NATIVE PRIBES: 127

Deliberate deceptions were usual to impress the uninitiated with the presence
of supernatural powers. Sleight of hand and ingenious tricks were associated
with many performances to impress their mysterious origin; robes, staves, head-
rings, masks, and rattles being all designed to symbolize the myth represented in

PLATE XXXIII.

Courtesy of National Museum of Canada, Ottawa.

Member of Bella Coola Tribe wearing the “’Thunder” mask.

the dance. ‘Thus, in that known as the “ Olala,” the performer (Plate DOVIEL IE:
Fig. 40) suddenly produced a small human figure worked by hidden strings,
called the “ Nontlemgyila” or “making foolish”; in another a shaman appeared
to decapitate a woman, her severed head (realistically carved in wood) being