68 THE INDIANS OF CAPE FLATTERY. 



during the ceremonies, walking out during the intervals. The first out-door per- 

 formance usually commences on the fifth day, and this consists of the procession 

 of males and females, with their legs and arms, and sometimes their bodies, scari- 

 fied with knives, and every wound bleeding freely. The men are entirely naked, ' 

 but the women have on a short petticoat. I had seen this performance several 

 times, and had always been told by the Indians that the cutting was done by the 

 principal performers, or medicine men, who seized all they could get hold of, 

 and thus lacerated them ; but I have since been admitted to a lodge to witness 

 the operation. I expected the performers would be in a half frantic state, cut- 

 ting and slashing regardless of whom they might wound ; I, however, found it 

 otherwise. A bucket of water was placed in the centre of the lodge, and the 

 candidates squatting around it washed their arms ,and legs. The persons who did 

 the cutting, and who appeared to be any one who had sharp knives, butcher-knives 

 being preferred, grasped them firmly in the right hand with the thumb placed 

 along the blade, so as to leave but an eighth or quarter of an inch of the edge bare ; 

 then, taking hold of the arm or leg of the candidate, made gashes five or six inches 

 long transversely, and parallel with the limb, four or five gashes being cut each way. 

 Cuts were thus made on each arm above and below the elbow, on each thigh, and the 

 calves of the legs ; some, but not all, were likewise cut on their backs. The wounds 

 were then washed with water to make the blood run freely. The persons operated 

 on did not seem to mind it all, but laughed and chatted with each other until all 

 were ready to go out, and then they set up a dismal howling ; but I think the pain 

 they felt could not be very great, for two Indians who went in with me, seeing 

 there were but few in the procession, asked me if I would like to see them join in. 

 I told them I should like very well to see the performance; upon which they 

 deliberately pulled off their blankets and shirts, and continued in conversation with 

 me while their arms and legs were gashed in the same manner. An Indian mixst 

 be possessed of a much lower degree of nervous organization than a white man to 

 suffer such operations and show no more feeling. Some may think it stoical indif- 

 ference, but certainly such a scoring of the body would throw a white man into 

 a fever. The same two Indians came to me about an hour after the performance 

 had closed, and although their wounds had bled freely, they assured me they felt 

 no pain. Sometimes, however, the cuts are accidentally made deep, and produce 

 sores. When all was ready the procession left the lodge, and marched in single 

 file down to the beach ; their naked bodies streaming with blood presenting a bar- 

 barous spectacle. A circle was formed at the water's edge, round which this bloody 

 procession marched slowly, making gesticulations and uttering howling cries. 



. Five men now came out of the lodge carrying the principal performer. One 

 held him by the hair, and the others by the arms and legs. He too was cut and 

 bleeding profusely. They laid him down on the beach on the wet sand, and left 

 him, while they marched off and visited every lodge in the village, making a 

 circuit in each lodge. At last the man on the beach jumped up, and seizing a club 

 laid about him in a violent manner, hitting everything in his way. He too 

 went the same round as the others, and after every lodge had been visited they 

 all returned to the lodge from which they had issued, and the performances, out- 



