RELIGION 97

cases it tarries near the corpse for four days, or it may start at
once on its travels. Distance means nothing to it, nor does
time; once disembodied it goes back on the path of its late
owner’s ancestors from generation to generation, until it reaches
the spot where his first forefather came to this earth. Here it
assumes the bird or animal form used on that occasion and
goes up to Nusmdt-a. It is uncertain whether or not the spirit
can take on, simultaneously, the different shapes used by var-
ious ancestors of the deceased. Its existence in the land above
is similar to that on earth, but in an advanced degree. A good
carpenter, for example, is a better carpenter after death; a
chief is a greater chief; and one of the explanations for death
is that A?guntém has called a man to continue his work in
another sphere. Nusmdt-a is so huge that it is never crowded,
though the spirits are immortal. They can see what is taking
place on earth and sometimes return in bird or animal form to
visit and comfort their grieving relatives. Powerful chiefs
delight to display this, by means of a masked figure, as the
central feature of a potlatch. Apart from this ceremonial
usage, disembodied spirits play no part in the lives of the
Bella Coola. They take no interest in human beings and
accordingly are neither supplicated nor feared.

THE LIFE

Closely associated with the spirit is the sxwwmdnods hkt‘,
life.2® As in the previous case, 4/qguntém provides every human
being and every animal with this at birth. It is an ethereal
substance, having the form of the body which it animates;
without it there can be neither strength nor growth; without
life the body is an inert mass of flesh. As a person becomes
older, so does this element grow, always taking the exact shape
and form of the body. Alone, it can neither move nor think,
its motive power being the spirit. It is the life that suffers

Interpretations have been employed whenever possible to lessen the use of
confusing native terms. Life is not an accurate translation of this Bella Coola
word, but it is hoped that the reader will grasp its real significance from the de-
Scription in this section.