74 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

restraining him bend too, throwing him back into the centre
of the circle with the aid of the rope and their bodies. Mean-
while the women are droning, and some of them pound on the
floor with sticks; intermittent calls of 4oip and the sound
of the whistle add to the weird confusion. The circle of kuku-
siut often revolves around X, each man jumping in time to his
neighbours, so that the din is increased. After about ten min-
utes, the circle gradually contracts to a double line, and the
rope is slipped over X’s head, as if tying up a dangerous beast.
One end is given to a kusiut willing to have a call, and he goes
around leading X as if he were a captive animal. The heralds
go to every house to report what has taken place.

Towards dusk two young kukusiut are sent up the moun-
tains. Soon after the sun has set, members of the society
gather on the sidewalk outside X’s house, to which X is led.
He is still struggling, and the kukusiut press close around him,
as if to restrain him; thereby effectually concealing everything
from the uninitiated watching from the doorways of their
houses. At a signal from one of the senior kukusiut, all the
members of the society shriek out ye -- at the top of their
voices. At the same time X, aided by his fellows, slips from
his rope and hides himself within a box-drum, which is then
carried back to his house. Warned by the cry, the two lads up
the mountains forthwith begin to growl. This furnishes clear
proof to the uninitiated that X has been able, owing to the
power within him, to slip away from the closest bonds of his
fellows and travel aloft. In answer to the growls from above,
a kustut with a powerful voice calls out:

“Go aloft on the right road. Your power will enable you
to escape the dangers. But do not stray from the narrow
trail.”

In Kimsquit, though not in Bella Coola, the kukusiut then
go to every house, crying and wailing, thinking of the Cannibals

“It is not clear whether or not the uninitiated are sometimes present at the
roping.