WINTER CEREMONIAL DANCES 5)

tense throughout this chapter, and to assume the presence of a
number of young men and women ignorant of the significance
of the rites. Formerly, the kukusiut often had difficulty in im-
pressing the uninitiated with their prowess, and feuds with the
a’alk were common.

Although membership in the kusiut society depends on an
ancestral prerogative, it is essentially a democratic institution.
A certain amount of wealth is necessary to validate a kusiut
prerogative, but nothing comparable to that required for a
potlatch; in fact, poor men are often persons of great impor-
tance within the ranks of the society. Nor are the preroga-
tives considered to be as valuable as ancestral rights, so that
slaves are often admitted as kukusiut by their masters. An
important kusiut is not esteemed by the community in the
same way as the donor of many potlatches; in short, member-
ship in the society brings limited ceremonial and semi-religious
advantage, not social prestige of a public nature.

Powers AND FuncrTIons oF THE SOCIETY

Any secret society can be viewed from the standpoints of a
member, and ofanon-member. The scope of the kusiut organ-
ization can be most clearly outlined by describing first what an
uninitiated person knows about it. From his infancy, parents
impress upon a child the supernatural powers of the kukusiut
and the dangers attached to their rites. Such instruction is
perhaps strongest where one, or both, is not a member. They
then voice their own fears, and do not merely deceive for the
good of the society. Steeped as every child is in a firm belief
of the near presence of the supernatural, he readily believes
what he is told. He learns, for example, that if, without spe-
cial invitation, he dares enter the house where a Ausiut dance
is taking place—at any time during the four days or more that
it lasts—his spirit will be drawn from him. This is sufficient
to deter him from prying too closely into the rites. Strangely
enough, there seem always to have been differences in teaching
with respect to this deception. It is believed that if a non-