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