848 REPOET — 1889. 



Slaa'lEk-am. All these tribes believe that the touch or the seeing of 

 ghosts brings sickness and death. 



The Kutona'qa have a distinct sun-worship. They pray and sacrifice 

 to the sun. Before beginning their council they put tobacco into a pipe 

 and offer it three times to the sun, holding up the pipe-stem to it. This 

 ceremony is called wtisithvatlaJcd'ne (=making the sun smoke). Then the 

 pipe is turned round three times horizontally, a smoke being thus offered 

 to the four points of the compass. They make hoops of twigs, and 

 everyone ties to his a part of what he desires to have. A horse's hair 

 indicates that horses are wished for. The hoop is hung to a tree as an 

 offering to the sun. Before war expeditions, and to ward off disaster, 

 they celebrate a great festival, in which the first joint of a finger is cut 

 off as an offering to the sun. It is then hung to a tree. They also 

 pierce their flesh on arms and breast with awls, cut off the piece they 

 have thus lifted and offer it to the sun. The first-bom child is sacri- 

 ficed to him. The mother prays, ' I am with child. When it is born I 

 shall offer it to you. Have pity upon us.' Thus they expected to secure 

 health and good fortune for their families. These customs evidently 

 correspond to the similar customs of the Blackfeet, although my in- 

 formant maintained that the so-called sun-dance was never held by the 

 Kutonaqa. In winter a large dancing ('medicine') lodge is built for 

 dancing and praying purposes. Then they pray for snow in order to 

 easily obtain game. 



The dead go to the sun. One of the important features of their 

 religion is the belief that all the dead will return at a future time. This 

 event is expected to take place at Lake Pend Oreille. Therefore all 

 Kutonaqa tribes used to assemble there from time to time to await the 

 dead. On their journey they danced every night around a fire, going in 

 the direction of the sun. Only those who were at war with any tribe 

 or family danced the opposite way. The festival at the lake, which lasted 

 many days, and consisted principally of dances, was celebrated only at 

 rare intervals. 



Shamanism and Secret Societies. 



In the preceding account of the religious ideas of the Indians of 

 British Columbia I have not mentioned shamanism, which forms a most 

 important part of their religions, and which is closely connected with all 

 their customs. All nature is animated, and the spirit of any being 

 can become the genius of a man, who thus acquires supernatural 

 powers. These spirits are called Tek by the Tlingit : they are the 

 NEqno'q of the Tsimshian. It is a remarkable fact that this acquiring 

 of supernatural powers is designated by the Tsimshian, Bilqula, and 

 Nutka by a Kwakiutl word (Tlok-oala), which in these instances, how- 

 ever, is restricted to the highest degrees of supernatural power. This 

 proves that the ideas of the Kwakiutl exercised a great influence over 

 those of the neighbouring peoples, and for this reason I shall begin with 

 a description of shamanism among the Kwakiutl. 



The secrets of shamanism are confided to a number of secret societies 

 which are closely connected with the clans of the tribes. Thus the art 

 of the ' medicine man ' (of the shaman proper) is derived from Haiali- 

 kyawe, the ancestor of the gens of that name. The secrets of others 

 are obtained by initiation. I failed to reach a fully satisfactory 



