THE KWAKIUTL INDIANS. 



497 



Fig. 146. 



HEAD RINti OF GHOST DANCER. 



Cat. No. 169115, U. S. N. M. Collected by F. Ho 



his head with his knife, aud finally with a sudden jerk tears his flesh so 

 that the ropes drop down. Then he disappears in his room in the rear 

 of the house. At other times ropes are passed through his back and 

 thighs and he is pulled up 

 to the beams hanging by the 

 ropes. He carries his knife 

 and cuts his head while being 

 suspended there. As soon as 

 he is being hauled up, the nod'n- 

 LEmaLa take their lances and 

 crowd under the place where 

 he is hanging, holding thepoints 

 of their lances upward, so that 

 he would drop right on to them 

 if the ropes should give way. 

 The bears stand around wait- 

 ing to tear him if he should fall, 

 and the ha/mats'as squat near by, becau.se they are to eat him if he 

 should fall upon the lances of the noo'nLEmaLa. 

 Here is a song of the hawi'nalaL : 



1. They tried to hang me and to kill rae in war. 



2. But the water where the"y tried to kill me only turned into curdled blood. 



I also give (figs. 170, 171, p. 51G) the mask of the eartlKpiake dancer 

 (Xoa'exoe). He wears a rattle consisting of a ring on which perforated 

 shells are strung (tig, 172, p. 51G). His dance is believed to shake the 



ground and to be a certain means of 

 bringing back the ha/mats'a who is 

 being initiated. 



I will add here a song of a mask 

 in regard to which I have not been 

 able to obtain any definite informa- 

 tion. It is called Uai'alik-imL and 

 belonged originally to theG-e'xsEm 

 of the Kaqo'mg'ilisala, whose ances- 

 tor, He'lig'ilig-ala, it is said to rep- 

 resent. The dancer is initiated in 

 the house. In his first and third 

 dances he wears ornaments of red 

 cedar bark which have a horn on 

 each side, one behind, and a fiat crosspiece in front. In his second and 

 fourth dances he wears a curious mask. 

 After the mask has disappeared, the people sing: ^ 



1. Everybody goes to him to obtain dances. 



2. In the beginning the never stopping one spread his wings over your head. '^ 



Fig. 147. 

 NECK RING OF GHOST DANCEE. 



Cat. No. 169116, U. S. N. M. Collected by F. Boas. 



' Appendix, page 717. 

 NAT MUS 95 -32 



2 The never stopping one, Wina'lag-ilis. 



