96 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

becomes critical. Only a shaman (I, p. §39) can return one, and
if he fails death always results. In some cases a spirit leaves
its owner without apparent reason; he becomes insane, tries
to eat dirt, and his relatives realize at once what is the matter.
They summon a shaman who takes off his cape, hangs it like
a pouch on his stick, and points it in all directions as he sings
his shaman’s song. Finally he locates what is missing, and
traps it in his cloak, which he places around the sick man.
This restores the element and the sufferer recovers imme-
diately. Another method is for the shaman to press the back
of the patient’s neck, and by blowing and spitting cause the
wandering spirit to return. Either cure must be performed
by a shaman because of the supernatural power required.

Spirits can be extracted in various ways. Shamans can
draw one forth by sucking at the back of the neck between
their cupped hands; in former times, some were so powerful
that they could extract them by their mere presence. During
kusiut dances (II, chap. 1), the uninitiated are told that if they
enter the house where a ceremony is taking place, or even pass
on the sidewalk outside the door, their spirits will be drawn
from them by the power within and attracted to the dancer
or to the sacred platform on which he is concealed. Many
stories are told of this, which were firmly believed by the un-
initiated until the last few years. Members of the society
claim that their great power acts as a magnet to the spirits of
all but their associates, except children in arms; the latter can
be taken by their mothers into the house, because their super-
natural elements have not developed sufficient strength to
leave their bodies. A person may also lose his spirit through
a sudden shock. If two people meet unexpectedly in the forest
and one of them shouts loudly at the other, even if only in fun,
the spasmodic contraction of the muscles is enough to expel it.
The person to whom this happens falls down as if dead, and
though he soon recovers, his spirit has left him, and if it is not
brought back by a shaman he dies a lingering death.

At death, the spirit permanently leaves the body. In some