I 



I 



ON THE ETHNOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 539 



will return to the old village, and will arrive there with all their belong- 

 ings early next morning. The young men then bid him good-bye, and set 

 out to return to their mother to tell her the news. It is late in the day 

 when they arrive, and their long and unusual absence has caused her 

 much worry and anxiety. She has almost given them up for lost when 

 they are seen approaching the landing. She questions them concerning 

 their delay, and learns that they have visited her father and given him 

 all their seals (d'suq), and that he and all the rest are coming back to 

 occupy their old quarters on the morrow. Next morning, while they are 

 busy preparing to receive them, the son, who was a sluwe'n, said to his 

 mother : 'What will you do to the people to-morrow, mother? I know 

 what I shall do to make them feel my power.' His mother made no reply, 

 but, knowing her son's wonder-working abilities, she was curious to see 

 what he would do. Presently the canoes were seen approaching the chief 

 landing-place. When they were almost near enough to land, the sluwe'n 

 began to exercise his magic power, and caused a strong out-flowing 

 current to take the canoes and carry them far out into the gulf and then 

 bring them back again. This he did four times before he would allow them 

 to land, and it was evening when they left their canoes. The sons now 

 make their mother sit down in the foreground of the village on an elevated 

 seat and pile up heaps of blankets by her side. The sixth son then opened 

 the reception ceremonies with special songs and dances. In the first 

 dance two bears appear — one a cinnamon {k'tlaluin) and the other a black 

 bear (miaqutl). This was a bear dance. These are followed by mountain- 

 goats, after which all the brothers dance and sing together. The second 

 brother, who was skilled in carving, danced in a mask of his own carving. '^ 

 The visitors, who had remained in their canoes, looked on, and pronounced 

 the entertainment a great success and the character-dancing very fine. 

 After these performances are over the people land, bring up their belong- 

 ings, and occupy their old quarters in the village. From this time 

 onward they live together in amity, and the ten brothers are accorded 

 by genei'al consent the rank of chiefs.^ 



Stori/ of Sai'tls, the Copper-man. 



Once there were two brothers named A'tsaian and Cukguklako's. 

 Each one had six sons. All the sons were fine tall men except one. 

 The youngest son of Cuk9uklako's was somewhat deformed, having a 

 large protuberance on one side of his stomach. One day all twelve of 

 the youths started off into the mountains. They climbed three successive 



' The Sk-qomic used formerly, accordino; to Chief James of Statnis, to indulge in 

 dramatic entertainments of the kind described in this story, which has apparently 

 been evolved from the tribal consciousness to account for the origin of these particu- 

 lar masqueradings in wiiich the participants appear under the guise of bears, moun- 

 tain-goats, &c. I was not able to learn that the right to participate in these 

 character-dances belonged to any particular family or gens. 



- The bestowal of the rank of chiefs as a mark of honour and esteem upon the 

 ten sons of the chief's daughter, as here related, bears out the statements of my 

 informants on social customs — viz. that children of a chief's daughter take the rank 

 of their father. Although their mother was a smend'tl or ' princess,' they could not 

 take her rank, as their father was of inferior birth. The conferring of this special 

 privilege upon the wizard's sons shows us also, however, that men of inferior class, 

 by possession and exercise of superior natural gifts, or by the performance of public 

 services, could upon occasion be elevated by tribal consent to the rank of chiefs, as 

 in the case of Te SQoqwa'otl, the hero of the story of that name. 



