THE KWAKIUTL INDIANS. 607 



last tliey begin to blacken tlieir faces and take tlieir weapons, ready 

 to fight among tlieniseU'CS. 



iSTow all of a sudden a person is beard to cry on the point of land at 

 the west end of the village, "hamamamama." The people at once go 

 to see who is there. Now the master of ceremonies of the winter 

 dance, whose name is Ama/k, rises, and begins to call all the people by 

 their winter names. The people are surprised at his doing so, and 

 object. He, however, does not listen to them, and merely warns them 

 not to be bitten by the Ha/maa. Then lie calls four men whose names 

 are Loakwaxstaok, WalkaLtsnmt, A'Labala, and Hena/wa, and asks 

 them to go in a canoe to the point of land where the sound was heard, 

 in order to ascertain what produced it. The four men rise and enter 

 the house, in which the ha'mats'a assemble at the same time. Soon 

 they come out again, their faces blackened, rings of red cedar bark 

 around their heads and around their necks, and paddles in their hands. 

 The people inquire why they are dressed up in this manner, to which 

 they reply that it is a protection against the lurking danger at the 

 point of land to which they are going. They go down to a canoe and 

 paddle slowly to the point of land. As soon as they ap]iroach it, the 

 sound "hamamamama''' is heard again. The men pretend to be scared, 

 and paddle back to the beach. They ask some of the Idlo'LalaL, or 

 ghost dancers, to go with them. 



Then the master of ceremonies asks four of the lolo'LahiL to accom- 

 pany the four men. The lolo'LalaL dress up and sit close together in 

 the middle of the canoe while the four men are paddling toward the 

 point. As soon as they approach it the same sound is heard. Then 

 the men in the bow of the canoe paddle backward while the steersman 

 paddles forward and brings the canoe up to the point of land. As 

 soon as they touch the land the four lulo'LalaL jump ashore and run 

 into the woods, where they stay for a few minutes. Then they come 

 back to the canoe and sit down in the same place as before. The other 

 four men appear to be scared, but not a word is said. They paddle 

 back to the village, and when they come to the shore, they inform the 

 master of ceremonies that they shall not go back again, because they 

 are too much scared. Upon a question of the master of ceremonies 

 they say that they did not see anything, but that the sound scared 

 them. He compels them to return and to investigate the cause of the 

 noise. The Idlo'LalaL have stayed in the canoe all this time, waiting 

 for the other four men to return. They paddle back to the point of land, 

 and the four Idlo'LalaL jump ashore again and run into the M^oods, 

 where they stay a few minutes. They come back, sit down in tlie 

 middle of the canoe, and the four men paddle back again to the village. 

 Now the four Idlo'LalaL jump ashore and go into the house of the 

 father of the young man who had disappeared. The lour paddlers rise 

 and say that they have seen the missing youth among the ghosts at the 

 point. The people all go into the hous(i of the master of ceremonies 



