854 EEPORT— 1889. 



cedar bark. Then the people try to throw a bear-skin over him, whicb 

 they succeed in doing only after a severe struggle. At this feast all 

 societies take part, each sitting grouped together. The common people 

 stand at the door. This ends the initiation ceremonies. 



The festival of ' clothing ' is also celebrated by the Kwakiutl, when 

 it seems to indicate the end of the trance of the novice. 



The initiation is repeatedly celebrated, the rank of the person being 

 the higher the more frequently he has gone through the ceremonies. But 

 nobody, chiefs excepted, can be a member of more than one secret society. 

 It seems that the Sfimhalait ai-e considered a preparatory step for the 

 initiation into other societies, so that every person must have been 

 SEmhalait before he can become Meitla, Nontlem, or Olala. A Meitla, 

 however, can never become Nontlem or Olala. Those who passed twice 

 through the Siimhalait ceremony ai'e called Ts'e'ik. The Meitla have a 

 red head-ring and red eagle-downs, the Nontlem a neck-ring plaited of 

 white and red cedar bark, the Olala a similar but far larger one. The 

 members of the societies receive a head-ring for each time they pass 

 through these ceremonies. These are fastened one on top of the other. 

 The Nontlem destroy everything, carry firebrands, and tear live dogs to 

 pieces, which they devour. They correspond exactly to the Natlmatl axid 

 Noutsistatl of the Kwakiutl. 



The secret societies have no connection whatever with the gentes. 

 Generally the father determines to what society each child is to belong, 

 and has them initiated by pi'oxy, so that they may belong to the middle 

 class from childhood. 



The Haida borrowed these customs from the Tsimshian, and some- 

 times perform the Meitla and Olala dances ; bat the Tsimshian maintain 

 that they have no right to do so. Their dance, corx-esponding to the 

 SEmhalait of the Tsimshian, is that of the shaman, the Sk'aga, the initia- 

 tion being identical with that of the Tsimshian SEmhalait. The Sk'aga 

 has a number of head-rings, one on top of the other, corresponding to 

 the number of ceremonies he went through. 



The shamans proper of the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian are initiated 

 bv a spirit after long fasting. Those of the Tlingit and Haida acquire 

 their knowledge of the mysteries of shamanism by tearing out the tongues 

 of an otter, an eagle, and several other animals. In doing so they must 

 use a bundle of twigs strung together with spruce roots for catching the 

 blood that flows from the animal's tongue. Those twigs which have not 

 come into contact with the blood are taken out. Sometimes a piece or 

 the whole of the tongue is wrapped in those bundles, and, in cases of 

 great emergency, worn by the shaman round the neck to endow him 

 with great power over spirits (see ' Journal Amer. Folk-Lore,' i. p. 218). 

 The dignity seems to be hereditary. They wear long hair, which must 

 never be touched with the hands, and is therefore extremely filthy and 

 matted. They wear a necklace set with bone ornaments, a long curved 

 piece of bone in the septum of the nose, a bird's head on the breast, a 

 rattle, and a carved staff. Their art consists in extracting the sickness or 

 ill finding and restoring the soul of the sick person. In trying to find it 

 three or four shamans sing and rattle over the sick person until they 

 declare to have found the whereabouts of his soul, which is supposed to 

 be in possession of the salmon or olachen, or in that of the deceased 

 shaman. Then they go to the place where it is supposed to be and by 

 singing and incantations obtain possession of it and enclose it in a hollow 



