WINTER CEREMONIAL DANCES 83

is now sufficiently tamed so that he can lie down and rest, and
thenceforth the nocturnal raids on the village are discontinued.

X remains concealed on the platform, supposedly without
eating, for four days. On the fourth day occurs the ceremony
of washing. Early in the morning a herald goes to every house
in the village asking for urine and grease extracted from the
heads of sockeye salmon. The kukusiut gather in X’s house,
to which full chamber-vessels and pots of grease have been
taken. No uninitiated are allowed to be present, but from
adjacent houses they hear sounds of furious struggling, com-
bined with growling. Presently they see a number of kukusiut
carrying X, smeared with liquid, to the river. Some informants
state that he is actually covered with urine and fish-oil, others
that these are merely emptied within the house and water
poured over X, that their collection is merely to deceive the
uninitiated. At any rate he is taken to the river, where, in
spite of his shrieks, kicks, and struggles, he is four times doused
by his guardians. Often he seizes stones from the bed of the
stream and hurls them at his captors, sometimes bruising them
severely. This washing assists in the restoration of X to
sanity. He is taken four times to every house in the village,
no longer growling and struggling, and a herald announces
that he will dance that evening.

Soon after dusk the kukusiut are summoned and they prac-
tise the four songs composed for X. Then the uninitiated are
called in. As his songs are sung, X dances in the usual Ausiut
style, but more violently than most, and growling at intervals.
The women drone and his four guardians stand close by, spit-
ting into his ears to soothe him.** This is done by calling
hoip loudly close to his head, so that a spray of fine saliva
is ejected over him. After dancing, X sits down once more
and a marshal calls out that food is to be given to him; he is
supposed to have eaten nothing but morsels of human flesh
since his departure for the upper world. The women are sent

“Spitting also occurs frequently in connection with curing by means of the
frenzied beating of sticks.