oci"nak" "pretending to be somebody." Each novice has a particular dance assigned to him or her, the assignment depending to some extent on the topa'ti' of his or her family; there are not more of these dances performed than there are novices, though the total number of soci"nak' dances known is very large, perhaps more than seventy-five. As each line of descent has the right to perform a large number of such dances and as the great majority of the dances seem to inhere in many lines of descent, the topā'ti' element in these dances does not impress one as being very clearly marked, though undoubtedly present. The assistants of the novice are always of the same sex as the latter; if the novice is a child unable to perform the dance, it may be carried on the back of an older person who takes its place. The dances may be divided into three categories: those representing supernatural beings, those intended to imitate animals, and those dramatizing various activities. Examples of the first class are the dances of the thunder-bird, which differ from the thunder-bird dance given in potlatches at other times of the year; the Hé iLik' or lightning serpent, who dances as the "belt" of two thunder-bird dancers; álmaq!oH", who corresponds to the fool dancer of the Kwakiutl; the sa"nak', a sort of supernatural wolf dancer, whose dance seems to correspond to the walas axá of the Kwakiutl; po'kumis, supernatural spirits transformed from those who have frozen to death; and nō'lim', creatures of the woods who walk about stealthily and carry painted wands. The animal dances comprise a very large number, a few of which are the dances of the panther, wolf (qwáyetsi nak'), wasp, red-headed woodpecker, devil-fish, and saw-bill duck. Some of the dances that illustrate activities are those of the archers, women who go berrying, those who look idly upon one that is making a canoe, those who talk secretly in whispers to one another, men who sit about lazily on their summer seats in the morning, and young men who signal to girls to follow them into the woods. The Kwakiutl ha'mats!a has quite recently been acquired by a few families of the Nootka of Barkley Sound from Nootka tribes farther north who are in close proximity to the Kwakiutl; it is of only secondary importance among the Nootka. Each dance is performed four times in a counter-clock

wise circuit; a few of the dances, such as the álmaq!oн°, are danced by a single man, others, such as the thunder-bird and wolf dances, by two who dance towards and away from each other, while in the larger number of dances an indefinite number participate. The ceremonial paraphernalia used in the dances are face, head, and forehead masks, though in many no masks are used, red-dyed cedar-bark head rings and attachments to masks, face paintings of many kinds, and many other less easily classified objects or insignia that are characteristic of particular dances. The face mask seems to be particularly characteristic of εáłmaq!oн°; head masks, though now employed in many Lōkwa'na' dances, are said to have been originally used only for the sa'nak'. The dances, it should be noted, are repeated in the same order each of the four evenings. Some of the oci'nak' dances have special songs that go with them and are the topa'ti' of particular families, others are accompanied by the singing of a set of ts!'qa' songs known as ts!'"ak' Lim' "ts!î'qa' songs that follow behind"; all of these dances are preceded by the singing of ts!î'qa' songs.

The oci'nak' dances practically conclude the ritual. On the morning of the fourth day thereafter a ceremony known as 'a'tsciL "to go out fishing or hunting" takes place. The novices, who are supposed to have procured food for a feast, are paddled down stream in a canoe while the paddlers from time to time utter a formulaic ä +. At a certain point the novices jump out into the water and, as they hold on to the canoe, are paddled to shore; they are supposed to be frozen stiff and have to be revived. After the feast, really provided by the parents of the novices, the set of oci'nak' dances is once more gone through. A year later a short Lōkwa'na' known as hō'εatst!ōp' takes place; it lasts only one day, and its main features seem to be wolf howling and the dancing of the oci nak' dances of a year before.

Such, in bare outline, is the course of the Nootka wolf ritual. It should be remarked, however, that not all the time is taken up with set ritualistic doings, but that potlatching, including the singing of Lōkwa'na' potlatch songs, is constantly going on; the elaborateness and fulness of the actual ceremony depend to a large extent

on the amount of property and money that the Lōkwa'nap' is prepared to give away. A good deal of subsidiary buffoonery and "acting crazy" are indulged in by the various opa't. These are nonhereditary clubs which, to some extent, are named according to various tribes; the women are formed into two such clubs, the Bluejays and Sea-gulls. These clubs, which have their songs, paints, and distinctive feasts, are not, however peculiar to the Lōkwā'na', but operate as well in potlatches during the rest of the year; thus the opa't are far from representing, as Dr Boas was inclined to believe, a breaking down during the Lōkwa'na' of the ordinary social system of the tribe, a state of affairs that would be comparable to the change among the Kwakiutl from bā'xus or "profane season" to the winter ceremonial season. The opa't are said to have originated among the Nootka of Alberni Canal and to have been imitated latterly among other Nootka tribes.

One of the most striking facts about the wolf ritual of the Nootka is the frequent exercise of inherited privileges at various points of the ritual. This, however, is by no means distinctive of the Lōkwā'na‘ alone but is a trait that permeates all phases of Nootka life. The intensely sacred, even austere, character of the ritual as performed in earlier days is somewhat less in evidence now; the more savage features, such as killing of slaves, dog eating, and self-torture, which at least sometimes originally entered into the latter part of the ritual, have necessarily been ruled out of late. Police officers were charged with the duty of seeing that all the taboos and usages of the ritual were carefully observed and punished with rigor, in certain cases with death, any infringement, such as failure to have the face painted black; those guilty of smiling or gum-chewing had their mouths slit more open.

The close historic connection between the wolf ritual of the Nootka and the winter ceremonial of the Kwakiutl is easily proved and indeed quite obvious. It may be going too far, however, to say that the Nootka borrowed the entire ceremony from their northern neighbors. The fact that the wolves play such a highly characteristic and specialized part in the Nootka Lõkwā'na' and that the origin of the ritual is so persistently localized in the region directly

north of Barkley Sound (according to Swan the Makah of Cape Flattery also derive their ritual from this region) make it seem likely that we have to deal with an old and specifically Nootka wolf ceremony that, in course of time, has become profoundly influenced and probably considerably elaborated by the winter ceremonial of the Kwakiutl. It even seems probable that at least one of the wolf dances of the latter is Nootka in origin. At any rate, before the details of the wolf ritual among the more northern Nootka tribes, which are said to be rather different from those above outlined, are known, it is well to refrain from ascribing the Nootka Lõkwa'na' to a primarily Kwakiutl origin.

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA,

OTTAWA, ONT.

AN ANCIENT SEPULCHER AT PLACERES DEL ORO,

A

STATE OF GUERRERO, MEXICO

By H. J. SPINDEN

N archeological discovery of great interest and in a region

new to most students of Mexican art was made in June, 1910, by Mr William Niven, of Mexico City, Mr Niven has for years studied and collected the antiquities of the west coast of Mexico, particularly in the state of Guerrero. Representative collections made by him are now in the Museo Nacional of Mexico City, in the American Museum of Natural History, and in the Peabody Museum of Harvard University.

Mr Niven's investigations have shown that the state of Guerrero contains many extensive ruins which bear witness to a large prehistoric population and to a fairly high culture. The numerous pyramids and platform mounds of this region are, however, merely loose masses of natural or roughly cut boulders, and the temples which once crowned their summits are now in utter ruin. Thus, because they lack in spectacular interest, even the most important sites have never been adequately explored. The collections so far gathered consist, for the most part, of occasional finds of small carved stones, either implements or ornaments. The few slight excavations have revealed carved specimens of jadeite, serpentine, and obsidian, as well as objects of gold and copper. The series of remarkable objects that will presently be described is evidence of much higher and more intensified culture than has hitherto been suspected.

The discovery in question was made in the valley of the Rio del Oro, near the mining town of Placeres del Oro, which lies in the municipality of Coyuca de Catalan, on the Rio Balsas, about two hundred miles southwest of Mexico City. The Rio del Oro, rising in the high sierras of interior Guerrero, flows in its upper courses through a deep cañon. A few miles above the town of Milpa