30 THE KAROK. 
advertently behold that walking skeleton and die the death. All the camp 
is silent, hushed, and awe-struck as the vicegerent of the great Kareya 
enters. 
Now he approaches the assembly chamber, and is assisted to descend 
intoit. J*eeble and trembling with the pangs of hunger, he seats himself upon 
the sacred stool. 'Tinder and flint are brought to him. With his last remain- 
ing strength he strikes out a spark and nourishes it intoa blaze. The sacred 
smoke arises. As no common creature may look upon the Kareya Indian 
and live, so also none may behold the sacred smoke with impunity. Let 
his eyes rest upon it even for one moment, and he is doomed to death. The 
intercession of the Kareya Indian alone can avert the direful consequences 
of his inadvertence. If by any mischance one is so unfortunate as to glance 
at it as it swirls up above the subterranean chamber, seeming to arise 
out of the ground, he goes down into it, prostrates him before the Kareya 
Indian sitting on the sacred stool, and proffers him shell-money. The 
priest demands $20, $30, $40, according to the circumstances. He then 
lights his pipe, puffs a few whiffs of smoke over the head of the unfortunate 
man, mumbling certain formularies and incantations, and his transgression 
is remitted. 
After the lapse of a certain time the people return from their hiding- 
places, and prepare for the last great solemnity—the Dance of Propitiation. 
They arrange themselves in a long line—the men only, for the women do 
not participate in this part of the ceremony. They are vestured in all their 
savage trappings, their jingling beadery, their tasseled robes of peltry, 
their buckskin bandoleers passing under one shoulder and over the other, 
and gayly starred with the scarlet scalps of woodpeckers, to the value of 
$300 or $400 on each. They brandish aloft in their hands their finest 
bows and arrows, inlaid with sinew and bits of shells, with glinting strings 
of pink and purple abalones; and if any one can boast of a white or black 
deer-skin as a trophy of his prowess, he is accounted beloved of the spirits. 
No Indian can participate in the dance unless he has at least a raccoon’s or 
a deer’s head, with the neck stuffed, and the remainder of the skin flowing 
loose, elevated on a pole within easy eyeshot. 
Then two or three singers begin an improvised chant, a kind of invo- 
