106 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

over him,®8 followed by the usual immersion in the river. X
goes to every house, then returns to his own where another
song, describing his experiences aloft, is rehearsed. In the
evening the kukusiut assemble once more and tie on X a long,
tail-like appendage of dyed and undyed cedar-bark. Then a
shaman gives him food, and at once he runs to the lowest house
in the village. He enters the doorway and calls out:

“T can smell.”

This announcement is repeated in every house, signifying
that the Cannibal can again appreciate ordinary food.

X spends four more days on his platform, leaving it only
when infuriated by the snarling of dogs. On the fourth evening
the kukusiut assemble once more to learn a song of the usual
Cannibal type, and to listen to admonitions from the marshals.

For four days longer X is secluded on his platform. In the
evening the kukusiut gather to practise another song, but this
time X dances, while the uninitiated watch with fear and
wonder from the doorway. After their departure, X’s sgiois is
extracted. In this particular dance, its removal is the pre-
rogative of a certain kusiut who presses his hands along the
Cannibal’s collar-bone, forcing the malignant muzzle-like power
upward and outward. Sometimes his first meal is delayed until
this has been done.

This concludes X’s dance, though he must obey the same
restrictions as other Cannibals for the rest of the ceremonial
season and, if he is a novice, for the following summer as well.

Other Cannibals have the prerogative of eating raw salmon.
Since these are unobtainable during the winter, carpenters
construct imitations consisting of skins of trout stretched over
wooden frames filled with the flesh of deer, dogs, or trout.
The resemblance is increased by a mechanical device which wig-
gles the tail. The Cannibal rips these apart with his teeth so
that the uninitiated see the meat inside, and readily assume
that they are real salmon, while their wonder is increased in
view of the difficulty, or impossibility, of obtaining fresh fish
in mid-winter.

*8This expels his call.