after the dancing is over they probably do not spit blood. When dancing they invariably sing. These dance-songs are private property. No one can use another person’s song unless permission has been given, or unless it belongs jointly to more than one person. These dance-songs are acquired by inheritance or they are learnt in dreams. Dreams or visions are the original source of all their dances. A person dreams of a certain dance, and on the next occasion introduces it. Not everyone is a dancer; only those who are by mental temperament fitted for the part ever become noted dancers.
The reason of this is simple. A dancer during the performance of his dance is not in a normal condition of mind. He or she is practically in a hypnotic trance state. On the occasion of a dance the dancers come foward as they are moved or promoted by self-suggestion or the mental suggestion of the waiting audience. They sit passively waiting for the “psychological moment,” just precisely as do the sitters in a mediumistic circle. The monotonous beating of cedar boards on all sides, which is their dance music, has the effect of sending some of them into hypnotic trances. First one and then another heaves a deep sigh, or utters sounds indicative of mental disorder; some swoon outright, and have to be brought to a dancing condition by the dashing of cold water over them; and some start off in a kind of frenzy, and dance from fire to fire all round the building till they fall exhausted from their exertions.
Dancers had to undergo a certain training. When young men or women desired to become dancers they had first to subject themselves to a four days’ fast. In this condition it was easy for them to pass into the hypnotic state. In the case of girls in particular they would invariably swoon away on the fourth night, when the dance would be held, and the sqomten and the siu would work upon them to restore them to consciousness. Presently a girl would come out of her swoon with a deep sigh and begin singing, and then start off dancing for half an hour. This dance she is supposed to have learnt in her trance. When she has finished her performance she is driven out into the forest among the trees. The purpose of this is that she may learn a new dance from the bushes and trees, which they think are able to hold communication with the neophyte in her present state and impart to her some of their knowledge. After a while she returns to the building again and performs a new dance. When a novice performs his or her first dance it is called their hausalktl. Nearly all the spectators of the dances beat time with sticks on loose cedar boards placed on the beds. The movements of the dancers are various, agility and endurance being more aimed at than what we should call grace. Prancing like a high-stepping horse is a noted feature in some of the men’s dances. An old resident of the district, Mr. Jonathan Miller, now postmaster of Vancouver City, but who formerly had much to do with the Indians in his capacity of provincial constable, informed me that at the close of one of their dances, which took place about thirty-eight years ago at the village of Qoiqoi ‘masks,’ in Stanley Park (which then had a population of 700, and now contains but one family) a noted medicine-man, or sqomten, gave a performance. He came into the circle with a small living dog in his teeth. As he danced he devoured the creature piecemeal. He bit the skin from its nose and tore it backwards with his teeth till he reached the throat. He then tore off piece after piece of the flesh and danced round the building devouring it as he went. This dance was known as the “dog-dance.” This is no longer practised even by the pagan bands, as far as I can learn.
There is a custom among the Squamish of “bringing out" a girl, not altogether unlike the custom among ourselves. In the case of a girl who had lost her mother when she had reached the age of puberty she was publicly “brought out" at the next dance, and sang and danced her mother’s song and dance before the whole community. She was attired for the occasion in a special garment or head-dress. When the people were assembled for the dancing an elderly man of the girl’s family would proclaim aloud that So-and-so was going to dance and sing her mother’s song. Her brothers or her cousins would now prepare and robe her. This ceremony was called soyumaitl, and consisted in placing upon her head a kind of veil composed of tails made from the wool of the mountain-goat, which hung down all around her person, and bobbed and swayed as she moved. The garment was called soyumen. If the girl were a good industrious sister, the brothers would show their esteem and regard for her by seating her on a pile of blankets, afterwards to be given away to mark the occasion. Usually the ceremony took place in the house, but sometimes a platform would be erected on several canoes joined together on the water, and the dance would take place there. When the announcement would be made of the dance all the people would show their pleasure by clapping their hands much as a white audience does. In earlier times the girl danced on a blanket, which was afterwards sqals,
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