542 TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY [eth. akn. 31 



Mayne (pp. 263-265) describes the ceremonies of a lesser feast 

 according to Duncan: 



They are very particular about whom I hey invite to their feasts, and, on great 

 occasions, men and women feast separately, the women always taking the precedence. 

 Vocal music and dancing have great prominence in their proceedings. When a person 

 is going to give a great feast, he sends, on the first day, the females of his household 

 round the camp to invite all his female friends. The next day a party of men is sent 

 round to call the male guests together. The other day a party of eight or ten females, 

 dressed in their best, with their faces newly painted, came into the fort yard, formed 

 themselves into a semicircle; then the one in the center, with a loud but clear and 

 musical voice, delivered the invitation, declaring what should be given to the guests, 

 and what they should enjoy. In this case the invitation was for three women in the 

 fort who are related to chiefs. On the following day a band of men came and delivered 

 a similar message, inviting the captain in charge. 



These feasts are generally connected with the giving away of property. As an 

 instance I will relate the last occurrence of the kind. The person who sent the afore- 

 mentioned invitations is a chief who has just completed building a house. After 

 feasting, I heard he was to give away property to the amount of 480 blankets (worth 

 as many pounds to him), of which 180 were his own property and the 300 were to be 

 subscribed by his people. On the first day of the feast as much as possible of the 

 property to be given him was exhibited in the camp. Hundreds of yards of cotton 

 were flapping in the breeze, hung from house to house, or on lines put up for the 

 occasion. Furs, too, were nailed up on the fronts of houses. Those who were going 

 to give away blankets or elk skins managed to get a bearer for every one, and exhibited 

 them by making the persons walk in single file to the house of the chief. On the 

 next day the cotton which had been hung out was now brought on the beach, at a 

 good distance from the chief's house, and then run out at full length, and a number 

 of bearers, about three yards apart, bore it triumphantly away from the giver to the 

 receiver. I suppose that about 600 to 800 yards were thus disposed of. 



After all the property the chief is to receive has thus been openly handed to him, a 

 day or two is taken up in apportioning it for fresh owners. When this [sic] done, 

 all the chiefs and their families are called together, and each receives according to 

 his or her portion. If, however, a chief's wife is not descended from a chief, she has 

 no share in this distribution, nor is she ever invited to the same feasts with her hus- 

 band. Thus do the chiefs and their people go on reducing themselves to poverty. 

 In the case of the chiefs, however, this poverty lasts but a short time; they are soon 

 replenished from the next giving away, but the people only grow rich again according 

 to their industry. One can not but pity them, while one laments their folly. 



All the pleasure these poor Indians seem to have in their property is in hoarding 

 it up for such an occasion as I have described. They never think of appropriating 

 what they gather to enhance their comforts, but are satisfied if 1 hey can make a display 

 like this now and then; so that the man possessing but one blanket seems to be as 

 well off as the one who possesses twenty; and thus it is that there is a vast amount 

 of dead stock accumulated in the camp doomed never to be used, but only now and 

 then to be transferred from hand to hand for the mere vanity of the thing. 



There is another way, however, in which property is disposed of even more foolishly. 

 If a person be insulted, meet with an accident, or in any way suffer an injury, real or 

 supposed, either of mind or body, property must at once be sacrificed to avoid dis- 

 grace. A number of blankets, shirts, or cotton, according to the rank of the person, 

 is torn into small pieces and carried off. 



