558 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1895. 



you had a chief before this time, but now you have uo chief." ^ Upon 

 this all the Kwakiutl said: ''True, true; we can not deny 't."^ 



After these speeches were finished, food, which consisted of crab 

 apples mixed with grease, was distributed among the guests."* When 

 the people had almost finished eating, one of the Na'q'oaqtoq gave a 

 button blanket to his son-in-law as a promise of a great number of 

 blankets which he was to give him at a later time. Then the reci[)ient 

 thanked his father-in law. He took his staff, which he held horizontally 

 on his shoulder, and which he carried as though he was loaded down 

 with the gifts of his father-in-law. Slowly he went around the fire 

 singing his secret song — a t'o'X'uit song, as he was a member of that 

 society. He turned when he came to the front of the house and when 

 he reached the rear of the house. While he was still singing, all the 

 Na'q'oaqtoq singers assembled near the door. They held a plank to 

 beat time on and began to sing. The man danced while they sang. 

 After the second song, he put on the button blanket and danced, 

 accompanied by the third song. During the fourth song he took up some 

 burning coals and laid them before one of the men. This was to indi- 

 cate that he had j)ower over the fire. Then he took another piece of 

 burning coal between his hands, rubbed it, and, swinging his closed 

 hands forward and backward, he all of a, sudden threw them forward, 

 and as they parted the coals had disappeared. He had transformed 

 the coal into a supernatural object which was to fly around the whole 

 world to see if there was a chief greater than his father-in-law. In 

 four days he said it should return and bring him answer. Then he 

 announced that he would keep the blanket which he had received, 

 and that he would not give it away, and the people replied: "Do as 

 you say." 



In the evening the Na/q'oaqtoq held their kue/xalak". When all the 

 l^eople had assembled, the speaker thanked them that they had come, 

 and turning to his own tribe, he said: "Keep your batons in readi- 

 ness!" As soon as he had said so, the door opened and two men came 

 in wearing large blankets and imitating the motions of cormorants. 

 They entered by twos and threes and gathered in the rear of the house, 

 standing in a row. When all had come in, the speaker asked the first 

 of the birds: "What is in your stomach ? " Herejjlied: "Kwakiutl.'' 

 Then he asked the next one : " What is in your stomach ? " He replied : 

 "Four tribes," meaning the four tribes of the Kwakiutl. Turning to 

 the third one, he asked: "What is in your stomach?" He rephed: 

 "The Kwakiutl, the Koskimo, and all other tribes." When he asked 

 the next one, he acted as though he was vomiting. This means that he 

 was vomiting the property that was to be distributed at night. The 

 fifth one said to the speaker that he had gone from tribe to tribe through 



' Meaning that No'Lq'aiiLEla, by his numerous distributions of blankets, had become 

 greater than all the other chiefs. 

 2 K-'esnoX hr-'Xca. 

 ^The crab apples are picked while they are unripe, boiled, and kept in water. 



