514 REPORT—1899. 
the edge of the river all night with the hands and wrists soaking in the 
cold water. They would also repeat this many times before the desired 
callousness to cold was attained. The old people affirm that the young 
men of their day and earlier were hardier and stronger than the young 
men of to-day. They say the present youths would succumb to the 
training and hardening endured by their grandfathers. In the old days 
a youth was generally ambitious of becoming a great hunter, or warrior, 
or runner, or athlete generally. To acquire a superiority over his fellows 
he was ready for the greatest acts of self-denial and self-discipline. ‘his 
spirit of emulation was encouraged and enjoined by the elders, and they 
were taught to pray to the great spirit known as Kéana/koa, and seek gifts 
from him in the following manner. When a young man desired any 
special blessing or gift, he would rise early in the morning, some time 
before daybreak, and go alone and unseen to the top of some hill or emi- 
nence, or to the river’s side, and pray. This act in itself required, on his 
part, no small courage and self-conquest, the forest and mountains at 
night being peopled in the lively imagination of the Indian with spirits 
and shades of all kinds. If he sought for some physical athletic gift he 
would practise himself therein as well as pray for it in words like the 
following : ‘O Koana‘koa,| make my arm strong, my chest strong, my 
legs untiring. Make all my body strong ; make my heart good. Make 
me a great hunter, a great man, a great warrior, a great runner or jumper,’ 
as the case might be. 
In order that the prayers and exercises might be efficacious, it was 
necessary that the suppliant should arise before any one was awake 
or stirring ; and his prayers and exercises must be finished and he on his 
way home before the sun appeared above the horizon. He does this 
three mornings successively, and if he has been careful to observe the 
rules and conditions twice out of the three times at least, his prayers will 
be granted, and he will receive the gifts asked for. If, on the contrary, 
he has been lazy and careless, and did not rise early enough, and was seen 
leaving the camp, or did not perform his exercises or say his prayers 
before sunrise, instead of his requests being granted some evil gift will be 
given him instead. 
Besides these special trainings and exercises undertaken at their own 
desire, there were the daily morning exercises. The young men of the 
village were accustomed to turn out early in the morning and go to the 
river to swim, after which they would return to the camp and indulge 
in various athletic exercises. There are two big boulders standing 
1 It is interesting to note here that the name of the power to whom the youths 
prayers are addressed contains the same radical as is found in the Nootka and 
Kwakiutl terms for morning, viz., Koa’-koai'la and Ko’atl, which both signify that 
light or day is coming. The same root is found in the Coast Salish terms for day 
identical in form or slightly modified, as Koa-(yil) and Skia-(yil), and which in 
these dialects signifies sky also. It is also seen in the terms of both stocks for red 
and blue, and for the terms expressive of heat and warmth. There can be little 
doubt, I think, that this being was associated in the minds of the suppliants with 
the sun, or sky, or light, all of which are intimately connected. I have pointed 
out in another paper (see Proceedings of the Royal Society of Canada for 1898-99) 
that the Salish and Nootka-Kwakiutl were originally an undivided people, or had 
a common origin, the two languages being full of common terms of all kinds 
employed in identically the same way, and that between the extreme members of 
the stocks, rather than those contiguous to each other, between whom we know 
no intercourse or communication has taken place from time immemorial. 
