104 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

usual escort, X goes to every house in the village; with one
hand he shields his eyes, with the other he pulls away pieces
of dog flesh, some of which he pretends to eat, while others he
thrusts into the wolf’s jaws. As he enters, his associates shriek
and the women drone. The Cannibal does not circle the fire
in each house, merely steps within the doorway and then with-
draws, making the round of the village four times. Curiosity
impels the uninitiated to peer forth from their bedrooms, and
the bloody spectacle increases their fear.

X then returns to his own house where an elaborate struc-
ture of rising tiers of steps has been built between the fire and
the back-room. The Aukusiut take their places on this, while
X kneels immediately in front, on the left®’ side. A kustut
brings from the back-room a cedar box with an upright row of
eagle feathers around the upper edge; immediately below there
is a ribbon-like girdle of dyed cedar-bark, and below that a
similar band of undyed bark. He carries the receptacle around
the fire, revolving sunwise on himself four times, and sets it
down before X. The box contains hot stones and alder dye,
but the uninitiated, who have been allowed to crowd within
the doorway, do not know this, nor are they aware that a car-
penter is concealed behind X to manipulate the head. This
accomplice thrusts pieces of meat through the wolf’s mouth
from the rear so that they fall into the box, as if the animal
were vomiting. At the same time he causes the tongue, that
of one of the slaughtered dogs, to go in and out, and X pulls
the cord so that the jaws clash together. Steam rises from the
box as the meat strikes the heated stones as if it were food
warm from the stomach, and clever management makes the
scene strikingly realistic. The belief is that the dog flesh eaten
by X has passed into the wolf and is now being ejected. When
enough has been vomited to give countenance to an assump-
tion that all the animals devoured have been voided, the car-
penter pulls the head from sight, as if it had suddenly vanished.
The Aukusiut cry out four times, and someone throws eagle

a™As one looks inwards.