CUSTOMS AND ARTS OF THE KWAKIOOL. 347 



son's Bay Comi)any parlance as a " two-and-a-lialf point " blanket, 

 is the standard, and is named uV -hul-as-kwm. 



When a child has grown large enough to leave the little cradle, 

 tied into which it spends most of its earlier days, usage demands 

 that the cradle, together with all the wrappings and bark form- 

 ing the bedding and its appendages, shall be carefully collected 

 and carried to a recognized place of deposit. This custom is not 

 now strictly adhered to with regard to the cradle, but is still 

 obligatory in respect to the bedding, which is generally neatly 

 packed in a box or basket, and laid away, never to be touched 

 again. Every village probably has such a place of deposit. That 

 for the Ka-loo-kwis village is a sheltered recess in limestone cliffs 

 at the western extreme of Harbledown Island. It is named kl-ats- 

 a-hwcish', or " cedar-bark deposit-place.^' Another similar recess 

 in a cliff, filled with cradle wrappings, exists on the south side of 

 Pearse Peninsula, east end of Broughton Island. At Mel'-oopa 

 and at Hwat-es' there are similar places, that at the first-named 

 village being beneath logs, at the back of the village, and not on 

 the shore. 



When a young man desires to obtain a girl for a wife, he must 

 bargain with her parents, and pay to her father a considerable 

 number of blankets. Owing to the great desire to accumulate 

 blankets for the purposes of the poUatch or donation-feast, to- 

 gether with the scarcity of marriageable girls, the parents are 

 very strict and exacting in this respect. The young man is often 

 still further fleeced by his wife, who, at the instigation of her 

 parents, may seize ui3on some real or imaginary cause of griev- 

 ance and leave him. The father then exacts a further blanket 

 payment for her return, and so on. 



Medicine, or sorcery, as practiced by these people for the cure 

 of disease, is much the same as among other tribes of the coast, 

 though the peculiar tubular bone charm, employed by the Haida 

 and Tshmisian, was not here observed. The sorcerer may be 

 either a man or a woman, famed for skill in such matters, to 

 whom their vocation may have been indicated by dreams or 

 visions. Medicines may be given to the patient by his friends, 

 but the sorcerer does not deal in drugs, devoting his attention 

 solely to exorcising tlie evil principle causing the disease. This 

 is done by singing incantation songs, the use of a rattle, and vigor- 

 ous sucking of the part affected, which in many cases is kept up 

 for hours and frequently repeated, and must always be hand- 

 somely paid for. Sickness is still, generally, and was formerly at 

 all times, attributed to the witchcraft of enemies. Certain per- 

 sons were known to possess the power, and were called e'-a-ke- 

 nooh. Such a malignant person, wishing to bewitch an enemy, is 

 supposed to go through a series of complicated and absurd cere- 



