WINTER CEREMONIAL DANCES ESI

in the village announcing that a call has come to X. Mean-
while forty or fifty kukusiut have surrounded X and accompany
him as he leaves his home and proceeds to the end of the village
furthest downstream. He enters the lowest house, followed by
his escort, and stops before the central! fire to call out:

“Please say what you want; I will do it.”

He circles the fire, sunwise, repeats his call a second time
and leaves. The same procedure is repeated in every house
in the village, in order from bottom to top, before he returns
to his own home. The uninitiated are told that some power
has come upon him, but that it is so strange that even he
cannot comprehend it. After a short pause, X again sallies
forth, accompanied as before, and calls twice in every house
of the village. The same ritual is repeated a third time, but
on the fourth round, which soon follows, he carries a knife in
his hand. Thus it becomes plain to all that X has received
power enabling him to have his stomach cut, and the kukusiut
show signs of grief at the danger to which their fellow is about
to be exposed. Needless to say, the delay in interpreting the
call adds to the mystification of the uninitiated, and their
wonder at X’s power. The heralds do their part by repeating
his words with their own comments.

When X finally returns to his own house the heralds sum-
mon all the kukusiut to it and the customary ritual of tsuxtamem
takes place. The singers beat out and practise a song com-
posed by one of their members for X, the audience listens
attentively and then. practises it until all are proficient. The
theme of every kusiotem song is of the land above and the
supernatural beings resident there. The wordless chorus con.
sists of wai’aiye’iu, which the Bella Coola state is the refrain
of all kusiotem dances up and down the coast.

The second day, nusiutdlsap, a second song is composed
and a party sent to the forest to bring in wood suitable for
masks. In the evening part of the work is allotteds and the
songs practised. For Ausiotem dances, in addition to masks, a

Some is kept for a later distribution.