Bakwas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bakwas (sometimes "Bookwus") is one of the supernatural spirits of the Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw) people of coastal British Columbia. He is often called "wild man of the woods." He eats ghost food, out of cockle shells and tries to offer it to living humans who are stranded in the woods, in order to bring them over to the ghost world. He lives in an invisible house in the forest and the spirits of the drowned congregate there.
He is similar to ghost beings belonging to the cultures of other Northwest Coast tribes. The Tlingit have kushtaka or land-otter people; the Haida have Gagit, drowned spirit ghosts; the Nootka (Nuu-Chah-Nulth) have Pukubts, a name which seems etymologically related to Kwakiutl Bakwas, as is also Tsimshian Bawas.
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Kwakiutl Art by Audrey Hawthorn
