Tom’s early life was passed at the now abandoned village of Hikwis, whose row of houses looked out upon the main water of the Sound, but for decades he has led an uneventful existence in his river reservation and its vicinity, old summer fishing grounds that were conquered in the first instance by his people from an alien tribe. Within convenient reach are the slowly booming white men’s towns of Alberni and Port Alberni, where one may lay in a supply of biscuits and oranges for a tribal feast, or make periodic complaint to the Indian Agent. Tom is now old and poverty-stricken, but the memory of his former wealth is with his people. The many feasts he has given and the many ceremonial dances and displays he has had performed have all had their desired effect—they have shed luster6 on his sons and daughters and grandchildren, they have “put his family high” among the Ts’isha’ath tribe, and they have even carried his name to other, distant Nootka tribes, and to tribes on the east coast of the island that are of alien speech. Nowadays he spends much of his time by the fireside, tapping his staff in accompaniment to old ritual tunes7 that he is never tired of humming.
Tom’s present name is Sayach’apis, Stands-up-high-over-all. It is an old man’s name of eight generations’ standing8, that hails from the Hisawist’ath, a now extinct Nootka tribe with which Tom is 298 connected through his father’s mother’s mother, who was herself a Hisawist’ath on her mother’s side. The tribe is extinct, but its personal names, like its songs and legends and distinctive10 ritualistic ceremonies, linger on among the neighboring tribes through the fine spun11 network of inheritance. The name “Stands-up-high-over-all,” like practically all Nootka, and indeed all West Coast names, has its legendary12 background, its own historical warrant. The first Nootka chief to bear the name, obtained it in a dream. He was undergoing ritualistic training in the woods in the pursuit of “power” for the attainment13 of wealth, and had not slept for a long time. At last he fell into a heavy slumber14, and this is what he dreamed: The Sky Chief appeared to him and said, “Why are you sleeping, Stands-up-high-over-all? You are not really desirous of getting wealthy, are you? I was about to make you wealthy and to give you the name Stands-up-high-over-all.” The ironical15 touch is a characteristic nuance16 in these origin legends. And so the name, a supernatural gift, was handed down the generations, now by direct male inheritance, now as a dower to a son-in-law, resident at some village remote from its place of origin. This is the normal manner, actually or in theory, of the transmission of all privileges, and though the owner of a privilege may be a villager a hundred miles or more distant from its historical or legendary home, he has not completely established his right to its use unless he has shown himself, directly or by reference to a speaker acquainted with tribal lore17, possessed18 of the origin legend, the local provenance19, and the genealogical tree or “historical” nexus20 that binds21 him to the individual, that is believed to have been the first to enjoy the privilege.
Tom did not always have the name of Sayach’apis, nor need he keep it to the end of his days. He assumed it over thirty years ago on the occasion of his great potlatch, a puberty feast in honor of his now deceased oldest daughter. At that time he had the young man’s name of Nawe’ik, now borne by his oldest son, Douglas. It is a name belonging to the Nash’as’ath sept or tribal subdivision of the Ts’isha’ath, and was first dreamt by Tom’s maternal22 grandfather. It is thus a name of comparatively recent origin, nor does it possess that aura of noble association that attaches to Tom’s present name. Its exact meaning is unknown, but it is said to have been a command—“Come here!”—of a spirit whale, dreamt of by its299 first possessor. Tom assumed it at a potlatch he gave to his own tribe when he was not yet married. It was just about the time that the discovery of placer gold in the Frazer river was bringing a considerable influx23 of whites to British Columbia.
Before this, Tom was known as Kunnuh, a Nitinat young man’s name, “Wake up!”, which is again based on the dream of a spirit whale. The Nitinat Indians are a group of Nootka tribes that occupy the southwest coast of the island, and Tom’s claim to the name and to other Nitinat privileges comes to him through his paternal24 grandfather, himself a Nitinat Indian. The name originated with his grandfather’s father’s father’s father, who received it in a dream as he was training for “power” in whaling. It was assumed by Tom when he was about ten years of age, at a naming feast given the Ts’isha’ath Indians by his Nitinat grandfather. It displaced the boy’s name Ha’wihlkumuktli, “Having-chiefs-behind,” this time of true Ts’isha’ath origin and descending25 to Tom through his paternal grandmother’s father’s father, who again received the name in a dream from a spirit whale. This ancestor was having much success in whaling and, becoming exceedingly wealthy, was “leaving other chiefs behind him.” Tom was given the name at an ordinary feast by his paternal grandfather.
The earliest name that Tom remembers having is Tl’i’nitsawa, “Getting-whale-skin.” When the great chief Hohenikwop had his whale booty towed to shore, the little boys used to come to the beach for slices of whale skin, so he made up the name of “Getting-whale-skin” for his son. The right to use it was inherited by his oldest son, but was also passed on to the chief’s younger sister, who brought it as a dowry to the father of Tom’s paternal grandfather. Tom himself received the name on the occasion of a mourning potlatch given by his paternal grandfather in honor of his son, Tom’s father, who had died not long before. Before this, Tom had a child’s nickname, in other words, a name bestowed27 not out of the inherited stock of names claimed by his parents, but created on the spot for any chance reason whatever. Such nicknames have no ceremonial value, are not privileges, and are therefore not handed down as an inheritance or transferred as a dowry. Tom has forgotten what his nickname was.
At the very outset, in the mere29 consideration of what Tom has 300 called himself at various times, we are introduced to the two great social forces that give atmosphere to Nootka life. The first of these is privilege, the right to something of value, practical or ceremonial. Such a privilege is called “topati” by the Indians, and one cannot penetrate30 very far into their life or beliefs without stumbling upon one topati after another. The second is the network of descent and kinship relation that determines the status of the North West Coast Indian, not merely as a tribesman once for all, but in reference to his claim to share in any activity of moment. The threads of the genealogical past are wound tightly about the North West Coastman; he is himself a traditional composite of social features that belong to diverse localities, and involve him in diverse kinship relations.
As far back, then, as he can remember, Tom has been steeped in an atmosphere of privilege, of rank, of conflicting claims to this or that coveted33 right. As far back as he can remember, he has heard remarks like this: “Old man Tootooch has no right to have such and such a particular Thunder-bird dance performed at his potlatches. His claim to it is not clear. In my grandfather’s days men were killed for less than that, and the head chief of the Ahous’ath tribe, who has the primary claim to the dance, would have called him sharply to order.” But he has also heard Tootooch vigorously support his claim with arguments, genealogical and other, that no one quite knows the right or wrong of. And as far back as he can remember, Tom has been accustomed to think of himself not merely as a Ts’isha’ath, though he is primarily that by residence and immediate34 descent, but as a participant in the traditions, in the social atmosphere, of several other Nootka tribes. He has always known where to look for his remoter kinsmen35, dwelling36 in villages that are dotted here and there on a long coast line.
The first few years of Tom’s life were spent in a “cradle” of basketry, in which he was tightly swathed by sundry37 wrappings and braids of the soft, beaten inner bark of the cedar38. Even now he has a vague recollection of looking out over the sea from the erect39 vantage of a cradling basket, looped behind his mother’s shoulders. He also thinks he remembers crying bitterly one time when left all by himself in the basket, stood up on end against the butt40 of a willow41 tree, while his mother and four or five other women had strayed off 301 to dig for edible42 clover roots with their hard, pointed43 digging-sticks.
During the cradling period, Tom was having his head, or rather his forehead, gradually flattened44 by means of cedar-bark pads, and the upper and lower parts of his legs were bandaged so as to allow the calves45 to bulge46. The Indians believe that they do not like big foreheads and slim legs, nor do they approve of wide eyebrows47, which are narrowed, if necessary, by plucking out some of the hairs. Later on in life Tom was less particular about his natural appearance, having been well “fixed48” by his mother in infancy49. Like the other men of his tribe, he has never bothered to pluck out the scanty50 growth of hair on his face. Some of the Indians of Tom’s acquaintance have tattooed51 themselves, generally on the breast, with designs referring to their hunting experiences, or to crest52 privileges—a quarter-moon or a sea lion or a pair of Thunder-birds,—but Tom has never bothered to do this. Aside from the head-flattening of infancy, Tom has never had any portion of his body mutilated, unless the perforation of his ears and the septum of his nose, for the attachment53 of ear and nose pendants of the bright rainbow-like abalone, strung by sinew threads, be considered a mutilation. These pendants, which he and other Indians have long discarded, were worn purely54 for ornament55; they had no importance as ceremonial insignia.
In spite of the fact that neither razor nor tweezers56 have ever smoothed out the hairy surface of his face, Tom has not altogether neglected the care of his body. To prevent chapping, he has often rubbed himself with tallow and red paint, and in his younger days he was in the habit of keeping himself in good condition by a cold plunge57, at daybreak, in river or sea. The vigorous rubbing down with hemlock58 branches which followed, until the skin all tingled59 red, helped to give tone to his body. He could not afford to miss the plunge and rub-down for more than two or three days at a time, if only because to have done so would have brought upon him the contempt and derision of his comrades. No aspiring60 young hunter of the seal and the sea lion could allow himself to be called a woman. In the course of his long life Tom has painted his face in a great variety of ways, whether for festive61 occasions, or in the private quest of supernatural power in some secluded62 spot in the woods. Some of these face paints—and there are hundreds of them in use among the Nootka—are geometrical patterns, others are emblematic63 302 of supernatural beings and animals. Many of them, like the songs and dances with which they are associated, are looked upon as valuable privileges.
It is long since Tom has worn or seen worn native costume—what little there was of it—but he distinctly remembers the blankets and cedar-bark garments that his people wore when he was a boy and, indeed, well on into his days of manhood. The heavy rains of the Coast, and the constant necessity of splashing in and out of the canoes along the beach, made tight-fitting garments and cumbrous foot- and leg-wear undesirable64. The Nootka Indians wore no clinging shirts or leggings or moccasins. They are a barefoot and a bare-legged people. Those of the men who could afford more than a breechclout wore a blanket robe loosely thrown about the body, either a hide—of bear or the far more valuable sea otter65—or a woven blanket, whether of the inner bark strands66 of the “yellow cedar” or the long, fleecy hair of the native dogs. The women wore cedar-bark “petticoats,” which are nothing but loosely fitting girdles, fringed with long tassels67 of cedar bark. In rainy weather, they also wore woven hats of cedar-bark strands or split root fibers68, round topped and cone-like. When the weather was thick and heavy with rain—and this happens often enough in the winter—both men and women wore raincapes of cedar-bark or rush matting. The children ran about completely naked.
The food that Tom was accustomed to in his early days did not differ materially from his present fare. It was then, and is now, chiefly fish—boiled, steam-baked, spit-roasted, or smoked. In all his early haunts, in the houses and along the beach, everywhere he was immersed in grateful, fishy69 odors. From the earliest time that he can remember anything at all, he has been daily confronted by some aspect of the life of a fishing people, whether it be the catching70 of salmon71 trout72 by the boys with their two-barbed fish spears; or the spearing or trolling or netting of salmon by the older men; or the getting in the sea of herrings with herring rakes, of halibut with the peculiar73, gracefully74 bent75 halibut hooks that every Indian even now has kicking around in his box of odds76 and ends, of cod77 with twirling decoys and spears that have two prongs of unequal length—“older” and “younger”; or the hanging up of salmon in rows to dry in the smoke houses, so that this all-important fish may still contribute his303 share of the food supply, long after the last salmon of the late fall has ceased to run; or the splitting up of the salmon by the women as a first preliminary to cooking; or any one of the hundreds of other scenes that make of a fisher folk a fish-handling and a fish-eating people.
Second in importance to fish are the various varieties of edible shellfish and other soft bodied inhabitants of the sea—mussels and clams78 and sea urchins79, sea cucumbers, and octopuses80. The flesh of the octopus81 or “devil-fish,” though not an important article of food, was considered quite a dainty, and feasts were often given in which it figured as a special feature, like crab82 apples or like the apples or oranges of present-day feasts. Far more important than these mushy foods, though probably subsidiary, on the whole, to salmon and other fish, was the flesh of sea mammals—the humpbacked whale, the California whale, the sea otter, the sea lion, and, most important of all, the hair seal.
Tom has harpooned83 his fill of seals in the course of his life and, like most other Nootka men of the last generation, has done a considerable amount of commercial sealing for white firms in Behring Sea. He has caught a few sea otters84, which are now all but extinct, but no sea lions or whales, though he claims to have the hereditary85 privilege to hunt these animals, and to possess the indispensable magical knowledge without which their quest is believed by the Nootka to be doomed86 to failure.
Boiled whale and seal meat were highly prized and there was no more joyous87 event to break the monotony of tribal life than the towing to shore of a harpooned whale, or the drifting to shore of a whale carcass. In either case the flensing knives were quickly got ready, the carcass cut up, and feasts held in the village. Tom remembers how excitedly—he was then but a boy of ten or so—he once reported the appearance of a drifting whale carcass a quarter-mile from shore, how the whole village rushed into its canoes, and how they laboriously88 floated it on to the sandy beach, with their stout89 lanyards of cedar rope wound with nettle-fiber. The whale was cut up carefully, under the direction of a “measurer” into its traditionally determined90 portions, which were then distributed, according to hereditary right, to those entitled to receive them. Tom himself got the meat about the navel as a reward for his find. There was304 an unusual amount of whale oil tried out that time, and the fires at the feasts leaped higher than ever as the oil was thrown upon them, lighting92 up in lurid93 flashes the house posts carved into the likenesses of legendary ancestors.
Tom ate very little meat of land animals in his early days. Indeed, like most of the Coast people, he had a prejudice against deer meat and it was not until, as a middle-aged95 man, he had come into contact with some of the deer-hunting tribes of the interior of the island, that he learned to prize it, though even to this day venison has not for him the toothsome appeal of a chunk96 of whale meat. Fish and meat were the staples97, yet not the only foods. The women dug up a variety of edible roots such as clover and fern root, which made a welcome change, while blackberries, salmon berries, soapberries, and other varieties, frequently dried and pressed for winter consumption, added a sweetening to the somewhat monotonous98 fare. One relish99 Tom has never learned to enjoy—salt. All the older Nootka Indians detest100 salt in their food.
As Tom grew up, he became initiated101 into the chief handicrafts of his tribe. He got to be rather skillful at working in wood, both the soft red cedar and the hard yew103 and spir?a, familiarizing himself with the various wood-working processes—felling trees with wedges and stone hammers, splitting out planks105, smoothing with adzes, drilling, handling the curved knife, steaming, and bending by the “kerfing” or notching106 process. Even in his youngest years, iron-bladed and iron-pointed tools had almost completely replaced the aboriginal107 implements108 of stone and shell, but the forms themselves, of the manufactured objects, underwent little or no modification109 down to the present day. In the course of his long life Tom has made hundreds of wooden articles of use—boxes with telescoping lids, paddles, bailers, fish clubbers, adze handles, ladles, bows, arrow shafts110, fire drills, latrines, root diggers, fish spears, and shafts for sealing and whaling harpoons. He has also assisted in making dugout canoes, and has often prepared and put in position the heavy posts and beams of the large quadrangular houses that were still being built in his youth. On the other hand, Tom has never developed much aptitude111 in the artistic112 decoration of objects. Such things as paintings on house boards and paddles, or realistic carvings113 in masks, rattles115, ornamental116 fish clubbers and house posts, are rather305 beyond his power and have had to be made for him, when required, by others more clever than himself. The one thing that Tom grew to be most proficient117 in was the preparation of house planks of desired lengths and widths. When he was a young man, he would travel about in canoes from village to village with the stock of planks he had on hand, and trade them for blankets, strings118 of dentalium shells, dried fish, whale oil, and other exchangeable commodities. It was through trading, rather than through personal success in fishing or hunting, that Tom amassed119 in time a considerable share of wealth, and it was through his wealth and the opportunity it gave him to make lavish120 distributions at potlatches or feasts, rather than through nobility of blood, that he came to occupy his present honorable position among his tribesmen.
While Tom and the other men, when they were not busy “potlatching” or visiting some relative, or taking a run down to Victoria, were engaged in fishing and sea mammal hunting and wood-working, the women prepared the food, dug for edible roots, gathered clams, and spent what time they could spare from these and similar tasks in the weaving and plaiting of blankets, matting, and baskets. What receptacles were not of wood were of basketry, while mats of various sorts did duty for tables, hangings, and carpeting. The materials of these baskets and mats, the omnipresent cedar bark and the rush, frayed121 easily, so that the women were kept constantly busy replenishing the household stock. Even now one can hardly enter a Nootka house without seeing one or more of the women twilling mats and baskets with strips of softened122 cedar bark or twining the cedar-bark strands into cordage and bags, or threading a rush mat with the long needles of polished spir?a. In the old days, there was always in the house a great clatter123 of breaking up the raw, yellow cedar bark with the corrugated124 bark beaters of bone of whale, and of loosening up the hard strips of red cedar bark into fibrous masses with the half-moon shredders. The women could work up the bark into almost any degree of fineness; indeed, the cedar-bark “wool” that was used to pad the cradles is almost as soft and fluffy125 in feel as down or cotton batting. When Tom was a boy, the women made only plain, unornamented baskets, whether twined or twilled, and ornamented126 the mats with sober, but effective lines of alder-dyed red and mud-dyed black. Since then, however, they306 have taken to making also trinket baskets and plaques127 of the peculiar wrapped weave, beautifully ornamented with realistic and geometrical designs in the black and white weft of grass. This art came to Tom’s people from the Nitinats or Southern Nootka, who in turn owe it to the Makah of Cape Flattery. Trade with the whites is the chief incentive128 in the making of these finer specimens129 of basketry.
Nowadays the Nootka live in small frame houses, a family, in our narrower sense of the word, to a house. It was not so when Tom was young. The village of Hikwis, in which he was raised, consisted of a row of long plank104 houses, each constructed on a heavy quadrangular frame of posts, which were the trimmed trunks of cedars130, and of crossbeams of circular section resting on the posts. The roofing and walls were of cedar planks, running lengthwise of the house. The floor was the bare earth, stamped smooth, and a slightly raised platform ran along the rear and the long sides of the house. On the inner floor one or more fires were built, the smoke escaping through openings in the roof, provided by merely shoving a roofing plank or two to a side. Tom early learned not to stand erect in the house any more than he could help. The smoke circulating in the upper reaches of the house, particularly in rainy weather when the smoke-hole rafters were closed, was trying to the eyes, and people found it convenient to sit or crouch131 on the floor as much as possible. Some of the houses, like the one in which Tom was brought up, had paintings or carvings referring to the crests132 or legendary escutcheons of the chief of the tribe, tribal subdivision, or house group. In Tom’s house the main escutcheons were two Thunder-birds, face to face, painted on the outside of the wall planks; a series of round holes cut in the roof, and one in front that served as a door, all representing moons; and paintings of wolves on the boards that ran below the platforms. The chief of the house group, together with his immediate family, occupied the rear of the house; other families of lesser133 rank, kin26 to the chief by junior lines of descent, occupied various positions along the sides. Slaves were also housed in the long communal134 dwelling. They were not, like the middle class, undistinguished relations of the chief’s families, but strangers, captured in war or bartered136 off like any chattels137. The 307 mat beds of the individual families were made on the platforms and were screened off from one another as required.
In such a house Tom early learned his exact relationship to all his kinsmen. He soon learned also the degree of his relationship to the neighboring house groups. He applied138 the terms “brother” and “sister” not only to his immediate brothers and sisters but to his cousins, near and remote, of the same generation. He distinguished135, among all these remoter brothers and sisters, “older” and “younger,” not according to their actual ages in relation to his own, but according to whether they belonged to lines of descent that were senior or junior to his own. Primogeniture, he gradually learned, both of self and progenitor139, meant superiority in rank and privilege. Hence the terms “older” and “younger,” almost from the beginning, took on a powerful secondary tinge140 of “superior” and “inferior.” The absurdity141 of calling some little girl cousin, perhaps ten years his junior, his “older sister” was for him immensely less evident because of his ever present consciousness of her higher rank. As Tom grew older, he became cognizant of an astonishing number of uncles and aunts, grandfathers and grandmothers, of endless brothers-in-law—far and near. He was very much at home in the world. Wherever he turned, he could say, “Younger brother, come here!” or “Grandfather, let me have this.” The personal names of most of his acquaintances were hardly more than tags for calling out at a distance, or at ceremonial gatherings143.
Along with his feeling of personal relationship to individuals there grew up in Tom a consciousness of the existence of tribal subdivisions in the village. The Ts’isha’ath tribe, with which he was identified by residence, kinship, and upbringing, proved really to be a cluster of various smaller tribal units, of which the Ts’isha’ath, that gave their name to the whole, were the leading group. The other subdivisions were originally independent tribes that had lost their isolated144 distinctness through conquest, weakening in numbers, or friendly removal and union. Each of the tribal subdivisions or “septs” had its own stock of legends, its distinctive privileges, its own houses in the village, its old village sites and distinctive fishing and hunting waters that were still remembered in detail by its members. While the septs now lived together as a single tribe,308 the basis of the sept division was really a traditional local one. The sept grouping was perhaps most markedly brought to light at ceremonial gatherings. Tom learned in time that of all the honored seats recognized at a feast, a certain number of contiguous seats in the rear of the house belonged to representatives of the Ts’isha’ath sept, a certain number of others at the right corner in the rear to those of another sept, and so on. Thus, the proper ranking of the septs was ever kept before the eye by the definite assignment of seats of higher and lower rank.
But it must not be supposed that Tom’s childhood and youth were spent entirely145 in work and in the acquirement of social and ceremonial knowledge. On the contrary, what interested him at least as much as sociology was play. He spun his tops—rather clumsy looking, two-pegged tops they were—threw his gaming spears in the spear and grass game and in the hoop-rolling game, hit feathered billets with a flat bat, threw beaver146 teeth dice94 (though this was chiefly a woman’s game), and, when he grew older, took part in the favorite game of “lehal,” the almost universal Western American guessing game, played with two or four gambling147 bones to the accompaniment of stirring songs. More properly belonging to the domain148 of sport was the somewhat dangerous game of canoe-upsetting, in which the contestants149 upset their canoes and quickly righted them at a hand-clap signal. This was an especially favored game of Tom’s. All through his life, up to the time that he lost his sight, he was as instinctively150 familiar with the run of water, the dip and lurch151 of a canoe, and the turn of a paddle, as with the movements of walking on the land. Indeed, for days on end, at certain seasons, his life flowed on insistently152 to the very rhythm of rising and falling wave.
In at least one class of activities and beliefs Tom constantly received definite instruction from his father and maternal uncle. This was the world of unseen things, the mysterious domain of magic, of supernaturally compelling act and of preventive tabu. There were hundreds of things he must be careful to do or to avoid if he would have success in hunting and fishing, if he would be certain that unseen but ever present powers favor him in his pursuits or, at the least, desist from visiting harm upon him. He must be particularly careful not to anger the supernatural powers, among whom are to be counted 309 the fish and mammals of the sea, by contamination with unclean things—and most obnoxious153 of all unclean things is the presence or influence of a menstruating or pregnant woman. For instance, a sealer or hunter of sea lions must not drag his canoe down to the water’s edge, but have it carried over, as otherwise it might run over offal or some spot through which a menstruating woman had passed, and thus carry with it a scent31 that would frighten away the game. And one must be careful about his speech when hunting on the sea. A curious example of this is the fiction by which fur seal hunting is spoken of as gathering142 driftwood, the fur seal himself being referred to as “the one that sits yonder under a tree.” It would not do to let him know too precisely154 what is going on while he is being hunted! The various tabus that Tom has learnt and practised in the course of his life are almost without number, and his practical success and longevity155 he ascribes in no small measure to his religious observance of them all.
The tabus are largely preventive measures. But Tom learned that there are more positive ways of working one’s will in the world of magic. One of these is the use of certain amulets157 on the person, hidden in the house or woods, or in connection with hunting and fishing implements. As a general good-luck amulet156, Tom was fond of wearing in his hat the spine158 of the “rat-fish.” When his father was about to die, he called Tom to him and whispered in his ear an important secret. This was that the chief life-guarding amulet of the family had been a fire drill that was secreted160 at the bottom of an old box filled with all sorts of odds and ends. Its efficacy depended largely on the fact that hardly anybody knew of it. In general, secrecy161 helps tremendously in the power of all magic objects and formul?. An Indian likes to withhold162 as much as possible, even from his nearest kin, until economic urgency or the approach of death compels him to transmit the magical knowledge to some one that is near and dear to him. Some of his most powerful amulets Tom would secrete159 in the canoe or hide under the cherry bark wrappings around the hafts of his hunting spears. These amulets were of all sorts, but chiefly fragments of supernatural animals—blind snakes, crabs163, spiders, or the like—obtained in the woods.
Some men are fortunate in getting power for hunting, fishing, wealth, love, doctoring, witchcraft164, or whatever it may be, from 310 supernatural beings or visitations. Amulets are often obtained in connection with these experiences, which regularly take place in mysterious or out-of-the-way places—the open sea, a remote island, the summit of a mountain, the heart of the woods,—and of all mysteries, it is the mystery of the dark woods that most fascinates and inspires with dread165 the coast villager, so much at home on the sandy beach and on open sea spaces. The supernatural givers of power are a variegated166 and grotesque167 lot—mysterious hands pointing up out of the earth; the scaly168, knife-tongued, lightning serpent; fairy-like beings; treacherous169 tree nymphs; hobgoblins; ogres; and strange hybrid170 animals that seem to have stepped out of nightmares. All these denizens171 of the supernatural world have power to bestow28 that may not with impunity172 be refused. This power, once obtained, must be carefully husbanded by the observance of requisite173 tabus.
Tom has not had as many supernatural experiences as some men, but he has nevertheless been favored by two or three striking visitations. A gnome-like being of the beneficent, wealth-giving class known as Chimimis, once appeared to him as he was sitting out at dusk in company with two other men. Though these companions had their eyes directed at the Chimimis, they could not perceive him. Tom alone, speechless with astonishment174, saw him place two spears on the roof of the house, walk off to the neighboring house, and disappear, so it seemed, in a log. When Tom came to himself, he scraped off those parts of the spear shafts that the hand of the Chimimis had gripped. He preserved the scrapings as an amulet and, in time, became one of the wealthiest men of his tribe.
At another time Tom obtained power from a supernatural being known as “Full-eyed,” a diminutive175, brownie-like creature. He was lying very ill in the house, gazing steadfastly176 at the fire, when the popping up of a little cinder177 caused him to raise his eyes. He saw what seemed to be a child circling the fire in a counter-clockwise direction, which is the exact opposite of the Nootka direction in dancing. He knew immediately that it was Full-eyed. The brownie carried a small storage basket on his breast, and picked up from the floor anything he could lay his hands on. Though Tom had been unable to sit up straight, this supernatural experience infused him with such sudden strength that he was now easily able to sit up. He believed also that, from this time on, wealth rolled into his house311 more rapidly than ever. The third of Tom’s supernatural experiences was less striking than the other two, but apparently178 equally potent179 in its practical results. Tom was reclining on the sleeping platform of the house, in the dead of winter, when he observed a strange thing in one of the storage baskets on the box that marked the head of his bed. He noticed that a big black bumblebee gave birth to an infant bee. This seemed remarkable180 and evidently significant in view of the fact that the young bees ordinarily come into being in the summer, only. Because Tom was sole witness to so strange an occurrence, he was more than ever favored in the accumulation of wealth.
Such extraordinary occurrences as these are clearly in the nature of accidents; they cannot be relied upon for the necessary aid in the successful prosecution181 of life’s work. The standard, and on the whole, the most useful means of securing this necessary aid is by the performance of secret rituals. Nothing came to one who did not undergo considerable hardship in training. This Tom learned early in life. If he wished to be a successful fisherman, or a hunter of sea mammals, or a land hunter, he had to retire at certain seasons to secret places in the woods, known only to the respective families that frequented them. Here, for days on end, he would bathe, rub himself down with hemlock branches until the skin tingled with pain, pray to the Sky Chief for long life and success, and, most important of all, carry out secret, magical performances based on the principle of imitation. If he wished to obtain power in sealing, he would build effigies182 of twigs183 representing the seal, the harpooning184 outfit185, and the hunting canoe. The aspirants186 for success would dramatize the future hunt in its magical setting. He himself performed imitative actions and offered continuous prayers for success. These periods of preparation tested physical endurance to the utmost; fasting, continuous wakefulness, sexual continence, and the observance of all sorts of tabus formed part of the training. There was little that one could not learn to do, if only he were hardy187 enough to undergo the necessary magical preparation. Such young men as were fired with extraordinary ambitions, say unusual success in whaling or the acquirement of potent shamanistic power, would train the will and chasten the cries of the flesh for incredibly long periods, their spiritual eye fixed singly on the austerities of magical procedure.
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Tom never devoted188 himself to unusual rigors189 in the acquirement of magical power. He contented190 himself with the normal routine enjoined191 upon those planning to seal, to spear salmon, to troll, to catch halibut with hooks, to spear cod with the aid of decoys, to accumulate wealth, to prepare for ritualistic performances, and to obtain enough shamanistic power to withstand the attempts of evil-minded people to bewitch him. He never ventured upon the more difficult and exhausting procedures required to make a successful whaler or hunter of sea lions. Of the more unusual types of secret ritual, Tom attempted but one. When past middle age, he was fired with the ambition to learn how to interpret the speech of ravens193. The ravens are believed to be the supernatural messengers of the wolves, the most austere194 and eerie195 of all beings, in the belief of the Nootka. Could Tom have learned to unravel196 the mysteries concealed197 in the croakings of these supernatural birds, there is little doubt that he would have been able to advance in ritual power far beyond his fellow tribesmen. Unfortunately he found the quest of this difficult knowledge too exhausting, too baffling. Tom acknowledges his failure with a sigh.
The secret rituals could only be performed at auspicious198 periods, when the moon was waxing and when the days were becoming progressively long. It was for this reason that Tom was always very careful to keep track of the passage of time, of the recurrence199 of the moons. If some neighbor, less wise and observant, committed the error of taking one moon for another and of performing magical rituals out of season, Tom would say nothing. He would smile and keep counsel with himself, knowing well that his neighbor’s efforts when the hunting season came around, were doomed to failure. While Tom was one of those that never went out of his way to bewitch his neighbors or to spoil their luck, he was naturally not altogether displeased200 when they put themselves at a disadvantage. It was none of his business to correct them, to strengthen the hands of possible rivals.
Medicine men gained their power in a manner perfectly201 analogous202 to all other quests for magical assistance. The difference was simply that they sought aid of such beings as were known to grant power to cure diseases and to counteract203 witchcraft. The material guardians204 and amulets obtained by medicine men, generally certain birds and 313 rarer fish, were locked away in their breasts. When required for the detection of sickness, for the cure of the diseased, or for the overcoming of an evil opponent, they could be called upon to fly invisibly to the desired goal and to return at will. Tom himself obtained a modicum205 of power from the mallard ducks, but not enough to warrant his considering himself a regular practitioner206. He had, also, a certain inherited, shamanistic power, or rather privilege, that came to him from a Nitinat ancestor. This is why at public shamanistic performances which form part of the Ts’ayek cult192, Tom’s oldest son has the right to initiate102 shamanistic novices207 at a certain point in the ceremonial procedure, though he himself is not a practising medicine man.
Many Nootka are accused of gaining power to bewitch their enemies or rivals, whether by the handling of their food, nail parings, and body effluvia, or by the pronouncing of direful spells in connection with the name and effigy208 of the hated person. Tom never indulged in such mean spirited pursuits, but he is very sure that many of his acquaintances have done so. It is the constant fear of witchcraft that even to this day causes the Indians to keep many dogs around the house, and to lock their doors securely at night. The barking of the dogs is useful in calling attention to malevolent209 “pains” or minute disease objects that wander about, particularly at night, while the locking of doors is essential in denying these objects an entrance.
The great supernatural beings of Nootka belief, such as the Sky Chief, the Thunder-bird, and the Wolves, loomed210 very large in Tom’s life, whether in prayer or in ritual. Certain Nootka are more deeply religious than others. They are more fervent211 in their prayers and they work themselves up to a greater ecstasy212 in the performance of rituals that are sacred to divine powers. In contrast to men of this type, Tom has always been rather sober, not a skeptic213 by any means, but not an emotional enthusiast214. His knowledge of religious ceremonials is vast, but the spirit that animates215 this knowledge is rather one of order, of legal particularity, not of spiritual ecstasy. The practical economical world, the pursuit of gain, has always been more congenial to Tom’s temperament216. This does not mean that Tom is a rationalist in matters relating to the unseen world. Only the educated or half-educated half-breeds are rationalists, and more than one of them has angered Tom by his ill-advised attempts to disturb314 him with skeptical217 arguments. However, there has been no change in Tom. He knows, as firmly as he knows his own name, that when the rumble218 of thunder is heard from the mountain, it is because the Thunder-bird is leaving his house on the peak, flapping his wings heavily, as he makes off for the sea to prey219 upon the whales. He knows also that when those that are not blind like himself tell him that there has been a flash of lightning, it is because the Thunder-bird has dropped the belt wound about his middle. This belt is the lightning serpent, zig-zagging down to the earth or coiling in a flash around a cedar tree.
Aside from the elementary problem of making his living, a Nootka’s main concern is to earn the esteem220 of his fellow tribesmen by a lavish display of wealth. It is not enough for him to accumulate it and to live in private ease. He must, from time to time, invite the other families of his tribe, and the neighboring tribes, to public ceremonies known as potlatches, in which one or more of the important privileges to which he is entitled are shown and glorified221 by the distribution of property to the guests. The exhibiting of privileges may take several forms. The most important of them refer to ancestral crests, which may be shown in a dramatic performance, as a picture on a board, or latterly, on canvas, or symbolized222 in a dance. Ceremonial games are another frequent type of exhibitions of privileges at certain potlatches. Nearly all privileges have their proper songs, which are themselves jealously guarded privileges, and which are sung on these occasions.
There are two considerations that make the public performance of the more important privileges a matter of the greatest moment. In the first place, a man must clearly indicate his right to its performance by recounting the origin myth that it dramatizes, and by tracing his personal connection with the originator of the privilege. In the second place, he must be careful to distribute at least as much property as has already been distributed in his family, in connection with the public presentation of the privilege. If it is at all possible, he will try to exceed the record, so as to add to the public prestige not only of himself and his immediate family, but of the privilege itself. Should he fail in either of these essential respects, he is shamed. Hence, an important potlatch is not to be lightly undertaken. It requires much careful thought and preparation, and it necessitates224 the gathering of315 enough wealth to pay for all the services rendered by singers and other assistants, to present substantial gifts to the guests, and to feed the crowd of men, women and children that are present at the ceremony.
A potlatch is not often given as a mere display of wealth. Nearly always it is combined with some definite social or religious function, such as the giving of a name, the coming to marriageable age of a daughter, marriage, a mourning ceremony, the Wolf ritual, or a doctoring ceremony. Potlatching in its fundamental sense, in other words the giving away of property to the guests, is an essential of practically all ceremonies, big or little, religious or profane225. Every potlatch involves at least three parties, the giver, the guest or guests, and the person in whose honor the potlatch is given. The last of these is generally some young member of the family whose prestige is thus furthered early in life, but it may be a stranger who has done the giver a service. There are different kinds of gifts. Certain of them are ceremonial grants to which the highest in rank of the tribe are entitled, but which they are expected to return with one hundred per cent interest at a subsequent potlatch. Another class of gifts, which feature the most important and picturesque226 part of the potlatch, is made to the highest in rank among the guests. There is no rigid227 rule as to the return of these gifts, but in practice they are nearly always liquidated228 at a return potlatch, with gifts of an equal, and in many cases greater, value. Finally, towards the end of the potlatch, there is a general distribution of smaller amounts to the crowd. Less careful account is taken of the return of such gifts than of the first two types. In part, the giving of a potlatch amounts to an investment of value, though it is doubtful whether, among the Nootka, the greater part of the expenditure229 incurred230 at a potlatch ever returned to its owner.
A potlatch serves not only a definite social and economic purpose for its giver, but affords, as well, an opportunity for minor231 distributions of property, such as public payments for services, on the part of other individuals present. Indeed any announcements of importance, such as the handing over of a privilege or a change in name, would be most appropriately made at a potlatch. The assembled tribesmen and guests were, to all intents and purposes, witnesses to such announcements.
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Tom began to give potlatches on his own account when still quite a young man. The first one of any importance that he was responsible for, was a potlatch in honor of his niece’s husband. This was a man of low birth, whom Tom had vowed232 to have nothing to do with. When his niece, however, gave birth to a child, Tom relented and, in order to wash away the stain on his family’s honor, he called together thirty of his relatives, and distributed four guns and a blanket to each. He also sang two of his privileged songs, which he then and there transferred to the child as its due privilege. This potlatch not only marked a reconcilement with his low-born nephew, but gave the little youngster a fair start in life in the race for status. The next of Tom’s potlatches was a Wolf ritual, in which he himself performed two of the ceremonial dances, those of the Thunder-bird and the Wolf circling about on all fours.
Some time after this, Tom resolved to marry a Ts’isha’ath girl named Witsah. In spite of the fact that she was a member of his own tribe, Tom wooed the girl not as a Ts’isha’ath, but as a member of a Nitinat tribe, among whom he had kinsmen on his father’s side. As his own father was dead, he had ten of his Nitinat uncles woo the girl on his behalf. The wooing is always an important part of the marriage preliminaries, and consists chiefly in the placing of objects, symbolizing233 one or more of the privileges of the suitor, outside the house of the girl’s family. The suitor himself is not present. Sometimes the objects are refused, when the suit may be continued until an acceptance is gained, though this does not necessarily follow. The suitor privileges deposited by Tom’s representatives consisted of ten fires and a carving114, representing the lightning serpent. These were accepted and returned to Tom’s uncle as an indication of willingness on the part of the bride’s parents to proceed with the marriage ceremony. Not long after the return of the privileges, the marriage ceremony was celebrated234 among the Ts’isha’ath people. The money distributed at that time by Tom and his Nitinat relatives constituted a bridal purchase, but when Tom’s first child was born, the property then distributed was returned to Tom and the Nitinats with interest.
The greater part of the marriage ceremony consists of the performance of ceremonial games, each of which is accompanied by special songs, and followed by distributions of property. These games symbolize223 the difficulty of obtaining the hand of the bride, referring as 317 they do to legendary tests that suitors were compelled to undergo in the past, before they could be admitted by the bride’s father. One of the tests, for instance, might be the lifting of an especially heavy stone, or standing for some time without flinching235 between two fires. According to legendary theory such tests should be endured by the bridegroom himself, but in actual ceremonial practice any one of the bridegroom’s party may be the winner in the contest, and receive the prize from the bride’s father or whoever of her people is the proud possessor of that particular marriage-game privilege.
Some time after his marriage Tom gave two potlatches in a single month. The first of these was a puberty potlatch in behalf of a younger sister of his. The second was a birth feast or, as the Nootka term it a “navel feast” for his first child, a boy. About a year later Tom invited the Ucluelet people, one of the Nootka tribes, to a feast at which many dance privileges were performed and much property distributed. By this time Tom was getting to be pretty well known among the tribes of the west coast of Vancouver Island, for his rapidly growing wealth and for his potlatches. It was, therefore, no surprise to him, though it proved very gratifying, to have the chief of the Ahousat, one of the most powerful of the northern Nootka tribes, especially invite him to a potlatch at which he was given four of the chief’s ceremonial songs. In return, Tom gave a potlatch to the Ahousat and the Comox, a tribe of alien speech from the east coast of the Island. He distributed four hundred blankets to the former, three hundred to the latter.
A year or two after this potlatch, occurred the decisive event in Tom’s social career. This was the birth of his first daughter. The most magnificent Nootka potlatches are generally given in connection with a daughter’s puberty ceremony. Ever since his marriage, Tom had been hoping to be able, in the fullness of time, to make a record in potlatching among his people, and to show his most valued privileges at the puberty potlatch of a daughter. Now that he was actually blessed by the arrival of a little girl, Tom’s plans took immediate shape. He set about the accumulation of property with more zest236 than ever, driving many a sharp bargain with the Indians and whites, and he revolved237 frequently in his mind what tribes he was to invite, and what dramatic displays, dances and songs he was to use at the great ceremony. His first concern was to build a large house of 318 native construction that the guests were to enter when invited to the Ts’isha’ath people. Appropriate timbers for posts and beams are not easy to find, especially since the white man’s sawmill has made its appearance in the country. Hence, Tom was indefatigable238 in making inquiries239 of various persons and keeping his eye out for sufficiently240 large and conveniently located cedars. As he found such trees, he had them felled, hauled up to the Ts’isha’ath village along the Somass river, and put in place as opportunity presented itself. The actual construction of the house was thus spread over a period of some ten or fifteen years.
At one time an unfortunate casualty occurred. One of the heavy crossbeams fell to the ground, fortunately without injuring any one, but the event was considered an ill omen32. Nevertheless, Tom did the best he could to ward91 off the evil influence by having a dance performed in honor of the spirit of the beam. Special songs that he possessed for this purpose were sung at the time.
Tom hoped that he could have the house completed before his daughter arrived at maturity241. He was doomed to disappointment. His house still lacked one of the crossbeams and all the lighter242 wood-work, when his wife announced to him one morning that their daughter had come of age, was menstruating, in other words, for the first time. There was nothing for it but to have the puberty ceremony performed at once, reserving the main puberty potlatch for a few months later. Tom painted his face red and invited the neighboring Hopach’as’ath tribe to the puberty ceremony, the “torches standing on the ground,” as it is termed.
This ceremony marks the beginning of the period of seclusion243 of the girl. She is painted and ornamented for the occasion, generally with legendary insignia belonging to the family, is made to stand in front of two long boards painted with representations of Thunder-birds and whales, and has water thrown four times at her feet. Four or ten poles, the so-called “torches,” are lighted and later distributed with gifts to those entitled to receive them. Songs of various types are sung, particularly satirical songs twitting the opposite sex. Ceremonial games, some of them anticipating later marriage games, are also performed and prizes are distributed. After a general distribution of goods, the guests depart, leaving the girl to fast for four 319 days and to enter upon a secluded period of various tabus behind the painted boards in the rear of the house.
After the puberty ceremony, Tom proceeded to Victoria to lay in his store of supplies for the impending244 potlatch. He bought an enormous number of boxes of biscuits, and to this day nothing pleases him more than to tell of how he compelled the white merchant to give him a special rate on the unusual order. As soon as the provisions were safely deposited at his village, Tom invited twelve tribes to his potlatch. To the nearer tribes he sent messengers; the more remote tribes of the east coast he invited in person. When the appointed day arrived, the Ts’isha’ath found that they had on their hands by far the largest number of guests that had ever visited the tribe at a single time. It was the proudest moment of Tom’s life. Everything went well. There was enough food for all, the distributions of property were generous, and all the privileges were interestingly presented. There were a considerable number of these privileges performed, one or two of them being fairly elaborate dramatic representations that were new even to the most northern Nootka tribes, great potlatchers though they are. Tom’s hereditary claim to the performances, the dances and the songs, was carefully explained by the ceremonial speaker. The ancestral legends were in every case recounted at length. Tom’s title to the special crests of the whale and the Thunder-bird was duly set forth245. The explanation of the carved house posts took the speaker back to the creation of the first Ts’isha’ath man from the thigh246 of a woman. Due account, as usual in these origin legends, was taken of the flood. The potlatch securely established Tom’s position among the Indians of the Island. To this day it is often referred to by the Ts’isha’ath and their neighbors. Tom’s family was “put high” as never before. More than once, Tom’s grandson has found himself, when visiting comparative strangers, say among the East Coast tribes, received with open arms and honored with gifts of great value, all on the strength of his grandfather’s potlatch.
Tom’s potlatching career did not end here. Some time later he invited the Kyuquot, a Nootka tribe adjoining the Kwakiutl. At this potlatch he gave a dramatic representation of a number of privileges, including two Thunder-birds, a spouting247 whale, the supernatural 320 quartz-beings known as He’na, and a supernatural bird known as Mihtach, a sort of mallard duck that haunts the top of the mountain called “Two-bladders-on-its-summit.” The Heshkwiat tribe of Nootka was the next to be invited to a potlatch. A year or two after this, the second greatest ceremonial event in Tom’s career took place, in the form of his second Wolf ritual or Tlokwana. The ritual was given for the special benefit of his oldest son Douglas and his newly married wife. These were the chief initiates248 in the ritual. Curiously249 enough, Tom’s little grandson, as yet unborn, was also initiated. This is an extreme instance of the tendency of the Nootka Indians to heap honors upon their offspring at the earliest possible opportunity.
The Wolf ritual is the most awesome250, the most fascinating and fear-inspiring ceremony that the Nootka possess. Whatever religious exaltation or frenzy251 they are capable of, finds expression in this elaborate ritual. The performance, which generally lasts eight days, preferably in the winter, is dominated throughout by the spirit of the wolves who are believed to be hovering252 near at the outskirts253 of the village. The more important parts of the ceremonial are open to only such members of the tribe as have been initiated. Many tabus must be observed by those participating, and an attitude of high-minded seriousness must be maintained throughout. In the old days, frivolity254 during the more strictly255 religious parts of the ritual, aside of course from the ceremonial buffoonery, was very severely256 punished by the marshaling attendants. Spearing to death on the spot was the penalty for infraction257 of the most sacred tabus.
The ritual begins with the songs and other ceremonial activities of an ordinary potlatch. Rumors258 are set going of the appearance of wolves in the neighborhood of the village. These rumors, accentuated259 by tales of narrow escapes and bloody260 casualties, act powerfully upon the imagination of the children, who are soon reduced to a state of panic. All of a sudden the lights are extinguished, and the four “wolves” break through the side of the house. In the confusion that ensues they make off with the youngsters that are to be initiated. From this moment, begins the ritual proper. A certain number of the tribe have the hereditary privilege to “play wolf,” that is, to act as wolves during certain parts of the ritual beyond the confines of the village, to make off with the novices, and keep these as supposed prisoners 321 in the woods. For a number of days, there are supposed to be unsuccessful attempts to take back the captured novices, but the wolves remain obdurate261 until certain songs are sung, when the novices are brought out in view of the people and the series of attacks finally succeeds in routing the wolves. The novices are supposed to be frenzied262 by the spirits of various supernatural beings that possess them. They must be brought back by force. Those privileged to do so lasso them, and, to the accompaniment of sacred songs, the struggling novices are conducted to the potlatch house, whistling furiously all the while. The hubbub263 of mingled264 whistling, drumming and simultaneous singing of many distinct ritual songs, continues for the greater part of the night. The din9 is indescribable. During the following day is performed the most sacred episode in the ritual. The whistling spirits that possess the novices must be exorcised by means of sacred dances and songs. A purification ceremony of bathing in the river or sea follows. The remainder of the ritual consists of the performance of a number of special dances, each of which is appropriate to the particular supernatural being that is supposed to have possessed one of the initiates. There are many of these dances, varying greatly in their prestige as privileges, and in their character of religious frenzy. Probably the most austere of the dances is that of the supernatural wolf, who crawls about in reckless pursuit of destruction and has to be restrained with great difficulty by a number of attendants. Other dances represent various types of woodsy creatures or ogres. Many of them are pantomimic representations of animals, while human activities of various kinds are represented in still others.
With this Wolf ritual Tom’s ceremonial activities gradually lessened265. He continued to take an active interest in whatever potlatches were given by his family, and he often helped with his advice and active co?peration in the singing of songs and the delivering of ceremonial addresses, particularly of the formal speeches of thanks. Now that he had done his share in establishing the glory of his family, Tom sat back and allowed his eldest266 son to take the initiative, at least in theory, in all ceremonies affecting their standing in the tribe.
It is long since Tom has been able to do useful work. He is entirely dependent on his oldest son’s family, with whom he lives, but they do not feel his presence to be a burden. For one thing, he is 322 uniformly good-natured, very talkative about his own past and in judging his neighbors, and always ready to help with his advice in matters of importance, whether it be the preparations for a potlatch or some contested sealing claim. But back of the garrulous267, shabby Tom of the present, looms268 up the Tom of the great potlatches of former days. It is to this Tom that his children and grandchildren almost entirely owe the high standing that they maintain among their people.
When Tom dies he will be put in a coffin269 and buried in the ground. This was not the old Nootka custom. The more important families had caves in which their deceased members were put away; others were laid in burial boxes or rush mats which were then put up in trees back of the village. Near the place of the burial there would be put up a grave post, constructed of roof rafters of the house, on which would be painted one of the crests of the deceased.
Though the old burial customs are no longer followed, some of the beliefs and practices attending death have not yet died out. Thus, the immediate personal effects of the deceased, as well as considerable additional property, are always destroyed. In the old days the whole house might be burned down, and tales are told of how the mourning survivors270 would move off to another spot to build them a new house. In all likelihood there will be performed immediately after Tom’s death a ceremony intended to comfort the family of the deceased and to induce Tom’s spirit to leave the house and its vicinity. Tom’s soul will have left his body in the shape of a tiny shadow-like double of himself, through the crown of his head, to assume eventually the form of a full-fledged ghost. It is safe to assume that the tabu of the dead person’s name will be carefully observed. Not only will Tom’s name not be mentioned by his tribesmen for a stated period, but all words that involve the main element of his name will be carefully avoided. This element denotes the idea of “distant.” People will have to get along as best they can without it, whether by beating about the bush, by stretching the meaning of some other element so as to enable it to take its place, or, if need be, by borrowing the corresponding element, provided it be of different sound, from some other dialect. Wailing271 sounds will be heard in the village for some time after Tom’s death, and it is very likely that at a mourning potlatch a number of privileges belonging to the family, say four songs, 323 will be thrown away. Such privileges are tabued during the mourning period. At the end of the mourning period, which may be anything from a year to ten, another potlatch is given by one of the family and the tabus are lifted. When that time arrives Tom’s name will have passed into native history. The name Sayach’apis, “Stands-up-high-over-all,” will then be freely referred to with pride or with envy.
Edward Sapir
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stumping
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| 僵直地行走，跺步行走( stump的现在分词 )； 把（某人）难住； 使为难； （选举前）在某一地区作政治性巡回演说 | |
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tribal
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| adj.部族的，种族的 | |
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permanently
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| adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地 | |
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harpoons
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| n.鱼镖，鱼叉( harpoon的名词复数 )v.鱼镖，鱼叉( harpoon的第三人称单数 ) | |
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cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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luster
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| n.光辉；光泽，光亮；荣誉 | |
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7
tunes
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| n.曲调，曲子( tune的名词复数 )v.调音( tune的第三人称单数 )；调整；（给收音机、电视等）调谐；使协调 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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din
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| n.喧闹声，嘈杂声 | |
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distinctive
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| adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的 | |
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spun
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| v.纺，杜撰，急转身 | |
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legendary
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| adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学） | |
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attainment
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| n.达到，到达；［常pl.］成就，造诣 | |
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slumber
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| n.睡眠，沉睡状态 | |
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ironical
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| adj.讽刺的，冷嘲的 | |
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nuance
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| n.(意义、意见、颜色)细微差别 | |
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lore
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| n.传说；学问，经验，知识 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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provenance
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| n.出处；起源 | |
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20
nexus
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| n.联系；关系 | |
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21
binds
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| v.约束( bind的第三人称单数 )；装订；捆绑；（用长布条）缠绕 | |
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22
maternal
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| adj.母亲的，母亲般的，母系的，母方的 | |
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23
influx
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| n.流入，注入 | |
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24
paternal
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| adj.父亲的，像父亲的，父系的，父方的 | |
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25
descending
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| n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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26
kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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27
bestowed
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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28
bestow
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| v.把…赠与，把…授予；花费 | |
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29
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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30
penetrate
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| v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解 | |
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31
scent
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| n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉 | |
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32
omen
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| n.征兆，预兆；vt.预示 | |
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33
coveted
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| adj.令人垂涎的；垂涎的，梦寐以求的v.贪求，觊觎(covet的过去分词)；垂涎；贪图 | |
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34
immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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35
kinsmen
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| n.家属，亲属( kinsman的名词复数 ) | |
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36
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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37
sundry
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| adj.各式各样的，种种的 | |
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38
cedar
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| n.雪松，香柏(木) | |
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39
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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40
butt
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| n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶 | |
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41
willow
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| n.柳树 | |
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42
edible
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| n.食品，食物；adj.可食用的 | |
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43
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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44
flattened
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| [医]（水）平扁的，弄平的 | |
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45
calves
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| n.(calf的复数)笨拙的男子，腓；腿肚子( calf的名词复数 )；牛犊；腓；小腿肚v.生小牛( calve的第三人称单数 )；（冰川）崩解；生（小牛等），产（犊）；使（冰川）崩解 | |
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46
bulge
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| n.突出，膨胀，激增；vt.突出，膨胀 | |
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47
eyebrows
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| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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48
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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49
infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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50
scanty
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| adj.缺乏的，仅有的，节省的，狭小的，不够的 | |
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51
tattooed
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| v.刺青，文身( tattoo的过去式和过去分词 )；连续有节奏地敲击；作连续有节奏的敲击 | |
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52
crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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53
attachment
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| n.附属物，附件；依恋；依附 | |
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54
purely
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| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
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55
ornament
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| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
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56
tweezers
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| n.镊子 | |
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57
plunge
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| v.跳入，(使)投入，(使)陷入；猛冲 | |
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58
hemlock
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| n.毒胡萝卜，铁杉 | |
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59
tingled
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| v.有刺痛感( tingle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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60
aspiring
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| adj.有志气的；有抱负的；高耸的v.渴望；追求 | |
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61
festive
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| adj.欢宴的，节日的 | |
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62
secluded
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| adj.与世隔绝的；隐退的；偏僻的v.使隔开，使隐退( seclude的过去式和过去分词) | |
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63
emblematic
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| adj.象征的，可当标志的；象征性 | |
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64
undesirable
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| adj.不受欢迎的，不良的，不合意的，讨厌的；n.不受欢迎的人，不良分子 | |
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65
otter
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| n.水獭 | |
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66
strands
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| n.（线、绳、金属线、毛发等的）股( strand的名词复数 )；缕；海洋、湖或河的)岸；（观点、计划、故事等的）部份v.使滞留，使搁浅( strand的第三人称单数 ) | |
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67
tassels
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| n.穗( tassel的名词复数 )；流苏状物；（植物的）穗；玉蜀黍的穗状雄花v.抽穗， （玉米）长穗须( tassel的第三人称单数 )；使抽穗， （为了使作物茁壮生长）摘去穗状雄花；用流苏装饰 | |
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68
fibers
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| 光纤( fiber的名词复数 )； （织物的）质地； 纤维，纤维物质 | |
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69
fishy
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| adj. 值得怀疑的 | |
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70
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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71
salmon
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| n.鲑，大马哈鱼，橙红色的 | |
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72
trout
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| n.鳟鱼；鲑鱼(属) | |
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73
peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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74
gracefully
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| ad.大大方方地；优美地 | |
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75
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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76
odds
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| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
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77
cod
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| n.鳕鱼；v.愚弄；哄骗 | |
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78
clams
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| n.蛤；蚌，蛤( clam的名词复数 )v.（在沙滩上）挖蛤( clam的第三人称单数 ) | |
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79
urchins
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| n.顽童( urchin的名词复数 )；淘气鬼；猬；海胆 | |
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80
octopuses
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| 章鱼( octopus的名词复数 ) | |
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81
octopus
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| n.章鱼 | |
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82
crab
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|
| n.螃蟹，偏航，脾气乖戾的人，酸苹果；vi.捕蟹，偏航，发牢骚；vt.使偏航，发脾气 | |
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83
harpooned
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|
| v.鱼镖，鱼叉( harpoon的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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84
otters
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| n.（水）獭( otter的名词复数 )；獭皮 | |
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85
hereditary
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| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
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86
doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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87
joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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88
laboriously
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| adv.艰苦地；费力地；辛勤地；（文体等）佶屈聱牙地 | |
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90
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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91
ward
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| n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开 | |
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92
lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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93
lurid
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| adj.可怕的；血红的；苍白的 | |
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94
dice
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| n.骰子；vt.把（食物）切成小方块，冒险 | |
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95
middle-aged
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| adj.中年的 | |
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96
chunk
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| n.厚片，大块，相当大的部分（数量） | |
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97
staples
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|
| n.（某国的）主要产品( staple的名词复数 )；钉书钉；U 形钉；主要部份v.用钉书钉钉住( staple的第三人称单数 ) | |
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98
monotonous
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|
| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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99
relish
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| n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味 | |
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100
detest
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| vt.痛恨，憎恶 | |
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101
initiated
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| n. 创始人 adj. 新加入的 vt. 开始，创始，启蒙，介绍加入 | |
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102
initiate
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| vt.开始，创始，发动；启蒙，使入门；引入 | |
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103
yew
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| n.紫杉属树木 | |
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104
plank
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| n.板条，木板，政策要点，政纲条目 | |
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105
planks
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| （厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点 | |
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106
notching
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| adj.多级的（指继电器）n.做凹口，开槽v.在（某物）上刻V形痕( notch的现在分词 )；赢得；赢取；获得高分 | |
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107
aboriginal
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| adj.（指动植物）土生的，原产地的，土著的 | |
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108
implements
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| n.工具( implement的名词复数 )；家具；手段；[法律]履行（契约等）v.实现( implement的第三人称单数 )；执行；贯彻；使生效 | |
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109
modification
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| n.修改，改进，缓和，减轻 | |
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110
shafts
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| n.轴( shaft的名词复数 )；（箭、高尔夫球棒等的）杆；通风井；一阵（疼痛、害怕等） | |
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111
aptitude
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| n.(学习方面的)才能，资质，天资 | |
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112
artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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113
carvings
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| n.雕刻( carving的名词复数 )；雕刻术；雕刻品；雕刻物 | |
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114
carving
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| n.雕刻品，雕花 | |
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115
rattles
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| （使）发出格格的响声， （使）作嘎嘎声( rattle的第三人称单数 )； 喋喋不休地说话； 迅速而嘎嘎作响地移动，堕下或走动； 使紧张，使恐惧 | |
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116
ornamental
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| adj.装饰的；作装饰用的；n.装饰品；观赏植物 | |
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117
proficient
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| adj.熟练的，精通的；n.能手，专家 | |
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118
strings
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| n.弦 | |
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119
amassed
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| v.积累，积聚( amass的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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120
lavish
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| adj.无节制的；浪费的；vt.慷慨地给予，挥霍 | |
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121
frayed
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| adj.磨损的v.（使布、绳等）磨损，磨破( fray的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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122
softened
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| （使）变软( soften的过去式和过去分词 )； 缓解打击； 缓和； 安慰 | |
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123
clatter
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| v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声 | |
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124
corrugated
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| adj.波纹的；缩成皱纹的；波纹面的；波纹状的v.（使某物）起皱褶(corrugate的过去式和过去分词) | |
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125
fluffy
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| adj.有绒毛的，空洞的 | |
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126
ornamented
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| adj.花式字体的v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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127
plaques
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| （纪念性的）匾牌( plaque的名词复数 )； 纪念匾； 牙斑； 空斑 | |
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128
incentive
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| n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机 | |
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129
specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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130
cedars
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| 雪松，西洋杉( cedar的名词复数 ) | |
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131
crouch
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| v.蹲伏，蜷缩，低头弯腰；n.蹲伏 | |
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132
crests
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| v.到达山顶（或浪峰）( crest的第三人称单数 )；到达洪峰，达到顶点 | |
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133
lesser
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| adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地 | |
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134
communal
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| adj.公有的，公共的，公社的，公社制的 | |
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135
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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136
bartered
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| v.作物物交换，以货换货( barter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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137
chattels
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| n.动产，奴隶( chattel的名词复数 ) | |
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138
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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139
progenitor
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| n.祖先，先驱 | |
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140
tinge
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| vt.(较淡)着色于，染色；使带有…气息；n.淡淡色彩，些微的气息 | |
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141
absurdity
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| n.荒谬，愚蠢；谬论 | |
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142
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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143
gatherings
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| 聚集( gathering的名词复数 )； 收集； 采集； 搜集 | |
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144
isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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145
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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146
beaver
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| n.海狸，河狸 | |
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147
gambling
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| n.赌博；投机 | |
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148
domain
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| n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围 | |
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149
contestants
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| n.竞争者，参赛者( contestant的名词复数 ) | |
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150
instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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151
lurch
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| n.突然向前或旁边倒；v.蹒跚而行 | |
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152
insistently
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| ad.坚持地 | |
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153
obnoxious
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| adj.极恼人的，讨人厌的，可憎的 | |
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154
precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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155
longevity
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| n.长命；长寿 | |
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156
amulet
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| n.护身符 | |
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157
amulets
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| n.护身符( amulet的名词复数 ) | |
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158
spine
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| n.脊柱，脊椎；(动植物的)刺；书脊 | |
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159
secrete
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| vt.分泌；隐匿，使隐秘 | |
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160
secreted
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| v.（尤指动物或植物器官）分泌( secrete的过去式和过去分词 )；隐匿，隐藏 | |
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161
secrecy
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| n.秘密，保密，隐蔽 | |
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162
withhold
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| v.拒绝，不给；使停止，阻挡 | |
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163
crabs
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| n.蟹( crab的名词复数 )；阴虱寄生病；蟹肉v.捕蟹( crab的第三人称单数 ) | |
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164
witchcraft
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| n.魔法，巫术 | |
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165
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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166
variegated
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| adj.斑驳的，杂色的 | |
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167
grotesque
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| adj.怪诞的，丑陋的；n.怪诞的图案，怪人（物） | |
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168
scaly
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| adj.鱼鳞状的；干燥粗糙的 | |
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169
treacherous
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|
| adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的 | |
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170
hybrid
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| n.(动，植）杂种，混合物 | |
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171
denizens
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| n.居民，住户( denizen的名词复数 ) | |
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172
impunity
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| n.(惩罚、损失、伤害等的)免除 | |
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173
requisite
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| adj.需要的，必不可少的；n.必需品 | |
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174
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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175
diminutive
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| adj.小巧可爱的，小的 | |
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176
steadfastly
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| adv.踏实地，不变地；岿然；坚定不渝 | |
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177
cinder
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| n.余烬，矿渣 | |
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178
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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179
potent
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| adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的 | |
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180
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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181
prosecution
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| n.起诉，告发，检举，执行，经营 | |
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182
effigies
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| n.（人的）雕像，模拟像，肖像( effigy的名词复数 ) | |
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183
twigs
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| 细枝，嫩枝( twig的名词复数 ) | |
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184
harpooning
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| v.鱼镖，鱼叉( harpoon的现在分词 ) | |
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185
outfit
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| n.（为特殊用途的）全套装备，全套服装 | |
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186
aspirants
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| n.有志向或渴望获得…的人( aspirant的名词复数 )v.渴望的，有抱负的，追求名誉或地位的( aspirant的第三人称单数 )；有志向或渴望获得…的人 | |
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187
hardy
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| adj.勇敢的，果断的，吃苦的；耐寒的 | |
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188
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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189
rigors
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| 严格( rigor的名词复数 )； 严酷； 严密； （由惊吓或中毒等导致的身体）僵直 | |
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190
contented
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|
| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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191
enjoined
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|
| v.命令( enjoin的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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192
cult
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| n.异教，邪教；时尚，狂热的崇拜 | |
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193
ravens
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| n.低质煤；渡鸦( raven的名词复数 ) | |
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194
austere
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|
| adj.艰苦的；朴素的，朴实无华的；严峻的 | |
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195
eerie
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| adj.怪诞的；奇异的；可怕的；胆怯的 | |
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196
unravel
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| v.弄清楚（秘密）；拆开，解开，松开 | |
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197
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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198
auspicious
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|
| adj.吉利的；幸运的，吉兆的 | |
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199
recurrence
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| n.复发，反复，重现 | |
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200
displeased
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| a.不快的 | |
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201
perfectly
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|
| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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202
analogous
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|
| adj.相似的；类似的 | |
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203
counteract
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|
| vt.对…起反作用，对抗，抵消 | |
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204
guardians
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| 监护人( guardian的名词复数 )； 保护者，维护者 | |
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205
modicum
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| n.少量，一小份 | |
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206
practitioner
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|
| n.实践者，从事者；(医生或律师等)开业者 | |
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207
novices
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| n.新手( novice的名词复数 )；初学修士（或修女）；（修会等的）初学生；尚未赢过大赛的赛马 | |
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208
effigy
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| n.肖像 | |
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209
malevolent
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|
| adj.有恶意的，恶毒的 | |
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210
loomed
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| v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的过去式和过去分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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211
fervent
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|
| adj.热的，热烈的，热情的 | |
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212
ecstasy
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| n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷 | |
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213
skeptic
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|
| n.怀疑者，怀疑论者，无神论者 | |
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214
enthusiast
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|
| n.热心人，热衷者 | |
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215
animates
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|
| v.使有生气( animate的第三人称单数 )；驱动；使栩栩如生地动作；赋予…以生命 | |
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216
temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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217
skeptical
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|
| adj.怀疑的，多疑的 | |
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218
rumble
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| n.隆隆声；吵嚷；v.隆隆响；低沉地说 | |
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219
prey
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|
| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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220
esteem
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| n.尊敬，尊重；vt.尊重，敬重；把…看作 | |
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221
glorified
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| 美其名的，变荣耀的 | |
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222
symbolized
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| v.象征，作为…的象征( symbolize的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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223
symbolize
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| vt.作为...的象征，用符号代表 | |
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224
necessitates
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| 使…成为必要，需要( necessitate的第三人称单数 ) | |
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225
profane
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|
| adj.亵神的，亵渎的；vt.亵渎，玷污 | |
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226
picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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227
rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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228
liquidated
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| v.清算( liquidate的过去式和过去分词 )；清除（某人）；清偿；变卖 | |
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229
expenditure
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| n.(时间、劳力、金钱等)支出；使用，消耗 | |
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230
incurred
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| [医]招致的，遭受的； incur的过去式 | |
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231
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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232
vowed
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| 起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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233
symbolizing
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| v.象征，作为…的象征( symbolize的现在分词 ) | |
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234
celebrated
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|
| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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235
flinching
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| v.（因危险和痛苦）退缩，畏惧( flinch的现在分词 ) | |
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236
zest
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| n.乐趣；滋味，风味；兴趣 | |
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237
revolved
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| v.（使）旋转( revolve的过去式和过去分词 )；细想 | |
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238
indefatigable
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| adj.不知疲倦的，不屈不挠的 | |
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239
inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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240
sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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241
maturity
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| n.成熟；完成；(支票、债券等)到期 | |
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242
lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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243
seclusion
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| n.隐遁，隔离 | |
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244
impending
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| a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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245
forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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246
thigh
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| n.大腿；股骨 | |
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247
spouting
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|
| n.水落管系统v.（指液体）喷出( spout的现在分词 )；滔滔不绝地讲；喋喋不休地说；喷水 | |
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248
initiates
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| v.开始( initiate的第三人称单数 )；传授；发起；接纳新成员 | |
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249
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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250
awesome
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| adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的 | |
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251
frenzy
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| n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动 | |
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252
hovering
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| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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253
outskirts
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| n.郊外，郊区 | |
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254
frivolity
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| n.轻松的乐事，兴高采烈；轻浮的举止 | |
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255
strictly
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|
| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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256
severely
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| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
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257
infraction
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| n.违反；违法 | |
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258
rumors
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| n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷 | |
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259
accentuated
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| v.重读( accentuate的过去式和过去分词 )；使突出；使恶化；加重音符号于 | |
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260
bloody
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|
| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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261
obdurate
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| adj.固执的，顽固的 | |
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262
frenzied
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| a.激怒的；疯狂的 | |
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263
hubbub
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| n.嘈杂；骚乱 | |
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264
mingled
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|
| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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265
lessened
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| 减少的，减弱的 | |
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266
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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267
garrulous
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|
| adj.唠叨的，多话的 | |
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268
looms
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| n.织布机( loom的名词复数 )v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的第三人称单数 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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269
coffin
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| n.棺材，灵柩 | |
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270
survivors
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| 幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 ) | |
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271
wailing
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的现在分词 )；沱 | |
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