WINTER CEREMONIAL DANCES 2a

where they settled. Aiquntém had given him the ability to killmammals
and birds by merely projecting his power at them, and in this way he
obtained food for the whole party. He could also revive his victims with
the aid of a peculiar stick beating orchestra, consisting of spruce cones.
These he arranged around a fire balanced on levers which he could move
with his feet; as he pressed, the cones became animated and beat time
frenziedly. It was Afguntéim who had given him these non-human stick-
beaters. Ninitsamlaix tried to turn mammals into men, but succeeded
only with the eyes of the wolf, wherefore those organs appear human
even today.

Aiquntim gave Ninitsamlaix the prerogative of carrying out a husiut
dance, which has been performed in the same manner ever since by the
owner of that name. His patrons, for he has four, are the supernatural
Carpenters. Ninitsamlaix has the further prerogative of wearing, when
dancing, a wooden head-piece over his forehead representing Qe-ko, prob-
ably one of the blackbirds. On the night of nebusam, when the unini-
tiated are called in, masked figures of the four Carpenters appear, each
carrying a conventional specimen of his work. Boas (at end) illustrates
the masks proper to these beings. Anolikwoisaix is, as usual, in atten-
dance and explains the significance of the apparitions,

ORIGIN MYTH OF THE DANCE OF Nunutexxnam

There was once a middle-aged woman who had not been initiated into
the ranks of the kukusiut. She decided that she could gain this distinc-
tion only by seeing Anolikwoisaix herself, so with this aim in view she
set out to search for the supernatural one. First she penetrated to the
source of every creek entering South Bentinck Arm; then proceeded up
the Necleetsconnay River to its very head, again visiting the head-waters
of every affluent, and finally went up the Bella Coola River, as before,
exploring each side stream. For a whole year she travelled without
seeing anything supernatural.

At the source of the Clearwater she came to a lake on the other side
of which she could see a single column of smoke. It ascended without
twist, coil, or movement, as if it were solid, so she knew that it must have
a supernatural origin. Bravely she skirted the shore, till she saw that
the smoke was rising from a house made of evergreen boughs. Stealing
nearer, she beheld 4nolikwolsaix herself within, working with a woman
Nunuteixxnam. AnoUikwoisaix was using rock crystals to strike the
woman senseless, and then reviving her; but all the time was causing
Nunutcixxnam to sink into the ground. Breathless with excitement the

*Related by Steamboat Annie.