WINTER CEREMONIAL DANCES 209

the uninitiated are expelled. If several kukusiut in the same
village are protégés of Thunder, each makes a circuit inde-
pendently, but they agree to meet afterwards in the house of
one of their number. Here all members of the society assemble
for a meal provided hurriedly by X, or to a number of meals jf
several have Thunder as patron; in this case there is no pooling
of food. The marshals take the opportunity of giving their
customary admonitions, as if it were midwinter. Next the
singers combine their ideas and beat out a new song of which
the theme is Thunder who never rests; it is worded as if X
were speaking and describing what his patron is doing. This
song is sung and resung until all present have learnt both tune
and words. If there are several kukusiut with Thunder as
patron, a song is made for each and practised in the same
manner.

When all is ready, one of the heralds calls in the uninitiated.
Each song is sung to the accompaniment of beating sticks
while a dancer performs. Instead of X, this is an old man or
woman who has not had a call for many years. Often the
kusiut selected is so old that he or she can dance only with the
support of a stick; no reason could be learnt for this surprising
deviation from the usual practice. If several songs have been
composed, a new dancer performs to each. After the last dance
the uninitiated are expelled and the kukusiut soon follow. Since
no call has come, it follows that it is of a ceremonial, though
not of a sacred nature, and does not take the regular course of
winter dances. It is said to “make good the path of Thunder,”
the term employed being identical with that used for the dance
on nebusam after the burning of the masks.

Nothing more need be said about the Thunder dance, ex-
cept to give the following origin myth:

Long ago, long before the white man came to this land, but still longer
after its first settlement, four brothers left Kimsquit to hunt mountain
goats on Mount Tcagotekx‘, near the Kimsquit River.® It was September;

*°This mountain is also known as Hump-back Salmon Mountain; its shape
resembles the fish in question and it is said that long ago, in the very beginning of
time, a salmon became petrified there.