WINTER CEREMONIAL DANCES 259

by a marshal with a billet of firewood; such a blow was never
tepeated and might or might not cause death. The woman
with whom the member had misdemeaned himself was either
initiated at once or killed if her relatives could not provide a
name and prerogative.

Restrictions between members of the society were less
severe. Particularly during the long nights of ésuxtémem and
nustutalsap, when only kukusiut were present and when men
and women, often scantily clad, were closely associated, there
seems to have been a certain amount of immorality. It was
by no means a time of licence, nor was laxity encouraged by
the marshals; intercourse between members of the society did
not conflict with kusiut regulations, and was accordingly a
matter that concerned the individuals alone.

Relations between the actual dancers and members of the
other sex were formerly governed by strict rules, rigidly en-
forced by the marshals. After the coming of a call, a man
could hold intercourse with a kusiut, provided that he did so
in his own home, but in no other. But after nebusam, when
he left his house, continence was demanded until the end of the
season and the burning of the enclosure-platform. The only
exception to this rule was that if a second dancer received a
call in the same house, the restrictions placed on the first were
raised while the call was actually upon the second; that is,
between /sixtémem and nebusam. After that both were sub-
ject to strict continence, unless a third call came to the same
dwelling. The Bella Coola of today offer no explanation for
this law, save that disregard of it was displeasing to the super-
natural beings. An offender in this case was likewise punished
by being struck once by a marshal.

The religious aspects of the dances, as exemplified by the
attitude of the Bella Coola to the masked figures and other
phenomena, was described in the early part of this chapter,
but additional observations may now be made. The writer
realizes that the reader must find it difficult tounderstand how
the uninitiated can be deluded into thinking that masked