440 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

tending to die, and allowing himself to be buried, so that he could tell by
personal experience the fate of a corpse. Some of the party tried to dis-
suade him, others encouraged him, and finally all agreed to help him.
Soon afterwards he fell down, as if suddenly stricken. The men wept and
the women wailed as if a real death had taken place; then they carried
the “‘corpse” a short distance from the scene of the “death” and buried it,
taking care to insert a hollow reed from his mouth to the surface of the
ground, so that the young man could breathe. After weeping over the
grave in a realistic manner, the people returned to Kimsquit, leaving one
young man concealed up a tree to watch the place of burial.

It was in the early afternoon that all this had taken place. Nothing
approached the grave until dusk, when the hidden youth saw what he
took to bea black bear draw near. The animal sank into the ground with-
out effort, as one would sink in water, and emerged as a man, clad ina
bear skin and carrying the buried youth over his shoulder, slung by the
legs. Then the watcher knew that the creature carrying off his friend was
a suing. The animal trotted away towards his home with the youth who
had been buried, and the latter took advantage of an over-hanging tree
to clutch a branch with his hands and hang on. The smug tugged, but
the youth held on until the animal dropped his burden. Then the young
man at once relaxed his grip, as he still wished to simulate death. The
smimig concluded that a branch had caught his quarry, so picked up the
boy from the ground again and started off. A second time the lad gripped
a branch, but as he was straining at it he was obliged to pass wind. The
snunig heard the noise and became suspicious, but the boy held his breath,
and though the animal felt his heart he was deceived into thinking him
dead. A third time he seized a branch, and again was forced to emit
wind, but, as before, he held his breath for a very long time and the animal
was again deceived. Meanwhile, the hidden watcher, having marked the
animal’s course as long as possible, returned to Kimsquit and told what
had happened. Some of the people did not believe his tale, and went to
dig up the grave, from which they found that the “corpse” had vanished.
This time they wept in earnest and then returned home.

The sug carried the youth to his home in the mountains, a house
shaped like an ordinary one, where he lived with his wife and children.
He threw the boy on the floor and the szumg youngsters spread his legs
apart and began to play with his testicles, saying to their father:

“Please give us these funny things for earrings.”

The saimug refused, and said to them:

“Stop that, you brats! I am going to give them to your mother for
earrings. It is the first time that I have caught such an animal.”