128 BRITISH COLUMBIA.

subsequently displayed, the freely-flowing blood having been concealed in a
bladder and released by the blow.

Uncanny sounds from without were produced by the skilful use of whistles,
while the weird effects of all the proceedings was enhanced by the only source
of light, that of the flickering flames of the fire in the large communal house where
the dancers assembled.

Grotesque as these insignia appear to-day, the imagination and skill which
they reveal are a tribute to a people so proficient in the combination of mysticism,
originality, and realism.

Each Society had its own song and dance, which might be the prerogative of
a family, a clan, or, more rarely, of a section of a tribe. These representations
were violent, often cruel. ‘Their dramatic symbolism might be compared to a
pantomime or to a mystery play, though in this latter case on a lower moral plane.

Several dances were based on the conception that a young person was swept
away during his pubertal initiatory ceremony to regions inhabited by super-
natural beings, where he received instructions which, though securing for him
lifelong association with a spiritual guardian or “ Manitou,” left him temporarily
insane; so that on his return to his fellow-men he had to be captured, controlled,
and restored to a normal condition.

Others gave credit to their originators for the enterprise which led them to
steal the cedar-bark ornaments of a spirit, while the supernatural being was
bathing, or of ascending to the sky and there securing the secrets incorporated
into the Secret Society they subsequently founded. It was not unusual also for
a variety of traditions to be put forward to explain the origin of one ceremonial.

CHARACTERISTICS OF CERTAIN SECRET SOCIETY DANCES.

The Kwakiutl possessed the largest number of these secret societies, of which
not more than four were allowed to celebrate in one season. The celebrations
lasted from three to four days, and were carried on in a large communal house,
the partitions (if any) being removed to accommodate the numbers who attended.
Each dance was graded in rank according to its accepted origin, and the members
of the Society to which it belonged were seated in strict accordance with this rank
during the performance.

Highest in order was the Ha’mats’a, or Cannibal dance, seats of honour
being at all times assigned to the members of this Society. It was distinguished
by the passion on the part of the chief performer for human flesh, which he tore
from the bodies and limbs of those around him; under some circumstances he was
even offered the dead body of a slave, killed for the purpose. From this dance
has arisen the erroneous idea that these tribes were cannibals. Actually the
dancer, though frenzied into madness, felt what he did to be a grievous con-
tamination and was alive to the revolting requirement of this ritual. Often he
retained the pieces of torn flesh in his mouth; if swallowed, they were voided
later by the use of emetics.

Limits of space prevent giving further particulars of the many forms and
specific objects of these remarkable performances, well exemplified in the Cannibal,
Fool, and Bear dances of the Haida and Kwakiutl, or in the Wolf and Bear
dances of the Nootka, who, while allowing that they derived the custom of Secret
Societies from the Kwakiutl, nevertheless claimed that these particular dances had
in each case been instituted among them by these animals themselves, those taking
part in them wearing the skins of the animals involved. The Great Bear mask
had enormous canine teeth, and the solo dancer had to be restrained in his