms of endear-ment in ordinary address and in ceremonial speeches, occurs time andagain in the texts. Such traits as these do not seem in keeping withthe sullen vindictive "meglomaniac paranoid" personality that Bene-dict defines.There is another possible basis for some of the contrast betweenNootkan and Kwakiutl personality patterns. It may be that the FortRupert tribes, whom Boas studied, may themselves be an anomalousgroup even among other Southern Kwakiutl. The reason for this maylie in the fact that the Fort Rupert tribes who assembled in historictimes at the Hudson Bay Company post were faced with the knotty Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 457problem of integrating their respective series of ranked chiefs into asingle order of precedence. We have seen the difficulties the MuchalatArm Nootkans had in working out a solution to this same task. Theconcept of the competitive potlatch which the Fort Rupert tribescarried to extreme lengths may very well have grown out of this his-torical situation. As a matter of fact, information from them andfrom the closely related groups of Quatsino Sound indicate verystrongly that this is so. (Drucker, MS.)At this range and with the present lacunae in basic information, itis difficult to say which of these explanations bearing on Benedict'sinterpretation of Kwakiutl personal norms is correct. Probably bothneed to be taken into account. It is hoped that material can still becollected from the various Southern Kwakiutl tribes which will aid inthe solution of this problem.BIBLIOGRAPHY "sBarnett, H. G.1938 a. The Coast Salish of Canada. Amer. Anthrop., n. s., vol. 40, No. 1,pp. 118-141.1938 b. The nature of the potlatch. Amer. Anthrop., n. s., vol. 40, No. 3,pp. 349-358.1939. Culture element distributions: Gulf of Georgia Salish. Univ. Calif.,Anthrop. Rec, vol. 1, No. 5.Benedict, Ruth.1934. Patterns of culture. Boston and New York.Boas, Franz.1897. The social organization and the secret societies of the Kwakiutl Indi-ans. Ann. Rep. U. S. Nat. Mus. for 1895, pp. 311-738.1909. The Kwakiutl of Vancouver Island. Mem. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist.,vol. 8, pt. 2, pp. 307-515.1920. The social organization of the Kwakiutl. Amer. Anthrop., n. s., vol.22, No. 2, pp. 111-126.1921. Ethnology of the Kwakiutl. Based on data collected by GeorgeHunt. ' 35th Ann. Rep. Bur. Amer. Ethnol., 1913-14, pt. 1, pp.43-794; pt. 2, pp. 795-1481.1930. The religion of the Kwakiutl Indians. Columbia Univ. Contrib.Anthrop., vol. 10, pt. 2.1934. Geographical names of the Kwakiutl Indians. Columbia Univ.Contrib. Anthrop., vol. 20.1935. Kwakiutl culture as reflected in mythology. Mem. Journ. Amer.Folk-lore Soc, vol. 28.Brabant, A. J. See Moser, Charles, 1926.Cobb, John N.1921. Pacific salmon fisheries. U. S. Dept. of Commerce, Bur. of Fisheries,Doc. No. 902.Coffin, Geraldine. See Waterman, T. T., and Coffin, Geraldine. " Since an analysis of the early historic culture of the Nootkans is to be made separately, sources fromthat period are not listed, except in a very few instances. This bibliography lists the chief modern ethno-graphic sources. 458 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144Curtis, E. S.1915. The Kwakiutl. The North American Indian, 1907-30, vol. 10, pp.1-366. Norwood.1916. The Nootka. The Haida. The North American Indian, 1907-30,vol. 11: Nootka, pp. 3-112, 177-186; Haida, pp. 115-175, 186-193.Norwood.Densmore, Frances.1939. Nootka and Quileute music. Bur. Amer. Ethnol. Bull. 124.Drucker, Philip.1939. Wealth, rank, and kinship in Northwest Coast society. Amer.Anthrop., n. s., vol. 41, No. 1, pp. 55-65.1940. Kwakiutl dancing societies. Univ. Calif. Anthrop. Rec, vol. 2, No. 6.1943. Archeological survey on the northern Northwest Coast. Bur. Amer.Ethnol. Bull. 133, Anthrop. Pap. No. 20, pp. 17-132.1949. Culture element distributions: The Northwest Coast. Univ. Calif,Anthrop. Rec. In press.MS. The Eagle-chiefs of the Southern KwakiutlEells, Myron.1883. The potlaches of Puget Sound. Amer. Antiq., vol. 5, No. 2, pp.135-147.1887. The Indians of Puget Sound. Amer. Antiq., vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 1-9;No. 2, pp. 97-104; No. 4, pp. 211-219; No. 5, pp. 271-276.1889. The Twana, Chemakum, and Klallam Indians, of Washington Terri-tory. Smithsonian Ann. Rep. for 1887, pp. 605-681.Ford, Clellan Stearns.1941. Smoke from their fires, the life of a Kwakiutl chief. New Haven.Frachtenberg, Leo J.1920. Eschatology of the Quileute. Amer. Anthrop., n. s., vol. 22, No. 4,pp. 330-340.1921. The ceremonial societies of the Quileute Indians. Amer. Anthrop.,n. s., vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 320-352.GiBBS, George.1877. Tribes of Western Washington and Northwestern Oregon.. Contrib.North Amer. Ethnol., Dept. Interior, n. s., U. S. Geographical andGeological Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region, vol. 1, pt. 2,pp. 157-241.Greiner, Ruth. See Waterman, T. T., and Greiner, Ruth.GUNTHER, ErNA.1927. Klallam ethnography. Univ. Washington Publ. Anthrop., vol. 1,No. 5, pp. 171-314.1936. A preliminary report on the zoological knowledge of the Makah. InEssays in Anthropology, Presented to A. L. Kroeber, pp. 105-118.Berkeley.1945. Ethnobotany of western Washington. Univ. Washington. Publ.Anthrop., vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 1-62.See also Haeberlin, Hermann, and Gunther, Erna.Haeberlin, Hermann, and Gunther, Erna.1930. The Indians of Puget Sound. Univ. Washington Publ. Anthrop.,vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 1-84. Drucker] THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL NOOTKAN TRIBES 459Heizer, Robert F.1943 a. Aconite poison whaling in Asia and America. Bur. Amer. Ethnol.Bull. 133, Anthrop. Pap. No. 24, pp. 415-468.1943 b. A Pacific Eskimo invention in whale hunting in historic times.Amer. Anthrop., n. s., vol. 45, No. 1, pp. 120-122.Hough, Walter.1898. The lamp of the Eskimo. Ann. Rep. U. S. Nat. Mus. for 1896, pp.1025-1057.Hunt, George. See Boas, Franz, 1921.Jewitt, John R.1815. Narrative of the adventures and sufferings of John R. Jewitt; onlysurvivor of the crew of the Ship Boston, during a captivity of nearlythree years among the savages of Nootka Sound: with an accountof the manners, mode of living, and religious opinions of the natives.Middletown, Conn. (Many editions.)1931. A journal kept at Nootka Sound . . . Boston.Knipe, C.1868. Some account of the Tahkaht language. 80 pp. London.KoppERT, Vincent A.1930. Contributions to Clayoquot ethnology. Catholic Univ. Amer., An-throp. Ser., No. 1.Kkoeber, a. L.1917. The tribes of the Pacific Coast of North America. Proc. 19th Int.Congr. Amer., Washington, 1915, pp. 385-401.1923. American culture and the Northwest Coast. Amer. Anthrop., n. s.,vol. 25, No. 1, pp. 1-20.Lantis, Margaret.1938. The Alaskan whale cult and its affinities. Amer. Anthrop., n. s.,vol. 40, No. 3, pp. 438-464.MosER, Charles.1926. Reminiscences of the West Coast of Vancouver Island. (ContainsA. J. Brabant's "Vancouver Island and its Missions.") Victoria,B. C.Moziffo, J. M.1913. Noticias de Nutka. 117 pp. Mexico.Newcombe, C. F.1909. Victoria Provincial Museum; guide to the Anthropological Collection.Victoria, B. C.NiBLACK, Albert P.1890. The Coast Indians of southern Alaska and northern British Columbia.U. S. Nat. Mus. Rep. for 1888, pp. 225-386.Olson, Ronald Le Roy.1927. Adze, canoe, and house types on the Northwest Coast. Univ. Wash-ington Publ. Anthrop., vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 1-38.1936. The Quinault Indians. Univ. Washington Publ. Anthrop., vol. 6,No. 1.Pettitt, George Albert.1946. Primitive education in North America. Univ. Calif. Publ. Amer.Archaeol. and Ethnol., vol. 43, No. 1, pp. 1-182. 460 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 144Sapir, Edward.1911. Some aspects of Nootka language and culture. Amer. Anthrop.,n. s., vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 15-28.1913. A girl's puberty ceremony among the Nootka Indians. Trans. RoyalSoc. Canada, ser. 3, vol. 7, pp. 67-80.1915. Abnormal types of speech in Nootka. Canada Geol. Survey, Memoir62 and 63, Anthrop. Ser. Nos. 5-6.1916. Time perspective in aboriginal American culture, a study in method.Canada Geol. Survey, Memoir 90, Anthrop. Ser. No. 13.Sapir, Edward, and Swadesh, Morris.1939. Nootka texts. Ling. Soc. Amer.Sproat, Gilbert Malcolm.1868. Scenes and studies of savage Hfe. London.Stearn, Esther Wagner, and Stearn, Allen Edwin.1945. The effect of smallpox on the destiny of the Amerindian. Boston.Swadesh, Morris.1948. Motivations in Nootka warfare. Southwestern Journ. Anthrop.,vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 76-93.See also Sapir, Edward, and Swadesh, Morris.Swan, James G.1870. The Indians of Cape Flattery, at the entrance to the Strait of Fuca,Washington Territory. Smithsonian^Inst. Contrib. to Knowledge,No. 220, vol. 16, article 8, pp. 1-105.SWARTH, H. S.1912. A visit to Nootka Sound. The Condor, vol. 14, pp. 15-21.TuRNET-HiGH, Harry Holbert.1942. The practice of primitive warfare. Montana Univ. Fubl. Social Sci.,No. 2 (mimeographed).Waterman, T. T.1920. The whaling equipment of the Makah Indians. Univ. WashingtonPubl. Anthrop., vol. 1, No. 1.Waterman, T. T., and Coffin, Geraldine.1920. Types of canoes on Puget Sound. Mus. Amer. Indian, Heye Found.,Indian Notes and Monogr., Misc. No. 5.Waterman, T. T., and Greiner, Rtjth.1921. Indian houses of Puget Sound. Mus. Amer. Indian, Heye Found.,Indian Notes and Monogr., Misc. No. 9.WiLLOUGHBY, ChARLES C.1903. Hats from the Nootka Sound region. Amer. Naturalist, vol. 37,pp. 65-68. BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 144. PLATE 2 NOOTKAN TERRITORY a. View up I'asis Canal, Nootkan Sound, from lower channel, h, Tide flats at head of TasisCanal. (Photographs from W. A. Newcombe Collection.) BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY iULLETlN 144, PLATE 3 a, b, Old houseposts at Kyuquot (from photograph taken in 1928). c, Thunderbird-and-whale memorial erected 1902-3 at death of Chief Moqwinna. (From photographs inW. A. Newcombe Collection.) BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 144, PLATE 4 NORTHERN NOOTKAN MASKSU. S. N. M. No. 219891, length 14^ in.; h, U. S. N. M. No. 219891, length IS/g in.; c, U. S.N. M. No. 219893, length (horizontal), ca. 20 in. c was originally movable, the beaksnapping shut and the "crests" over the eyes raising and lowering as the dancer manip-ulated the parts with strings. BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 144, PLATE 5 NooTKAN MasksU. S. N. M. No. 54084, length, lljii in.; b, U. S. N. M. No. 56464, length (horizontal)123/4 in. INDEXAbalones, 39, 100, 113Abalone shells, 113-114used for ornaments, 111, 244Abies grandis, 8Abortion, 300Above Chief, mythical being, 152Aconite poison, use of, 173"Adoratory," 171AdLilterv, 302, 306, 307, 309, 310Adzes, 77, 78 80, 81, 82, 121Afterbirth, 119, 121, 122, 123, 124Age-grade groups, 270, 392, 399, 402,403, 404, 439Ahousat tribe, 5, 6, 7, 13, 49, 50, 55,116, 134, 174, 178, 217, 234, 237,238-240, 296, 297, 305, 332, 333,339, 340, 344, 357, 358, 359, 364,365, 389, 393, 399, 405, 408, 411,416chief, 11Hesquiat tribes attacked by, 237massacre of whites by, 13war between Otsosat and, 344-353village sites, 236 (map), 239 (map),242Ahousat Amos, Indian whaler, 49, 50, 55ai'qo'as, Chickliset village, 222Airplanes, still a novelty, 142Alberni Canal, 5, 10, 21, 57, 60, 75, 79,100Alberni Canal groups, 5, 6, 10, 72, 75,93, 99, 151, 215, 258, 312, 438,439Alberni settlement, 12Alder {Alnus oregona), 8, 77, 95, 97Alder bark, used for dye, 102Alert Bay, 332Aleut, 48, 107, 108Aleut-Koniag, 173Alexander, Pascal (informant), 6Alnus oregonia, 8Amos, Alex (interpreter), 6Amos, Mary (interpreter), 6Amusements, Games and, 444-452Ancestors, emulation of, 383, 384Anchors, 86"Ancients," part in ceremonies, 369, 370Anemones, sea, 39Anklets, cedar bark, 97, 102, 397fur. 101Anthropomorphic beings, myths about,152, 153Apparitions, myths about, 154Aprons, dance, 103women's, 94, 95, 100apsuwis, Chickliset summer village, 222Arm-bands, 192, 397, 409Armor, cedar-bark, 335elk-skin, 103, 104, 207, 211, 335twined hardwood rod, 335 Arrows, 31-32, 47, 334Athletic contests, 444, 446, 447atsa, see novices, 419, 420, 432Augers, steel, 79Autopsies, practice of, 149Awl, bone, 65, 91Axes, iron, 77, 81Back rests, wooden, 75Baggage, transportation of, 104Bags, cedar-bark, 66, 92, 96ditty, 96, 105tackle, 96Bailer, 254Makah tvpe, 85Bajo Point, 189Baling loads, method, 104Balls, scramble, 295Bandannas, worn by men, 101Bark and feather fibers, not used, 94Barkley, [Charles William], explorer, 11Barkley Sound, 3, 5, 6, 7, 10, 112, 241(map), 340, 352, 353, 438Barkley Sound group, 5, 6, 239, 342,439, 452Barnacles, 39, 170Barnett, H. G., ix, 1on canoes, 84on clothing, 100on potlatching, 386Bartlett Island, 56, 239 (map), 346Basketry, 136coiled, 92Baskets, 51, 66, 71, 72, 92, 120, 121, 187berrv, 98, 104burden, 39, 57, 98, 104cedar bark, 30, 65, 95, 96, 97, 98,104, 113dried-salmon, 96, 104"hand," 39, 98harpoon, 96tabus regarding making of, 388tool, 96, 98"wedge," 79, 96wood, 190Bass, sea, 125Bastards, 300, 301Bath, steam, curative method forspirit-sickness, 146Bathing, ceremonial, 138, 139, 140ritual, 101, 102, 115, 116, 117, 126,127, 133, 137, 143, 165, 166,167-168. 170, 173, 174, 176, 183,184, 189, 196, 197, 198, 217,270, 334, 372, 373, 422, 427, 435salt water, 168, 184Battle practice, 134Beach-Owner, see Owner-of-the-Beach,432, 433, 434Beads, 90, 114, 139, 148, 296, 298glass, 100, 111 461 462 INDEXBeams, 104carved and painted, 72construction of, 80raising methods, 74Beans, 431Bear-bone knives, 91"Bear Ceremonialism," 180Bear cubs, pet, 109, 145hunters, 375supernatural character, 166trap, 33trapper, 180, 181Bears, 36, 65, 79, 273black, 9, 33grizzly, 9, 103, 259observances in honor of, 175,180-181Beaters, whale bone, 94Beaver, 9, 27, 33, 59, 61, 100, 114Beaver-tooth dice, 445, 446Beds, plank, 71Bedwell Sound, 239 (map)Beheading, practice in war, 339, 341,345, 347, 359, 363Bela Bela, 76, 85Belts, cedar bark, 97, 99, 102, 207, 212,397, 407"Benches," 76, 144Benedict, Ruth, 456, 457Benson, Mrs. (informant), 217Bering Sea, voyages to, 13Bering Sea fur sealing, effect on people,151Berries, 63, 104, 252Berrying, baskets for, 98, 104Berry patches, rights to, 252Berry pickers, payment to, 252Bets, made on games, 444, 445, 446, 447Bibhography, 457-460Bird beaks, decorative use of, 106bone, uses, 79Dancers, mythical characters, 159spears, 35Birds, 9, 43maltreatment of, 451Birth customs. Pregnancy and, 119-127huts, 120Births, illegitimate, 300multiple, 128Blackberries, 57Blackjack, game, 444Bladders, used as containers, 92Blankets, 47, 48, 89, 105, 114-115, 125,126, 131, 140, 144, 148, 172, 255,268, 287, 288, 291, 292, 296, 358,376, 395, 416black, 397, 403, 405bought from white traders, 12, 56,99, 101, 103, 111, 114, 385cedar-bark, 114, 147, 294, 300, 377Chilkat, 94, 103, 147, 296, 418four-colored, 115gifts of, 379red, 423value of, 114, 140, 203, 204white, 397 Bleeding, method of, 146treatment for, 146Bligh Island, 229 (map)Blind Harry (informant), 6Blocks, cutting, 63Blood, face painting with, 103Blunden Island, 239 (map)Board bending methods, 79, 89Boards, making of, 80, 81Boas, Franz, on beam-raising methods,74on ceremonials, 259, 369, 405, 456on clothes, 99, 100on magic, 174, 318on manufactures, 78, 81, 82, 89, 90,91, 94, 97on political groups, 220, 246on secret societies, 102, 215on social customs, 332on "totem poles," 76Boas, Franz, and Hunt, George; oncooking methods, 61on shrines, 171Bobcat, 9Bodega y Quadra, Don Juan Franciscode la, 11Body painting, 128, 394Boiling, method, 62Boit [John], explorer, 11Bojo Point, 226 (map), 229 (map)Bones, used in game of "lahal," 444, 445Boston, trading ship, 12, 338Bottles, basketry-covered, 93kelp, 375, 376Boulder Point, 236 (map)Bow, fire, 107Bowls, wooden, 415Bows and arrows, 31-32, 43, 46, 47, 335Bows, toy, 135Box, cooking, 89, 90, 91, 113, 119, 125,394Boxes, burial, 147, 149construction of, 88-89dittv, 31, 88, 90food, 388grave, 214, 353hunting, 90ornamented, 89steam, 79storage, 88, 89, 92trinket, 90water, 88Boxes, wooden, 71, 72, 76, 88Boys, clubs, 399cradles of, 124deformation of, 126first game celebration, 137function in girl's puberty rites, 138hair cutting, 128-129marriage, 145novitiate served by, 145teaching of, 136, 145, 305toys for, 135Brabant, Father A. J., missionary, 13,37, 99, 147, 181, 182, 213, 385, 446Bracelets, 101, 102 INDEX 463Bread, baked, 71Bread, pilot, introduction of, 62Bride price, 111, 275, 276, 289, 290, 294,296, 299Bride-purchase, ceremony connectedwith, 295-296Bride's privileges, list of, 290-291Broiling, method, 62Broken Channel, 239 (map)"Broom," used in dentalia fishing, 112Brothers, 125Buckets, 187, 189"water," 31, 89, 90, 125wooden, 388Buckskin, 103Buffoonery, practice of, 455Bull-roarer, 106, 388, 394, 395Bundles of sticks, mnemonic devices,117Bunglers, 329, 330Burial Cave, 147, 149Burial, cedar-bark wrapping for, 93, 149customs, 147-150destruction of personal effects at,149, 150secondary, 149Burman River, 233 (map)Buttons, ornamental brass, 139Caesarian operations, 150Caldwell, Mr., missionary, ixCalendars and mnemonics, 115-117Canneries, estabUsament of, 14Cannibalism, denial of, 342Canoe paddling, teaching of, 136Canoes, 4, 10, 11, 13, 31, 35, 37, 41, 42,43, 45, 47, 49, 57, 58, 75, 79, 80,82, 84, 86, 82-88, 94, 96, 104, 105,109, 111, 128, 141, 142, 147, 148,172, 179, 203, 254, 268, 295, 409435birchbark, 87building of, 82-83, 110, 273, 383California, 90destruction of, 340fishing, 84, 87, 347"freight," 83, 84, 88gifts of, 376hunting, 84Kwakiutl, 82, 84makers, 82, 110marriage, 289mast-sockets in, 85names of, 83-84, 257, 259paddles, 46, 47, 85, 136postures in, 86-87preparation of, 47rough, 84sails for, 85-86sea otter, 47, 48, 84sealing, 84, 87, 88, 110, 373sizes of, 83, 84toy, 135, 410use at potlatch time, 378, 381, 431war, 110, 339, 346, 347, 354, 355,359 Canoes and their appurtenances, 82-88Canoes, whaling, 50 (fig.), 51, 53, 54(fig.), 55, 84, 87, 88Cape Cook, 3, 5, 222Cape Flattery, 3, 85, 108, 455Cape Mudge, 3Capes, 94, 95, 100cedar-bark, 428hemlock-twig, 143, 409rain, 94, 95, 97, 99, 100Caps, fur, 100Captives, 332, 342, 356, 359Cards, game, 438, 446Carpenters, 77, 78, 79Carpenter's kit, 77Carpentry, 77-79Carver, 286Carving, 273Cash, exchange of. 111, 385Caste structure, 245Catface Mountain, 344, 346Cats, 176Cat's cradle, pastimes, 120, 444, 450Cedar, red (Thuja pUcata), 8, 77, 92, 93,95, 96, 97, 99, 106, 123, 169,170, 172Cedar, yellow (Chamaecyparis noot-kaensis), 8, 77, 92, 93, 95, 99,100, 114, 117, 123, 217Cedar bark, collecting method, 93, 94,95, 104, 105 (fig.), 315dyeing methods, 95, 97shredding method, 97spirit manifestation, 186, 189, 190uses of, 92, 93, 94, 97, 106, 120, 121,122, 123, 124, 135, 146, 172, 173,179, 180, 189, 192, 379Cedar brooms, used for dentalia, 112Cedars, 79, 80Central Nootkan tribes, 5, 6, 25, 33, 35,59, 61, 71, 103, 106, 119, 127, 138,141, 142, 149, 151, 157, 174, 177,183, 191, 193, 206, 210, 213, 215,216, 217, 219, 221, 246, 247, 252,258, 270, 277, 369, 392, 394, 404,405, 409, 445, 447, 448, 449, 452Centre Island, 227Ceremonial rights, lost in war, 343Ceremonial seats, 260-266Ceremonies, 101, 102, 175-181, 215-218,438, 455rights to, 257-260Chamaecyparis nootkaensis, 8Chanteyman, 74, 87Charcoal, used as paint, 103, 376Chastity, 305premarital, 286, 304, 305Cheating, part of games, 445Chemakum, 3Cherry bark, used for baskets, 98Cherry, wild (Prunuse marginata), 8,92, 98Chests, chief's, 89tool, 77wooden storage, 72 464 INDEXChickliset tribe, 5, 6, 221, 222, 256, 292,293, 301, 320, 321, 322, 332, 337,342, 384Chief aUyu (informant), 6, 28, 30, 49,50, 55, 56Chief aml'i,ac, 360Chief aiiapinul, 234, 361Cliief clwuc, 234, 242, 243, 255, 317, 318,33S, 343, 353, 354, 355, 356, 357,358, 359, 360, 361, 365Chief hai'naqtsokwo, 163Chief ha'ivah, 363Chief haivu'eh, 218, 242Chief haivupimH, 339, 344, 345, 346, 348,319, 350, 351, 352, 353Chief luiki.Isaiulpeil, 293, 383Chief hie(|a, gn^at warrior, 125Chief kapiiu.iU'owa, or haha'umehic, 177Chief kwaivatsiqcil, 235Chief kwatVilmaluI, 351Chief Laiiinii-. 283Chief i-aqicqi'is, 236Chief Lehaisiin, 346Chief i.ehomjilul, 350Chief "Maquiima," 231, 234, 243Chief luoqwina, 234, 318, 319, 326, 345,346, 348, 350, 351, 352, 353, 369,372, 373Chief iiasatsois, 163Chief naswitiis, 211, 285, 292, 383marriaf'e to ooinnioner, 292Chief iiahwinic, 383Chief nQqinls, 241, 242, 243Chief qtUka, 315Chief qaiilma, 346, 347, 348, 351, 352,353, 357, 358, 359Chief qtinictiip. 347Chief qiqimaxcla, see Chief saiyatcapis.Chief saivateapis, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161Chief stasaxsos, 361Chief tawinisain, 236, 237Chief tctha, 355, 356, 358, 363Chief tits(i?im(ie, 360Chief '"nu-paiia-nutl" (uipaTianol), 231Chief tsaxhwysip, 353Chief tuekni'ihun, 343, 361, 364Chief umaki.a'a, 162Chief uina'La'a, 364Chief wai'eiiaq, 356"Chief Wikananish," 125, 240Chief wikeiianic, see "Chief Wikanan-ish."Chief winuwo, 268Chief witaniis, 216Chief woLasapal, 242Chief ya'aistohsinahil, 125,1:240, 241, 242Chiefs, 46, 47, 71, 72, 73, 76, 87, 88, 89,109, no, 117, 124, 131, 134, 135,146, 171, 181, 243, 246advice to, 454burial, 353eanoc^s of, 83-84, 88celebrations connected with, 118chests of, 89, 270children, 125, 131, 132, 133, 139,140, 141. 145, 146 Chiefs, clothing, 94, 99, 101, 244clubs, 402daughters, 123, 139disi)lav privileges, 289duties', 244, 336duties owed to, 271-272fishing and hunting rites, 248gifts of, 124, 251, 378, 379, 437gifts to, 105, 111, 140, 149, 247, 378,437hereditary rights, 69, 71, 90, 111,139, 140, 141, 148, 161, 174, 221,251, 265, 266, 267, 274, 288, 387inheritance of display privileges,266. 392invitations from, 368, 369killing of, 351lineage, 125, 245, 246, 274, 281, 392"low rank," 245marriage customs, 244mortuary customs for, 147-149myths about, 157, 163-167native name for, 246payment to, 139, 140pets of, 109possessions, 139, 140potlatches given by, 247privileges, 244, 247-260, 291property rights, 247-257residence customs, 278retired, 263, 264, 268, 269, 379, 380,385seating of, 371, 378, 379, 380spirit riglits of, 181tales of, 170-174, 383war, 264, 269-270, 285, 286, 334,335, 341, 371, 372, 373, 374, 375,376war rites, 170weapons, 335Chiefs and their people, summary, 273"Chief's wife," term for whale, 178Chief's wife, title for, 244Childbirth, 119, 120, 121, 123, 125-126Children, allocation of, after father'sdeath or divorce, 303education, 12<>-137games, 446, 448, 449, 450, 451hair cutting, 128-129illegiUmat(>, 300, 301initiation of, 391"kidnapped," 130, 131lack of punishment for, 130, 131oral training, 131, 133, 134social training of, 322-323toilet training, 129See also Twins.Chilkat. 94, 103Chinawear, cheap, 111Chisels, 77, 78, 80, 93, 96, 121ChippcM's, whale bone, 97Christ ie School, Clayoquot, establishedbv whites, 14Clains, 36, 37, 39, 62, 65, 78, 92, 98,128, 137, 420, 437Clamshells, use of, 108 INDEX 465Class system, oporalion of, 214, 245Clayoqiiot tribe, 5, 0, 7, 30, 49, 79, 93,116, 125, 134, 142, 149, 174, 177,217, 218, 221, 239, 240-243, 210,250, 274, 275, 283, 301, 302, 303,305, 314, 333, 335, 340, 311, 3 12,340, 347, 348, 350, 351, 352, 3(>9attack on Kyiiquot, 340-341chiefs, feast and potlatch seating};,200 (fig.)Clayociuot Arm, 241 (map), 317Clayoquot Sound, 5, 0, 7, 11, 13, 14, 15,43, 40, 213, 215, 221, 240, 242Clayoquot Village, 12, 70sit(;s, 241 (map)Climate, 7-8Cloaks, sea otter, 114Cloth, cotton, HIClover roots, preparation of, 62, 121Clowns, functions of, 270-271, 372, 455Clubs, 47halibut, 23, 44sealing, 27, 44, 45social, list of, 400-405war, 120, 233, 335, 358, 301, 455Coast Salish groups, 3, 10, 60, 94, 99,157, 192, 211, 215, 312, 446Cockles, 39Cod, 9, 22, 25, 20, 30, 37. 38, 40, 62,65, 235, 237, 302, 374black, 121, 122, 128rock, 125broth, used at childbirth, 121Codfish, dried, 65, 122, 138, 144nets, 25 (fig.)viscera, used as containers, 92Combs 415, 416Coho (Onorhynchus kisulch), 9, 36, 58,172, 176, 222, 280Columbia River, 12Commoners, 181, 243, 253, 263, 264, 270,271-272, 282, 285, 286, 379, 381,385, 440funeral customs, 149marriage to, 292, 299-300part taken in rituals, 392, 393status, 245Commoner's daugliter, 139, 140, 141,145, 292Comox, 84, 151, 439Compasses, 31, 56Confederacies, social groups of tribes,220Conifers, inner bark eaten, 60Containers, basketry, 75cedar-bark, 97for oil, 75, 92for whaling line, 97viscera used as, 92wood, 75Continence, observance of, 168, 170,171, 172, 184, 185, 346Cook, Capt., explorer, 11, 77, 78, 93,234, 353Cooking methods, 61-66Coons, 100 Copper ornaments, 100"Coppers," ceremonial objects, 76, HI,384Cordage, spinning of, 94Cords, cedar-bark, 75, 94, 117, 139ncittle, 139spruce-root, 75Corpses, {)reservation, 172stealing, 171use in rituals, 171, 172, 173, 176Cougar, 01Cousins, 124"Crabajjples," 57Crabs, 39spider, 39, 01Cradl(!boards, 129Nootkan, 129Cradle mattresses, 97Cradles, infants', cedar-bark, 93, 128, 131mat, 119, 120, 122, 123, 124, 125wooden, 122, 123, 124, 125, 420Craftsmen, 272, 273, 280Cranberries, 57Crane, mythical character, 156, 161,423, 424Crawlers, ritual term for wolves, 388,393Creas(!rs, bono, 99wood, 99Creators, Elder and Younger Brother,452Cremation, not practiced, 149Crows, 61, 321tame, 109Crystals, used in hunting rites, 169Cucumbers, sea, 39Culture heroes, tales of, 125, 126, 151,157-163, 452Culture, patterns of, 453-457Cups, 138tin, 298wooden, 90Curing, shamanistic, 202-212Cutting boards, wooden, 176Dance House, 411, 414, 416, 426Dance routines, teaching of, 133-134Dancers, 386masked, 389, 427ornauKsnts worn by, 97, 102, 436Dances, 372gifts given at, 404imitative, 400, 401, 415, 423, 431,436, 437inheritance of, 266restrictions on, 141ritualistic, 133war, 340Dance, Shamans', 40, 102, 103, 106, 118,130, 133, 134, 137, 150, 159, 215,216, 217, 218, 225, 228, 242, 249,253, 257, 258, 259, 207, 208, 270,273, 274, 282, 283, 285, 300, 301,307, 328, 339, 343, 304, 300, 308,369, 370, 371, 377, 378, 381,386-417, 417-429, 430-439, 440-443, 455. 466 INDEXDarts, thrown in game, 448Dead, mat-wrapped, 149spirits of the, 157Deadfalls, 32, 33 (fig.), 38, 59, 61, 149,ISO, 338Death, fear of, 147, 149Deception Channel, 239 (map), 241(map)Decontamination, methods of, 209-210Deep Inlet, 224 (map)Deep Pass, 345, 346Deer, 9, 32, 36, 38, 59, 60, 61, 63, 65,79, 109, 147, 175, 273, 374, 375hooves, decorative use of, 106hunters, 375meat, transportation of, 105tallow, 63, 100, 138, 169traps, 32, 33 (fig.)Deer-bone knives, 91, 95Deerskin, drumheads of, 104Dentalia, 101, 110, 111-113, 254fishery, 111, 223, 226 (map), 256fishing method, 112, 113polishing method, 113worn as ornaments, 100, 139, 244Devilfish, 43, 44Dewclaws, use of, 106Diarrhea, causes of, 49Dice, beaver tooth, 445, 446Digging sticks, 35, 39, 57, 93Dipnets, 23, 24 (fig.)Dippers, serving, 91Disappointment Inlet, 241 (map)Diseases, supernatural, 205-212Dishes, 71, 72, 298, 388, 394feast, 371, 373wooden, 90, 91, 124Dissension and social control, 311-322Diversions, myths and tales, 452Divorce, causes of, 302methods, 302Divorcees, 300, 307"Doctor Billy," Moachat shaman, 195Dogfish, 22, 45, 56, 176, 211oil, 63, 108, 122oil, trade in, 12, 45, 114skin, 28, 79trade, 225Dogs, 61, 91, 109, 176Dog wooL not used, 94Dollars, Canadian, value of, 110Dolls, cedar-bark, 135Doorways, 70, 120Doweries, bride's, 111, 297Dress and ornament, 99-103Dress, ceremonial, 101-103Dresses, trade cloth, 101Drill, bow, 79, 107, 108fire, 106Drills, 77, 79, 82Drogues (sea anchors), 30, 97Drummers, 106, 407Drums, box, 90, 106, 127, 128tambourine, 104, 106wooden, 106, 171, 172, 396 Drumsticks, 148, 298, 396, 398, 405, 407,421, 434padded, 106Duck down, use of, 102Duck nets, 24 (fig.), 34, 36, 42, 43Ducks, 43, 59, 63, 65, 137, 252, 329butterball, 175, 176Duck traps, 33-34Dugout, cedar, 87Dwarfs, myths about, 154Eagle down, use in rituals, 177, 181, 188,211, 212, 297, 364, 415, 416Eagle feathers, use of, 102Eagles, 34, 59, 65Ear ornaments, 100Ear pendants, abalone shell. 111Ear piercing, 124, 141East Coast people, 384Eclipses, myths about, 155Economic cycle and methods, 36-61Economic life, 15-66Economic reasons for war, 333Education, 129-137Ehetisat tribe, 5, 6, 49, 59, 109, 111, 119,123, 124, 132, 135, 138, 150, 157,169, 175, 198, 204, 205, 211, 221,225-227, 228, 251, 252, 256, 263,268, 270, 275, 276, 280, 281, 288,293, 294, 295, 296, 297, 298, 300,305, 307, 308, 309, 318, 319, 324,328, 341, 346, 354, 362, 364, 372,373, 382, 386, 401, 410, 414, 417,430, 431, 432, 433, 434, 435, 436,437, 438, 440, 441, 443, 451chiefs, potlatch seating, 262-263(list)house, residents of, 281 (genealogy),282Shamans' Dance, account of, 417-429, 430village houses, list of, 227village sites, 226 (map)Ehetisat-Moachat group, 372Elderberry, 157Elder Moon, moon phase, 167, 168, 169Elk, 9, 32, 36, 38, 60, 109, 147, 273, 374hide, use of, 34, 103meat, transportation of, 105spears, 32Elkhorn barbs, 28, 31English-speaking person, 142Eskimo, 107, 108, 173, 178Esperanza Inlet, 6, 49, 226 (map)Espinosa Arm, 160, 226 (map), 227, 228Espinosa Inlet, 225, 226 (map)Esteban Point, 4, 6, 45, 213, 232, 236(map), 237Excrement, use of in magic, 318Eyebrows, plucking of, 139Face painting, 100, 103, 128, 141, 148,180, 188, 334, 343, 373, 395, 398,403, 404, 406, 407, 408, 412, 413,415, 419, 421, 4.30Family, possessions of, 71rank of, 245 INDEX 467Fasting, practice of, 184Fathers, 135, 142, 143celebrations given by, 143, 144food restrictions, 125supernatural experiences sought byafterbirth of twins, 128, 173teaching of boys by, 136Fats, value in diet, 62, 63Feasts, 118, 140, 141, 257, 366, 367, 370-376, 388, 443hahbut, 375"home-brew," 142invitations to, 371molasses and gravy, 290, 373mourning, 148reasons for, 370-371, 442Feather ornaments, 141, 179, 180Feathered Serpents, mythical char-acters, 153, 155, 158, 165, 178,259, 294, 297Feathers, 148eagle, 59"Female" supernaturals, 324"Fences," used for spawn, 41, 42Fern root, preparation of, 61, 62Festivals, 366-443announcement of, 366-370older, 443Shamans', 143, 162, 192, 297, 298,386-417, 443Festivals and diversions, 366-452Festivities, reasons for, 118Fighting, 311-313Figures, used in shrines, 171Fir, balsam, see Fir, white, 8, 409Douglas {Pseudotsuga taxifolia), 8,107white {Abies grandis), 8, 85, 102,409Fire, and Ughting, 106-108use of in canoe building, 82Firearms, acquired from whites, 11, 12,335Fireplaces, 71, 72, 75Fires, ceremonial, 107, 108"Fire Tenders," mythical characters,434Fish, 139, 144clubs, 23hooks, 16, 21, 22 (fig.), 23 (fig.),38, 40, 44, 56, 96lines, kelp, 21, 22nets, 23, 24 (fig.), 25 (fig.), 26racks, 41, 63, 64, 65, 75, 346traps, 16-18, 37, 92, 267, 268, 279,280Fishermen, 272methods used by, 40-42, 43-45Fishing, 136, 137devices, 16-26stations, 67, 69, 74, 143, 251, 252,267. 343Flageolets, unknown, 106Floats, air bladder, 22, 46seal skin, 29, 30 (fig.), 31, 45, 46 Flores Island, 236 (map), 239 (map),249, 333, 344, 346, 347, 349, 350, 352Flour, introduced, 52, 90, 296Flutes, unknown, 106Foam, supernatural manifestation, 186Fogs, myths about, 156Food, preparation and preservation of,61-66quest, implements for, 15-36restrictions on, 119, 120, 123, 125Ford, Clellan Stearns, on Kwakiutl life,456Fort McLaughhn, white fort, 12Fort Rupert Tribes, 456, 457Fort Rupert, white fort, 12, 76, 413Fort Simpson, white fort, 12Four Chiefs, mythical beings, 152, 167,169, 177, 434Foxes, 9Fractures, treatment for, 146Fraser River, 56, 99Fraser River canneries, work at, 13Fraser Valley, 103Freight, transportation of, 88Friendly Cove, 68, 76, 138, 142, 169,i71, 196, 197, 204, 231, 234, 296,361, 362, 402, 403, 441Friendly Cove garrison, 57Frogs, 61Fur seals, not hunted aboriginally, 46See also Seals, fur; Sealing; etc.Fur trade, maritime, 15, 114, 253Furs, value of, 203Gaffs, detachable, 20 (fig.), 21Gamblers, 444Game, observances in honor of, 175-181Game resources, list of, 9-10Games and amusements, 444-452Games, battledore-and-shuttlecock, 449canoe racing, 448card, 444, 446dart, 448drawing straws, 451feather catching, 143foot racing, 448gambling, 444, 445, 446guessing, 444, 445, 446, 447hide-and-seek, 450hoop-and-pole, 447imitative, 451jackstraws, 449"King o' the Castle," 448lahal, 174, 438, 444, 446laughing, 444, 449-450lifting contests, 448lung capacity, 450, 451marksmanship, 448memory, 447mock battles, 451"playing house," 451"pretending geese," 451pushes-of-war, 448ring-and-pin, 449scramble ball, 143, 144shinny, 447 ?51- -31 468 INDEXGames, "Slahal," 445tag, 449teaching methods by, 134, 135throwing, 447tug-of-war, 448-449wresthng, 448Garments, fir-twig, 411, 412, 413, 415,421burning of, 414, 416, 427Gastropod opercula, ornamental, 83, 84,89Gathering devices, 35-36use of, 56-58Ganltheria shallon, 8Geese, 43, 63, 65, 116, 252, 374, 375Giantess, mythical character, 154Gifts, 423, 425, 426, 434, 436, 437, 442potlatch, 105, 111, 114, 125, 376,378, 381, 382, 386, 427, 429Gimlets, steel, 79Girls, clubs, 399cradles of, 124ear piercing, 141etiquette for, 304first activities celebration, 137hair dressing, 139hair ornaments, 139, 140 (fig.), 143,144postpuberty seclusion, 144, 145premarital chastity demanded of286pubescent, 117, 136, 137-144, 303-304teaching of, 136, 304toys, 135, 138Gluttony, attribute of clowns, 270Goats, mountain, 9, 94, 103, 139Goat wool, use in weaving, 95, 101, 103,111, 114, 139Gold River, 10, 36, 165, 176, 177, 195,232, 233 (map), 354, 356, 360Gold River people, 10, 21, 38, 60, 61, 87,231, 374Gossip, 332Grandparents, 130, 135Grasses, dyed, use in weaving, 93, 98Grassy Island, 224 (map), 2213 (map)Grave boxes, 214Gray, [Robert], explorer, 11Grindstones, sandstone, 77, 79Grizzly Bears, supernatural characters,394, 409, 418, 419, 420, 421, 422,431, 432, 433Groups, autonomous, 245Grouse, 61Gulf of Georgia, 35, 113Gulf of Georgia Salish, 5, 100, 109, 216Gulls, 59, 60tame, 109Gum, chicle, introduced, 108, 109spruce, chewing, 108, 388Gun wadding, cedar-bark, 97Guns, 111, 114, 240, 320, 335Guns and ammunition, 56, 114Gunther, Erna, ix Habitations, 67-77hahaull, native name for territorialclaims, 251Haida Indians, 22, 61, 98, 99, 108, 111,274, 319, 454Hair, use in magic, 318Hair cutting, 128-129mourning custom, 147Hair dressing, girls, 139, 140men, 100, 430women, 100, 139Hair ornaments, dentaha. 111, 139girls', 139, 140 (fig.), 143, 260removal of, 140, 141, 142, 144, 260women's, 139Hair seal, see Sealskin floaters.See also Seal; Seals, hair; Seahng;etc.Hair Seal's Home, mythical place, 152Hair Seals, mythological characters, 251Hair washing, ceremonial, 408, 415Half-loom, 94Hahbut, 9, 22, 36, 37, 43, 65, 125, 175,222, 232, 251, 252, 298, 374, 375club, 23fishing, 43, 44-45, 86, 87, 143, 235rigs, 23 (fig.)Hametsa dancers, 102, 318, 413, 425,433, 435rites, 14, 327, 389, 390, 435whistles, 393Hamilton, George (informant), 6Hammer, 407stone 314maker, 314Hanna, [James], explorer, 11"haqum," title for chief's wife, 244Harpoon, float, 173head, bone, 19, 31head, iron, 19, 26, 30, 31points, 109shaft, 45, 53sheaths, 30, 32Harpooner, 51, 52, 53, 55, 58Harpoons, 13, 15, 16, 45, 47, 51, 53,136, 170ceremonial use of, 389, 390, 398hashiltakaml, extinct tribe, 241heads and shafts, 20 (fig.), 21, 26, 90Northwest Coast style, 27salmon, 19, 20 (fig.), 21, 26seal, 19, 21, 26, 27 (fig.), 27, 45,46, 47, 56, 59, 375, 389, 401steel, 56toy, 135whaUng, 28 (fig.), 29, 96, 289Hats, chief's, 93, 99, 101construction of, 97-98rain, 59, 92, 93, 97, 99, 138, 244tabus regarding, 388ha'wil, native word for chief, 243, 244Hawk feathers, use of, 102Hayes, Joe (interpreter), 6Head rings, ceremonial, 97, 101, 102,396, 397Headaches, treatment for, 146 INDEX 469Head bands, 148, 192Head bands, cedar-bark, 102, 167, 169,170, 172, 176, 179, 180, 197, 198,217, 398, 407, 408, 409, 412, 415,416feather, 102, 408Headdress, ceremonial, 393fir-twig, 405hemlock-twig, 143, 334warriors, 334-335Headpressers, infant's, 97, 120, 122, 123,125Headrests, wooden, 75Heads, artificial deformation of, 122human, taken as trophies, 340, 341,342, 345, 346, 347, 348, 351, 354Hecate Channel, 226 (map), 353Hecate Pass, 344Hemlock {Tsuga heterophylla) , 8, 101,107, 128, 138, 157, 167Hemlock sap, use as paint, 100Hemlock twigs, use in rites, 169Herbert Arm, 238, 239 (map), 344, 350Herbs, medicinal, 146ritual use of, 169, 170Herring, 9, 23, 36, 40, 41, 42, 60, 65, 91,128, 138, 141, 144, 155, 171, 174dried, 40, 65eggs, 61, 135, 252, 296, 345, 346, 373fishing, 43nets, 24 (fig.), 25, 34, 40, 58observances in honor of, 175, 177rakes, 23, 40, 58roe, 65spawn, 41, 42spawn "fence," 35, 41, 42use as bait, 40Herring-people, mythological beings,151, 154, 173Hesquiat chiefs, potlatch and feast seat-ing, 265 (fig.)Hesquiat Harbor, 4, 5, 6, 43, 49, 77,168, 213, 215, 221, 235, 236(map), 237, 256, 341, 352, 445Hesquiat Mission, 13, 37Hesquiat tribe, 5, 6, 45, 53, 57, 59, 134,142, 172, 177, 178, 179, 216, 232,235-238, 246, 256, 335, 351, 409,410, 411, 415, 416attacked by Ahousat tribes, 237village sites, 236 (map)Historic Period, 10-15Homalco, 84Hook baiting, method, 40Hooks and lines, 21-23Hoops, used in game, 447Hopachisat, 59, 60Horizon Chief, mythical being, 152Hoskins, [John Box], on canoes, 83House boards, gifts of, 376building, communal, 72frames, 68 (fig.), 69, 70, 71, 72, 74,75posts, 104featured in Shamans' Dance,440 Household furnishings, 75-76Household utensils, miscellaneous, 91-92Houses, 128built by natives, 14, 69, 70, 71, 73burned for the dead, 442gable roofed, 69, 70individual, 72, 150modern, 72multifamily, 150ownership of, 248Salish-type, 72space allotments in, 71tribal, list of, 223"white man style," destruction of,150wooden, 77Huckleberries, 125red, 57winter, 37, 39, 57Hudson's Bay Company, 12, 114, 115,456Human flesh, used in hunting rites,169, 173Human heads, taken in war, 340, 341,342, 345, 346, 347, 348, 351, 354disposal of, 342Hummingbirds, trapping of, 451Humor, well-developed, 455, 456Hunchback, 300, 301Hunters, 116, 272, 280, 320, 383Hunting, 136, 145devices, 26-36, 59grounds, rights to, 253, 254sea otter, 244, 253, 273, 286Hupachisat, 59Huts, 75, 128birth, 120seclusion, 127, 128, 143Illicit alliances, steps against, 145Images, whale, 172Imitators, see Dances, imitative.Incest groups, 301Indian Reserves, established by Can-adian Government, 14Infants, burial of, 150betrothal rare, 287cover for, 122deformed, 120, 128, 149ear piercing, 125face shaping, 120first naming, 125head flattening, 93headpressers, 97, 120, 122, 123, 125initiations of, 391mat cradle, 93, 120, 122, 124, 125mattresses, 97, 120, 122monsters, 128secret rites connected with, 126treatment of 122, 123, 124-125wooden cradle, 122, 123, 124, 125Inheritance, 266-269Initiations, 390, 391In-laws, obligations to, 275Inner Basin, 341 470 INDEXInsanity, 324, 325, 326Intercourse, restrictions on, 120, ICSInterior Kalish, 103Interpreter, 142, 381, 437Jack, Mrs. Captain (informant), 6Jackson Dan (informant), 6Japanese Current, effects of, 7, 8Jealousy, 330warnings against, 305-306, 310,311, 330Jewitt, John R., 37, 49, 50, 57, 108, 273,353, 390, 391, 393, 455JeWitt's Lake, 171, 403Jimmy Jim (informant),Jingles, dance, 103Joseph, Father, ixJunction Island, 249Kangaroo designs, 93Kelp, 21, 29, 37, 38bulb, use as oil containers, 92stem lines, 35Kelpfish, 22, 26, 37trap, 19 (fig.)Kelsomat division of Ahousat tribe, 238Kendrick, [John], explorer, 11Kennedy Lake, 221, 240, 241 (map), 333Kennedy Lake tribes, 240Kettle, copper, 268, 297iron, 142, 373"Killer Whale," supernatural being,289, 428Kilts, cedar-bark, 409King George's Sound, see Nootka Sound,Kinship, 274-278functions, 275-276list of relatives, 277, 278usages and terminologv, 276-278Klahuse, 84Knipe, [C], 116Knives, 65, 93, 125bone, 91, 95clam-shell, 92flensing, 40mussel-shell, 63, 91, 120, 170slate, 91steel, 39, 56, 91woman's, 91Kokshittle Arm, 224 (map)Koppert, Vincent A., 73, 74, 78, 79Kroeber, A. L., ix, 1Kwakiutl, 3, 19, 22, 61, 65, 74, 77, 79,80, 82, 83, 89, 90, 91, 92, 94, 95,96, 97, 98, 99, 100, 102, 103, 111,115, 147, 192, 193, 215, 220, 235,259, 267, 270, 283, 284, 309, 317,318, 322, 332, 336, 341, 369, 377,382, 383, 384, 385, 389, 390, 393,405, 412, 413, 439, 452, 455, 456,457Kwatyat, Culture Hero, 452Kyuquot, attacked by Clayoquot, 340-341chiefs, feast seating, 262 (list)potlatch seating, 261 (list) 28436,135,176,209,246,263,281,294,302,328,372,385,398,418,426,451,199,374 Kyuquot, house, residents of, 283,(genealogy)Kyuquot, Confederacy, 4, 5, 6, 27,39, 49, 111, 117, 130, 134,143, 144, 149, 154, 168, 175,181, 186, 187, 188, 204, 207,211, 213, 220, 221, 222-225,252, 253, 255, 256, 258, 260,264, 268, 270, 274, 275, 280,282, 283, 285, 288, 292, 293,295, 296, 297, 298, 299, 300,303, 306, 320, 322, 325, 326,329, 332, 340, 341, 342, 369,373, 374, 379, 380, 383, 384,386, 389, 392, 393, 394, 395,399, 400, 401, 409, 412, 417,419, 420, 422, 423, 424, 425,427, 428, 429, 434, 449, 450,452origin of, 223Kyuquot Sound, 5, 6, 13, 46, 191,205, 220, 222, 223, 228, 252,village sites, 224 (map)Labor, division of, 39, 57, 61Ladders, tied-rung, 79, 80Ladles, lack of, 91Lahal, game of chance, 174, 438, 444,446Lamps, clam-shell, 108coal-oil, introduced, 108Lamp wicks, cedar-bark, 108Lances, 136, 447two-pronged, 448whahng, 31, 53Land Chief, mythical being, 152Land of the Dead, myths about, 156i.a'o'kwath, Clayoquot native name,241, 242, 246Lasmas, geographical locality, 249Lasmasath group, 249Laziness, 330Left-handedness, discouragement of, 130"Left-overs," use of, 372, 373Leg-bands, 192Leggings, buckskin, 100Leisters, 20 (fig.), 21Levers, use of, 73, 74Levirate, 301, 302Li'aik, famous trapper, 165, 166Life of the Individual, 118-150Life principle, situation of, 156Lighting, devices for, 107Lightning, mythical character, 153Limpets, 39Lineages, chief of, 71local groups, 220rights of, 73Linton, Ralph, ix, 136Lions, mountain, 9LitsLihwakt, Chickliset village, 222Loggers, 77Logging, 79-80Long Beach, 112Loons, mythological figures, 259Loot, disposal of, 342, 343 INDEX 471Loqwona ceremony, 243, 386-417Louis, Mrs. Maggie (informant), 6Lower-rank people, relation to chiefs,279Lowrie, R. H., ixLucas, Thomas (informant), 6Lunar periods, 115Lure, spinner, 26, 38Ititchaoktakaml, native name of tribe,242M (informant), 143, 144, 211, 293, 294,295, 296, 297, 298, 299, 417, 418,419, 422, 427, 428, 434, 435,441, 442Machines, sewing, 147Magic, 150, 206, 319, 321, 322Black, 212-215, 315, 317, 453contagious, 213, 214, 313, 314medicines, 270weather, 174-175Magico-ritual acts, 15maiyala'aq, Kyuquot shaman, 205, 211Makah tribe, 3, 4, 22, 28, 31, 48, 83, 85,93, 96, 98, 122, 151, 215, 404,445, 451dialectic division, 3Malksope Inlet, 224 (map)Mammals, list of, 9-10Mammals, sea, 43Manoisat tribe, 238, 256, 344Manoisat-Otsosat, exterminated tribe, 6Maquinna, native chief, 11, 15, 37, 50See also Moqwina.Marmots, 9, 33, 61Marriage, 274, 286-311arranged, 303-305ceremonial, 301contest privileges, 141, 143, 290,291, 437, 438, 439cousin, 301customs, 275, 276, 287-292dowery, 291, 292, 303festivities, 291gifts, 287, 291, 297, 298, 299night, 299proposal of, 287-288, 292, 303purchase price, 275, 276, 289, 290,294, 299rites, inheritance included in, 267-268 291rites, ' procedure, 287, 288, 289,290-291, 292, 293, 294-299Marten, 9, 33. 38, 51, 101,313Martinez, [Estevan Jose], explorer, 11, 15Marvinas Point, 249Maskettes, 102, 295, 298, 403, 418, 433Masks, 295, 300, 369, 370, 434carved wood, 102, 103, 426, 428ceremonial, 102, 103, 259, 393, 394,414, 418, 442dance, 89, 405gifts of, 133use in shrines, 172Massage, medical treatment, 137 Mat making, 92, 136Matches, block, 56, 107slow, use of, 107Material culture, 67-117Matrilocal residence, 285, 299Mats, 42, 43, 62, 63. 70, 71, 72, 76, 83,88, 92, 120, 121, 123, 125, 141,144, 149, 171, 175, 176, 177, 211,297, 298, 415cedar-bark, 75, 85, 93, 95, 97, 105,371feast, 95, 373sleeping, 76, 96, 311tabus regarding making of, 388tule, 75, 99uses of, 96white ceremonial, 180, 407Mauls, 77. 78. 171Meares, [John], explorer, 11Meares Island, 241 (map)Measures, list of, 81Measuring sticks, 82Meats, cooking methods, 62, 63transportation methods, 105MJ (informant), 176, 194-196, 207ML (informant), 187, 189, 190supernatural manifestation to, 189-190Mnemonics, calendars and, 115-117Moachat chiefs, feast seating, 264 (list)potlatch seating, 263 (list)Moachat confederacy, 5, 6, 15, 47, 49,50, 61, 75, 139, 142, 145, 147, 148,149, 169, 171, 175, 176, 177, 178,180, 189, 196, 209, 213, 221, 224,228-231, 234, 235, 239, 246, 248,249, 252, 263, 276, 281, 282, 288,305, 315, 317, 318, 338, 353, 354,355, 356, 357, 358, 359, 360, 361,362, 363, 364, 365, 372, 385, 389,391, 394, 395, 402, 404, 405, 414,415, 418, 419, 430, 431, 432, 433,434, 435, 436, 437, 438, 441, 445,448Moachat-Muchalat group, 138, 142, 231Moachat territory, chiefs holdings in,248, 249, 250 (map)Moachat village houses, list of, 231sites, 229 (map)Moccasins, 34, 38, 100Mohoae Island, 224 (map)Molasses, trade goods, 56, 63, 90, 114,296, 298Mollusks, 60, 62Monogamy, 311"Monterrey shells" (abalones), 113Moon, mvths about, 154Moon coiint, 115, 116, 171, 172Moqwina memorial, 147See also Maquinna.Mortuary customs, 147-150Moss, 8, "'9Mothers, 143 -T^: care of infants by, 125C'^g teaching of girls by, 136 472 INDEXMothers, treatment at childbirth, 119-127unmarried, 300Mourning, tabus regarding, 388Mozifio, J. M., 108, 115, 119, 171, 455on birth customs, 119on social club dances, 404MP (informant), 145, 363, 364Muchalat Arm, 5, 6, 10, 32, 36, 168, 172,220, 229 (map), 231, 232, 233(map), 237, 354, 356, 357, 358,359, 362, 363, 364Muchalat Arm groups, 245, 316, 341,344, 356, 360, 362, 457Muchalat chiefs, feast seating, 265(diagram)potlatch seating, 264 (diagram)Muchalat Jim (informant), 6Muchalat Peter (informant), 6, 434Muchalat River, 233 (map)Muchalat tribe, 5, 27, 34, 38, 49, 59, 61,63, 87, 99, 100, 109, 119, 123, 126,135, 176, 221, 224, 232-235, 238,239, 246, 254, 255, 268, 305, 311,317, 318, 327, 335, 338, 358, 359,360, 361, 362, 363, 364, 374, 375,388, 392, 393, 394, 399, 403, 410,415, 430, 432, 433, 434, 435, 437,438, 445, 447Muchalat village sites, 233 (map)Muchalat wars, The, 353-365Murder, rare, 318, 343Musical bow, unknown, 106Musical instruments, 106Muskets, trade goods, 353Mussels, 39, 237sohtary, 40Mussel-shell points, 28Mutilations, practiced by husbands, 305practiced on enemies, 342, 350Mythology, 132Myths, 151, 157-163Myths and tales, diversions, 452 "na' evaqeq," title for chief's child, 244Name^abus, 148, 149ritual, 258-260Napkins, cedar-bark, 97, 372Narrow Island, 249Nasal septums, pierced, 101Neck rings, cedar-bark, 97, 102, 394,397, 409Necklaces, bead, 101dentalia, 101, 111Needles, yew, 99Nettle-fiber cordage, 22, 26, 28, 29, 112Nettles, medicinal use of, 146ritual use of, 167, 169Newcombe, W. A., ixNews and gossip, 331-332News transmittal, 331, 332Nicolaye, Rev. Joseph, 446Niggardliness, 328-329, 330Nimkish River, 151, 375Nimkish tribe, 76, 234, 332, 354, 357Nitinat tribe, 4, 6, 94dialect of, 3 Nitinat Lake, 3Nootka Cannery, 142Nootka Cone, 249, 250 (map)Nootka Confederacy, 220Nootka Island, 49, 226 (map), 228, 229(map), 248, 250 (map)Nootka Sound, 4, 5, 6, 10, 11, 13, 14, 35,49, 77, 121, 142, 210, 214, 220,221, 226 (map), 228, 229 (map),230, 233 (map), 234, 236 (map),249, 250 (map), 252, 348, 360, 362Nootkans, 4, 11, 14, 35, 42, 56, 58, 59,60, 62, 72, 82, 86, 91, 99, 102, 104,106, 108, 111, 113, 115, 129, 130,147, 149, 152, 155, 215, 235, 243,301, 304, 312, 318, 319, 320, 322,324, 330, 333, 336, 339, 343, 344,386See also Nootkan tribes; Nootka,the.Nootkan tribes, 36, 61, 62, 77, 78, 79,85, 90, 93, 98, 116, 118, 119, 134,136, 173, 175, 181, 186, 218, 246,251, 439cosmological concepts, 151culture, 4, 77, 93, 118, 130culture patterns, 453-457festivals, 366-443, 385, 386-417games and amusements, 444-452geographical location, 3, 9, 10historic period, 10-15hunting trips, 13language, dialectic divisions, 3-4hfe cycle, 118marriage, 286-311political units, 5, 247rank, 243-273religious concepts, 151-157, 163,182social life, 219-365, 257, 274textile arts, 92, 95warfare, 335-336, 343wealth-concept, 110vear, divisions of, 37Nootka, the, 6, 251, 263, 268, 274, 276,277, 319, 327language, 3, 4name given by early explorers toMoachat, 6North Arm, 239 (map), 344Northern Kwakiutl, 443Northern Lights, 156Northern Nootkan tribes, 4, 5, 27, 58,59, 78, 83, 111, 115, 116, 119,127, 130, 138, 142, 149, 151, 156,177, 192, 193, 210, 213, 214, 216,219, 220, 221, 246, 247, 252, 258,261, 276, 369, 384, 394, 409, 411,416, 426, 445, 447, 449, 452Northwest Californians, 454Northwest Coast tribes, 11, 27, 36, 37,73, 109, 110, 118, 220, 243, 336,339, 390, 444, 445, 456Northwest Coast Raven myths, 452Nose cutting, magic practice, 126Nose piercing, 124 INDEX 473Novices, face painting of, 103, 412, 419ornaments worn by, 102, 411, 41Jpart taken by, in ceremonies, 389,^ 390, 391, 392, 393, 394, 395, 397,398, 399, 408, 409, 410, 411, 412,413 414, 415, 416, 421, 426, 427,434' 435, 440, 443Nuchatlet tribe, 5, 6, 111, 221, 226(map), 227-228, 248, 249, 256,275 276, 281, 282, 283, 288, 301,307 308, 309, 341, 353, 386, 400,418^ 419, 423, 424, 425, 430, 440,441'Shamans' Dance, account of, 430-439village groups, list of, 227-228Nuchatlitz Inlet, 6, 36, 49, 226 (map),227 228, 229 (map), 248, 440,441, 442 .^ ^ ^.nukwismi, supernatural manifestationto, 201Ohiat group, 7Oil containers, bladder, 75wooden, 89, 92Oil, olachen, 375Oils, 72value in diet, 63Olabar, Mrs. Sarah (informant andinterpreter), 6Olson, R. L., IXOncorhynchus keta, 9kisutch, 9nerka, 9tschawyischa, 9Oregon Indians, 111Ornament, Dress and, 99-103Ornaments, 11, 99abalone-shell, 111cedar-bark, 188, 405, 406, 412OtJsat^extinct\ribe, 49, 221, 238, 339.341,344,353 ^^ ^ ,war between the Ahousat and,344-353 ^^ ^^ ^?Otter hunting, methods, 46-47, 48Otter, land, 9, 38, 61, 120 135Otter sea, 9, 11, 12, 27, 31, 32 45 46,47 56 101, 103, 113, 117, 132,141 175, 238, 251, 253, 268, 293,295; 328, 353, 383, 384, 385effect on Nootkan history, 11, 253fur used for decorations, 95, 244hunting rites, 169robes of, 147skinning process, 103value of, 47-48, HO 113, 114, 381Otter-Spirit, supernatural being, 216Ououkinsk Sound, 5, 6, 224 (map)Oven, earth-, 79, 89Own^r-oJ-the-Beach. 76, 378, 417, 430431, 432Pacheena, 3 , or 07Paddlers, postures of, 8b-87Paddles, canoe, 46, 47, 80, 97 Pail, wooden, 179Paint, oil, introduced, 83Paint, red ocher, 83Paint, used on houses, 69, 72Pahsades, use in war, 338Parent-child, 301Parent-in-law, 301Parents, 130, 135, 138, 141, 142, 143, 145Park, Arthur, ixPastimes, cat's cradle, 120Patrilocal residence, 278Peavies, introduced, 81Pectens, 39, 106Penis, exposed in infant boys, 124Perch, 16, 22, 37, 57Perez, Juan, explorer, 10Periwinkles, 39Personal effects, destroyed with thedead, 150Personality, abnormal, 324-331antisocial, 326-327, 331ideal, 322-324 .Personality types and social attitudes,322-365Pets, 109 ^ ^.Pettitt, George Albert, on education,129, 132, 182Philandering, Prevalence of 306Pike, hunting weapon, 08, 334, 66b, 6'k^Pilchard, 37, 40, 60Pillows, wooden, 75, 76Pins, 138wooden, 139Pipes, clay, 108smoking, 108Pitfalls, 36 , ^. ..."Pit-lamping," illegal hunting method,43Pit storage, 65 .Planks, used for drumming 298 3yD,398, 405, 407, 414, 421, 434, 445Plants gathered, 56-57Plates, 298Platforms, sleeping, 72storage, 72 . 1 uPlumed serpent, mythological charac-ter, 102Poisons, 214, 215Poles, steering, 87, 88PoUce, 389, 390duties of, 389Poling, 87Polishers, sharkskin, 77, 79Polity, 220-243 .Polyandry, not practiced, 301Polygamy, 310-311Polygyny, practice ot, oDi-3UZPopguns, toy, 451Porcupines, 9 ? .^ cr -iir o-jsPorpoises, 9, 26, 36, 46, 65, 1/5, 238,253, 273Port EUza, 226 (map), 227, 228Fort Renfrew, 3 r^wnnT'ortlock, [Nathaniel], and Dixon,[George], explorers, 11Post holes, digging of, 73 474 INDEXPost mortems, practice of, 150Posts, carved, 74construction of, 80raising of, 73, 74Potatoes, 57, 62, 426, 428, 442Potlatches, arrival of guests at, 378competitive, 457display privileges at, 257-258, 274,289," 437, 438etiquette at, 379, 380-381, 382feasts, 12, 13, 40, 55, 105, 117, 118,124, 125, 132, 140, 141, 143, 144,145, 182, 183, 216, 221, 235, 242,243, 247, 253, 257, 280, 296, 297,364, 366, 369, 370, 372, 376-386,412, 413, 414, 416, 428, 455invitations to 117, 367, 377, 438, 443mortuary, 145, 148, 149, 441-443prohibition of by law, 14, 381quarrels over, 235, 246reasons for, 247, 257, 266, 377, 380,386rules governing, 377-386Potlatch gifts, 105, 111, 114, 125, 376,378, 381, 382, 386, 427, 429messengers, functions of, 378seats, 236, 237, 243, 246, 247,260-266, 267, 378, 379, 380, 385,386songs, 438ushers, duties of, 378-379Pre-European times, 376Pregnancv and birth customs, 119-127,371Pregnancy, first, 119Primogeniture, relation to rank, 245Privileges, 247-260, 280, 290, 294, 377application of term, 220ceremonial, 248, 257-260, 294-295,343, 409, 410, 411, 416economic, 247-257inheritance of, 267-268, 377, 387showing of at potlatches, 379transfer of, 377, 379Property, lost in war, 343Prostitution, 309Prunuse marginata, 8Pseudospouse, function of, 277Pseudotsuga taxifolia, 8Puberty observances, girl's, 137-144,296, "304Puget Sound, 56, 99Puget Sound hopfields, work at, 13Quarreling tabu, 388, 453Quatsino Sound, 3, 151Quatsino Sound tribe, 298, 457Queen Charlotte Sound, 113Queen's Cove, 5, 204, 252, 372, 375groups, 252, 317, 372, 373, 427villages, 226 (map), 227"Quelquelem," native chief, 11Quileute tribe, 3, 4Quipu, counting device, 116, 117Quivers, 32, 47qwowinasath, local group, 246 Rabbits, 9Raccoons, 9, 33, 61, 62Rafael Point, 347, 352Rainbow, 156Rafts, 75, 88, 104, 143, 408, 409, 411, 435Rank, 243-273Rattles, 405, 413mountain sheep, 193, 197Shaman's, 106, 185, 190, 193, 197,201shell, 106wooden, 106, 128Raven, 58, 61mythical character, 132, 428Receptacles, wooden, 88-91Red ocher paint, 100, 103Red snappers, 38Religious life, 151-218Remedies, 146-147Residence, 274, 278-286seasonal changes of, 59, 70, 71, 72,107Revenge, 319, 319-322, 333Rheumatic aches, treatment for, 146Rhubarb, wild, 120Rice, 296, 298Ridge poles, carved, 68 (fig.). 69Rites, Bear, 167Calling, 405, 408First Herring, 167First Salmon, 167Hair Seal Hunting, 168-169life crises, 129sea otter hunting, 169Tongs Making, 405, 406-417war chief's, 170whale hunter's, 169-170, 173Ritual cleanliness, 185, 187Ritual cleansing-spirit quest, 167-168Ritual privileges, 257-260Rituals, Dog Eating, 404-405house raising, 73-74supernatural, 163-167, 171tsaiyeq, 215-218whaling, 50, 51. 169-170Roasting, method, 62Robes, 38, 92, 94, 131, 144, 149bearskin, 101-102, 167, 170cedar-bark, 58, 94, 97, 99, 100, 101,138, 157, 408chief's, 101, 103, 114fur, 101, 103sea otter, 147Rooster designs, 93Root diggers, payment of, 252Root patches, rights to, 252Rope, cedar-bark, 107, 172, 173Roots, edible, 57, 66, 104, 127, 128, 252Rubus spectabilis, 8Rugged Point, 224 (map), 226 (map)Sadism, practiced in war, 456Sails, 85-86canvas, introduced, 85leg-of-mutton, 85-86mat, 85 INDEX 475Sails, outboard, 85square, 85Salal berries (Gaullheria shallon), 8, 57,63, 65Salal berry cakes, preparation of, 65 66Salishan-speaking tribes, 4, 5Salishan tribes, 93, 215, 243Salish tribe, 4, 99, 208, 215culture, 4, 100Salmon, 16, 18, 22, 58, 59, 60, 62, 63,65, 91, 128, 137, 171, 172, 173,174, 181, 240, 241, 252, 253, 288Clubs, 18, 58dog (Oncorhynchus keta), 9, 36, 37,58, 62, 63, 121, 127, 138, 141,144, 172, 175, 176, 177, 206, 210,211, 212, 222, 235, 236, 237, 238,344, 375, 447dried, 40, 62, 63, 64, 96, 121, 125,127, 128, 138, 144, 294, 296, 297,376, 426, 431eggs, 33, 426, 428fishing, method, 40-41, 49, 115fishing grounds, 67harpoons, 19, 20 (figs.), 21, 26, 58humpback, 36Land, see Salmon's Home,observances in honor of, 175, 176,177smoke-curing, 107spring {Oncorhynchus tschawytscka) ,9, 36, 40, 41, 58, 63, 125, 155,172, 176, 177, 235, 252, 374, 431,443tabus relating to, 176Salmonberry {Rubus speciabilis), 8, 56,57, 62, 125, 141, 250, 297, 360,363patches, right to, 252sprouts, 125Salmon-people, mythological people,151, 154, 166Salmon roe, preparation of, 64Salmon's Home, mythical place, 128,152, 156, 173, 175, 177Salmon Spirits, mythological characters,127, 154, 173, 177, 210Salmon streams, 248, 250, 251"Salmon's tail," name for children, 128Salmon trap, 16, 17 (fig.), 19, 58, 142,251, 259, 285Salt, dislike of, 60Salvage, rights to, 254, 256Sapir, Edward, 5on ceremonials, 368, 438, 439Sapir, Edward, and Swadish, Morri;-;, onbehavior, 132Savey, Frank (informant), 6Saws, steel, 77, 81Scouting, practice in war, 337, 364Scouts, 350, 357, 364Scrapers, iron 103mussell-shell, 103pecten-shell, 29Scratching stick, 138, 141, 144Sea anchor, 30 Sea-biscuit, 431box, 436Seagulls, beliefs relating to, 61, 127eggs, 61tame, 109Seal bladders, 64Seal blubber, 63Seal bone knives, 95Sealers, 383white, contact with natives, 13Seal feasts, 253Seal hunters, 44-45, 383Seal Hunting ritual, lGS-169Sealing, 141,^" 143, 273canoes, 84clubs, 27, 44, 45fur, 108, 111harpoons, 21, 26-27 (fig.), 26pelagic, 84Sea lions, 9, 26, 36, 37, 45, 46, 65, 92125, 147, 254, 273bladder used for containers, 179figures of, 68 (fig.) , 69skin used for armor, 335Sea lion sinew, 28Seals, 37, 45, 65fur, 26, 46fur, hunting of, 13, 26, 27hair, 9, 26, 29, 36, 45, 117, 125, 175,238, 252, 254, 273, 288, 387rights to, 252, 253, 387Pacific Harbor, 9Sealskin floaters, 29, 45, 46Sea Spirit, mythical character, 161"Seats," 76Seat, use of at birth, 120Sea urchin poles, 35, 58Sea urchins, 58, 60Seaweed, use of, 42, 60, 167, 158, 169,170Sechelt tribe, 100Seines, 36Sentinels, posting of, 338, 340, 341, 350,357Sewing machines, 147Sex conflicts, 303-311Sexual intercourse, ritualistic, 168Sexual looseness, 327Shaman, 128, 174, 181-212, 213, 260,285, 313, 315, 320, 325burial of, 149female, 300, 315See also Shamarness.functions of, 120-121, 193, 441killing of, 316ornaments worn by, 102, 192respect shown to, 183songs of, 452Shamaness, functions of, 123, 137, 204,209*See also Shaman, female.Shamanism, 181, 183, 189, 273open to both sexes, 183preparation for, 184, 190, 191, 193Shamanistic curing, 202-212payment for, 203-205 476 INDEXShaman-Minks, mythical, 153, 185, 213,452Shaman-name, announcement of, 192Shaman-Ravans, mythical, 153, 213, 452Shamans' Dance, 40, 102, 103, 106, 118,130, 133, 134, 137, 156, 159, 215,216, 217, 218, 225, 228, 242, 249,253, 257, 258, 259, 267, 268, 270,273, 274, 282, 283, 285, 300, 301,307, 328, 339, 343, 364, 366, 368,369, 370, 371, 377, 378, 381, 386-417, 417-429, 430-439, 440-443,455comparisons of accounts of, 438-439miscellany, 440-443significance of, 439-440Shamans' festival, 143, 162, 192, 297,298, 386-417, 443Shaman-Squirrels, mythical, 153, 185,189, 190, 198, 213Shamans' rattles, 106, 185, 190, 193, 197,198, 201Shamrock. George (interpreter), 6Shark hunters, 321Shark-liver oil, trade in, 56, 225Shark, supernatural character, 126, 437Sharks, 27, 45, 211, 320"mud," 56mythical characters, 154sand, 56Sharkskin, polishers of, 77, 79Shawls, ceremonial, 408introduced, 101, 111Shear legs, use in house raising, 73-74Sheep, mountain, 106, 193, 197Shellfish, 9, 362Shells, 110dentalia. 110Shelter Arm,' 238, 239 (map), 344, 351Shiftlessness, 328Shiners, 57, 58, 374Shinnv, athletic game, 447Shirts^ 99, 100, 298flannel, 101Shoes, introduced, 101Shotguns, 43, 46Shrines, 170-174Siblings, 124, 130, 135, 277, 278, 301, 345Sidney Inlet, 236 (map), 238, 344, 352Sidney Inlet groups, 343, 344Sieges, use in war, 338Singers, 386Singing, lahal-game, 106men and women, 142"t'ama," 138, 142tapyik, 142Skeletons, use in rituals, 171Skewers, use in ceremonies, 389Skin dressing, 103-104Skirts, dance, 106hemlock-twig, 143Skul! crusher, stone, 335Skulls, preservation of, 149use in rites, 168use in shrines, 171, 172, 173, 174Skunks, 9 Sky-Codfish, mythical character, 155,361Sky-Dog, mythical character, 155Sky-world (Heaven), 151Slaves, 110, 111, 122, 147, 243, 254, 272-273, 317, 350, 441attempts at escape, 273capture of, 340, 341, 342, 358, 359,362gifts of, 148, 293killing of, 317, 318, 334, 342, 384, 385loss of rights, 343marriage to, 244, 272non-Nootkan, 391privileges of, 366selling of, 342status of, 272, 273trade in, 111, 272treatment of, 272Sleight-of-hand, 217, 218Slings, spruce root, 335toy, 335Slippers, china (shell fish), 39Slug, symbol of softness, 172Smallpox, introduced, 12Smelt, 65"Smoke spreaders," 75Smoking, tobacco, 108Snails, sea, 39Snakes, 61myths about, 154Snares, loop, 34, 59spring-pole, 36Snot-Bov, culture hero, 144, 452Snowshoes, 32, 34, 38Social control, 319-322Social life, 219-365Sockeve (Oncorhi/nchus nerka), 9, 36, 58,62, 96, 172, 175, 176, 177, 222,232, 240, 252, 360, 372, 373, 436observances in honor of, 176-177Solstices, knowledge of, 115Son-in-law, gifts to, 133Songs, connected with puberty cele-brations, 141, 142connected with house raising, 73,74connected with whaling, 55feast, 371, 376game, 450, 451inheritance of, 266love, 142marriage, 289mourning, 148potlatch, 378ritualistic, 133, 178, 392, 394, 397,398, 410, 414, 415, 421, 427, 441supernatural, 267, 411towing, 178victory, 342wives', in warfare, 341Sororate, 301, 302Soul, belief in, 156Soul loss, cure for, 210-212Souls of Trees, maUgnant spirits, 153, 109Southeast wind, myths about, 174 INDEX 477Southern Kwakiutl tribes, 3, 4, 65, 76,77, 92, 94, 113, 114, 151, 174, 246,258, 287, 377, 379, 380, 384, 394,456, 457Spaniards, 113outpost founded by, 11, 57Speakers, 269, 282, 283, 371, 372, 375,377, 411, 428, 435part in marriage ceremony, 290,296, 297part in potlatches, 379, 380training for, 269Spearing, ceremonial, 389, 390Spears, 46, 436bird, 35elk, 32toy, 135two-pronged, 447Spindles, lack of, 94Spindle whorls, bone, 94stone, 94wooden, 94Spinning, 136Spirit-sickness, curative steam bath for,147Sponsor, 395, 396, 399, 400, 405, 407,412, 416, 417use of term, 392Spoons, 125lack of, 91shells used as, 92Sproat, Gilbert Malcolm, 78, 79, 82,340, 455on birth customs, 119on social control, 312, 313Sproat Lake, 5, 10, 234, 356Spruce, 78, 92, 157Spruce gum, chewing, 108, 176preparation of, 108Spruce root, used for weaving, 92, 93,97, 98, 99Squid, 125mythical characters, 154, 170Squirrels, 9, 61Stealing, uncommon, 329Steaming, method, 62, 89Steelhead, fish, 9Steersmen, functions of, 86-87Sticks, counting devices, 444, 446, 447Stirling, Dr. Matthew W., 2Stockades, temporary, 67Stone House, mythical place, 159Stones, Bezoar, beliefs regarding, 147Stools, lack of, 76Strait of Juan de Fuca, 3, 4Strike-a-light, 96, 107Sucking, treatment for disease, 125, 129,207, 208Suicide, 322methods, 322Suicides, burial of, 149Sun, myths about, 154, 361Supernatural beings, 131, 369Supernatural Canoe, mythological, 152,157, 158, 161, 185, 192, 259, 409,422, 425 Supernatural, dealings with the, 163-167Supernatural experience, tales of, 157-163Supernatural Killerwhales, mythicalcharacters, 158, 161Supernatural manifestations, 186, 189,194-201, 210, 216-217Supernatural Quartz Crystals, mvthsabout, 153, 160, 161, 162, "l63,218, 367, 368, 369, 370, 377, 378,410, 411, 418, 422, 431, 432, 433,439, 443Supernatural Salmon, mythical charac-ter, 268Supernatural Sharks, mythical charac-ters, 170Supernatural songs, 267, 411Supernatural Squirrels, mythologicalcharacters, 190, 198Supernatural Winter High Tide, myth-ical character, 161, 186.Supernatural Wolf Spear, display privi-lege, 271Supernatural Wolves, mythologicalcharacters, 106, 158, 162, 185,186, 189, 190, 225, 228, 267, 368,370, 378Supernatural world, 151-157Swan, James G., 83, 93, 113, 215Swan feathers, use of, 102Swans, 43Swimming, 136Sydney Inlet, 7, 236 (map), 239 (map) "Tablecloths," mats used as, 96Tabus, 118, 141punishment of violations of, 388,453regarding childbirth, 119-120regarding food, 61, 388regarding salmon, 41, 175-176regarding Shamans' Dance, 388regarding twins, 128relating to deaths, 147, 148Tachu Point, 111, 256, 309tacis River, 252, 268, 280, 285Tackle box, 47Tales of supernatural experience,157-163Tallv keepers, function at potlatches,379Tamsish Arm, 224 (map)Tanning method, 103Tasis Canal, 226 (map), 228, 229 (map),230, 363Tasis Narrows, 229Taxus brevifolia, 8Tea, 426, 431"Tenants," relation to chiefs, 221, 273,279, 381Territorial ownership, things includedin, 254Textiles, 92-99Thievery, petty, 313, 329Thimbleberries, 57, 65, 157Thomas, Alex (interpreter), 6 478 INDEXThompson, [David], 273, 391Throwing boards, 36Thuja plicata, 8Thunderbird, mythical character, 153,155, 259, 418, 432Tides, beliefs concerning, 156timikasath, extinct tribe, 241Tinder, cedar-bark, 97, 106Titles, lack of, 246Tlingit, 98, 99, 274, 319, 454Tlupana Arm, 228, 230, 231, 233 (map),249, 250 (map)Tlupana Arm group, 231, 232, 237, 248,249Tobacco and chewing gum, 108-109Tofino, white community at, 14Tofino Inlet, 241 (map)Tongs, 407, 414, 415roasting, 91wooden, 91, 92Tonquin massacre, 15Tonquin, trading ship, 12, 338Tools, 72metal, acquired from whites, 11, 12Tops, 123, 451Toquiat group, 7, 116Torches, cedar, 107, 437Totchu Point, 226 (map)"Totem poles," 76.Toys, 138popguns, 451tops, 123, 451Trade goods, 56Trades, hereditary, 273Traditions, 15Transformer-Culture Hero, Snot-Boy,452Transportation, 104-105 (fig.)Transvestites, 331Trappers, 285bear, 180, 181, 253deer, 253Trapping, 141, 145, 273winter, 38Traps, 15, 16, 61bear, 33, 137deer, 32, 33 (fig.), 137duck, 33-34.fish, 16-19, 92, 267, 268, 279, 280globular, 37salmon, 16, 17 (fig.), 19, 58, 142steel, 38Trays, decorated, 93Tree-Spirit, supernatural being, 217"Tribes," social groups, 220"Tribute," payment to chief, 251, 252,253Triplets, unknown, 128Trophies, human heads, 340, 341, 342,345, 346, 347, 348, 351, 354Trousers, introduced, 99, 101Trout, sea, 9, 176Truculence, 327, 330Tsaiyeq ritual, 215-218, 243Tsimshian, 61, 99, 319, 454.Tsisa'ath house, 68 (fig.) Tsuga heterophyUa, 8Tubes, drinking, 138use in rituals, 171, 172Tubs, wooden, 126tukwit, Moachat shaman, see "DoctorBilly," 196spirit manifestation to, 197Tumplines, 104, 105Turney-High, Harry Holbert, onIndian warfare, 335-336Twinning, seclusion connected with, 127,128Twins, 120, 127-128belief regarding souls of, 156birth of, 173burial of, 149children of, 128search for power by parents of,199-201treatment of, 127-128Twins Islet, 345Two Hundred Mouths, mythologicalbeing, 223Two Hundred Wolves, 294Uchucklisat group, 7Ucluelet Arm, 241 (map), 317Ucluelet group, 7, 112, 242Umbilical cord, cutting of, 120, 260treatment of, 122, 124Undersea Chief, mythical being, 152Undersea-world, 151Underworld, 151Union Island, in Kyuquot Sound, 199,224 (map), 255Upper Kennedy Lake, 240Urinals, wooden, 88, 90, 123, 207, 208Urine, uses of, 79, 89, 90, 104, 177, 207,408Vancouver Island, 3, 6-10, 42, 56, 60,108, 142, 151, 154, 215, 384description of, 6-10Vargas Island, 239 (map), 241 (map),344, 348Vegetable products, 36Venereal diseases, introduced, 12Venison, 375Vessels, serving, 90, 371, 372wooden, 396"Vests," bear-hide, 103, 167, 170Vials, basketry-covered, 93Victoria, trips to, 13Village Island, 222Village sites, ownership of, 248Villages, 73summer, 67, 69, 222, 224 (map)winter, 67, 69, 74, 222, 224 (map)Wakashan stock, 3War clubs, stone, 126Wallets, woven, 96War, 332-365causes, 333-334preparations for, 334-335refuges, 67Warfare, defensive methods, 338 INDEX 479Warfare, discipline, 341efficiency of, 341"medicines" for, 455methods of conducting, 336-341,455, 456naval, 339Warriors, headdress of, 335weapons, 335Washcloths, cedar-bark, 97Water buckets, wooden, 89Waterfowl, 36, 42, 43, 174, 374hunting methods, 42-43Waterman, T. T., 96, 163on canoes, 82, 83, 85Wealth goods, 109-115, 141Weapons, 335Weather conditions, 7-8Weather magic, 174-175Weavers, 92, 93Weaving, 92, 136"birdcage," 92decorative, 95diagonal checkerwork, 96, 97simple, 92tabus regarding, 120, 123twilled checker-board, 92, 95, 96twilled twining, 92, 94twined, 93, 94, 97wool for, 94wrapped twining, 92, 98Wedges, 77, 78, 80, 81, 82, 96, 137, 407Weir, V-shaped, 16, 17 (fig.), 18Weirs, 16, 17, 18, 19, 92Weregild, absence of, 312, 319, 454West Coast tribes, 98Whale, 9, 28, 30, 36, 39, 48, 49, 50, 51,52, 54, 55, 56, 65, 116, 125, 128,170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 180, 238,253, 254, 441baleen, used for rattles, 193blubber, 39, 55, 63, 144, 172, 178,256, 279preparation of, 40, 179, 180,256rights to, 250, 256bone, 78, 97butchering, method, 55"fin," kept by whaler, 180California gray, 48humpback, 48hunters' rites, 169-170, 173killer, 49, 152, 158, 240meat, 40, 253mythological characters, 151, 158,163observances in honor of, 175, 177-178, 179oil, 63, 89, 107, 108, 179, 180, 253,256, 426rights, 39, 255, 256saddle, treatment of, 178-180sinew, 28sperm, 49stranded, 255, 279sulphur-bottom, 49supernatural character, 126 Whaler, 53, 55, 56, 173, 177, 178, 179,180, 238, 240, 242, 255, 256Whaler's wife, part in rituals, 177-178Whale's Home, mythical place, 152Whaling, 244, 253, 273decline of, 84gear, 27-32, 50 (fig.), 51history of, 49, 50-53lance, 173line containers, 97revival of, 134scenes, decorative, 93songs, 178Whistles, 295, 298, 451dance, 89, 106, 403, 416, 418, 434,435Hamatsa, 393multiple, 106simple, 106Wolf, 143, 162, 349, 392, 393, 395,433, 434, 435, 442Whiteface Island, 222, 224 (map)White trader, Clayoquot deal with, 340Widowers, marriage customs of, 302Widows, 300, 307marriage customs of, 302Wife, first, 301subsidiary, 301Wikennanish Island, 348"Wild Man Spirit," supernatural being,394Wild rose haws, restrictions on eating of,144Willoughby, Charles C, 97witapi, Ehetisat shaman, pay for treat-ment, 204supernatural experience of, 198Witchcraft, 213, 313-319, 453suspicion of, 150, 214Witches, 130, 212, 214, 215, 313, 315Wives, customs regarding, 275part in war, 341Wizards, 208, 314Wolf cubs, pet, 109, 145Wolf Dance, 386, 398, 399See also Shamans' Dance.Wolf marriage privilege, 294Wolf-Messenger, mythical character,126, 127, 452"Wolf Owner," designation of Sponsor,392Wolf pelts, formerly worn, 393"Wolf Spear," mythological figure, 260Wolves, 9, 61, 109, 127, 135, 174, 176mythical characters, 130, 133, 143,152, 185, 289, 300, 364, 366, 370,387, 388, 391, 392, 393, 394, 395,396, 397, 398, 399, 405, 408, 409,410, 411, 414, 415, 416, 419, 420,421, 422, 423, 426, 432, 433, 434,437, 438, 441, 443dress of, 393Women, 253after the menopause, 179age clubs, 399 480 INDEXWomen, birth customs, 119-127clothes, 100clubs, 402face painting, 100games, 445, 446hair dressing, 100loyalties of, 342-343menstrual observances, 144, 175,176mourning customs, 147ornaments, 99, 100, 101part taken in rituals, 177, 398pregnancy and birth customs of,119-127, 300tasks, 39, 57, 61, 92, 93, 95, 98,104, 107, 124trinket boxes of, 90use of dried codfish by, 65virtue of, 287"Women supernaturals," 324Wood, manipulation of, 77 Woods Spirit, supernatural being, 393,394Wool, mountain goat, 94Word tabus, 148Wristlets, cedar-bark, 97, 102, 397, 409,412, 413ya'aitsuis, female shaman, 210yaksu'is (informant), 6Yarn, goat's wool, 111, 114Yarns, telling of, 452yatsusis, Ehetisat shaman, 198, 204,211, 212supernatural manifestation to, 198-199Year, measures of, 115Yew {Taxus brevifolia), 8, 77, 78, 170stakes, use in rituals, 171, 172twigs, use in rites, 170Yukwot, 68, 363Yuquot, site of, 11Zeballos Arm, 226 (map)O