332 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 1 33 



She explained, "We sang the same to each person as he came up on 

 his horse, such as 'Here comes my aunt !' 'Here comes my father !' 

 'They come to see us. How happy we are! How overjoyed I am!' 

 After all had been welcomed in this manner, we said, in a still higher 

 voice, 'Chachai. Chachai. Chachai. Eimi, Chachai.' [These were 

 endearing expressions and were used also by small children toward 

 parents.] Then the relatives answered, also in a high voice and also 

 sitting on their haunches, 'We have come from afar to see you. We 

 have come from afar to see you.' Formerly our people raised their 

 voices when they were jubilant ; today everything is said in a monotone 

 [she mimicked it]. We all embraced each other, shook hands, and 

 kissed each other on the cheek — not on the mouth like they do today. 

 This is what we did for our relatives." 



Mother-in-law-son-in-law taboos were institutional. "A man re- 

 spected his mother-in-law. He could be in the same room with her, 

 just like all other persons may be, but neither one was to look at the 

 other." A woman older than a hundred years had seen a blanket 

 hung up between a mother-in-law and her son-in-law, "so they could 

 not look at each other." If a mother-in-law and son-in-law met, each 

 looked in the opposite direction. Kolupan, when asked the reason for 

 this taboo, laughed heartily and said, "Just because it was a custom ; 

 for no other reason whatsoever." A man spoke to his mother-in-law 

 only when he had a matter of importance to communicate and found 

 no one but his mother-in-law to tell it to, "He will then say to her, 

 'Good afternoon. May I come in?' She will say, 'Why have you 

 come, my son?' — Son, here, is pirien. — He then tells her what he had 

 intended to say to someone else not found in the place, and departs." 



No father-in-law-daughter-in-law or mother-in-law-daughter-in- 

 law taboos existed. Quoting a woman in her eighties : "After mar- 

 riage the woman went with the man to the home of his parents. It 

 would certainly have been an awkward situation if she could not have 

 talked to and been friendly with her father-in-law, living in the same 

 house with him ! She not only spoke to her father-in-law but tried in 

 every way to please him. She acted in the same friendly and helpful 

 manner toward her mother-in-law. It is not that way today ; it is all 

 turned around today." 



In all probability joking relationships were not institutional. 



RELIGION AND SUPERNATURAL POWERS 

 THE SUPREME BEING AND HIS ABODE, SACRED FIGURINES 



The idea of God as creator is expressed as fata chau or ray chau ; 

 as one interested in the welfare of the people, as qanechen; at the 



