64 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

THE DANCE OF Wil-a

Although potlatches and kusiut dances cannot take place simultaneously in the same house, and although the former are supposedly completed before the beginning of the ceremonial season, they often overlap the lengthy preliminaries of the Nodkxnum dance. In such cases, when visiting the houses of the village, the kukusiut are careful to pass by the one in which the potlatch is going on. It often happens that foreign guests are still present when Nodkxnum ascends the river and their host wishes to provide entertainment for them in the shape of a spectacular kusiut display. This is possible if a kuszut with a wil-a prerogative is willing to have a call come to him. It is probable that in every village there is at least one kuszut with this prerogative; in Tcumot? the owner is a certain Lukwala,*® in Kimsquit a woman named Nunuxemlaix. An ancestor of the former received his designation at the direct wish of 4fguntém as leader of the supernatural kukusiut. It is unnecessary to describe the ritual in detail in both places, although certain differences must be mentioned. It will be convenient to refer to the dancer as X. He has ten patrons, the nine brothers Xemxemialotta, Xemcua, Omqomkilka, Aimalotla, Aiamkilka, Qomcua, Qwlaxwoa, Kwlilias Nuskampta, Aimék*, and their sister THitcaéplitin.a.*1 These supernatural beings remain in Nusmdat.a except when summoned below by X, or when Ttitcaplitén.a appears for her own purposes as already de- scribed.

If X accedes to the request of the donor of the potlatch and is willing to summon his patrons from above, one or other of them interviews the marshals, and if these acquiesce, the rite can proceed. In Bella Coola X asks the help of four kukusiut who are termed his ‘‘Path Clearers’’; no special prerogative is required to perform this service. For four days X lies on the floor of his house, near the door to the back-room, while his

3°The rite has not been carried out in Bella Coola since the death of the former owner about 1912; the name has passed to his brother’s son’s son. *1Boas (p. 33) gives the same list of beings although in slightly different order.