ox THE ETHNOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 413' 



deceptions of some kind, and nothing more. Those familiar with the 

 results of the investigations of the Society for Psychical Research into 

 these and kindred phenomena will not be disposed to dismiss these 

 accounts in so convenient and offhand a manner. That much of the 

 performances of the old shamans was pure humbug I do not myself for a 

 moment doubt ; but I cannot bring myself to believe that all falls under 

 this head. In the case of the fire-handlers — and it must be i-emcmbered 

 only a few shamans possessed the power to do this — their immunity from 

 harm may be, and very pi'obably is, due to some psychic condition, such 

 as auto-hypnosis. Hypnotism, as I pointed out in my remarks on the 

 Sk'qo'mic dancers in the last Report, plays an important role in shaman- 

 istic performances. Another strange power in the case of some of these 

 shamans is their seeming ability to drink, or otherwise mysteriously dis- 

 pose of, large quantities of liquids, such as water and oils, which have 

 been used in shamanistic rites. Jason Allard, one of my informants on 

 the Kwa'ntlEn, a half-breed of considerable education and of superior 

 intelligence, and in no way disposed to be credulous in such matters, told 

 me incidentally that he had seen the last sQEna'm of the Kwa'ntlEn drink 

 a large milk-pan full of oil, which he had used upon a sick girl. His 

 surprise at the man's feat caused him to ask how he could take so much 

 nauseous liquid into his stomach. The reply he got was : ' I didn't drink 

 it ; my su'Via took it away.' Others of that district, both white men and 

 natives, have as.sured me that they had seen the same man drink down 

 two and three buckets of water successively, each bucket holding between 

 two and three gallons, and when they looked to see him swell up his appear- 

 ance was quite natural. He would perform this feat in the house before 

 them all, in their midst, where he had no opportunity of disposing of the 

 water in any other way than by drinking it. Before exhibiting his 

 powers in this way he would always go through his ' dream ' dance ; and 

 after his feats he would lie down in a trance state for some time. 



In explanation of these feats it may be that the long fasts and pro- 

 tracted visions and trances the shamanistic novice undergoes in his search 

 for his ' familiar spirit ' may give him certain hypnotic or other super- 

 normal powers not possessed or understood by the ordinary individual. 

 Those familiar with the extraordinary phenomena of experimental hypno- 

 tism will have no difficulty in understanding this. At any rate, however 

 these shamanistic feats are explained, they are worthy of careful study 

 and investigation. It is not enough to put them aside with the assertion 

 that it is all humbug, ignorant superstition, or crass credulity. 



All dancing was accompanied by singing. Each performer had his or 

 her own dance-song, called seuivE'n, in contradistinction to the ordinary 

 song or stl'lEm. As a rule the performers in the smc'tla dances always 

 danced singly, one at a time. It would appear, also, that all of them wore 

 a special kind of headgear for the occasion ; not masks, but a kind 

 of cap. 



The shamans among the Kwa'ntlEn were of three classes, as among 

 the Pila'tlq, and called by the same names, viz., sQEna'm, seuwe'n, and 

 seu'wa. Shamanistic contests seem to have been common and popular, 

 and were indulged in whenever shamans of different tribes or settlements 

 came together. Most tribes have a number of stories telling of these 

 contests. I gathered the following from the Kwa'ntlEn. A certain 

 shaman invited several others of his class to his house, and then called 

 upon them to show their thaumaturgical powers. The first to resooncl to 



