DEATH 459

rites, the Bella Coola were again led to carry out at a single
gathering features which properly belonged to several. To
combine the memorial potlatch with the potlatch, being a
return to an earlier custom, presented no serious difficulties
and was consequently widely adopted. The Kimsquit people,
moreover, seem never to have adopted the clear Bella Bella
differentiation, and as the rapid decrease in population threw
them in ever closer contact with the Bella Coola, their influence
tended to lessen differences between the two ceremonials.

At the present time, a memorial potlatch is almost iden-
tical with an ordinary potlatch in practice. The same rites
are often carried out at both; each varies considerably, and
when the distinctive elements are omitted the two become
indistinguishable. None the less, they are never confused in
the minds of the participants. The house where a potlatch,
dm, is taking place is called a nustmsta, that where a memorial
potlatch, skwandt, is occurring, a nuskwandtsta. In giving
invitations and making comments, heralds are careful not to
refer to the ritual under the wrong name; in fact, it may be said
that the chief difference between the two is in the minds of the
donor and his guests. Sociologically, both are considered to
be on a par. Equal wealth is required, and each can be
performed only by a chief, both on account of the expenditure
involved and owing to the difficulties in procedure which are
thought to be too great for a lesser man to surmount.

Difference in the donor’s motives is usually sufficient to
separate a memorial potlatch from an ordinary one. The latter
is given by a chief desirous of increasing his prestige by lavish
expenditure, for which one of the excuses is the validation of
the appearance of a dead relative. Although this is the central
feature, so many other rites are performed that it is sometimes
obscured or may, indeed, be omitted entirely. On the other
hand, a memorial potlatch occurs as soon as possible after the
death of a father, mother, or other dearly loved kinsman, and
it is clear to all that the donor’s reasons for the rite are to com-
memorate the deceased, and to console himself and his imme-