WINTER CEREMONIAL DANCES 187

has retired from sight. Ano°likwoisaix gives her customary
dance, her head bent as if she constantly wished to rest it on
someone’s shoulder, and her opposite arm waving violently.
After one circuit of the fire she withdraws from sight behind
the matting. Then the marshals tell the uninitiated to with.
draw, and the growling Cannibals hurry them forth. The
evening’s ceremonials conclude in the usual way, except that
the masks are not burnt.

The length of time required for the figures to appear and
perform is so great that mebusam can seldom be completed on
a single night. When the marshals decide that it is too late
for further drama, they can call a postponement at any time;
the uninitiated are told to withdraw and the Aukusiut disperse
shortly afterwards. The following evening they are recalled
and the ritual is carried on from the point where the break was
made. In this account it has been assumed that it is possible
to complete the display without postponement. _

Four nights later everyone is called back once again. The
kukusiut first take their places, and then the uninitiated are
summoned. The ritual on this occasion is identical with that
just described for 7ebusam with the same promenade of super-
natural beings and the same explanations by Ano’ ikwolsaix.
After the uninitiated depart the masks are burnt, two at a
time, in the manner previously described, this being the last
event in the Mystery Dance.

THE DANCE OF Winwina

Noakxnwm is not, according to Bella Coola mythology, the
only bringer of salmon to the river, nor is he the only one
whose action has been dramatized as a kusiut dance. A similar
purveyor of fish is Winwina** who comes every year to Bella
Coola. Boas (p. 38) has recorded the origin myth connected
with the rite, and states that the movements of this being
influence the duration of the kusiut season; this observation
was not confirmed. Winwina is supposed to return from the

Also called Kunkund?pstus, “What Brings Our Food.”