swANToN] SHAMANISM 463 



two days afterwards he said, ' Numbers of spirits have come to welcome 

 Hie/ Then he died. So his friends Ix'oaa to dress him up in iiis war 

 clothes and they put a war spear into liis hands. After a time, how- 

 ever, he came to life again and told the people what he had seen, lie 

 said that he had seen lots of people outside on the j)orchesof the grave 

 houses. One of tiies(>, a ciiief who had died long ago, spoke from his 

 porch, saying, 'Do you think the spirits are getting starved that j'ou 

 talk to us in that way? We are not getting starved. Do you think 

 that you are going to destroy all the spirits with that warspcaiT 

 And on account of the war spear they sent him back into the world. 

 The man also said that that is 'an everlasting place' (i. e.. a very large 

 one), like a regular town, and added, 'Whenever any man is going to 

 give a feast for one who has died the3' feel very happy over it there.' 

 The man died and came to life again four times, after which the war 

 spear was tiiken from him and he died for good." 



" In a certain war a man was killed and went up to Kl'waA, and by and 

 by a woman of his clan gave birth to a child. One time, when some 

 one was talking al)out that war, the child cried persistently and they 

 said to it. 'Keep ((uiet. What are you crying about? Why are you 

 crying so muchT Then the infant spoke out saying, 'If you had 

 done what I told you and let the tide go out tirst we could have 

 destroyed all those people.' The child was the same man who had 

 been killed. From him people knew that there was such a place and 

 that people who died by violence went there. He told the people that 

 when a murder was about to be committed all the people up there came 

 down to look, and that they arc the electric sparks (geslu'q, St Elmo's 

 tire {'.)) which light on houses. The}' were said to come down on the 

 fir(>place of a house where a murder was about to take place." 



" If a person with a cut or scar on his bodj' died and was reborn the 

 same mark could be seen on the infant." 



SHAMANISM 



Along with multiplicity in the number of spirits came a great 

 development of shanianisni. It would appear that, taking the people 

 of the north Pacitic coast as a whole, shamanism reached its climax 

 among the Tlingit. At all events their shamans were more powerful 

 and influential and more dreaded than those among the Haida. The 

 latter appear to have recognized this and atfected to bring many of 

 their spirit helpers from the Tlingit country. But while the Haida 

 shaman personated only one spirit at a time, and usually performed 

 without a mask, each Tlingit shaman was guarded b\- a number of 

 helpers and possessed a lumiberof masks. Besides depicting a principal 

 figure on each mask, there were usually one or more smalh'r ones which 



aTbis story, or one like it, is repeated everywhere in-the Tlingit country. 



