WINTER CEREMONIAL DAN CES 103

the dangers to which X is exposed, while some of his female
relatives weep to further the deception. It is late at night
before they finally disperse.

Like other Cannibals, X is now concealed for an indeter-
minate period of time, during which the uninitiated believe
him to be in the land above. It is needless to repeat the de-
tails of this part of the rite, nor allude to the shaving of X when
about toreturn. Sometimes the mystery is increased by send-
ing a young kusiut to the mountains with a whistle which he
sounds at dawn to prove that X is far aloft. When the time
comes for his return, the process of catching him is identical
with that already described, except that a dog is used for bait
instead of a human being. After the capture, the kukusiut
drag X, struggling violently, to his house, where a dead dog
has been left near the doorway. The Cannibal seizes it and
pretends to eat, while a herald announces in every house what
he is doing. Accompanied by a number of kukusiut, X goes
through the village carrying the carcass in his arms, and care-
fully shielding his eyes to further the belief, circulated among
the uninitiated, that if he should open them, anyone on whom
his gaze fell would die. After some of the houses have been
visited, the dog is passed to an assistant who conceals it, but
those who are not members of the society, having seen him
tear chunks from the body and apparently put them in his
mouth, naturally assume that the Cannibal has devoured it.
This procedure is repeated at intervals throughout the day,
and always the herald announces how many dogs X has eaten.
The bodies of the animals are weighted with stones and sunk
in the ocean at night.

About 4 p.m. X is given a black bear-skin to which the car-
penters have attached the head of his cannibalistic incubus, a
wolf, in such a way that it hangs beneath his left arm-pit.
Considerable ingenuity is displayed in the manufacture of this.
The skin of the head is carefully removed, the bones are
cleaned, replaced, and gummed together, and a hidden string
enables the wearer to make the animal’s jaws clash. With his