other wrappings.
Durin
Fax:g the dance,
are sprinkled by a priest with holy flour, and all the while tEMRTChe dance configuration remains connected at the head to the little temple. The dance lasts from morning till evening. In the intervals the Indians leave the village and go to a rocky ledge to rest for a moment (Figure 22). Whoever sees a dancer without his mask, will die. The little temple is the actual focal point
of the dance configuration. It is a little tree, adorned with feathers. These are the so-called Nakwakwocis. I was struck by the fact that the tree
was
so sma
ll. I went to the ol
d chief, who was sitting
at the edge of the square, and asked h
im why the tree was so small. He ans
wered: we once had a l
arge tree, but now we have chosen a small one
, because the soul of a chil
d is small.
We are here in t
he realm
of the
perfect animist
ic and tree
cult, which the work of Mannhardt has shown to belon
rimitive peoples, and
801 Leroy Place
it has survived