THE ABOEIG1XES OF AUSTRALIA. 29 



of it completely black. About the close of it, the candidates 

 were washed for a long time. In fact, washing and purification 

 constitute an important part of the initiatory ceremonies of 

 both of these modes of worship, and also when a person 

 becomes a medicine man. In both of these' we see the 

 period of eight or ten days mentioned in the paper just read, 

 but more especially in the red ta-mah-uo-us, whose object is 

 to enable the candidate "to commune with the spirits," as the 

 paper says (p. 5). In the latter, the secret society is plain, and 

 the ceremonies are performed in great state, as in the Bora. Tradi- 

 tion says that this latter originated in British Columbia, in a mytho- 

 logical way. In the practice of the ceremonies of the red ta-mah-no- 

 us, I have seen persons dance around a large fire, clothed with a red 

 blanket, holding a stick in the hand, with face and eyes askance, so 

 that I was forcibly reminded of an old witch with a wand in her 

 hand. This stick was sacred, and the object of the performance was to 

 purify the persons from sin. Singularly enough, however, the red paint 

 is not considered as the symbol of evil, but of good. The tradition 

 of the Skokomish Indians is that, long ago, when a previous race, 

 tlio progenitors of the present one, dwelt here, the Klik-i-tat Indians 

 of Central Washington came to Skokomish and engaged with 

 those of Skokomish in a great game of gambling. The Klikitats 

 who were painted red, won the game. In process of time, Dokibat, 

 a kind of deity, incarnate, came and changed the people into 

 earth, the Skokomish Indians being changed into the hills on the 

 west side of Hood's canal, which are of common clay colour, and 

 the Klikitats being changed into hills on the east side, where is 

 a bank of red clay, the remains of the red paint, which was on 

 the Klikitats. To that place the Skokomish Indians go for the 

 red paint, which they use in gambling and religious ceremonies, 

 as they believe it to be an omen of good. The circle and sun 

 mentioned in this paper also have their counterpart in America. 

 The ancient civilised nations of Mexico and Peru, and also less 

 civilised tribes, as the Natchez Indians of Louisiana, the Dakotas, 

 whose sun dance is one of the most savage of their religious 

 ceremonies, the Blackfeet, Clallams and Makahs of the northern 

 part of the United States, and the Pueblos of New Mexico and 

 Arizona, all worshipped the sun. Many of these people built 

 temples to it, and there are remains of sacred places in the south- 

 western part of the United States in circles, which are believed to 

 lie the ruins of ancient temples, and which have reminded me of 



