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360 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

seized his adversary’s decorations and threw them on the ground. It is
well known that anyone who does so, even if it be the wearer, will be
punished. Mutan-a was prevented from fighting by his recent initiation,
but he shamed his opponent by returning his winnings. The next day
the Rivers Inlet people left for home without stopping to collect grease,
since Mutan-a’s father, Potfes,® thought that it would be dangerous to
linger in the neighbourhood of Teidisa, who was angry at his nephew’s
defeat and the insult shown to him.

The Kitkatla remained at Kitlobe for the olachen season and then
returned home. Soon afterwards Teiusa’s nephew fell ill, and died in
spite of the efforts of the most powerful shamans. They attributed his
death to Mutan-a, and Tcidisa swore revenge on the Rivers Inlet people.
The latter, hearing of this, avoided the Kitkatla as much as possible,
although the establishment of British rule had made open warfare im-
possible.

One July, a number of years later, a party left Rivers Inlet to hunt
sea-lions on Virgin Rocks. The captain of the canoe was a Newitte man
who had married a Rivers Inlet woman, and with him were nine Bella
Coola and several Rivers Inlet people including two female relatives of
Mutan-a. Ina heavy fog they passed their destination, and when, having
realized their mistake, they turned back, they found a party of Kitkatla
encamped on the rocks. The northerners made protestations of friend-
ship and lent them tents. When they had settled down, the Kitkatla
suggested target shooting as a recreation, although their real motive was
to exhaust the ammunition of the Rivers Inlet people. When this sport
began to pall, the two parties gambled till nightfall, when they stacked
their muskets together as proof of mutual trust and went to bed. A
Kitkatla half-breed, who had taken the lead in making amicable over-
tures, now learnt that his companions planned to slay the Rivers Inlet
people; he tried to dissuade them, but was told that interference from
him would only cause his own death. One of the Rivers Inlet men,
Qq@ Gklis, suspicious of treachery, declined to sleep with his fellows and
spent the night in the canoe, his musket and two shells beside him. His
fears were well-founded; at dawn the Kitkatla cut down the tents of the
Rivers Inlet people and clubbed them to death with axes as they were
struggling under the folds. Qa’dklis was wakened by the turmoil and
fired twice, each time killing a Kitkatla, but his ammunition was then
exhausted and he was shot down. The murderers dug a large hole on the
beach, threw in the corpses of their victims and rolled a heavy log over
the top. Unknown to the others, the half-breed wrote on this in English
that something lay below. The Kitkatla made an effort to hide the

°No relation of the Bella Coola chief with the same name.