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REPORT—1896. 
THE SHAMANS. 
The shamans are initiated by animals, supernatural beings, or by 
inanimate objects. The killer whale, the wolf, frog, and black bear are 
the most potent animals which have the power of initiating shamans. 
The cannibal spirit Baqbakualanugsi’waé (see Fifth Report, p. 850), the 
warrior’s spirit Wina’lagyilis, the fabulous sea bear Na/nis, the sea monster 
Mé’'koatEem or K'elk”’a/yuguit, the ghosts, the hemlock-tree, and the quartz 
may also initiate them. Shamans who were initiated by the killer whale 
or by the wolf are considered the most powerful ones. Only innocent 
youths can become shamans. 
A person who is about to become a shaman will declare that he feels 
ill. For four days or longer he fasts in his house. Then he dreams that 
the animal or spirit that is going to initiate him appeared to him and 
promised to cure him. If he has dreamt that the killer whale appeared 
to him, he asks his friends to take him to a small island ; in all other 
cases he asks to be taken to a lonely place in the woods. His friends 
dress him in entirely new clothing, and take him away. They build a 
small hut of hemlock branches, and leave him to himself. After four days 
all the shamans go to look after him. When he sees them approaching, 
he begins to sing his new songs and tells them that the killer whale—or 
whatever being his protector may be—has cured him and made him a 
shaman by putting quartz into his body. The old shamans place him on 
a mat,and wrap him up likeacorpse, while he continues to sing his songs. 
They place him in their canoe, and paddle home. The father of the 
young person is awaiting them on the beach, and asks if his child is alive. 
They reply in the affirmative, and then he goes to clean his house. He 
must even clean the chinks of the walls, and he must take particular care 
that no trace of the catamenial flux of a woman is left in any part of the 
house. Then he calls the whole tribe. The singers arrange themselves 
in the rear of the house, while the others sit around the sides. For a few 
minutes the singers beat the boards which are laid down in front of them, 
and end with a long call: yoo. This is repeated three times. Then the 
new shaman begins to sing in the canoe, and after a short time he appears 
in the house, dressed in head-ring and neck-ring of hemlock branches, his 
eyes closed, and he dances, singing his song. Four times he dances around 
the fire. During this time the singing master must learn his song. After 
the dance the new shaman leaves the house again and disappears in the 
woods. In the evening the people begin to beat the boards and to sing the 
new song of the shaman which they had learned from him in the morning. 
Then he reappears and dances again with closed eyes. This is repeated 
for three nights. On the fourth night when the people begin to sing for 
him he appears with open eyes. He wears a ring of red cedar bark, to 
which a representation of the animal that initiated him is attached. He 
carries a rattle on which the same animal is carved. He looks around, 
and says to one of the people : ‘You are sick.’ It is believed that the 
shaman can look right through man and see the disease that is in him. 
Then he makes his first cure. 
The power of shamanism may also be obtained by purchase. The 
intending purchaser invites the shaman from whom he is going to buy 
the power and the rest of the tribe to his house. There the people sing 
and the shaman dances. During his dance he throws his power into 
the purchaser, who falls down like one dead, and when he recovers is 
