kwiocosuk. The
quiocosin was at least as large as a chief’s house (20 feet wide and up to 100 feet long, according to the colonist William Strachey) and usually situated in remote forest areas; entrance was forbidden to all but shamans and chiefs. Oriented east to west, with a door on the eastern end, the
quiocosin was partitioned off into two areas. The east end, being a gathering place for priests, was empty save for a central fire that was never allowed to go out. The more restricted western end housed wooden carvings, including one of Okee. Other carvings took the form of posts or pillars set upright in the ground, the upper ends of which featured likenesses of human heads (perhaps suggesting ancestors or spirits). The western room of the