552 ANNUAL EEPOET SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 193 



Plate 17 



Examples of the wood carver's arts of the Haida Indians of southeast Alaska. 



Upper left : A tobacco pipe of carved wood. The pipe is carved to repre- 

 sent the eagle totem ; a smaller carved figure just beneath represents a 

 beaver, recognizable by the cross hachure representing its bushy tail, 

 applied for convenience sake on the eagle-figure wing. Cat. No. 337354, 

 U.S.N.M. Collected from the Haida by T. S. Forsyth. 



Upper right: One of the most recently erected totem poles in the National 

 Monument of Old Kasaan. It was carved for Chief Nastow in 18S6. The 

 two bearded and high-hatted carved figures at the top ot the pole are 

 watchmen. 



Lower figure : A carved and painted wooden chest. This box is typical 

 of carved and decorated wooden chests fashioned by the northwest Pacific 

 coast Indian tribes and used by them as containers of various objects. The 

 chest is made from a cedar slab grooved on the inner face at proper inter- 

 vals, bent to a rectangular shape, the ends pegged and a bottom and top 

 supplied. It is decorated by surface painting, by shallow intaglio carving, 

 also by relief carving. The designs are of totemic animals wonderfully 

 analyzed into conventional decorative designs representing totemic forms 

 as in the woven Chilkat blankets. Frequently the smaller chests are 

 secured with an ornamental lacing of cedar bark cord. Sometimes bark 

 mats are wrapped around them before the cords are applied. The carved 

 wooden boxes are intended to contain food or valuable belongings of the 

 household. 



Platb 18 



Totemic mask of carved wood and cedar bark representing the culture hero 

 of the Haida and Tlingit Indians of southeast Alaska in the form of a raven. 

 The massive beak is operated with strings from within by the impersonator 

 of the raven totem. Collection of the United States National Museum. 



Plate 19 



Examples of recent forms of stone sculpturing by the Haida of Queen Char- 

 lotte Islands, British Columbia. Carvings in slate after patterns formerly 

 executed in wood. 



At upper left is the "bear mother." This has been styled the best 

 example of aboriginal art from the Pacific northwest coast, in the manner 

 in which the primitive artist has succeeded in modeling the intended 

 symbolism through carving and polishing a slab of slate. 



At upper right is a miniature carving of a totem pole; below appears 

 engraved on the inner surface of a carved and polished tray of slate 

 certain mythological monsters of totemic import, but not found in natural 

 history books. 



Plate 20 



Examples of modern decorative art of the Alaska Eskimo. 



Pictographic engravings on walrus tusks of ivory. The hunting and 

 fishing scenes engraved on the fiattened surface of one of the ivory tusks 

 appear in silhouette. These are of an earlier date than the work illus- 

 trated by the engravings appearing on the surface of the other tusk, 

 which appear in perspective, framing a modern cribbage board, one of 

 the favored commercial objects offered to the trade by the modern Alaska 

 Eskimo. 



