436 THE TLINGIT INDIANS [eth. axx. 26 



(see p. -US) were imitated. The TiA'qIdentan, who alone hud a lioht 

 to use TsaIxu'h, repr(^sented the manner in which clouds stoppc^d part 

 of the way down its sides when the weather was going to ho fair or 

 went all over it when it was to be bad weather. When they met the 

 Chilkat people in dances, those from Sitka and Wrangell danced the 

 Tsimshian dance and the Chilkat people the Athapascan dance. 



Masks were used in tlie shows (yikteyi') which each clan gave at a, 

 potlatch, l)ut they were not valued as highly as the crest hats and 

 canes. The KiksA'di at Wrangell would show masks of the sun, of 

 various l)irds, such as the eagle, hawk (kidju'k), and flicker (kun), and 

 of animals, such as the bear, wolf, and killer whale. The Nanyaa'yi 

 showed masks of the killer whale, shark, ground hog, grizzly bear, 

 and gonaqAde't, and the Kusq lague'di the gonaqAde't, Nas-cA'ki-yei 

 (see p. 434), the owl, and tlic land-otter man (ku'cta-(ia). 



Secret society dances were imported froiu the south, us the nuiue 

 luqAna', evidently from Kwakiutl nl'koala, testities, Init their observ- 

 ance had l>y no means reached the importance attained among the 

 Kwakiutl and Tsimshian. At Sitka the wiiter heard of but one man 

 who hud become a hiqAna', a KiksA'di named MaawA'n. He said that 

 the btqAna' were spirits who came from the body of the hujAnu' wife of 

 the Sun's son, a cannibal woman referred to in one of the chief Tlingit 

 stories, who was broken to pieces and thrown down by her husband. 

 When they can le upon him, they would fly along through the air with 

 him. They forced him to eat dogs and do various other thins's, and 

 they made him cry " Hai, hai, liui, hai." Once, as they were flying 

 along, they left him suddenly, and he dropped upon the side of a cliff 

 where he hung on tiie point of a rock l)y his cheek. At the time of 

 his possession people ran around witii him with rattles and sang cer- 

 tain songs to keep him from going away, and they also sat on the tops 

 of the houses singing. All this was to restore him to his riglit mind. 

 At Wi'angell the hujAiia' performances seem to have been better known 

 and to have existed in greater variety. A man could imitate anj' ani- 

 mal except a crest of some other family. As was the case farther 

 south, whistles (luqAna' doA't-ci) were essential concomitants of the 

 seci'et society dances. 



Plow far the element of pure entertainment entered into secret 

 society performances is uncertain, but it figured largely at the feasts 

 in other ways. A Sitka man once became displeased at something, 

 started oft, and became a mountain i-illed Awatl'ni-qa (Man-tjjat-went- 

 away-forever-because-he-was-sad)." Because this man lielonged to 

 the Sitka KiksA'di that family does not allow anyone to mention tlie 

 name of this mountain during a feast. If he does thev make him 



o When one says, "There is a cloud on Awatl'nt-qa ( Awati'nt-qa y^t a'wacAt)" people know it will 

 be bad weather. If a cloud lies up against it. the weather will be fair; if the cloud goes up against it 

 and disappears, the weather will be stormy. 



