204 
adjacent houses, and now assembled at the Chief’s door in a group 
of the most grotesque figures that can possibly be imagined, dressed, 
armed, and masked in imitation of various characters of different 
Countries, some represented Europeans armed with Muskets and 
Bayonets, others were dressed as Chinese and others as Sandwich 
Islanders armed with Club and Spears; the rest were equi])ped either 
as Warriors or Hunters of their own nation. After a party of them 
armed with long spears entered and were drawn up at the further 
end of the House, the Actors came in one at a time and traversed 
the Area before us, with the most antic gestures. If a Warrior he 
showed tlie different evolutions of attacking an enemy, sometimes 
crouching down, sometimes retreating, at other times advancing with 
firm steps and eyes steadily fixed on tlie Commanders who were 
seated in the middle of our group, and to whom all their feigned 
aims and motions were directed, sometimes with much pointed arch- 
ness as to occasion some alarm of their intentions being real. The 
Hunters equipped with various marks and implements, shewd all the 
wiles and stratagems usual in taking or chasing different Animals 
as Deer, Bears, etc. While those armed with Muskets represented 
Sentinels or went through various motions of the manual exercise. 
And those representing the Santlwich Islanders traversed tlie Area 
in the different attitudes of wielding their Clubs or darting their 
Spears, and as each finished his part he retreated back and took his 
station among the masked group at the further end of the house.” ^ 
In the secret society dramas of the Pacific coast and the religious 
ceremonies of many other tribes any mistake in the performance of 
a ritual song was regarded so seriously that it frequently invalidated 
the entire ceremony and occasionally leil to the death of the unfor- 
tunate culprit.- For just as the old Greek bard attributed his 
minstrelsy to Apollo, and the mediaeval churchman derived his hymns 
from some divine inspiration, so the Indians ascribed many of their 
songs to dreams and visions in which they were brought into close 
communion with the supernatural powers and received the songs as 
blessings. Singing furnished both their poetry and their music, for 
they recognized no rhythm in language apart from song, and there 
1 Monties: Op. cit., pp 118-119. 
2 To avoid such a catastrophe some British Columhin tribes appointed men with unusually retentive 
memories to lead the .singing and give the cue for the itroper changes, since there were often as many 
as fifteen or twenty songs in a single ceremony. 
