[sapir] GIRL'S PUBERTY CEREMONY 71 



water brushed off their down. This concluded the hitcapas. It may- 

 be noted that there seems to be no particular rule followed in the choice 

 of the torch-bearers, thunder-bird dancers, or water-pourers, none of 

 these as such exercising an inherited privilege. 



I could obtain no explanation of the symbolism of the ritual, 

 which, so far as the Indians of to-day are concerned, is simply accepted 

 as a matter of custom. It is evident, both from the thunder-bird 

 painting and the employment of thunder-bird masks, that theie is 

 some association between the arriving at maturity of a girl and the 

 thunder-bird, but I have not as yet ascertained its nature. Not all 

 lines of descent, however, use the thunder-bird. The water-pouring 

 also is clearly symbolic in origin, but it is difficult to say now 

 wherein lies its significance. Perhaps it is permissible to see in it a 

 ceremonial cleansing, a washing away of the impurity that is so uni- 

 versally associated among primitive peoples with the state of mens- 

 truation. The girl played no further part in the puberty ceremony. 

 Properly speaking, she should, immediately after the hitcapas cere- 

 mony was concluded, have gone behind the painted boards, to begin 

 a four days' wake and fast. In the present case this was dispensed with, 

 the more rigorous features of ceremonial activity tending, on the whole, 

 to disappear first among the Nootka Indians. Only chiefs and wealthy 

 people, it may be observed, possessed such painted board screens, 

 the common people contenting themselves with ordinary mat screens. 



When all had again seated themselves in the house, Charlie Tlutisi, 

 who acted as the ceiemonial speaker (isiqsaqh) for the hosts (the girl's 

 father and uncle), distributed the "torches" to ten of the guests. He 

 called out various names, after each of which a young man {yatsrwUnsi 

 "one who walks about in the house," any young fellow that is asked 

 to serve as an attendant for the guests or to carry out the speaker's 

 directions) took a "torch" and carried it to the one thus designated, 

 laying it in front of him on the ground. In formel times a gift, such 

 as one or more blankets, was tied on to one end of the "torch." This 

 time the gift, which should always go with the assignment of a "toich," 

 was given a little later on, during the potlatch proper, in the shape of 

 a coin, the names of the lecipients being called out as before and the 

 coins distributed by the same young man. The speaker explained that 

 the money given with the "torches" was what fell off of the thunder- 

 bird while it caused the thunder by flapping its wings during the 

 hitcapas ceremony. Such fictions or metaphors, it is interesting to note, 

 are of frequent occurrence in the ceremonial life of the natives. The 

 recipients of the "torches" are supposed to take them home, put them 

 away in a corner at the back of the house, and preserve them for some 

 time for "good luck." The right to receive a "torch" inheres as a privil- 



