20 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

only by members of the same tribe. The Bella Coola firmly
believe that if, for example, there is a serious disaster at
Qomgo-ts, that village will be raided by the people of Bella
Bella, Fort Rupert, Kitkatla, or by tribes even farther away.
News of the accident reaches Té/-io or Kimsquit and the
inhabitants, themselves related by blood to the offenders and
therefore unwilling to punish them, call upon the members of
a foreign tribe to do so. On different occasions this state-
ment, in practically identical terms, was made by six inde-
pendent informants, so there appears to be not the slightest
doubt as to the belief of the people in this law. But when
specific cases were asked for, they could not be obtained. It
therefore appears clear that the Bella Coola, probably owing
to long teaching on the part of the kukusiut, consider that an
error in ritual is sufficient to bring punishment from an alien
tribe. There must be some basis of truth in this conviction,
and it is highly probable that the kukusiut must have taken
advantage of raids to explain to the uninitiated that these were
caused by disasters in ritual. One informant was of the opin-
ion that, following the collapse of a house at Kimsquit during
a Cannibal dance, a Bella Coola chief called upon Tehisa, chief
of the Kitkatla, who raided Kimsquit in punishment. Quite
apart from the belief inculcated in the uninitiated, it is obvious
that tribes eager for war sometimes used an accident as pretext.
The Bella Coola know of no case in which they raided a foreign
tribe for this reason, although they state that if they had been
called upon to act as punisher, they could not have refused.

Leaving now the functions of the society as a whole, the
rights of an individual member can next be described. Each
kusiut has:

(1) A Kusiut Name. Like every other prerogative, a name
of this type can be acquired from father, uncle, grandfather, or
other relative, or even by a son from his mother. As a rule a
kusiut wills his designation or designations, for a man may
have several, before death and his wishes are observed. Al