488 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1895. 



3. Throw your power that is killing everybody, throw your fire of death, throw what 



makes them turn their faces downward, throw it against them who went to 

 make war upon you. 



4. I surpass them, they arc the lowest of the whole world. 



5. I pulled them iuto my canoe to he my slaves, that they may bail out the war canoe.' 



Another t'o'X'uit will take 

 a stick, a lauce, or a paddle, 

 and, after Laviiii;' conjured up 

 the sI'siuL, split it in two. 

 This is done with a smaller 

 carving, which consists of two 

 l)arts that can be separated 

 and joined again by means of 

 strings. A si'siuL of this kind 

 was collected by Mr. Hunt for the 

 Anthropological Department of the 

 World's Columbian Exposition, and 

 is now in the Field Columbian IVEu- 

 seum. Its song, which is four gen- 

 erations old, is as follows:^ 



1. I have been on the other side of the 



world, I, the great supernatural 



being. 

 There I obtained all the supernatural 



power. 

 T bring with me all the 8U]iernatural 



power. 



Still other t'o'X'uit will conjure up 

 a small sT'siuL, which Hies through 

 the air like that of the ma'maq'a. 

 At other times the t'o'X'uit will suc- 

 ceed in bringing the sI'siuL npjust 

 far enough for its horns to show. 

 She tries to grasp it and it takes her 

 down to the nnder world. Then her 

 friends try to hold her, but she dis- 

 appears. Her attendant, who holds 

 on to her, sinks into the ground 

 with his forearms and seems to 



Fig. 134. 



HEAD RING AND NECK KING OF NA'NAQAUALIL. 



The two smaller crosspieces on tlie nock ring rep 

 resent the heads of the si'siuL, from whom the 

 dancer received his magic power; the third .and 

 larger one represents a skull, a gift of Baxliakii 

 alanuXsi'wao. 



Cat. Nos. nssio and 175513, U. S. N. M. Collected by F. Boas. 



'This song is a modified form of an older song belonging to the Sl'sinLac of the 

 Kwakiutl. It was given this form at a time when the Nimkish bad invited the 

 Kwakiutl to a feast. It is aimed against the Nimkish. The references to war mean 

 here only the rivalry in distril>utions of property, and the song intimates that the 

 Kwakiutl are superior to the Nimkish. The dancer is called "friend" because when 

 the song was sung first he had not received his new name yet. In line 3, "makes 

 them turn their faces downw.ard," means that the Nimkish are lying flat on the 

 ground and the Kwakiutl are stepping over their backs. Line 4, "the lowest of the 

 whole world," me;nis again the Nimkish, exaggerating tlieir inferiority. 



'^Appendix, page 71(5. 



