RELIGION 25

sun attached to another land above the one of which our sky is the underside. Boas (p. 28) has described this upper land in some detail. A number of Bella Coola were questioned on this subject, but for some time no one could be found with knowledge of its existence. At length one of the older people remembered that a man who had died some thirty years ago had a personal story connected with it, and later a Kimsquit man was able to furnish definite information. He explained that in his family there was a myth dealing with this matter; others might have heard this myth, but since it was not their property, of course they would not be able to impart the facts contained in it, nor would they necessarily believe it. Conse- quently, an upper land, superimposed above that which is immediately over the earth, cannot be described as a Bella Coola belief; it is shared, so far as could be ascertained, by only two families.

The chief feature of this uppermost world is its distance and unapproachableness. To the supernatural beings living in the intermediate land it is a far-off place; in fact, their attitude towards it corresponds to that with which mortals regard the land above their own. The supernatural ones can, when they wish, visit this upper world, which is called Nugwi- ials. A sun shines there, but it is a different kind of sun from that known to mortals. On the whole it appears that this upper sky-land does not differ materially from either the earth or the land immediately above. No human being has ever reached this distant land, so what little is known about it was brought down in the beginning of time by the first people.

In addition to these two upper worlds, the Bella Coola know of one, or perhaps two, below. One of these is inhabited by ghosts.! It somewhat resembles the earth, but is unsub- stantial and ethereal. It is considered to be immediately

1At the present time the Bella Coola are in a state of transition between the old beliefs and the new. This concept is held only by the older people, so it might be more accurate to describe it as one which they, the tribe as a whole, used to know. It has been thought advisable to use the present tense throughout in recording customs and beliefs which are now rapidly passing away.