WARFARE 369

As the attackers rushed into the village, the mother of the slave Siwid,
suspecting who they might be, cried out in Bella Coola to ask their tribe.
A chief replied and added that they had come for revenge. Her son, who
had taken his full share in the attack, was told where to find his mother,
so he rescued her and brought her to Bella Coola, where she was given an
honourable position instead of being treated as a slave. As soon as all
resistance was ended, the Bella Coola warriors gathered in the captured
village to take stock of their victory. At this juncture someone noticed
a canoe-load of Djo/ddimx trying to steal away unobserved; they had no
weapons and the craft was promptly stopped. One of the leading war-
riors, Siutamkila, uncle of a man about sixty years of age in 1923, had lost
several of his relatives during raids from the south, and had joined the
expedition for revenge. He came rushing up and slew first one occupant
of the canoe, and then another, slowly and deliberately; until, as he
became frenzied with blood, he killed them all as quickly as possible. The
mother of the Bella Coola slave told the raiders that there were other
Djoldéim-x villages in the neighbourhood from which help would certainly
besent. So the victors seized as many boxes of olachen grease, blankets,
and other valuables as possible, and fled with their captives, not stopping
even to fire the village.

Among the prisoners was a young woman whom the slave Siwig
recognized as a chief. He determined to help her to escape and accord-
ingly offered to aid her captor by guarding his prisoner, without telling
him of her rank. The Bella Coola had retreated about two miles, their
canoes strung out in a long line, when Djo/déumux craft, hurrying up from
other villages, appeared and a running fight ensued. In the rear Bella
Coola canoe were two hunters, both expert shots; two loaders kept
handing them charges already measured out so that they were able to
keep up a rapid and well-directed fire which kept the enemy at a distance.
The pursuers being directly astern, several times a single bullet passed
through the bodies of two warriors, and on one occasion this led to the
capsizing of one of their canoes. While the Bella Coola were watching
this success, Siwid whispered to the girl to dive overboard, that she would
be picked up by her friends. By swimming underwater, she deceived the
Bella Coola who, though several saw her, thought she was an animal,
unworthy of a bullet from one of the marksmen. She reached her fellow_
countrymen and was picked up by one of the chasing canoes. Soon after-
wards Siwid abandoned the hopeless pursuit. Some of the Bella Coola
wanted to camp and feast, but the majority thought it safer to push on
and put a safe distance between them and their enemies. There is only
one good harbour, Indian Cove, in that part of the coast, where they
agreed to stop for a few hours if there were no recent footprints in the