338 
to heal the same malady in others. The Tsimshian usually cremated 
their dead, but sometimes they buried them, or in special cases, prac- 
tised a form of mummification. They adoj)ted from the Kwakiutl not 
only the notion of a secret society, but several of the actual fra- 
ternities, among them the horrible “ Cannibal Society ” whose mem- 
bers tore to pieces human corpses and devourefl portions of the flesh. ^ 
716 
A Kwakiutl woman. (I’holo hi/ (H. M. Dnirfioii.) 
All the tribes bordering the north Pacific, and some of the 
interior natives, greatly relished the oil of the oolakan, and through 
their control of the Nass river the Tsimshian acquired almost a 
monopoly of this article along the northern ])ortion of the coast. At 
the same time the mountains of their home supplied them with goat’s 
1 Often, jwihaps generally, they sub.stitiited the fiw-ih of an animal, although the laity was not 
aware of the deception. An early missionai-y witnesscfl the rending of an actual corpse Vaviie H C • 
“ Four years m British Columbia and Vancouver I.slaial,” p. 28-5 ff (Loudon, 1862). 
