384 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

captain. Meanwhile the ustémx people had been carrying out
similar tests, so that the picked men of both settlements were
ready on the appointed day.

A canoe was sent forward to give final notice of the ap-
proaching flotilla so that the twenty canoes from each settle-
ment came together, fully manned and armed. First ten canoes
on each side came to blows, the captain of each craft singling
out a hostile one and dealing with it alone. The crews threw
stones over and around their own bow-man, trying to beat
down the moose-skin held up by their rival, or sometimes endea-
vouring to throw missiles high up into the air on to the heads
of their foes. Whenever a bow-man was knocked down, his
crew was defenceless and subject to serious injury if they con-
tinued the fight. If, however, they abandoned the conflict, the
winners made no effort to punish them further, nor did they
join in an attack on any other canoe; that each craft had one
adversary only was the rule in all tournaments. In this in-
stance, the Kimsquit people were victorious, no less than
eighteen of their canoes defeating the craft opposed to them.
Sinuxet? returned home in triumph, singing his war-song, and
was received with as much enthusiasm as if he had led a suc-
cessful raid. Indeed the casualties, consisting chiefly of broken
heads, were sometimes almost as serious as on a foray, but no
revenge was ever claimed in case of death so caused. Instead
of throwing stones by hand, it was sometimes agreed that they
were to be cast by slings which made the tournament more
dangerous. The warriors never left their canoes, so that hand-
to-hand fighting was impossible.

It is probable that tournaments of this nature took place
many years ago, although none of the men now living had ever
participated in one, and many had never heard of this type of
competition. Until relatively recent years, however, heavy
moose-skins were held up as protections in the bows of canoes,
and men were selected for the task of being pelted with stones
in the manner just described.

One other type of game, string figures, was studied rather
extensively. These are described in Appendix B.