THE KWAKIUTL INDIANS. 



G51 



the middle of wbicb objects a human hair is tied. If this object 

 strikes the oflemler, he will fiill sick. Blood is believed to collect in 

 his stomach, and if it so happens that he vomits this blood, and with 

 it the disease-producing object, he will recover, and is not molested 

 any further. The masks (not the whistles and other ornaments) used 

 in the ku'siut are burnt immediately at the close of each dancing sea- 

 son. Novices must wear a necklace of red 

 cedar bark over their blankets for a whole 

 year. The masks used in the dances repre- 

 sent mythical personages, and the dances are 

 pantomimic re]>resentations of myths. Among 

 others, the thunder bird and his servant, 

 ALxula'tEuum (who wears a mask with red 

 and blue stripes over the whole face from the 

 right-hand upper side to the left-hand lower 

 side, and carries a staff with red and blue 

 spiral lines), appear in the dances. Prominent 

 masks are also Xc/mtsioa and his brothers 

 and his sisters; Masmasahl'nix and his fel- 

 lows, the raven and the nusxe'mta, and many 

 others.^ 



THE TSIMSHIAN, NtSQA', HAIDA, AND 

 TLTNGIT. 



The tribes of this group learned the ceremo 

 nial avowedly from the Hc'iltsuq. Although 

 1 have not witnessed any x)art of their ceremo- 

 nials, the descriptions which I received bring 

 out with sufficient clearness its similarities to 

 the winter ceremonial of the Kwakiutl. The 

 ceremonials seem to be almost identical among 

 all these tribes. It is most complete among the 

 southwestern Tsimshian tribes, particularly 

 theG'itxa'La, but has been adopted by all the 

 tribes of the coast. It is said that it reached 

 the Uaida not more than a hundred years ago. 



I will tell here what I learned from the Msqa'. They have six 

 societies, which rank in the following order: The sEmhalai't, mciLa', 

 loLE'm, Olala', nanesta/t, honaua''L, the last being the highest. The 

 SEmhalai't is really not confined to the Avinter ceremonial, but is 

 obtained when a person accpiires the first guardian spirit of his clan 

 and performs the ceremony belonging to this event. The tradition of 

 the origin of these ceremonies localizes the events at Bellabella, and it 



Fig. 201. 



HEADDKESS OF OLALA'. 



Haida. 



Cat. N'o. 89lj:i8, U. S. X. M. Collected by 

 J. G. Swan. 



> Sec " Iiidianiscbe Sagen von tier Nord-Pacilischeii Kliste Amerikas,'' page 241, by 

 F. Boas. 



