110 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

small particles of food on a fire; these become large when they
reach the land below and nourish the ghosts. An individual
making an offering of this kind says:

“ Anukaldimut kuskao,” “This is to make straight your
road, beloved one.”

The needs and desires of ghosts have been made known
to mortals through visits paid by shamans to the land below,
and by the coming of ghosts to this world. It is, therefore,
realized that food placed on the ground does not reach the
land below, but that morsels thrown on a fire sink through
into the abode of ghosts. Offerings to the dead are not made
with the hope of receiving favours from them, but rather to
provide beloved relatives with necessary food and to prevent
them from showing displeasure by causing stomach-aches and
other ailments.

Other instances, both of prayer and of sacrifice, will be
recorded in connection with various myths. The salient fea-
ture is that the Bella Coola are able to gain, by such means,
the favour of supernatural beings, a factor which plays an
important part in their daily life. In addition, they have a
large number of practices based on sympathetic magic. No
absolutely rigid boundary line can be drawn between the latter
and religion proper, but there is a fairly clear division between
rites such as those just described, in which propitiation 1s the
important element, and others in which the desired end follows
the mere performance of a certain act. Customs of this last
type will be reserved for later consideration (vol. I, chap. x1).

THE OBSERVANCE OF CEREMONIAL CHASTITY

In addition to prayer and sacrifice, the Bella Coola have
yet another means of obtaining the goodwill of supernatural
beings, and at the same time of strengthening their own super-
natural attributes so that good fortune is likely to occur. This
is by the practice of sxetsta, ceremonial chastity, of which the
basis is that a man must not hold intercourse except after
certain periods of continence. To understand this, it is neces-