WINTER CEREMONIAL DANCES 41 and the patron shifts his protection to the substitute. Non- members are told that the death was due to one of the many dangers connected with the society. It is said that, in former times, the kukusiut sometimes held a commemorative rite at which the song composed resembled that used at a memorial potlatch. Details were unobtainable on this subject and it is clear that it has long been discon- tinued. In 1922, however, memorial songs were sung for dead kukusiut, but this seems to have been an innovation, due to prohibition of the potlatch. Tue Ritvat or Spgctric Dances GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE DANCES A detailed description of various kusiut dances can now be given. Unfortunately, there are so many points of difference between them that each will require a separate account, al- though considerable repetition can be avoided by mentioning in connection with the first dance those features common to all. The initial performer is always he who has the preroga- tive of seeing the supernatural canoe which comes from the Land of the Salmon to visit Nusqulxwaista. Several kukusiut have the captain of this craft as patron, and if each should wish to dance the marshals decide which of them is to do so. Thenceforth there is no order for different dances; the mar- shals see to it that anyone who wishes to give a ceremony does so without conflicting with another. The first dance described is the one which occurs at the beginning of every Ausiut season. THE DANCE OF Nodkxnum!}! The Bella Coola believe that on the fourth day after the September moon is full there starts from the Land of the Salmon, in the far west, the canoe Nodkxnum, commanded by a supernatural being of the same name. This craft slowly MCF. Boas, p. 40.