234 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

source of awe to the uninitiated, who marvel that < man can
still appear like an ordinary mortal when he has just brought
a supernatural visitor home. According to one informant who,
however, is not well posted on kusiut matters, there is neither
gottum nor nebusam, and Dark-Shade is merely sent away after
four days. This may be the case, but the dance has not been
carried out for many years, and the man frankly admitted that
he did not know the details. It seems more likely that there
is some kind of ceremony, since a song would not be composed
unless for a definite purpose.

The coming of Dark-Shade complicates the kusiut cere-
monial since a number of dancers receive their calls simul-
taneously. In this case the ritual is carried out in unison
which requires, for example, the composition of one song for
each performer on /suxtémem. Calls never come in this way
to dancers with important or complicated prerogatives, but it
is a useful means of dealing with those whose right is merely
to sing of their patrons. On mebusam the patrons of all are
displayed, a method which has the advantage of producing a
dramatic effect which would be lacking if only one were in
evidence. The coming of a call by means of Dark-Shade is
called twilmdimut, “Emerging from Below to Plain Sight.”
Another time when several calls may come simultaneously to
different kukusiut is at the winter solstice when, on the entry
of diguntiém, the supernatural beings rush forth and some of
them fall, causing calls to come to their human protégés.

THE DANCE OF THE STONE MAN

Yuyulmxi, the man who was petrified with his Ootsa Lake
wife and four children at the beginning of time, is patron fora
Kimsquit kusiut man named Kwasta. His repository is just
above high-water mark on the east side of Dean Channel, about
five miles from its head, and about one hundred and fifty feet
north of the legal fishing boundary. This is almost imme-
diately opposite Yuyulmx?’s station. The repository is be-
neath the ground, and its doorway is a beaver which became