37 . The Origin of the Wau'us Mask.
(Lower Uta'mqt.)
(cont.)At last they came out on the earth, and a small lake formed at the place. Here his friends left him, and returned by the same way they had come. Before departing they told him that on the following day they would send him a blanket or covering.1 The chief had also told him this before he left the lake-people's house.
After resting a while, the lad went home, and, seeing his brothers and sisters, said to them, 'I am your brother. Don't you see me.' But they could not see him, because he had made himself invisible. After he had talked to them three times, he made himself visible, and they saw him. Then he met his parents, and talked three times to them in like manner. He told them to clean their house, so that he might enter. They did so, and spread mats and fresh boughs in the house, and also as a path for him to walk on
then he entered and sat down.On the next morning he went out to meet the lake-people who were to bring the blanket or present, and the people followed him at some distance behind. He met them not very far from the house. Wherever they had trod, springs burst out, or pools formed, which may be seen at the present day. They delivered to him their present, which consisted of a mask (sEnam-kai'n)2. It had wings at the sides, and two bird's- beaks in front, and was covered with swan-feathers for hair. He wore this mask, and became a very important man. He used it in dances and at feasts. He carved a figure of it on his house-post and grave-post. It descended to his children and descendants, who alone were entitled to use it. One of this man's descendants married among the Spuzzum people, and their children used it at dances.3
38. The Origin of the Tsatsa'kwe4 Mask.
(Lower Uta'mqt.)A girl lived in the S'a'tcinko country near Yale.5 She was so disobedient that her parents could do nothing with her. At last they beat her soundly, poured urine on her face, and turned her outside. Her uncle took pity on her, and, taking her to his house, hid her. tier parents, who had in the mean time relented, and were somewhat ashamed of their cruel, conduct towards their daughter, searched for her, but could not find her. They did not know what had become of her.
1 This was to be in payment of his services in curing the child.
2 Literally,"manitou-head." This word is used by the Uta'mqt to denote a mask or mystery head-dress used in dances. It is from the word sEna'm ("manitou," or personal guardian spirit) and -kain, the compound form of their word for 'head"; -kain is also a compound form for any word meaning "a covering for the head." In this sense, the word would mean "sEna'm or manitou hat, cap, or covering for the head." This is the xoa'exoe of the Kwakiutl, see Franz Boas, The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians, Annual Report of the C. S. National Museum for 1895, pp. 497, 516.
3 There were only two masks used by the C ta'mqt people. They belonged to two Spuzzum families who were half S'a'tcinko, and had obtained them through their S'a'tcinko relationship. They were introduced in recent years within the memory of people now very old.
4 A S'a'tcinko word meaning "fish" or "salmon."
5 Yale is the uppermost village of the S'a'tcinko on Fraser River, therefore the nearest to the Uta'mqt.
