Red-dyed cedar bark is distributed at the start of the Tseyka dances and is the symbol of that important ceremony. Cedar bark head rings are worn by the participants. In the above poster, notice the Kwakwaka'wakw women wearing cedar bark head rings and button blankets.

The echo is conceived as a human-like being with the ability to imitate the sound or voice of any creature. In the mask this is represented by mouths of many kinds which can be fitted to the mouth of the mask itself. There are four mouths with this echo mask: bear, raven, frog, and sea anemone. (Holm, Crooked Beak of Heaven, 1972)

The wool cloth is brown and blue.

CEDAR BARK CAPE Kwakwaka'wakw Skilled weavers soak yellow cedar bark in salt water and pound it until it is soft enough for capes and robes. This cape, from Alert Bay, British Columbia, originally had a comfortable fur neckline. 1800s; Gift of Young Naturalists' Society; No. 4794

The stories of seafarers are often peopled by monsters of the deep: bringers of bad weather, capsizers, devourers of men. The Yagim is all of those. Described as a destroyer of whole tribes, a shark-like monster who lurks behind canoes, or the source of storms, his name literally means badness. (Holm, Spirit and Ancestor, 1987)

Among the Kwakwaka'wakw the use of the clapper is reserved to the Mitla dancer, one of the performers in the Tseyka series. In the dance it is shaken rapidly and produces a staccato clattering sound. The whole instrument is carved and painted to represent the killer whale, with a thin upright dorsal fin and pectoral fins. (Holm, Crooked Beak of Heaven, 1972)

The paint is black and red.