FSS

252 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

him with sticks and drums. Following another pause, he does
this once more, causing the return to him of the crystals. The
heralds visit the different houses to report what has taken
place and the regular ritual of the evening continues in due
course.

Occasionally the xixobdxta ritual is elaborated to impress
the uninitiated. Within this century a woman received a
crystal in this manner and, so non-members were told, it
became stuck so that the owner could not recall it. In this
case two kukusiut were in grief; the woman who had lost her
crystal, and the one who had it within her body. The former
went from house to house for several days, weeping and asking
that the Aukusiut insert their prerogatives into the possessor’s
body to drive out the crystal, while the sufferer maintained a
crouched attitude as if in intense agony. Her home was in
Qomqo-ts, but she went even to Six? to see whether the Auku-
siut there could not help her. Meanwhile the uninitiated were
both amazed and impressed. After several days the marshals
of the two villages decided to try in unison to force out the
crystal. It was day-time, and they gathered around the
stricken woman in an open spot between the two villages,
while the uninitiated peered with interest from the background.
One kusiut after another called his intangible prerogative to
himself and passed it into the sufferer, and after each insertion
the owner of the crystal tried to withdraw it, but without avail.
After each failure, the one who had used his possession re-
called it to himself by pressing with cupped hands and calls of
hoip, then sent it back above. Throughout the ceremony,
a man with a loud voice kept informing non-members which
prerogative was being tried. At the insertion of Ants, and
again of Anger, the sufferer reeled, but the owner of the crystal
could not bring it forth. It had been decided that a Bird-
Arrow was to be the successful prerogative, and when this was
inserted by its owner, the woman staggered, fell, and rolled
wildly on the ground, her arms and legs flying apart in all