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strous birds and animals, carved of wood and operated by hidden 
ropes, descended mysteriously from the roof or rose through con- 
cealed doors from beneath the floor. The uninitiated audiences 
gazed awestruck on these ceremonies, not knowing how the marvels 
were produced and fully convinced that the supernatural world had 
taken visible form in their midst. 
One of the most remarkable of these performances was the 
“ mystery ” play in which the Bella Coola Indians and their 
neighbours at Kimsquit depicted the regeneration of nature in the 
spring. Actors of small stature, wearing different masks, represented 
the various shrubs and trees of the district; two “ old women ” played 
the part of midwives; the “south wind,” arrayed as a handsome 
young man, was the doctor who repelled attacks from a life-destroy- 
ing “north wind”; and Alother Nature herself was a large wooden 
figure seated in the middle of the room just behind the fire. She 
gave birth first to the willow, a lively sprite who danced around the 
fire before disaj^pearing behind a curtain. The gooseberry followed 
him, then the nettle, grass, the black cottonwood, the aspen, and all 
the other plants, to the number of two or three hundred, in the order 
of their sprouting.d No doubt both the acting and the stage settings 
were crude and even coarse, yet it was true drama that strove to 
represent a really beautiful idea. 
The Indians spent weeks and months in rehearsing for these 
performances and in practising the songs that accompanied them. 
Virtuosos were engaged to compose the songs, and special craftsmen 
to manufacture the necessary paraphernalia, which was secretly 
destroyed at the conclusion of the ceremonies. Drama stimulated 
the arts of carving and painting by placing a premium on ingenuity, 
since individuals and villages often rivalled one another in the mag- 
nificence of their displays. Yet much of the elaborate stage-setting 
in vogue during the nineteenth century was probably due to the 
introduction of iron tools and the use of appliances like hinges and 
pulleys that vmre unknown in pre-European days. Very few early 
explorers saw the secret dances, and the exoteric performances of 
at least one tribe, the sophisticated Nootka. were changing even in 
Vancouver’s day, as Menzies’ Journal bears witness: “During this 
time a number of the Natives were equipping themselves in the 
1 Mclhvraith, T. F. : Op. cit. 
