THE KWAKIUTL INDIANS. 549 



maL "lii, lii, lii, lii!" and pushing right and left with a dagger which 

 he was carrying. At the same time he smeared his son's face with the 

 mucus of his nose, thus " imbuing him with the sacred madness of the 

 nfi'LmaL." The poor cliild was frightened, and cried piteously during 

 the ceremony. This was his initiation in the nu'LmaL society. It 

 happened during an interval between the four songs which were sung 

 before the meal. 



After the people had eaten, the bear rushed out of the same corner 

 whence the fool dancer had come. He was dressed in a bear skin and 

 came out on all fours, pawing the ground, growling, and looking wildly 

 upon the spectators. The people began to sing the first of his new 

 songs, and eighteen women danced accompanying the song, in order 

 to appease his holy wratli. The songs pacified him, and he disappeared 

 again in the corner of the house from which he had come and where 

 he is supposed to be initiated. After this the second course was served, 

 and then the i)eople dispersed, each lighting his torch and wending 

 his way home along the dark street or down along the beach and up 

 the narrow bridges which cross the stream leading from the beach to 

 the street. Soon the glimmering lights disappeared in the houses, 

 where the fires were tended before everybody went to his bedroom to 

 enjoy the rest. 



On the 19th of November the first hfi'mats'a gave a feast of salmon 

 and berries. Early in the morning he himself, accompanied by the seal 

 society, went from house to house, their faces blackened, and dressed 

 in their various ornaments — the fool dancers with their lances, the 

 bears with their enormous paws. The fool dancers knocked at the 

 doors with their lances. Then they entered and invited the people with 

 the same words as are used at ordinary occasions. But they did not 

 raise their Aoices; they uttered the invitation in a low growling tone. 

 Whenever the name of a person was mentioned the meaning of which 

 in some way offended the bears, they jiushed the speaker — one of the 

 fool dancers — so that he almost fell down. While the names were 

 being called, the members of the seal society looked around angrily. 



Generally four calls are necessary to convene the people, but the 

 seals do not allow them to tarry. After they had called the first 

 time, they went around apparently offended by the tardiness of the 

 people. They carried a long rope, entered the houses, and the fool 

 dancers pushed the people from their seats with their lances. The 

 bear dancers scratched them and drove tliem towards the rope, which 

 was stretched tightly. Then the members of the society who held the 

 rope pushed the people out of the house on to the street. After hav- 

 ing arrived on the street, they drove them before the rope until they 

 reached the dancing house. Thus it did not take very long to bring 

 the peoi)le together. About 3 o'clock in the afternoon they began their 

 second call, and at 4.30 p. m. all the people were assembled. As the 

 host belonged to the Kwakiutl tribe, the Koskimo and the Na'q'oaqtoq 



