76 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



between the men and women. A woman had asked for a sideboard. 

 This was brought in and chairs added as the extra. Still another 

 woman asked for some chewmg-gum, for, as she explained, in passing 

 basket splints through her mouth in order to wet them for basket- 

 making, she was apt to get dry, and she therefore wanted something 

 that would provide a steady flow of saliva. Accordingly, she was given 

 a dollar and a half with which to buy the gum. In accepting the money, 

 she said that she did not want it for herself, but for a friend of hers; 

 this was a fiction intended to show that she had no hard feelings and 

 was not covetous. Another old woman wanted an iron root-digger; 

 she was given this, with an extra of several j^ards of calico. Still 

 another woman received some pillows. In some cases, the women 

 who were engaged in singing Harm songs improvised words of thanks 

 for some of the gifts to fit the tlama tunes. 



After the requests had been granted, smaller monetary gifts were 

 distributed to various people in the house; Big Frank also distributed 

 some fishing tackle to each of the men. All were now in high good-humor. 

 Douglas, one of the Ts ! icWatH. men, expressed the wish that " the 

 white man" (as I was the only white man present, he referred to my- 

 self) give him a bottle of gin. Entering into the spirit of substitutory 

 gifts, I thereupon sent over a dollar to him, to do with as he saw best. 

 As reciprocating the friendly spirit thus shown, several return gifts 

 were made to me on the spot. Big Frank presented me with a salmon- 

 spear point, while one of the Hdpatclas'atB. women gave me a twilled 

 cedar-bark mat and a basketry-covered ink-well, such as are nowadays 

 made for sale by the Nootka women. Douglas' return gift was ac- 

 companied by thanks expresssed in two t\avm songs sung by some 

 of the men; Douglas, it may be remarked, is considered one of the 

 most expert of the t\amâ singers among the Indians. While these 

 two songs were being sung, Mr. Bill, another TsHca'atH Indian, 

 danced while holding out a -stick at arm's length between his palms. 

 The dance consisted of a series of short steps within the range of about 

 a quarter circle, now pivoted about one foot, now about the other, 

 while the dancer sometimes held the stick high above his head, some- 

 times straight ahead, and then again vertically on a side. These 

 rather briskly careering solo dances in which the gift, or its representa- 

 tive, is held or displayed, are characteristic accompaniments of such 

 tlamn songs as are sung with the presentation of a gift. When he had 

 finished dancing, Mr. Bill announced that the stick stood for an old 

 whaling harpoon and lanyard that Douglas was giving me. I was 

 then requested to go up and accept the stick in token of the gift itself. 

 Later in the day Douglas himself brought me the harpoon and lanyard. 

 This method of delivering a token, where the gift itself is either not at 



