218 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

each wearing the mask of a man and each with the clothing
and distinctive marks of a particular tribe: Tsimshian, Haida,
Bella Bella, Rivers Inlet, China Hat, Kitimat, Fort Rupert,
Smith Inlet, Cowichan, and as many more as X has wished,
not forgetting Bella Coola itself. On at least one occasion
representations of a white man and of a Chinese were used.
Sometimes instead of one, there are two of each tribe. Each
figure pretends to be pursuing Sximsximut and keeps up a
running fire of complaints:

“She left me for a worthless man; oh! how unhappy I am,”
says one, and another adds:

‘“‘Alas, I enjoyed her only once.”

Each uses his own imagination in making comments, fre
quently drawing on personal experiences with faithless women.
Ano°likwoisaix explains everything, and the heralds echo the
remarks. Sximsximidt looks around for a handsome young
kusiut woman and says to her:

“How many men have known you?”

The heralds repeat the question and tell the woman not to
be bashful, but to speak the truth. It is considered excessively
funny for her to answer a number in the hundreds, even more
than the tale of Sximsximdt’s lovers. This is a time when
obscene remarks are allowed and, indeed, expected. A short
distance behind the hurrying procession of those who have
loved Sximsximut and are still allured by her, comes a super-
natural being disguised under the mask of an old man. Heis
her father, who keeps giving her good advice and begging her
to forsake her evil ways, but she pays no attention to him.
Finally, just as she is about to leave, there enters an old, old
man with white hair and a wrinkled face; he totters in leaning
heavily upon a stick and calling to the woman to wait for him.
She heeds him not, but goes out of the house while he staggers
feebly around the fire, voicing his complaints and his appeals.
Ano’ likwotsaix explains that he is Sizuptcus, who fell under the
spell of Sximsximdt long ago in his youth, and for whom her
beauty had such a fatal attraction that he has followed her