140 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

made to hop towards X and bend four times over him. The
wound gradually comes together, and the excitement grows
ever greater. Those near X cry out that his little toes are
moving, as indeed they are, then in succession his fourth,
middle, first, and big toes begin to twitch convulsively. It is
often difficult to find an assistant capable of moving his toes
in the proper order.

“He is alive again,” call the heralds, and some of the un-
initiated come forward to watch the marvel of the dead man’s
toes moving.

X grows gradually stronger and begins to shake his hands
as if he were trying todance. Then, ina feeble voice, he begins
to sing, though the only word which comes clearly is Swztts-
man-a, the name of the supernatural woman through whose
kindly mediation he has been restored to life. This song has
actually been composed by the singers and taught by them to
X preparatory to the rite. It resembles a shaman’s, since it is
assumed that X has practically been made a shaman by the
intervention of Sxitsman-a. The singers pretend to be listening
intently, and then chant it over, as if they had just learnt it,
while X shakes his hands as if dancing. The wailing and weep-
ing of the kukusiut women has given place to joy, and those
who had been singing mourning songs dance in time to the
music. One after the other the dzuyex who had cast their
patrons into X now go to him to recall them. Each bends over
him and pretends to extract something by pressure with cupped
hands, at the same time crying out hoip, hotp.

Each dnuyex then goes through the motions of casting some-
thing up into the air with cries of the same nature; this serves
to return his patron to the mysterious region whence it had
come. The uninitiated are now expelled and the kukustut soon
follow, without receiving a meal.7> Those who have taken a

leading part in the ceremony usually linger with the marshals

According to one informant, the youth who cut X’s stomach was formerly
detained and initiated into the ranks of the kukusiut.

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