Winter dances in honour of animals are very common, and at these festivities, masks in the form of animals are worn, while people caper round in imitation of the movements of their own particular totem. A very important social gathering among Salish tribes is named “potlatch,” at which presents of great value are given away by a chief who wishes to become very famous. People crowd to the top of the long cedar-wood huts, and for days there is a distribution of skins, horses, clothing, blankets, canoes, and every other form of wealth. About twenty-five years ago a great chief of Vancouver Island gave a “potlatch” to 2500 persons from different tribes. The guests were feasted for over a month, and the savings of five years were distributed; so no wonder the chief who is wealthy and a great warrior readily becomes the judge and lawgiver in Indian society. Slaves, usually people taken in war, were at one time common, and very miserable was their lot, for they were regarded as being no better than dogs, and any man might put his slaves to death for a trifling offence. Mr. Hill-Tout, who knows the Indians well, says: “Slavery has, of course, been abolished since they came under our rule, but the descendants of those formerly slaves are still looked down upon and despised by the other Indians.” The North-Western tribes had no belief in a Supreme Being, or in God Who made the universe, though they did think of a soul, spirit, or ghost which could survive after the body was killed. Not only people, but animals, and even weapons and articles of clothing, were thought to have a ghost which went to some other world when the creature was killed or the article broken. The Thompson Indians were very much afraid of the spirits of deer, and they always took care to bury with respect all such parts of the carcase as were not required. One way of keeping friendly with the bear spirits was to hang the skull of the animal on a tree, and all who took part in the ceremony were expected to join in a chorus praising bears, while each performer was expected to paint his face. The “medicine man,” “shaman,” or shall we say priest, is most important among Déné tribes, for this peculiar person goes into a deep sleep or trance in which he is supposed to visit the world of spirits, who tell him how to cure sick people. So clever is the “shaman” thought to be, that he is held quite capable of chasing a soul which has left the body, and when the truant soul is caught, he goes through a performance of returning it to the dying person. A man who is very ill indeed will sometimes recover just because he has such great faith in the medicine man, whose power he trusts absolutely.