i.

170 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

plains that until the three correct solutions have been given,
X will be able neither to eat nor to sleep. Moreover, this would
mean a continuation of the Ausiut season far into the spring.
X is supposed to know the three answers but to be unable to
communicate them, though if a nearly correct reply is given,
he shows it by dancing violently. A clever actor is thus able
to instil considerable action into the proceedings by leading on
an eager guesser with movements of increased animation, but
the result is always the same—his dancing grows weaker asif
the one replying had strayed into a false path. A marshal
explains that the failure is due to the supernatural being
Anuyulikailaix having robbed the guesser of his mental ability.
When the replies have stopped, X takes up his stick and leaves
the house, followed by his escort. He enters the dwelling im-
mediately above, where the same performance is repeated:
this is done in each house of the village.

All the kukusiut return with X to his home where what
little is left of the night is passed in eating and in listening to
speeches from the marshals.

In the morning the carpenters erect a circular enclosure
between the fire and the back-room. It is raised on posts
about four feet long, has a diameter of approximately twelve
feet, and is surrounded by a wall three or four feet high, often
decorated with paintings according to the dancer's wishes.
The uninitiated are told that X must remain in this, except
when on periodic visits to the other houses, until the three
answers have been guessed, and that he must not eat, sleep,
or even sit down. In recent years the prohibition with regard
to eating has been neglected, but it is said that in the last
century one man abstained from all food except fern root for two
months. X climbs into the enclosure and throughout the day
the uninitiated in the other houses can hear the rattling of his
dance apron as he moves to and fro.

Just before dusk the kukusiut assemble in X’s home, pre-
paratory to sallying forth to every house in the village as on
the previous evening. The remembrancers attend him, care-