WINTER CEREMONIAL DANCES 15

Not knowing where to go nor what to do, he hid himself on a small
island within sight of the village whence he could see and hear the people
seeking him. At times some of his kukusiut friends came close, calling
his name; but not till he was driven to do so by hunger did he reveal his
hiding-place. Then he answered the shouts of two men who at first pre-
tended they were merely seeking him because of the worry his prolonged
disappearance was causing his parents. Once the lad was within their
grasp they carried him swiftly to the house of one of the chiefs, where he
found himself seated among the most influential men of his village
with the door barred behind him. The fear which any youth would feel
in like circumstances was increased greatly by the awe with which he, as
an uninitiated person, regarded the kukusiut, especially on this occasion
when he knew that he had roused their anger.

“What did you hear?” asked one of the marshals. The lad was too
terrified to lie, so he blurted out all the gossip he had overheard, including
the news of the death of the Rivers Inlet Cannibal.

“You have heard too much, you must join us,” continued his ques-
tioner.

The same man then asked one of his relatives whether he would “buy”
the lad from them, that is, whether they would provide the necessary
goods to have him initiated. It was understood that through his improper
knowledge he had come under the jurisdiction of the kukusiut and that,
unless made one of them, they would kill him. The lad was the protégé
of his uncle who at the time was initiating him into the sisaok ceremonial,
and who accordingly was most unwilling to have his nephew made a kusiut.

“Let him be a spy,” said the uncle.

After much discussion this proposition was agreed to; the decision
was facilitated by the fact that one of the lad’s ancestors had been a
spy. All night he was kept sitting in the centre of a group of elders who
revealed to him the mysteries of the organization and showed him the
whistles and other regalia. For twenty years this man remained a spy,
dutifully informing upon any Over-inquisitive, uninitiated person.

The informant was more than sixty years of age when he
related this incident, but the passage of time had not caused
him to forget the utter terror and feeling of inferiority experi-
enced when he was taken into the presence of the senior
kukusiut.

Although every Ausiut assists in preserving the dignity and
awe of the society, this duty is especially the function of those
members who are regarded as the earthly representatives of