78 G. M. DAWSON ON THE KWAKIOOL 



Then the evilly disposed man, beatin<^ his head against a tree, names and denounces his 

 enemy. This is done at night or in the early morning, and in secret, and is frequently 

 repeated till the enemy dies. The actor must not smile or laugh, and must talk as little 

 as possible till the spell has worked. If a man has reason to siappose that he is being 

 practiced on in this way, he or his friends must endeavour to find the deposit and care- 

 fully unearth it. Rough handling of the box may prove immediately fatal. It is then 

 cautiously unwrapped and the contents are thrown into the sea. If the evilly disposed per- 

 son was discovered, he was in former years immediately killed. If after making up the 

 little package of relics as above noted, it is put into a frog, the mouth of which is tied up 

 before it is released, a peculiar sickness is produced which causes the abdomen of the per- 

 son against whom the sorcery is directed to swell. 



After death the body is immediately coffined, not a moment being lost. Should 

 death occur at night, the coffin-box is set outside the house at once, till daylight 

 may admit of its being disposed of The face of the dead is first washed and the hair 

 combed, and then the face and head are painted with vermilion and the body wrapped 

 in blankets by near relatives or friends. It is then put into any box of a suitable size 

 that can be found, generally one of those used for the storage of house effects or dried fish. 

 The box so employed is named tik-l-'i'-tse. The body is doubled up, and no hesitation is 

 felt in using violence towards it in order to press it into the box. The sraA'es of the Kwa- 

 kiool are of two principal kinds : little scaffolds to which the coffin-box is lashed, high upon 

 the branches of fir trees and known as tvh-p"-kh ; and tombs built of slabs of wood on the 

 ground. Small tent-like erections of calico are now often substituted for the latter, and 

 the bodies of relatives or friends, dying at different times, are in both cases often placed 

 together. If a person of importance or much respected, a canoe (previously rendered un- 

 serviceable) is often drawn up and deposited near the grave. The trees used for the 

 deposit of the dead are often quite close to the village, but when a tomb is placed upon 

 the ground, it is generally on some rocky islet or insular rock, which may be further away, 

 but is still in sight from the village. Such islands become regular cemeteries. Graves 

 in trees are generally festooned with blankets or streamers of cloth, and similar append- 

 ages are affixed to poles in the vicinity of graves on the ground. Roughly carved human 

 figures in wood are also often added. These sometimes hold in their hands wooden 

 models of the copi^er plates which are so much valued by these northern tribes of the 

 coast. Similar models are also at times nailed up on posts near the graves. At Pâ'-as 

 (Blundeu Harbour) the upper part of one of these coppers (but one of inferior value) was 

 found broken in two and affixed at a grave in token of grief. The lower part was not 

 found, and had probably been used before on some similar occasion. At Fort Rupert and 

 Alert Bay, bodies are now frequently buried in the ground, owing to the influence of the 

 whites. Such a grave is named tik-l-ns. 



After the body has been deposited in the grave, a fire is made near it, in which some 

 food is burnt, such as dried salmon, fat, dried clams, etc., and all the smaller articles 

 belonging to the deceased are thrown into the fire at the same time. The canoe, house, 

 and other larger effects are then taken possession of by the son, father, daughter, wife or 

 brother of the dead, generally in the order named. The wife or husband of the deceased 

 goes into special mourning for a period of one month among the Queen Charlotte Sound 

 tribes, or for four months among the Kôs'-kî-mo. The survivor lives during this i^eriod 



