460 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

He was in great pain from the wound, but none of the supernatural
shamans could even diagnose the trouble, the arrow being invisible to
them as their weapons are invisible to mortals. The most powerful super-
natural doctors, Grizzly Bear, Black Bear, and Smug, were called in, but
none could help Mountain Goat. Atisidx, sitting down outside the house,
could hear the beating of sticks as if curative measures were being taken
somewhere, but he could see nothing. Presently one of the animals, who
had left the house to fetch water, saw a man sitting by the stream. On
his return he suggested that they might consult the mortal.

So they called in A#sidx.

“Please, mortal,” said Mountain Goat’s father, “if you are able to
effect cures, help my son.”

“All right,” replied Aisiéx, “I have some ability that way, I will try.”

This was a lie, A#/sidx was no shaman, but he could see the arrow
projecting from Mountain Goat and he knew that he would be able to
cure the injury. So he asked that Mountain Goat be covered with a
large cloak, under which he too hid himself, to lend an atmosphere of
mystery to the operation. A#/sidx then cut the arrow and forced its head
through the flesh, thus expelling it. Mountain Goat cried out in pain that
he felt as if some object were being drawn from his body, but he could see
nothing. Then 4#sidéx danced a shaman’s dance while the animal singers
beat time, using, instead of sticks, bones from mountain goat legs. In the
course of his gyrations, the man threw the broken arrow out of the door.

Mountain Goat’s father in his gratitude gave Atsidx supernatural
hunting ability.

“When you want to hunt goats,” he said, “smear as many daubs of
red paint on your face as you desire carcasses. Then think of goats, and
use the song which we sang when you danced after curing my son, and
the goats you want will fall dead outside your door. One thing you must
never forget, always hang the leg-bones of your victims on the walls of
your house, never throw them away.”

Adsiéx then returned to his Stux home.

In the village there was another hunter, Ad, whose success was de-
pendent on a pair of shoes he had received from Twaliitit, by means of
which the roughest mountain goat trails became easy paths. As Adsiax
began to have extraordinary fortune, jealousy arose between the two as
to which was the greater hunter, until at last they decided to put the
matter to a test. Setting out together they camped at a suitable spot
above Stuix where goats were plentiful. When Atisiéx put a single daub
of red paint on his face there appeared a solitary goat on the mountain not
far away, but in such a position that it seemed impossible for a human
being to reach the animal.