412 REPORT — 1902. 



abode in the Arctic or northern regions ; hence the shiverings. The 

 movements of this dance were active to a degree. I call attention to the 

 condition or state of the dancers in these last three dances — the two with 

 gentle and slow movements always steamed and sweated prodigiously, the 

 last, with violent and active movements, shivering violently and visibly 

 with cold. These were the charactei'istic features of the dances. They 

 afibrd examples, I think, of the jDower which the mind or imagination of 

 these dancers exercised over their bodies. Their condition, provided it 

 was genuine — and I see no reason to doubt it — can only be explained by 

 auto-suggestion or hypnosis. The psychological aspects of these and other 

 shamanistic practices and performances deserve more attention and study 

 than have hitherto been accorded them. 



6. Sqoi'aql. — This was the dance belonging to the totem of this name. 

 Its members performed it on most festive and ceremonial occasions. 

 Generally they were hired for the purpose. The sqoi'aql figured largely 

 in the nam ing-f easts of chief's and other notable men's sons. 



7. Skai'Ep = ' blood ' dance. — The performers in this dance cut and 

 scarified themselves with stone knives till the blood ran from them. 

 Blood was said to ooze from their mouths. At the conclusion of the dance 

 they would rub their hands over their blood-besmeared bodies, and all 

 trace of it was said to disappear. This is a dance common to most, if not 

 all, of the river and coast Salish. The spectacle of the dancer devouring 

 a live dog, or tearing it piecemeal with his teeth, was also a feature of 

 this dance. 



8. TaiivEtd'lEm, ' fire ' dance. — This was pre-eminently a shamanistic 

 dance. The performer in this would handle fire, place hot coals in his 

 mouth, and dance upon hot stones. It is, of course, difficult now to ascer- 

 tain, with any degree of certainty, how far these performances were 

 genuine. Eye-witnesses of them, both native and white, are unanimous 

 in declaring that these fire-sharaans could handle fire and burning objects 

 and dance upon scorching hot stones without apparently burning or 

 otherwise harming themselves. The late Bishop Durieu, who spent over 

 forty years among the Indians of this district, once told me himself, in a 

 conversation on this subject, that he had seen a shaman handle burning 

 brands without apparent hurt to his hands. He said he had been 

 preaching to the tribe of the power of the Christian's God, and had 

 observed an Indian squatting apart by himself in a far corner of the house. 

 When he had finished his discourse this man came forward, and made some 

 remarks to the effect that it was all very well to talk, but the proof of the 

 pudding was in the eating. Could the white medicine-man give them an 

 example of his 'power' ^ and he thereupon challenged the Bishop to a 

 contest with himself. Said the Bishop : ' He seized from the midst of the 

 fire, in his naked hand, a fiery burning brand, and held it there for some 

 time, and then offered it to me. I declined, and was straightway scoffed 

 at by him and his friends ; but eventually I turned the tables upon him 

 by declaring that his power came from the Wicked One, with whom I could 

 have no dealings, and not from the true God.' The Bishop's long experi- 

 ence with the native shamans, and his observations of their undoubted 

 supernormal powers, led him to the conviction that they were assisted, 

 after the manner of the witch of Endor, by ' familiar spirits.' However 

 one may explain such cases, the fact of their possessing these powers is 

 witnessed to by most credible and intelligent observers. The common 

 view of these performances is that all are tricks, sleights of hand, or 



