NELSON] CONCEPTION OF NATURAL PHENOMENA 431 



coine back during the next berry season. When the season designated 

 had passed, the people of the village said that one of the shamans came 

 back, coming a little out of the ground, looking like a doll, but he was 

 very small and weak and there was no one outside the houses at the 

 time to feed and care for him, except some children, so that he was 

 overlooked and went away again. 



Nearly all epidemic diseases are supposed to come from the moon, 

 but occasionally they descend from the sun. An eclipse of the moon 

 is said to foretell an epidemic, and the shamans immediately proceed to 

 learn the cause in order to appease the being living there and, by 

 diverting his anger, save the people. Among the inhabitants along 

 the lower Yukon it is believed that a subtle essence or unclean influ 

 ence descends to the earth during an eclipse, and if any of it is 

 caught in utensils of any kind it will produce sickness. As a result, 

 immediately on the commencement of an eclipse, every woman turns 

 bottom side up all her pots, wooden buckets, and dishes. 



After an eclipse at St Michael the Unalit said that the sun had 

 died and come to life again. The length of duration of an eclipse is 

 said to indicate the severity of the visitation to follow. In the village 

 of Paimut. on the lower Yukon, in December, 1880, 1 overheard people 

 talking about a recent eclipse of the moon and all agreed that it fore 

 boded either an epidemic or war. Some thought that it meant a raid 

 of the Tiiim , living higher up the river, as revenge upon the Eskimo 

 for having killed some moose the year before, the Eskimo evidently 

 thinking that the moose belonged to the people in the region where they 

 are usually found, and their having killed some of the animals would 

 call for reprisals by the Tinno. 



South of Cape Vancouver, at the village of Chichifiagaumt, we were 

 overtaken by a severe storm and, in order to witness the rites, I paid 

 a shaman to change the weather. After dark he knelt on a straw mat 

 in the middle of the kashim and enveloped himself, with the exception 

 of his face, in a large gut-skin shirt; then, resting his knees and elbows 

 on the floor, he uttered a long speech at the top of his voice. When 

 this was ended he concealed his face in the shirt and made a great 

 variety of grunts, groans, and other noises. During this time two men 

 stood on each side of him and over his back passed a double cord, 

 extending lengthwise of his body, with a stick fastened to each end, 

 which was held fast to the floor on each side of him. When the sha 

 man finished making the noises mentioned a third man made a panto 

 mime with his hands as if lifting some invisible substance from the 

 shaman s back. This motion was repeated a number of times and then 

 the two men raised the sticks to which the cords were tied and circled 

 several times around the shaman, constantly turning their sticks end 

 over end, and finally stopping in their former positions. The shaman 

 then caused his voice to die away in the distance, after which he arose 

 and said that we would have a change of weather in two days. 



