boas] TSIMSHIAN SOCIETY 553 



it is being shaken, they hold part of their loose blanket under the 

 clapper (?). If some woman should break one side of the clapper, 

 she must pay the novice, or the initiation performance is repeated. 1 

 If she does not do this, she will die. After this is over, the members 

 of the society go back to their house. They put up a beautiful pole 

 above the door, indicating that no one may go past. For four da}~s 

 the novice will rim out from tune to time and break one thing or 

 another. After the four days are over, the members of the society 

 announce that they will have a performance in their own house. 

 Before this the novice had invited all the princes and princesses who 

 belong to the same society. They assemble on the appointed day; 

 and when the time has come, each prince comes with his whole com- 

 pany from each of the various tribes; and when they assemble, they 

 break whatever they can lay their hands on in LEg-e'°x's village. On 

 the same night the performance is held in the house of the society. 

 The people sit all round the house ; and when the first song is sung, 

 the princes and princesses who are members of the Society come out 

 first, last the novice. The mask of the novice represents the swan. 

 Each of the other princes and princesses has as his mask the head of 

 some animal. One has a mask representing the frog; another, one 

 representing a serpent, the sun, and so on. 



"When the second song is sung, all the princes and princesses come 

 forward, wearing bear skins, and rings of red-cedar bark aroimd their 

 necks and on their heads. They carry on their shoulders clubs of 

 different form. The club of the novice represents a beaver tail; 

 others have clubs representing the fins of killer whales; others, the 

 bill of a crane, the sunbeam, or a raven bill. 



" When the singers pronoimce the word ' Wl'nanal,' 2 all the mem- 

 bers of the society become excited, and they try to break something 

 in their house. Then everybody rushes out. On the following day 

 the great chief gives a feast, which all the members of the society 

 attend. He gives them much property, and every one returns to his 

 own house. They spend four days in the house of the society. 

 After this each goes to his own house, singing his own song. After 

 four days more the father of the novice (that is, LEg - e'°x) invites all 

 the chiefs of the different tribes, and refunds the value of what his 

 son has broken in each one's house. At the same time he gives 

 them a great feast. After four days more, LEge'°x invites his own 

 tribe, and refunds the value of what his son has destroyed. Then 

 he also refunds the value of what his cousins who were members of 

 the society had broken when they came, following the invitation of 

 the novice. Then he gives a feast to his own people — men, women, 

 and children." 



1 1 am not certain whether I understand this sentence in Mr. Tate's account correctly. For illustra- 

 tions of these clappers, see Boas 3, p. 502. 

 - Probably Kwakiutl uina, "war; " -lal, "dance." 



