^"boas"] pregnancy and BIRTH TRANSLATION. 243 



and girls. When the chief's chikl grows up and [first] catches fish 

 with a hook, the father is gladdened again and invites the peoj)le. 

 They dance, and all are paid for dancing. When the child becomes 

 really large and shoots [the flrstj bird, he again invites the people. 

 He gives a potlatch, and the people dance. Again all are paid for 

 dancing for the child. 



Notes. 



Other taboos and beliefs. — When a Tvomau gives birth to a child ont of doors, this 

 will be a leproach to her child throughout life. Her husbaud is allowed to be present 

 during her confinement. 



The father must not go fishing for ten days nor do any work that requires his 

 going out on the water. He must not go-hunting, but he may gather wood. If the 

 child is a boy this rule holds for five days only. If a sick person is in a house where 

 a woman is about to be confined, his bed is surrounded with mats so that he cannot 

 see the woman. 



There is a certain guardian spirit which enables its possessor to understand the 

 cries and the cooing of babies. The child may tell him where it came from. It may 

 say: After four days I shall go home; then it will die after four days. This spirit 

 informed us that the land of the children is in sunrise. If a child in a family dies 

 and another one is born later on to the same family, it may be the same child which 

 returned. Sometimes, if it died after its ears had been perforated, the new-bom 

 child will have its ears perforated. Old people cannot return as new-born infants. 



