WINTER CEREMONIAL DANCES 77

women drone, while the men rush out to capture the returning
X. The uninitiated hear the sounds of feet rushing over the
roof, as if a furious chase were taking place, and presently a
loud ye--- comes to their ears. Having been told on pre-
vious occasions that this assists a Cannibal who js compelled
to travel through space, they realize that he has escaped his
would-be captors and returned above.

Then the herald goes around the village calling:

“Young boys! Get up, see, the Cannibal is at hand!”

In the early dawn, whistling is heard from the upper slopes
of a near-by mountain and the uninitiated, watching eagerly
and fearfully, behold a man clad in a bear-skin, who moves
around, running fast across slides, and finally dashes down one
and disappears into the forest, when the whistling ceases.
They assume that this is the returning Cannibal; in reality,
it is a kusiut who has been sent out to perform this deception.
Two go together, one to lie hidden and use the whistle, his
companion to appear; the latter must be a strong man, able
to run easily over rough slopes because it would lessen the
Cannibal’s prestige were the uninitiated to see him fall. After
about five minutes’ silence, the whistling is heard on the river
bank at a point over a mile from where the supposed Cannibal
vanished into the forest, and as before a bear-skin clad figure
appears. The non-members assume that it is the figure pre-
viously seen, and that he has been able to penetrate the dense
forest in some mysterious manner; in reality it is another pair
of helpers, one of whom shows himself while the other uses the
whistle. Meanwhile other kukusiut go to X’s house where they
paint themselves black and don cedar-bark ornaments. When
ready, they set out to catch the Cannibal, travelling on two
Canoes across which planks have been laid, but not tied, and
steered by a skilful waterman at bow and stern. They land at
the place where the Cannibal was last seen, and pretend to
hunt him. For the benefit of the uninitiated, watching from
the village, they spend a considerable time at this, failing at
first, but at length succeeding. Sometimes they drive their