82 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

the rites satisfactorily. Towards midnight the gathering
breaks up.

Many of the younger and more athletic kukusiut sleep in
X’s house, ready to assist him in the “Running Song.”’ About
an hour and a half before dawn the uninitiated are awakened
by confused shouting and growling from X’s house; above
the din rises X’s ghastly, xwa., xwa-, xwa-.

The shouting and noise lead to a spot at the rear of the
village, whither X has gone with the musicians and about
twenty kukusiut. Presently the singers begin to chant forth
a new song, X’s third, of which the theme is again the Can-
nibal’s adventures in the land above; the uninitiated readily
believe that he has taught the singers these words, though they
had been unable to hear them from within the houses. There
is more shouting as X runs to a second place behind the village,
where the same song is used once more. When this has been
repeated four times, X is led back to his house.

For four days the uninitiated remain in a constant state of
terror. Although the expulsion of the cannibalistic incubus
has tended to restore X’s sanity, he is still wild, unable either
to eatorsleep. Twice every night the madness conquers him,
and he dashes from his house, barely restrained by his faithful
kukusiut attendants. Eager for the flesh of human beings, he
rushes at the doors, knocks them down if they should be closed,
growling furiously, but his guardians always succeed in drag-
ging him out before he does any real damage. This is repeated
at every house of the village. Since the uninitiated are too
frightened to look out, it often happens that a substitute takes
the place of X on these semi-nightly excursions. During the
day he remains within his own house, concealed, on a platform
built for him between the fire and the back-room.

On the fourth evening, the fifth after his return from above,
the kukusiut are summoned to his house to soothe him so that
he will lie down on this platform and rest. The uninitiated,
listening eagerly but fearfully, hear once more the sound of
the frenzied stick-beating. The heralds inform them that X