PEOPLE OF VANCOUVER ISLAND. 77 



aud carried to a recognised place of deposit. This custom is uot now strictly adhered 

 to with regard to the cradle, but is still obligatory in respect to the bedding, which is 

 generally neatly packed in a box or basket, and laid away never to be touched again. 

 Every village probably has such a place of deposit. That for the Kâ-loo-kwis village is 

 in a sheltered recess in limestone cliffs at the western extreme of Havbledowu Lslaud. It 

 is named kl-ats-a-kw'tsli' or " cedar bark deposit place." Another similar recess in a cliff, 

 filled with cradle wrappings, exists on the south side of Pearse Peninsula, east end of 

 Broughton Island. At Mel'-oopa and at Hwat-cs' there are similar places, that at the first 

 named village being beneath logs, at the back of the village, and not on the shore. 



"When a young man desires to obtain a girl for a wife, he must bargain with her parents, 

 and pay to her father a considerable number of blankets. Owing to the great desire to 

 accumulate blankets for the purposes of the potlalch or donation feast, together with the 

 scarcity of marriageable girls, the parents are very strict and exacting in this respect. 

 The young man is often still further fleeced by his wife, who, at the instigation of her 

 parents, may seize upon some real or imaginary cause of grievance aud leave him. The 

 father then exacts a further blanket payment for her return, and so on. 



Just as among the Haida and other coast tribes, a man must give a potlatch (Kwakiool 

 pus-a or ya-hooit) on assuming a name. To obtain a name for his child a potlatch must be 

 be held, and at every subsequent occasion on which a man gives a potlatch, he assumes a 

 new name, which is generally that of one of his ancestors. He is then known only by 

 his last assumed name, which is regarded as his chief or most honourable one. This cus- 

 tom naturally introduces much complication in the matter of tracing out genealogy, or in 

 arriving at the names of the actors in former events. 



Medicine or sorcery as practiced by these people for the cure of disease, is much the 

 same as among other tribes of the coast, though the peculiar tubular bone charm, employed 

 by the Haida and Tshmisian, was not here observed. The sorcerer may be either a man 

 or a woman, famed for skill in such matters, to whom their vocation may have been indi- 

 cated by dreams or visions. Medicines may be given to the patient by his friends, but 

 the sorcerer does not deal in drugs, devoting his attention solely to exorcising the evil 

 principle causing the disease. This is done by singing incantation songs, the use of a 

 rattle and vigorous sucking of the part affected, which in many cases is kept up for hours 

 and frequently repeated, and must always be handsomely paid for. Sickness is still, 

 generally, and was formerly at all times, attributed to the witchcraft of enemies. Certain 

 persons were known to possess the power and were called r'-a-k'-tiooh. Such a malignant 

 person, wishing to bewitch an enemy, is supposed to go through a series of complicated 

 and absurd ceremonies, of which the following is an outline : — An endeavour is first made 

 to procure a lock of hair, some saliva, a piece of the sleeve and of the neck of the dress, or 

 of the rim of the hat or head-dress which has absorbed the perspiration of the person to be 

 bewitched. These are placed with a small piece of the skin and flesh of a dead man, dried 

 aud roasted before the fire, and rubbed and pounded together. The mixture is then tied 

 up in a piece of skin or cloth, which is covered over with spruce gum. The little package 

 is next placed in a human bone, which is broken for the purpose, and afterwards carefully 

 tied together and put within a human skull. This again is placed in a box, which is tied 

 up and gummed over and then buried in the ground in such a way as to be barely covered. 

 A fire is next built nearly, but not exactly, on the top of the box, so as to warm the whole. 



