WINTER CEREMONIAL DANCES 153

out that he wants someone to tie up his neck, and, after the
usual delay, an uninitiated lad is brought forward for the pur-
pose. The carpenters help him to manipulate the rope, and
in reality do the actual tying although they disguise the fact.

the women readily convinces non-members that they have
watched the decapitation of the dancer. Sometimes the uninj.
tiated themselves are allowed to pull the rope.

The ritual throughout the night is identical with that
already described for the Stomach-Cutting dance. The spies
guard the doors, refusing egress to all, the mourning women
sing their songs, the puppets ascend to the land above and
are inserted into X on their return, At intervals groups of the
uninitiated are told to come forward; they circle the fire sun-
wise and see that X’s head is lying apart from his body, with
the blood and flesh and the severed neck visible. Towards
dawn’? hidden strings are fastened to the head and it is drawn
slightly towards the body. One of the marshals calls out:

“It moves! It moves! Do you see it?” and a herald answers:

“We see it move.”

The slow movement is con tinued until the uninitiated, who
make periodic inspections, are able to say that it has almost
rejoined the trunk. As the first glimmer of light appears in
the east, one of the carpenters bends over X and takes the
opportunity, while he conceals the dancer’s body with his own,
to hide the false head beneath his blanket; at the same time X
stretches his own head up from under his blanket. The subter-
fuge is not evident to the uninitiated.

"The Passage of time at night is judged in villages on the coast by the height
of the tide, or the movements of stars; the latter is also practised in the inland
settlements. If the stars are hidden, an estimate is made by the number of fir
logs burnt through since sunset.