466 THE TLINOIT INDIANS [eth. ann. 26 



he saw this spirit, putting on a \'ei'v larjiP hat with a hii;h crown, a 

 dancing blanket, leggings, and a Chilkat blanket, and painting red 

 stripes across his face. Then he sat on a very high box and sang. 

 Afterwards he handed his baton to each of the Nanyail'yt women in 

 turn, who were now prepared to dance. All tried to imitate the 

 shaman when he danced, but they were entirely unable to do so. 

 From this circumstance the Nanyaa'yi have a personal name, Lie'- 

 dukfiktc, which means that no one can imitate the dancing shaman. 

 After that the shaman tried to imitate the Bow-man, dancing with 

 bow and arrows in his hands. Subsequently shamans in this family 

 acted like Big-killer-whale, and Unseeable was always the first spirit 

 which they saw. The shaman had to be very clean wlien Unseeable 

 was going to come to him, nor would Unseeable allow any filthy 

 person in his house. When the shaman heard l^nseeable's canoe song- 

 he shouted out, "The shaman can hear Unseeable's canoe song. All 

 the women must wash and fast." When Unseeable first came to the 

 shaman he walked on water. 



Spirits descended in one family from uncle to nephew. Rarely, if 

 a man had no suitable clansman, his spirits would pass to his son. 

 Sometimes a successor was named by the spirits before the shaman's 

 death, and sometimes they named two, in which case the stronger- 

 minded obtained the position. 



When the shaman was in his last sickness his spirit would come to 

 him and say, "You will die so many days from now." And when he 

 was dying it said, "My master, you must be taken to such and such a 

 place and be left there [for burial]." Then it would toll his clan what 

 to do and where to live. The shaman's bod}' was accordingly carried 

 to the point indicated and left there without having been burned. It 

 is said that his l)ody alwaJ^s dried up instead of decaying like the Ijody 

 of an ordinary person. 



Some time after the shaman's body had been put away the whole 

 clan — men, women, and children — asseml)led in his house or in one 

 belonging to the clan, where they remained and kept themselves very 

 clean. While they were fasting there an honest youth, selected for the 

 purpose, went out of the house and shouted "[Such-and-such a] spirit is 

 coming in." Then they opened the door and let it in. They started 

 the song of the spirit he had mentioned, and everyone pounded on 

 sticks. While they were singing, the youth who was to succeed his 

 uncle — who must be a 3'oung fellow of good character — dropped over 

 and passed into a sort of trance. The people worked over him for a 

 long time to make him come to. Now his clan felt happy at having a 

 shaman among them, for they knew the clan would keep on growing. 



The power of shamans was so much dreaded that whenever a person 

 came ac^'oss a shaman's house ])uilt in the woods he feared he would 

 become sick and have his belly grow large. Then only another 



