ON THE NORTH-WESTERN TRIBES OF CANADA. 581 
instance, k‘ci' tes, to give a name to the door, see p. 579), ndsz'netzs, or 
i‘cz'netes, to give a name toa man). The si’dua givesa name to the body 
(nanahé’ kustes) to enable man to go easy, that means, to be able-bodied 
and strong. She invokes good fortune by going down to the beach at 
the time of sunrise and at the time of sunset, and, looking eastward, she 
dips her hands into the water, sprinkles a few drops upward, and blows 
a few puffs of air eastward. She is able to cure such diseases as are not 
due to the absence of the soul from the body. She rubs the sick person 
with cedar-bark, paints his face red, and blows some puffs of air upward. 
The sick one must fast all day, and at sunset she goes to the beach and 
talks towards sunrise in the sacred language. She is applied to by 
women who desire to bear children. They are given decoctions of wasps’ 
nests and flies, as both lay many eggs. She also helps women to bring 
about abortion. For this purpose she kneads the belly of the woman in 
the second month of pregnancy. Her hands and the skin of the belly 
“are made more pliable by means of tallow and grease. She also lets the 
Woman lift heavy loads and eat leaves of a species of Carex, which have 
“yery sharp edges, that they may cut the embryo (see p. 577). For a love- 
‘charm she rubs girls with cedar-bark, and in the same way she restores 
the lost affection “of a husband. When a man has been absent for a long 
time on a hunting expedition, and his friends fear that some accident 
may have befallen. him, they call the si/dua, who stretches out her hands 
70 where he has gone. If, on doing so, she feels a pressure on her breast, 
something has happened to the absent man ; if she does not feel anything 
he is safe. All these practices of the si/Gua are accompanied by incan- 
tations in her peculiar language and by dances and dancing songs. In 
dancing she holds her arms on both sides of the body, the elbows not far 
om the waist, the hands upright, the palms forward, approximately on 
a level with the head. Her hands are trembling while she dances, I 
as irae So me SST ST SL 
oe sss = 
e) 
a= sae SS ee 
La-ma - tla-ta Qwé-ma - Ha-qan ho-yé - yeé-€ ho-yé - yé-é. 
‘The Lku'figrn equivalent of these words is: K’u'nettsza qtriigé'k'en, 1.e., 
‘See her (the si’dua) now going along. 
__ The saund'am, the shaman, is more powerful than the sidua. He is 
able to see the soul and to catch it when it has left the body and its 
owner i is sick. A man becomes a sQuna/am by intercourse with super- 
“natural powers. Only a youth who has never touched a woman, or a 
‘Virgin, both being called tc’éits, can become shamans. After having had 
Sexual intercourse, men as well as women become ?’k'é’el, 7.e., weak, 
incapable of gaining supernatural powers. The faculty cannot be regained 
by subsequent fasting and abstinence. The novice goes into the woods, 
where he bathes and cleans himself with cedar-branches (h’oatcd’set). 
He sleeps in the woods until he dreams of his guardian spirit, who 
_ bestows supernatural power upon him. This spirit is called the ?k"’a'yin, 
and pemresponds to what is known as the tamanowus in the Chinook 
_ jargon, and ‘medicine’ east of the Rocky Mountains. Generally the 
ahd yim is an animal, for instance a bear, a wolf, or a mink. This 
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