204 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

Slowly and steadily the rope is lowered to the carpenters
who coil it in a heap near the foot of the ladder. It seems an
endless climb, as this part of the ceremony is expected to take
quite as long as X’s ascent, and must not be finished until just
before dawn. At last the faint sound of the rattle is heard and
presently the ladder itself begins to shake. Two or more senior
members of the society climb up through the roof and return,
amid the droning of the kukusiut women, with the traveller.
The uninitiated gaze at him with fear and awe:

“He is indeed wonderful,” they say to one another.

X’s face was painted black and white when he started his
climb, but it is now clean and the uninitiated hardly need to
be reminded by the kusiut orator that the strong wind in
Sonx ** has blown all paint from his skin. He sits down beside
an eloquent kusiut to whom he talks at length and who excites
the curiosity of the audience by telling them that they will
soon hear all about it. When the tale is finished, the orator
stands up and tells what the traveller has seen in the land
above. He states that X found a certain number of tally posts
leaning and straightened them, but he never mentions whose
lives have thus been preserved. The uninitiated assume with-
out question that X has just given the orator these details,
though in point of fact he has done nothing of the kind, his
apparent confidant having been chosen for his skill in inventing
interesting items. As soon as the story is over, the uninitiated
are told to leave. While the usual meal is being prepared the
carpenters haul down the ladder and cast it into the fire with-
out ceremony. The kukusiut listen to the usual admonitions
of the marshals as they eat, and then disperse in the early
dawn, wearied from the all-night session.

Most of the village sleeps through the day, but in the late
afternoon the heralds summon the kukusiut to X’s house. The
dance of the Tally Posts resembles a Ausiotem to the extent
that four days of ceremonial follow the four days just de-
scribed. The evening following X’s ascent is dsuxtémem, the