652 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1895. 



customary to interrupt him. Whenever he made an attempt to speak, 

 the people raised a great din, which compelled him to stop. He pre- 

 tended to get angry and threw stones at the people. At this time he 

 ordered the members of the seal society, of wliich he himself is a mem- 

 ber, not to eat of the salmon, as a number of fish were set aside for 

 them. When a number of fool dancers and bears began to eat, not- 

 withstanding his commands, some of the other members of the seal 

 society took the food away and pulled them back. After all the gnests 

 had eaten, a large dish was placed on the i^lank which was laid in front 

 of the door. The hii'mats'a ate out of the dish, while the other mem- 

 bers of the seal society ate out of large kettles which were standing 

 near the lire. Then all the people laughed at them because they ate 

 after the others had finished, although they are the highest in rank 

 among the whole tribe and ordinarily receive their share first. When 

 the people were teasing them, the friends of some of the members of 

 the seal society stepped before them, spreading their blankets, thus 

 hiding them from view, so that the peoj^le should not see them eating. 



Now Ho'LElitc arose again and spoke: '' This is the way of my chief. 

 He gives a large feast on account of the nobility of my tribe." He 

 asked the people to take the batons and to sing. The Nfi'q'oaqtoq 

 commenced and sang two songs. The Koskimo followed with four 

 songs. In the fourth song the word " raven" occurred. As soon as it 

 was heard, one of the ha/mats'as of the Koskimo became excited. He 

 jumped up, crying "hap, hap, hap," trembling all over his body. His 

 attendants rushed up to him, the people beat time violently, and the 

 drummer beat the drum, while the ha/mats'a tried to rush up to the 

 people and to bite them. But he was held back by his six attendants. 

 Slowly he moved to the rear of the house, where he went once to the 

 left, once to the ri^iit, then continuing his course around the fire. 

 When he came to the door, he went out, followed by his attendants. 

 Then the Koskimo called four times, " yu !" 



While this was going on, ]!^Eg*e'ts'e, speaker of the Koskimo, arose, 

 and as soon as quiet was restored, he spoke: "Take care, my tribe; 

 the supernatural power has entered our ha/mats'a Nau'aqis;" and turn- 

 ing to the Kwakiutl, he said: " Be ready, friends, you on both sides of 

 the house; we will try to tame our ha/mats'a." This was said at the 

 moment when the ha'mats'a ran out of the door. His attendants 

 returned after an absence of about ten minutes. 



Now a number of large carved dishes were brought in, one repre- 

 senting a bear, the other a sea lion, and others otlier animals. They 

 were placed in a row in front of the fire. Then Ho'LElite arose again 

 and with him AmA/x-idayu, an old speaker of the Gue'tEla. Ho'LElite 

 spoke, calling the host's ba/xus name, NEmo'gwis, and pointing to the 

 bear dish said: "This is NEmo'gwis's dish, which was used by the first 

 NEuio'gwis when he gave a grease feast. He used a dish like this one. 

 He also used this second bear dish and a wolf dish and a killer whale 



