110 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

type of rivalry can be carried out only during the ceremonial
season.

After killing and eating a human being, a Cannibal must
conceal himself for a considerable period, sometimes as long
as four years. The uninitiated are told that the great power
within him has taken him so far into the upper regions that
one or more years must elapse before his return. During
this time he can be seen only by kukusiut. The writer was told
of one unfortunate corpse-eating Cannibal, Xekalus, who was
virtually secluded for eight years, since a stone was cast at his
feet every time he reappeared, thus forcing him to kill and eat.
This name had been dormant for a number of years until con-
ferred on the writer, who failed to uphold the prerogative.

One other type of Cannibal prerogative remains to be
described, namely, that of biting oneself. This is even less
common than that of corpse-eating, being enjoyed only by two
individuals, Qotliaohmx of Stuux and Snumg of the Kimsquit
River. The following account of the origin of the latter’s pre-
rogative was obtained:

Many years ago, soon after the first people came to this world, the
ritual of the kusiut dances was much more exacting than it is at present.
At that time the inhabitants of the earth were still endowed with such
semi-supernatural powers that they were able to perform rites that people
of the present day can represent only with the aid of carpenters’ devices.
There was then living in one of the villages on the Kimsquit River a
certain Szunug who had the prerogative of biting himself. He once went
hunting on one of the mountains, and when he failed to return the people
were convinced that he had eaten so heartily of his own flesh that he had
died. Although search was made for his body, it was not until the fol-
lowing year that a professional hunter found the skeleton. From the
position of the bones it was judged that their conclusion was correct:
he had killed himself by eating too much of his own flesh. The chiefs
and other influential Aukusiut held a meeting at which it was decided
that henceforth Ausiut dances would only be acted, not carried out in
reality. The following winter the name and prerogative were trans-

mitted to the son of the dead man, who bit himself, but not sufficiently
deeply to cause serious injury.