Omaha daily bee., 1916-03-01
Tale of the Totem Pole
Garrett p. ssrviss.

TN HE popularity Of movies Is an outsrow'n "a
i OF OF the strongest instincts OF saVages-ho
love OF seeing and traditions represented IN
images and pictures. Sometimes the savage suppiio''
as well as ne can the element Of motion by having
his images carried about in procession But ne -
well content II he have the pictured stories always
in some conspicuous place before his eyes the totem
pole offers opportunity for pictorial representation
that has been fully improved among some OF 'he
Alaska Indian tribes. The carved poles, as Lleuten-
ant George T. Emmons points out in the american
Museum Journal preserve only legends and ira
ditions but much the life history Of the tribes
Very interesting is the work Of the Tsimshian In
dians who seem TO possess a particular degree o.
AKIN and whose artists have sometimes been
ployed by other neighborng tribes Lieutenant Enl-
says: These stories told In wood go back 70
the time when and animals were supposed 70
be very close another, when they ntermarrlen
and saw each other under a spell of wtchery that
made all appear human. except that the animals wore
coats Of which they could at will remove ana ap-
pear in human form or put on and become as ant
mails"
Some OF the wooden columns contain several stori-s
told in carved figures which record less than four
stories which could be read. doubt with great de-
light and wonder by the savages to whom the tra~
ditions and the symbolic figures familiar. smi.
lar poles may be in the American Museum OF
Natural History.
These stories interpreted by an old Indian TO
Lieutenant Emmons are full OF imaginative power.
and as good in their way the legends OF any other
primitive races and not inferior 10 some OF the FOLK
stories that have all OF us listened to with de-
light when we children For instance, take this
story OF the mountain goats:
A long time ago. when the Kitksan tribe lived on
the upper river before the great cold. which
dispersed them they used to after the end Of the
salmon season. TO great mountain, where they
hunted mountain goats. On one of these occasions.
when there a great slaughter OF goats young
who had taken some red paint along to paint
his arrows for good luck, caught kid whose life he
setting after having painted It's horns
red
The next spring two whte-blanketed strangers ep-
peared in the village. who excused Themselves for re-
fsing the hospable offers Of the Indians to feast
on goats flesh and other food, but who very cor
daily invited the whole community to visit their the
strangers) villages, offering to serve guides
The invitation accepted, and the next morn
ing everybody under lead of the
They crossed the river and climbed the great noun
tain until they reached what seemed to be broad.
level place. the midst OF which stood feast-house
The visitors enjoyed great banquet and then
the chief OF their hosts began to dance and sing,
strangely repeating the words; II shaking my
hoofs the mountain side" and at that the rock
seemed open and close again. But the Indians
thought IT all magic intended for their entertain
ment and when night came they went TO sleep
the outer edge Of the platform benches pre-
pared for them.
But the young man who had spared the kid
drawn aside by young stranger who had his
painted red. and who asked him to share his sleep
ing bench the other side OF the platform.
In the middle of the night the strangers rose in
silence and pushed their visitors the precpice,
and they dashed TO pieces Only the young
spared. and in the morning when he became
the OF his friends his protector
him that he need have fear, and. taking off
his shoes which seemed to be hoofs and puttins
them the young hunters feet told him 10 jump
fearessly from cliff TO cliff in descending the
tain and when he reached the base take off the
shoes and leave them In certain place where their
could find them again.
A notable point in this story Is the reference to
'the cold which In ancient times had dispersed
the people Here seems to be surviving tradition
which may run back TO unknown antiquity in the
history of that part of the world, preserving dim
memory of extensive and disastrous climatic
change