Handbook of Indians of Canada - ElectricCanadian.com

SESSIONAL PAPER No. 21a
is said to have spoken Nanaimo (q. v.)- The
septs, according to Boas, are Mohotlath,
Tlikutath, and Tsomosath. Their principal
village is Ahahswinnis. Pop. 62 in 1902, 48
in 1911.
Hopetcisa'th.—Boas, 6th Rep. N. W. Tribes Can., 31,
1890. Opechlsaht.—Sproat, Savage Life, 308, 1868.
Opecluset.—Mayne, Brit. Col., 251, 1862. Ope-eisaht.—
Brit. Col. map, Ind. Aff., Victoria, 1872. Opetches-aht.—Can.
Ind. Aff., .308, 1879. Opitches-aht.
— Ibid., 187, 1884. Upatsesatucb.—Grant in Jour.
Roy. Geog. Soc, 293, 1857.
Opitsat. The permanent village of the
Clayoquot (q. v.), on the s. w. shore of Meares
id., w. coast of Vancouver id., Brit. Col.; pop.
245 in 1902, 209 in 1911.
Opetsitar.—Gray and Ingraham (1791) quoted in H.
R. Doc. 43, 26th Cong., 1st sess., 3, 1840. Oplsat.—
Can. Ind. Aff., 263, 1902. Opisitar.—Kendrick deed
(1791), ibid., 10.
Ordeals. An ordeal is strictly a form of
trial to determine guilt or innocence, but the
term has come to be applied in a secondary
sense to any severe trial or test of courage,
endurance, and fortitude. In accordance with
these two usages of the term, ordeals among
the North American tribes may be divided
into (1) those used to establish guilt and to
settle differences, and (2) those undergone for
the sake of some material or supernatural
advantage.
The ordeals corresponding closest to the
tests to which the name was originally appUed
were those undertaken to determine
witches or wizards. If it was believed that a
man had died in consequence of being be-
witched, the Tsimshian would take his heart
out and put a red-hot stone against it, wishing
at the same time that the enemy might die.
If the heart burst, they thought that their
wish would be fulfilled; if not, their suspicions
were believed to be unfounded. A Haida
shaman repeated the names of all persons in
the village in the presence of a live mouse
and determined the guilty party by watching
its motions. A Thngit suspected of witch-
craft was tied up for 8 or 10 days to extort a
confession from him, and he was liberated at
the end of that period if he were still alive.
But as confession secured immediate liberty
and involved no unpleasant consequences ex-
cept an obligation to remove the spell, few
were probably found innocent. This, however,
can hardly be considered as a real ordeal,
since the guilt of the victim was practically
assumed, and the test was in the nature of a
torment to extract confession.
21a— 241
HANDBOOK OF INDI'ANS OF CANADA 371
Intimately connected with ordeals of this
class were contests between individuals and
bodies of individuals, for it was supposed
that victory was determined more by super-
natural than by natural power. A case is
recorded among the Comanche where two
men whose enmity had become so great as to
defy all attempts at reconciliation were allowed
to fight a duel. Their left arms having been
tied together, a knife was placed in the right
hand of each, and they fought until both fell.
A similar duel is recorded in one of the Teton
myths, and it is probable that the custom was
almost universal. Resembling these were the
contests in vogue among Eskimo tribes. When
two bodies of Eskimo met who were strangers
to each other, each party selected a champion,
and the two struck each other on the side of the
head or the bared shoulders until one gave in.
Anciently NetchiUrmiut and Aivilirmiut cham-
pions contested by pressing the points of their
knives against each other's cheeks. Such contests
were also forced on persons wandering
among strange people and are said to have
been matters of life and death. Chinook
myths' speak of similar tests of endurance
between supernatural beings, and perhaps
they were shared by men. Differences between
towns on the n. Pacific coast were often
settled by appointing a day for fighting, when
the people of both sides arrayed themselves
in their hide and wooden armour and engaged
in a pitched battle, the issue being determined
by the fall of one or two prominent men.
Contests between strangers or representatives
of different towns or social groups were also
settled by playing a game. At a feast on the
N. Pacific coast one who had used careless or
slighting words toward the people of his host
was forced to devour a tray full of bad-tasting
food, or perhaps to swallow a quantity of
urine. Two persons often contested to see
which could empty a tray the more expedi-
tiously.
Ordeals of the second class would cover the
hardships, placed upon a growing boy to make
him strong, the fasts and regulations to which
a girl was subjected at puberty, and those
which a youth underwent in order to obtain
supernatural helpers (see Child life), as well
as the solitary fasts of persons who desired
to become shamans, or of shamans who de-
sired greater supernatural power. Finally, it
is especially applicable to the fasts and tor-
tures undergone in preparation for ceremonies
or by way of initiation into a secret society.