G26 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1895. 



blankets among these young men. This signifies a promise to dis- 

 tribute food to all the people. 



The young men put on the blankets and go from house to house 

 saying: ''This is food which you will receive to-morrow. It belongs 



to .^ " They go back to the host's house and return the 



blankets to him. On the following morning all the young men assem- 

 ble again. They are given red paint to adorn their faces, and they 

 are sent to call the peoi)le to the promised feast. Only the men are 

 invited. After two calls all assemble and arrange in groups according 

 to their clans. As soon as all have assembled, the messengers join 

 their clans. Before the feast begins, four songs are sung, as is cus- 

 tomary, two by the Cxue'tEla and two by the Q'o'moyue. Then the 

 host fills a ladle with grease and sends it to Hawaxalag-ilis, who is 

 the highest in rank, and to the others in order. During all this time 

 the Lao'laxa whistles are heard to blow in the 

 bedroom. When the grease has been eaten, the 

 relative of the host who is to be initiated comes out 

 of the bedroom in which the whistles are sounding 

 and begins to dance around the fire. He wears a 

 beautiful carved headdress with long ermine trail 

 (Plate 47). All of a sudden he throws his mask off 

 and runs out. After a short while a dancer wear- 

 ing the Lao'laxa mask comes in. His arrival is 

 announced by a relative of the host who is stationed 

 I'ig. 193. at the door, and Avho as soon as the dancer ap- 



MASK oFNO'MAs. proachcs shouts ^^ woi !'' It is supposed that when 



La'Lasiqoaia. ^^le flrst danccr threw down his headdress, he be- 



eig , . IDC le^. came possessed by the spirit of the Lao'laxa and 



IV A, No. 6893, Royal Ethuograph- ' i' i 



icai Museum, Berlin, coiiecte.i was trausformed iuto the spirit which is personated 

 '^ '^'"^' by the mask. Actually another dancer wears the 



mask. After one circuit of the fire the mask disappears again, and the 

 novice, for so we may call him, comes forward and continues the dance 

 which was interrupted before. The people accompany the dance by the 

 Lao'laxa song. After he has finished, a few women dance in honor of 

 the new Lao'laxa. The host joins them, carrying a pole about G feet 

 long on his shoulder. The pole indicates that on the next day he will 

 give another feast, to which lie invites the people, after ending his dance. 



In the evening the whole tribe, men, women, and children, assemble 

 in the host's house to witness the dance, and the performance of the 

 morning is then repeated. 



On the following morning the messengers go out again, dressed up 

 and having their faces painted red, to call the people to the second feast. 

 The ceremony of the preceding day is repeated, but another Ladlaxa 

 dance may be shown. This is repeated again in the evening, when the 



'Ilainr'/r-aqasa' lk usLa qasPx (WalasLala). (Here they iutrodnce the name of that 

 relative of the host who is made Lao'laxa.) 



