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Tlie motive for sacrificing or destroying property on occasion of death 

 will be referred to in treating of their religious ideas. Wailing for the dead 

 is continued for a long time, and seems to be rather a ceremonial jierform- 

 ance than an act of spontaneous grief. The duty of course belongs to the 

 women, and the early morning is usually chosen for the purpose. They go 

 out alone to some place a little distant from the lodge or camp, and in a 

 loud, sobbing voice, repeat a sort of stereotyped formula, as for instance, a 

 mother on the loss of her child: 



Ah sealib! shed-da bud-dah ah ta hud! ad-dc-dah! 

 Ah chief! my child dead! alas! 



When in dreams they see any of tlieir deceased friends this lamentation is 

 renewed. 



FEASTS. 



Various occasions are made the subject of festival, of which the arrival 

 of the first salmon of the season was one; marriages, where the parties 

 were of note; the ceremony of piercing the ears and nose of children; and 

 others of like character. These were always accompanied by singing, 

 dancing, gambling, and the distribution of presents by the host. But the 

 greatest of all was when some one, desirous of securing or extending his 

 influence, gave a grand potlatch. This was generally some chief, or what 

 was equivalent to it, a man of wealth. Some have been known to save all 

 their means for years, accumulating property of value, haihva, beads, blank- 

 ets, and other articles, until they possessed sufficient to make an ostentatious 

 display. Then all his friends from his own and adjacent tribes were 

 invited, an immense house built for the express purpose, quantities of food 

 prepared, and during the feast, which lasted for several days, the whole of 

 his stores distributed to his guests ; sometimes particular articles being 

 given to individuals, and again others thrown indiscriminately to the crowd, 

 who snatched at and tore or cut them in j^ieces, that each might secure a 

 token. These great affairs have gradually fallen into disuse among- those 

 tribes most nearly associated with the whites, but still take place with the 

 more remote, as the Klallam, Lummi, &c.; on a smaller scale, however, 

 they are everywhere practiced. 



