WINTER CEREMONIAL DANCES 39

by X is called. Having dined, the guests depart while the
craftsmen continue their labours. Towards dusk the house
is cleared up, the chips thrown on the fire and everything made
ready. On this night the uninitiated are invited, but there is
a wide and important difference in ritual between Bella Coola
and Kimsquit. In the former the masks are carefully con-
cealed, whereas in Kimsquit one or two, or sometimes all, are
suspended behind the fire by the carpenters. It is exceedingly
dificult for an observer to understand why this practice does
not at once remove all secrecy from the rite. The explanation
appears to lie in the fact that the uninitiated, ignorant of how
they have been made, see in these strange objects evidence of
the power of the kukusiut. In Kimsquit, moreover, members
of the society emphasize the fact that the dances are super-
naturally endowed representations of what the beings above
are doing and performing, and it is only at certain rites that
they are actually supposed to be present. One old Bella Coola
remembered having heard from his grandfather that long before
his time the carpenters used to make the masks in their own
houses where the uninitiated could see them; the dancer would
come in, wave his arm over the craftsman’s head and cry
hoip if the workmanship was excellent. The man who de-
scribed this expressed his own scepticism, and added that it
would have destroyed the key-note of secrecy. A possible
explanation of this important difference in ritual will be given
at the end of this chapter; for the present it will be enough to
point out that the masks are left suspended in Kimsquit, and
concealed in Bella Coola.

Towards dusk the herald goes to every house to summon
the kukusiut, who have adorned themselves for the ceremony
by washing and painting, as the uninitiated have also done.
The members assemble slowly, in fact an observer finds the
interminable delays of every kusiut dance most provoking. At
last all have appeared and taken their places around the fire,
while the uninitiated eagerly wait near the door for the invi-
tation which they know will soon be given. One of the mar-