52 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

Although 9omoqwa has often been seen by mortals, no one
has ever been able to describe his countenante. He always
wears a huge hat, beneath which his blackened face, covered
with eagle down, is barely visible, since he constantly keeps
turning it away from the observer. Occasionally he comes to
the surface and has been known even to walk onit. Like other
supernatural beings, he is able to ascend to Nusmdt-a, though
it is not his home. The dread with which the Bella Coola
regard Qomogwa is due to his ability to suck canoes down to
his home at the bottom of the ocean as if in a whirlpool. He
is usually hungry, and nothing pleases him more than human
flesh. None the less, he does not destroy life without cause.
It angers him to hear his name spoken, so no Bella Coola utters
it when on the ocean, for fear that he may be engulfed. When-
ever a person is drowned at sea it is believed that the cannibal-
istic Qomogwa has drawn him down for a meal.

To insert the many stories describing Qomoqwa at this point
would unduly break the continuity of this account, so the fol-
lowing simple example must suffice.

Not many years ago four Bella Bella fishermen were trying to anchor
near China Hat. Owing to the action of the supernatural beings
dwelling below, the bottom of the ocean rose and lowered abruptly so
that their anchor would not hold as the rope was in many cases too short.
They were much annoyed by this and, as they strove to fasten their
craft, they were exasperated at a lard-fish which kept swimming closely
around the canoe. At last one of the fishermen reached out, seized it
with his hands, and tore it to pieces, throwing these back on the water.
Presently their anchor held and the four went to sleep. But Qomoqwa
had seen the insult shown to the lard-fish and, as they slept, he sucked
down their canoe until, on awakening, they found themselves in the
huge house of the lord of the undersea world. There was no water in it,
but they recognized where they must be from the fact that the walls
were decorated with paintings of marine beings and with ancient tools
from canoes lost at sea. An old woman who lives in Yomogwa’s house
called the four to her fire in the corner and asked them whether they
had any false hellebore with them. If they had, they would escape,
but otherwise nothing could save them from Qomogwa, who at that very
moment was calling his friends for a feast of human flesh. Presently
Qomoqwa entered, followed in succession by a number of undersea chiefs,