THE INDIANS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. 633 



the evening when he came into our house, the chief dancer, flourishing 

 the flag and dancing in grotesque movements. The walls of the house 

 shook under the heavy fists and sticks of the dancers who beat the 

 time outside and now entered one by one. The two dancers next to 

 enter had each a blanket tied round his loins, the upper part of the 

 body being naked. A carved wooden snake with two heads — the fab- 

 ulous Sisiutl — was tied to the waist, and about their necks they wore 

 rings of hemlock-branches. In the right hand they carried two sticks 

 ornamented with gay ribbons ; in the left they flourished bows and 

 arrows. Their faces were painted black, and their hair was kept back 

 by a tie of seal-skins with a bunch of red feathers attached to it. 

 These were followed by two men wrapped up in white blankets and 

 wearing stuffed mink-skins as head-dresses. The next dancer carried 

 a rattle in his hands, which he hid under his dancing-apron. Then 

 the rest of the dancers rushed into the room and formed a wide circle 

 around the two men carrying the snake-carvings. Now began a wild 

 song in which the chorus occasionally joined. As soon as the chorus 

 fell in, the minks and the man carrying the rattle rushed into the 

 center of the circle and jumped about in the wildest fashion. The 

 women and children who stood by became greatly excited, and it 

 looked very droll to see the little ones, who could hardly stand on their 

 legs, dancing and imitating the motions of the performers. After the 

 first round was finished, a new cry was heard outside, the door opened, 

 and in came twelve boys, all naked, their little bodies whitened with 

 lime, and all kinds of figures painted on them in red and black. 

 Their hair was rubbed with a mixture of oil and lime, and looked like 

 the bristles of a brush. The leader of the boys was an elderly man, 

 who remained standing in the entrance of the house with uplifted 

 hands, and directing the boys by rhythmical motions of his arms and his 

 body. The figures of these dances were really artistic and symmetri- 

 cah At the end of the performance all left the house in grand proces- 

 sion and made a terrible noise before the entrance of every house of 

 the village. If the owner's wife made the fire blaze np by pouring oil 

 into it, this was an invitation for them to come in *and perform a short 

 dance. Where all remained dim and dark they passed by. 



This dance had been invented when the daughter of the chief of a 

 neighboring tribe married the young chief of this village. When the 

 approach of the bride was announced, the men connected three boats 

 by heavy planks, thus forming an extensive platform. They went on 

 this raft to meet the strangers and welcomed them dancing this dance 

 on the water. The boats of the young woman were loaded with her 

 dower : boxes filled with blankets, valuable copper plates, and the 

 gyiserstal — the latter being a heavy board, cut so as to represent a hu- 

 man jaw-bone. The front is set with sea-otter teeth. This object 

 is given to the bridegroom, who thus obtains the right to command 

 his wife to talk or to be silent. 



