PEOPLE OF VANCOUVEE ISLAND. 79 



separately iu a very small hut, which is built behind the house, eating and drinking alone, 

 and using for that purpose dishes not employed by other members of the tribe The near 

 relatives of the dead cut their hair short, or if women, cut a small portion of it off. A 

 widow marks her face with scratches, in token of mourning ; among the Kos'-kT-mo she cuts 

 her face with a shell, and does not generally marry again for at least a year. In some cases, 

 about a month after death, the men of the tribe collect iu a house to sing a song which 

 relates the deeds and virtues of the deceased. This is named sl'-luma or kwai'-um, the 

 "crying song." Children are sometimes, in the same way, mourned for by the women. 

 "When at Mel'-oopa (" Nawitti ") iu 18*78, the first sound we heard at daybreak, was the 

 crying and lamentation of the women, the song being taken uji first by one and then by 

 another, in different parts of the village. This, it was ascertained, was in consequence of 

 the death of a boy which had occurred some time before. 



V. — Custom of the " Potlatch" or Donation Feast. 



In my notes on the Haida people of the Queen Charlotte Islands, the facts which 

 could be obtained as to the potlatch or donation feast of these Indians and of the Tshimsian 

 were detailed. This custom is common to all the coast tribes of this part of North 

 America, and has extended, though in a less marked form, into the interior of the con- 

 tinent. The main features of the custom are probably identical, or nearly so, among all 

 the tribes of the British Columbian coast. They are certainly nearly the same with the 

 Haida, Tshimsian and Kwakiool peoples Among the latter, this ceremony is known as 

 pus-a or ya-hooit, these terras probably denoting special forms of the ceremony appro- 

 priate to certain occasions. In speaking of the custom, I will, however, use the commonly 

 recognised word potlatch as being the most convenient. 



The rules governing the potlatch and its attendent ceremonies have grown to be so 

 complicated that even those persons most familiar with the natives can scarcely follow it 

 in all its details, and it is sometimes difficult for the natives themselves to decide certain 

 points, leaving openings for roguery and sharp practice with the more unscrupulous. 



Mr. Greorge Blenkinsop, who has been for many years among the Kwakiool, informs 

 me that the custom was formerly almost entirely confined to the recognised chiefs, but that 

 of late years it has extended to the people generally, and become very much commoner 

 than before. The Rev. A. J. Hall bears testimony to the same effect. With the chiefs, it was 

 a means of acquiring and maintaining prestige and power. It is still so regarded, but has 

 spread to all classes of the community and became the recognised mode of attaining 

 social rank and respect. Many of the younger people in the Kwakiool villages are willing 

 to abandon the custom, but the majority, and particularly the older people, are in its favour 

 — a circumstance probably largely explicable by the fact that nearly all are creditors or 

 debtors under the system. 



The pernicious effect of the extension and frec[ueut recurrence of the potlatch, arises 

 chiefly from the circumstance that every member of the tribe, male or female, is drawn 

 into it. If not themselves endeavouring to acquire property for a potlatch, every one is 

 pledged to support, to the utmost of their means, some more prominent or ambitious 

 individual. Thus, wives even rob their husbands to assist a brother, or some other 



