THE KWAKIUTL INDIANS. 



437 



Fig. 54. 



RATTLE OF HE'LIGA, SET WITH RED TEDAR BARK, 

 REPRESENTING A CONVENTIONALIZED FACE. 



Front aud rear views. Height, llj inches. 



IV A, No. 1360, Royal Ethnographical IMuseum, Berlin. Collected 

 by A. Jacobsen. 



The singers sit so arranged tliat the rear rows are facing the fire while 



the frout rows face backward. In their midst sits the song leader 



(na'qate) and his two assistants (gua'nuLEme=sitting at his sides). It 



is the duty of the song leader to make new songs, to compose new words 



to old tunes, to learn quickly the 



songs of the returning novice, 



and to teach them to the singers. 



He also gives signals for changes 



in rhythm and starts the tunes. 



His oflice is hereditary in the 



male line. His assistants call out 



the words for each verse. The 



singers are so seated that in front 



of the board which serves for their 



back support they can spread 



their mats, and, when kneeling 



on these, have in easy reach long 



planks on which they beat the 



rhythm with batons. These are 



generally of split pine wood and 



are made at the time of opening 



the feast. They are about li feet long, and the singers before using 



them roughly smooth one end, which is used as a handle. They either 



beat downward, holding the baton in their hands stretched forward, 



or they hold it like a pestle and thump the plank with it. In former 



times when wood was not easily split on account of lack of steel axes, 



they kept the batons, which were in conse 

 quence also more nicely finished. Nowadays 

 only the song leader and his assistants have 

 carved or painted batons. (Figs. 42-50.) 

 The ordinary crude batons are generally 

 split up at the end of the festival and used as 

 torches for lighting the way home through 

 the darkness of the street. It is a very pretty 

 sight to see the numerous guests going home, 

 each carrying his torch and lighting up the 

 logs and canoes on the beach on the one side 

 and the dark row of houses on the other. 

 I will now proceed to describe the ceremo- 

 nials of various societies. 



BaxbakurilanuXsi'wae,as stated above, in- 

 itiates several dancers, the most important of 

 which is the ha/mats'a, or the cannibal. He 



is possessed of the violent desire of eating men. The novice is taken 



away by this spirit and is supposed to stay at his house for a long time. 



The ])eriod of his absence extends over three or four months, during 



which time he actually stays in the woods. In the middle of this time 



Fig. 55. 



RATTLE OF HtVLIQ-A, SET WITH 

 CEDAR BARK, REPRESENTINC, A 

 CONVENTIONALIZED FACE. 



Height, 10 inches; hlack. 



IV A, No. 1400, Royal Ethnographical Miweuin, 

 B.rliu. Collected l,v A. .Tiicobscn. 



