840 KEPORT — 1889. 



house door, but a separate door is cut for his use. Before he leaves the 

 house for the first time he must three times approach the door and return, 

 then he may leave the house. After ten months his hair is cut short, 

 and after a year the mourning is at an end. At present the Indians 

 abstain, during the mourning, from the use of European implements. 



Food is burned for the dead on the beach, sometimes in great quanti- 

 ties, which is intended to serve for their food. The mourners wail every 

 morning on the beach, facing the grave. The women scratch their faces 

 with their nails, and cut them with knives and shells. 



After the chief's death a great feast is celebrated, in which the son 

 adopts his father's name. At first mourning songs are sung, in which 

 stones are used instead of sticks for beating time. Then the whistle 

 Ts'e'koityala is heard, which ends their mourning and restores happiness 

 to their minds. After a while the chief's son enters, carrying his copper 

 plate, and, assuming his father's name, becomes the new chief. 



Coast Salish. 



I am best acquainted with the customs of the Snanaimuq, which are 

 probably almost identical with those of the other tribes of this group, the 

 (^atlo'ltq excepted, whose customs are more alike to those of the Kwakiutl 

 than to those of the other Coast Salish. 



It is the custom of the Snanaimuq that, if a woman is to be 

 delivered, all the women are invited to come, and to rub cedar-bark, 

 which is used for washing and bedding the babe. Two women, the 

 wives of chiefs, wash the new-born babe. All those who do any work on 

 behalf of the mother or child are paid with pieces of a mountain-goat 

 blanket. The mother must not eat anything but dried salmon, and is 

 not allowed to go down to the river. The children are not named until 

 they are several years old. Then all the gentes of the tribe are invited, 

 and at the ensuing festival the child receives the name of his grandfather 

 or that of another old member of the gens. Names once given are not 

 changed, except when that of a chief is assumed by his son. 



The man who wants to marry a girl goes into the house of her 

 parents, and sits down, without speaking a word, close by the door. 

 There he sits four days, without eating any food. For three days the 

 girl's parents abuse him in every way, but on the fourth day they feign 

 to be moved by his perseverance, and the girl's mother gives him a mat 

 to sit on. In the evening of the fourth day the girl's parents call on the 

 chief of the gens, and request his wife to invite the young man to sit 

 down near the fire. Then he knows that the parents will give their 

 consent to the marriage. A meal is cooked ; some food is served to the 

 young man, and some is sent to his parents in order to advise them of 

 the consent of the girl's family. The latter, on receiving the food, accept 

 it, and turn at once to cooking a meal. They fill the empty dishes in 

 which the food was sent, and return them to the girl's parents. Then 

 both families give jointly a great feast. The young man's parents load 

 their boat with mountain-goat blankets and other valuable presents, and 

 leave the landing-place of their house and land at that of the bride's 

 house. They are accompanied by the members of their gens. Mean- 

 while the bride's gens has assembled in her house. The chiefs of the 

 groom's gens deliver the presents to the bride's parents, making a long 

 and elaborate speech. In return, the bride's parents present these chiefs 



