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THE CARVINGS AND HERALDIC PAINTINGS OF
THE Haida INDIANS.

EARLY in the spring of 1883 I was instructed by Professor Baird, chief executive officer of the Smithsonian Institute of Washington,* to visit Queen Charlotte Islands, British Columbia, and further investigate the subjects indicated by the heading of this article. I accordingly proceeded to that group of islands in June, 1883, and remained all summer, making collections for the United States Fish Commission the National Museum and the Bureau of Ethnology, and was enabled, by the assistance of a very intelligent young Haida, who acted as interpreter, to decipher the meaning of the carvings on the heraldic and mortuary columns and totem poles, and the hieroglyphic paintings and drawings of those interesting natives.

Careless and casual observers term all Indian carvings as idols or objects of worship. But the Indian is not an idolator; he does not bow down or worship the image of created things. His worship is secret, and performed in seasons of retirement in the depths of the forest. His ideas of the existence of a Deity are vague at best; and the lines of separation between it and necromancy, medical magic and demonology are too faintly separated to allow him to speak with discrimination. The Indian's necessities of language at all times require personifications, and his carved columns are picture writings readily understood by all. They are legends of adventures of giants and dwarfs, and while he amuses with the tales of the conflicts between monsters and demons, fairies and enchanters, he also throws in some few grains of instruction in the form of allegory and fable, which enable us to perceive glimpses of the heart and its affections. The mythical belief of the Haidas is similar to the Algonquin. The Raven, or Nekilstas, of the Haida is like MuaBOZHO of the Algries and Hiawatha of the Iroquois. He has all the powers of a deity, and can assume any shape he pleases; and so of the Hoorts, or Grizzly Bear, the Skana, or Killer (orca), the Helinga, or Thunder Bird, etc. This play between the zoonic and mortal shapes of heroes must constantly be observed in high as well as in ordinary characters. To have the name of an animal, or bird, or reptile, is to have his powers. The ordinary domestic life of the Indian is described in plain words and phrases; but whatever is mysterious or abstract must be brought under mythological figures and influences. Birds and quadrupeds must be made to talk, and even the clouds, which chase each other in brilliant hues and constantly changing forms in the heavens, constitute a species of wild pictography which he can interpret. The phenomena of storms and meteorological changes connect themselves, in the superstitious mind, with some en-grossing mythos or symbol.

* In 1873 I commenced the study of the meaning of the tattoo marks, paintings and heraldic columns of the Haida Indians of the Queen Charlotte group, which was published in a memoir, No. 357, of the Smithsonian contributions to knowledge, January, 1874. The late Professor Joseph Henry remarks of this memoir that "it is a valuable contribution to our general knowledge of anthropology and archaeology, while yielding besides a special contingent to the ethnology of the North American continent. Under the latter of these heads it raises some questions which seem of great significance, and which it is to be hoped will lead to further investigation."

Figure 1, which, as drawn by my Indian assistant, Johnny Kit Elswa, represents cirrus clouds, or, as sailors term them, "mare's tails and mackerel sky," the sure precursors of a change of weather. The centre figure is Tkul, the wind spirit. On the right and left are his feet, which are indicated by long streaming clouds; above are the wings, and on each side are the different winds, each designated by an eye, and represented by the patches of cirrus clouds. When Tkul determines which wind is to blow, he gives the word and the other winds retire. The change in the weather is usually followed by rain, which is indicated in the tears which stream from the eyes of Tkul.

Figure 2 represents the raven (hooyeh) in the whale (koone). The Haidas are not whalemen, like the Mabuhs of Cape Flattery, and I never knew of their killing a whale; but occasionally a dead whale drifts ashore, having been killed by whalemen, or sword fish, or killers. The Haidas do not care to look for natural causes, but adopt the mythological dogma that the raven goes into the sea and is swallowed by the whale, and assuming another shape causes a dreadful griping in the whale's belly, which, frantic with pain, rushes ashore, while the invisible hooyeh walks quietly out and is ready for another adventure.

Figure 3 represents the killer (orca ater), which the Haidas believe to be a demon who is named "Skana." He can change into any desired form, and many are the legends about him. One which was related to me was that ages ago the Indians were out hunting for seals. The weather was calm and the sea smooth. One of these killers, or black fish, a species of porpoise, kept alongside of a canoe, and the young men amused themselves by throwing stones from the canoe ballast and hitting the fin of the killer. After some pretty hard blows from these rocks the creature made for the shore, where it grounded on the beach. Soon a smoke was seen and their curiosity prompted them to ascertain the cause; but as they reached the shore they discovered, to their surprise, that it was a large canoe, and not the Skana, that was on the beach, and that a man was on shore cooking some food. He asked them why they threw stones at his canoe. "You have broken it," said he, "and now you go into the woods and get some cedar wythes and mend it." They did so, and when they had finished the man said, "Turn your backs to the water and cover your heads with your skin blankets, and don't you look till I call you." They did so, and heard the canoe grate on the beach as she was hauled down to the surf. Then the man said, "Now look." They looked and saw the canoe just going over the first breaker and the man sitting in the stern; but when she came to the second breaker she went under it and presently came up outside of the breakers as a killer and not a canoe, and the man, or demon, was in its belly. This allegory is common among all the tribes of the Northwest Coast, and even with the interior tribes, with whom the salmon takes the place of the orca, which never ascends the fresh water rivers. The Chilcat and other tribes of Alaska carve figures of salmon, inside

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of which is the full length figure of a nude Indian, which represents the Skana of the Haidas. Casual observers without inquiry, will at once pronounce it to be Jonah in the fish's belly, but the allegory is of ancient origin, far antedating the advent of the white man or the teachings of the missionary.

Figure 4 represents the raven and the fisherman. Hooyeh, the raven, had the mischievous propensity of descending into the ocean and investigating the fishing lines of Houskana, the fisherman, and stealing both bait and fish. At last Houskana, tired of this work, put on a magic hook to ascertain who his enemy was at the bottom of the sea. The raven was caught, and when the fisherman hauled in his line the raven resisted by pressing his feet and wings against the bottom of the fisherman's canoe. But Houskana was the strongest and pulled the raven's beak entirely off, and seizing the raven took him ashore to find out who he was, for as soon as his beak was pulled off he changed to a man, covering his head with his skin mantle so that nothing but his eyes could be seen. The fisherman tried in vain to make him uncover his face. At last one of the young men took a handful of filth and rubbed it in the raven's eyes. This made him throw off his mantle, and then they saw that it was the Hooyeh. This made the raven so angry that, in revenge for the indignity, the raven and his friends, the crows (Kaltzda), have ever since annoyed the Indians by scolding their canoes with their filthy droppings and eating all their fish.

Figure 5 is the "Man in the Moon." Koong, the moon, discovered Eethlinga, the man, about to dip his bucket in the brook for water, so it sent down its arms or rays and grabbed the man, who, to save himself, seized hold of a big salal bush (Gaultheria shallon), but the moon being more powerful took man and bucket and bush up to itself, where they have ever since lived and can be seen every full moon when the weather is clear. The man is a friend of Tkul, the spirit of the winds, and at the proper signal empties his bucket, causing rain upon the earth.

These five allegorical sketches were drawn in india ink by Johnny Kit Elswe, who explained to me their meaning as I have given it above.

Figure 6 shows a spoon, which is a very common household implement. It is made from the horn of the mountain goat—Aplocerus Montana—which is found in the mountainous regions of Alaska and British Columbia. Some of these spoons are elaborately carved and bring high prices from tourists to Victoria, and the same remark will apply to the silver bracelets, finger rings and ear ornaments made by the southern tribes. Even their food dishes are carved to resemble a totem or family coat of arms, and some of this work is beautifully executed.

Figure 7 is that of a peculiar rattle, and represents the raven, the tail being the handle. On the belly is carved the sparrowhawk; on the back is an Indian with a frog, and, generally, a bird's head. The Indian is a mythological personage, called by the Haidas "Ka-ka-ba." He was a demon who lived in the mountains and

was once traveling in his canoe, when he was caped and nearly drowned. He swam ashore and ran into the woods for shelter, and would occasionally descend to the village and steal children, which he took into the woods and ate. The frog is supposed to possess a subtle poison in its head, and when the medicine men wish to work bad spells they eat a frog's head. The carving represents Ka-ka-hete sucking the poison from the frog's tongue. The Ka-ka-hete afterwards turned into a land otter. This peculiar form of rattle is used in all the northern tribes, and the explanation given varies with the different localities, but has a general significance.

Figure 8 shows one of the numerous styles of carved wooden combs. These implements are quite fanciful, but are simply scratchers, illy adapted for the removal of dirt or vermin. In respect to combs the Indians who have come the most in contact with the whites have learned to appreciate the superior practical utility of the civilized product, and these native implements are only found in use among the older persons living in the more remote villages.

Figure 9 represents a halibut hook which is used by the northern tribes, and is a very clumsy affair when compared with hooks made by the Makahs of Cape Flattery. They are, however, very effective, and immense quantities of fish are annually taken with them and cured by the Indians for food. Fish constitute one of the most important articles of diet for all the coast tribes, and they take much interest in fishing; but as a general thing they prefer their ancient implements to the more modern styles of civilized nations.

Figure 10 is interesting as illustrative of the grim humor of an Indian in trying to be avenged for what he considered an act of injustice a number of years ago. Bear Skin, a somewhat noted Haida chief, belonging to Skidegate village, Queen Charlotte Islands, was in Victoria, when for some offense he was fined and imprisoned by Judge Pemberton, the police magistrate. Bear Skin felt very much insulted, and in order to get even with the magistrate he carved the two figures, which are said to be good likenesses of the Judge, who in this dual capacity mounts guard at each corner of the front of the chief's residence. The gigantic face on the front of the house and the two bears on the two mortuary columns seem to be grinning with fiendish delight, while the raven on top of one of the columns has cocked his eye so as to have a fair look at the effigies beneath him. Bear Skin is dead, but the images still remain. It has been suggested that they be removed to Victoria and be placed over the entrance to the police barracks, to keep watch and ward like Gog and Mgog at the gates of entrance to old London city.

Figure 11 is a heraldic c
I sketched at Kicosta village
Passage, Queen Charlotte
is the hooyeh or rav
the column. This
with whom he had a
head with such for

which
Parry
top
of

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Kaga's head may be seen the keetkie, or young crow, in a medallion-shaped carving. Under this and seated between the ears of the bear is the kootkoonese, or owl. Then comes the large figure of the hoorté, or grizzly bear, holding between his hind paws the stlakumma, or butterfly. This surmounts the lower figure, which is another grizzly bear, having in his mouth a frog and between his hind legs the mamatonthlona, or dragon fly, the devil's darning needle. I could make out all the figures but the butterfly, which I thought at first was an elephant with its trunk coiled up, but on inquiry of old Edinso, the chief who was conveying me in his canoe from Masset to Skidegate, he told me it was a butterfly, and pointed one out which had just lit near by on a flower. I was curious to know the legend, which he related as follows: Ages ago the hooyeh, or raven, visited the north end of Graham's Island to look for good land, as the southern portion is mountainous and rocky. The butterfly, an immense creature, hovered over the raven's head and when he saw any good land he pointed to it with his long proboscis. "In fact," said Edinso, "the butterfly showed, the raven round the country just as Johnny is showing you." The idea of being compared to a butterfly so amused Johnny that he told me if I would sketch the column he would carve one like it in stone when we would arrive at Skidegate, where the soft argillaceous slate stone is found which the Haidas carve with such consummate skill. This he subsequently did, and presented me with a stone model of the butterfly column to commemorate the event. This I have in my office in Port Townsend, and mention the incident as an evidence of Indian humor, and to show that the man talks and laughs like the rests of the human family.

Figure 12 is a column in front of a house at Skidegate village. The opening at the bottom is the door or entrance to the house. A boy was standing in the door at the time I made the sketch, and I drew him to show the comparative height. The lower figure of this column is the hoorts, or grizzly bear, with a hunter in his mouth whom he has just killed. On each ear of the bear may be seen the owl, and between the ears is the mouse. The figure above the mouse, which looks like the sun with branching rays, is the kelp bulb and the rays are kelp leaves. Above and including the kelp is the tchimose, a mythological animal, holding the dragon fly. The tchimose has on its head the totem of the chief, supported by two friends. The tchimose is a demon who floats in the salt water like a drift log, one end submerged and the other projecting above the surface. When the Indian approaches this supposed log it suddenly throws out its long arms, seizes the canoe, drowns the occupants and devours them leisurely in its home in a dark cave at the bottom of the sea. The origin of this fable was a common natural occurrence of a tree torn from some river bank by a freshet and borne by the torrent to the deep water or some sound or inlet, where it would drift about with its broken top above the water and its roots, heavy with earth or stones, submerged. A tree of this description is very common, and may often

be seen drifting about, and when carried by the tide to some swift current or tide rips, the submerged part striking against the bottom would cause it to revolve and bring down its long branches with great energy upon the surface, and a canoe that might be in the way would surely get smashed, and the superstitious Indians, never at a loss to cloth the every unusual occurrence with mysterious phenomena, would be sure to attribute the accident to supernatural agency. The mouse shown in the drawing is the judge by which the Haidas detect the persons who work bad magic and cause sickness or death. When a person is taken sick, or a sick person dies, threes men are selected who prepare themselves by pulverizing a dried frog and mixing it with salt water, which is drank. This decoction produces vomiting and purging, and when their systems are thoroughly cleansed, their minds are supposed to be clear and better able to judge of the merits of the case about to be submitted to their decision. They next catch a wood mouse and put it in a little cage, which is set on a raised platform in front of the judges. The little mouse, sadly frightened, retires to one corner of his cage and eyes the judges with fear and trembling. They then commence naming over suspected persons, and presently the little mouse nods its head, and the name it nods to is that of the guilty person, who has to pay money or blankets to get clear. I saw an instance of this kind of trial at Masset, where an old blind man was charged with having worked bad spells to kill a chief in whose house the blind man lived, and but for the interposition of Mr. McKenzie, J. P., residing at Masset, the Indians would have handled the blind man pretty roughly. Subsequently my interpreter, Johnny, told me that all the Haidas believe in the trial by a mouse.

The dragon fly, or mamatonthlona, was sent by the hooyeh to kill the mosquitoes, which grew so big in ancient times that they would light on an Indian and suck out all his blood. The dragon fly got after the big mosquitoes and killed them all, and their successors, the present kind, are so reduced in size that they can only annoy the Indians by their songs and stings, but they cannot suck out enough blood to do any harm.

The hunter in the bear's mouth illustrates a legend which, in some of the carvings I have seen, is sometimes depicted by a bear erect with a hunter in his arms and tearing open the hunter's bosom with his powerful claws. The story is that the hunter, Toivats, on one occasion visited the house of the king of the bears, who was absent, but his wife being at home, Toivats made love to her. When the bear returned he found his home in confusion, and charged his wife with infidelity, which she denied. The bear pretended to be satisfied, but kept a secret watch on his wife, and soon observed that she went out regularly every day at a certain hour to get wood and water. One day he fastened a magic thread to her dress, and after she had gone out he followed up the clue and found her in the hunter's arms. This so enraged him that he seized the destroyer of his happiness and tore open his breast with his sharp claws.

There seems to be a great variety of stories which are

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recorded by these picturegraphs. Some are grotesque, some disgusting and some instructive, but whether they are orally related around the lodge fire, in the family circle or depicted in their carvings or rude paintings, the *dramatis personce* are true transcripts of Indian life; they never rise above it, or express a sentiment or opinion which is not true to Indian society, nor do they employ words which are not known to their vocabulary. It is in these legends that we obtain their true views of life and death, their religion, their theory of the state of the dead, their mythology, their cosmogony, their notions of astrology, and often of their biography and history, for the boundaries between history and fiction are vaguely defined. Some of the ancient legends of the Haidas are prophetic, and told by these ancient skagas, or medicine men, to the Indians, then dressed in robes of furs. They were told of the strangers with white faces who would come and buy their furs and give them in exchange other articles of clothing and other kinds of food to eat, and they were warned to treat the strangers well when they came, as they would bring with them many things new and strange which would be of great benefit if they would learn and adopt what was good of the white men's ways. Schoolcraft says in his "Myth of Hiawatha:" These stories are often told, in seasons of great severity in the depth of the winter, to an eagerly listening group, to while away the hour and divert attention from the pressing claims of hunger. Under such circumstances to dole away time, which has no value to him, and to cheat hunger and want, is esteemed a trait of philosophy. If there is a morsel to eat in the lodge it is given to the children. The women imitate this stoicism and devotion of the men. Not a tone of the narrative tells of dismay in their domestic circumstances, not an eye acknowledges the influence of grief. The dignity of this position is worthy of remembrance. The man, it may be, shall pass away from the earth, but these tributes to the best feelings of the heart will remain, while these simple tales and legendary creations constitute a new point of character by which he should be judged. They are at least calculated to modify our views of the man, who is not always a savage, not always a fiend.

The Haidas seem to be advanced in their works of art in carvings in wood and stone, in silver, gold, copper and iron, and their carvings in the soft argillaceous slate stone, which is found among the coal measures of Skidgate, and worked by them into various shapes, such as caskets, plaques and miniature columns. Their bracelets, rings and ear ornaments of gold and silver, their copper shields and emblematic daggers, bows and arrows, and their iron daggers and war knives all richly carved, and their wooden and horn dishes, spoons, masks and toys are all eagerly sought after by tourists; and when properly explained and understood are of great value, for every carving has a meaning, and each illustrates a story or a legend, read and understood by the Indian as easily as the white man understands the printed book.

Marchand, a French navigator who visited Queen Charlotte Islands in 1791, says of them: "The taste

for ornament prevails in all the works of their hands; their canoes, their chests and different little articles of furniture in use among them are covered with figures which might be taken for a species of hieroglyphics; fishes and other animals, heads of men, and various whimsical designs, are mingled and confounded in order to compose a subject. It undoubtedly will not be expected that these figures should be perfectly regular and the proportions in them exactly observed, for here every man is a painter and sculptor, yet they are not deficient in a sort of elegance and perfection."* This taste for the fine arts seems to owe its origin to some ancient state of society which is lost to us in the obscurity of antiquity. Marchand, who had recently seen the Mexican sculpture and paintings, was of the opinion that the Haida works of art could be distinctly traceable to Aztec origin, an opinion with which my own observation has induced me to fully coincide.

The few illustrations I have given of the carvings and drawings of these interesting people may be of some future value in enabling the student and man of science to ascertain something of the truth concerning the origin of the Indians of the Northwest coast; and the Queen Charlotte Islands present a rich and hitherto but partially explored region, where the man of science may find much to add to our knowledge of the North American Indian, who in a comparatively brief period of time will wholly disappear as a distinctive race.

JAMES G. SWAN.

## AN EARLY WRITING PAPER.

MANY centuries before Christ, Numa left writings upon the papyrus, whence our name, paper, is derived. This plant, which was revered as sacred by the old Egyptians, grows abundantly in shallow streams and marshes in upper Egypt and Syria. Bruce found it growing in the River Jordan, and noticed a curious fact, that it always presented the sharp, angular side of its pear-shaped stem to the swift current. The stem is eight or ten feet high, two inches in diameter, and crowned with a fringe of hair-like leaves, which circle a blossom of slender spikelets. Beneath the brown sheath which envelops the root-stalk of this dark-green plant lie other sheaths which are very transparent. These, when split into thin leaves and dried in the sun, were glued together, and formed the roll of papyrus on which many of the ancient writings have come down to us. This paper was both flexible and durable. Specimens from Pompeii can be seen in the museum at Naples. In the fifth century papyrus paper, of which many varieties existed, was largely manufactured at Alexandria, and ranked high in the commerce of nations. Its use continued until about seven or eight centuries ago.—St. Nicholas.

A SQUAW refused to marry a Canadian Indian, and he took her scalp—a lock of her hair, as it were. She then married him, and it wasn't long before he hadn't hair enough for a scalp lock.

* Marchand's Voyages, vol. II. p. 253.