68 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



tribes of Nootka Indians {Tslica'atu and Hdpatclas'atH) now living 

 on reserves near Alberni, I was fortunate enough to witness three girls' 

 puberty potlatches. In order to give some idea of the actual conduct 

 of such a ceremony, I shall here content myself with describing the one 

 witnessed on the forenoon of October 16, 1910, reserving a more 

 generalized account of the various features that go to make up puberty 

 ceremonials among the Nootka for the future. 



The present ceremony took place in the "potlatch house" of the 

 Hopatclas^atB. tribe, to which the people of both tribes had been invited 

 by the father of the girl, Jimmie George; it was he, her paternal uncle 

 (Big George), and another Indian related to her on her mother's side 

 (Big Frank), that took charge of the potlatch, acting as hosts. In 

 earlier days, when large communal houses were in use, the father or 

 other older male relative conducting the ceremony invited the people to 

 the house in which he lived. The people began to assemble fairly eaily 

 in the morning, the men, as usual, seating themselves on the board 

 platform along the rear wall of the house and along the left wall 

 (as you enter), while the women disposed themselves along the right 

 wall. Properly speaking, the seats along the rear wall are seats of honour, 

 and in earlier days the nobility among the guests were disposed here, 

 each being entitled to a definite seat according to his rank. Nowadays 

 these matters are not taken so seriously, though even to-day one never 

 sees a woman occupying one of the rear seats in the house. Back of 

 the centre of the room, not very far from the rear wall, was burning a 

 wood fire; a space was left on the bare ground for a fire-place, while 

 the rest of the floor, according to up-to-date fashion, was planked. 

 The floor of the Tslica'atu potlatch house is more conservative in 

 this respect, being bare throughout. In front of the fire, that is, on the 

 side towards the door, was later placed a big cauldron in which tea was 

 boiled, to be used at the end of the potlatch to feast the people. Up 

 against the rear wall weie placed, side by side, two large rectangular 

 boards painted in white, black, and red. The paintings of each of these 

 boards, disposed in a reciprocally symmetrical arrangement, repre- 

 sented a thunder-bird holding a whale in his talons, a wolf at the upper 

 outer corner, and a He'ihlik (the mythological serpent-belt of the thun- 

 der-bird, who, as he zigzags through the air or coils about a tree, causes 

 the lightning) at the upper inner corner; beneath the whale theie was 

 a conventional representation of billows. The thunder-bird, who lives 

 on the summit of a mountain difficult of approach, is believed, when 

 in need of game, to fly off to the sea and catch a whale, which he then 

 carries off to his home; the heavy flapping of his wings is what we call 

 thunder. The thunder-bird, his serpent-belt, and the wolf are three 

 of the most important supernatural beings of the Nootka, and figure 



