92 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



to tribe. To the tribes mentioned by Dr. Frazer may 

 be added the Chinook, the Squamish, the Lillooet 

 and the Haida. Among the Chinook a girl must 

 remain hidden for five days. A potlatch is then 

 made ; she is brought out to dance and afterwards 

 hidden again. For fifty days she must not eat fresh 

 food. For a hundred days she must not warm herself 

 by the fire, nor look at the people, nor at the sky, nor 

 pick berries. When she looks at the sky bad weather 

 is the result ; when she picks berries it rains ! l A 

 Squamish girl does not seem to have been secluded ; 

 but she was kept indoors at work all day long after 

 puberty, and during her catamenia she was not allowed 

 to go near the fire. 2 Among the Lillooet a girl was 

 isolated in a small lodge made of fir-branches or bark. 

 She painted her face red. Each evening at dusk she 

 left her lodge and wandered about all night, returning 

 before sunrise. Even then she wore a mask of fir- 

 branches. Among the Lower Lillooet many girls wore 

 masks of goat-skin which covered head, neck, 

 shoulders and breast, leaving only a small opening 

 from the brow to the chin ; and before going out every 

 one had to paint the exposed part of her face. Girls 

 remained isolated for not less than one year nor more 

 than four years ; but two years was the usual time. They 

 performed at night ceremonies intended to influence 

 their future course of life and obtain easy delivery. 3 Of 

 the Haida ceremonies it is only necessary here to 

 refer to two. Among the Masset the girl remained 

 behind a screen in the house. She was subject to 



1 Boas, Chinook Texts, 246. 



2 Hill-Tout, B. A. Rep, 1900, 484. 



3 Teit, Jesup Exped. ii. 263. 



