THE KWAKIUTL INDIANS. 



371 



The houses generally face the beach and are built in a row. (See fig. Ii6, 

 p. 391.) In front of the town there is a street, which is carefully leveled, 

 the lower side being- su})ported by an embankment of heavy logs. From 

 here steps lead down to the beach, where the canoes are lying. Oppo- 



Fig. 11. 



SETTIiE, WITH CARVING REPRESENTING THE SI'SIUL. 

 From a sketch by the .Huthor. 



site to the houses, on the side of the street toward the sea, there are 

 platforms; summer seats, on which the Indians pass most of their time, 

 gambling and conversing. The platform rests on a framework of poles 

 and on the embankment of the street, as shown in fig. 2C. 



I iH'oceed now to a discussion of the clan legends. 



First of all, it is necessary to describe and enumerate a number of 

 supernatural beings who may become the supernatural helpers of man, 

 as they appear over and 

 over again in the clan 

 legends. Besides a num- 

 ber of animals, such as 

 wolves, bears, sea lions, 

 and killer whales, which, 

 however, do not play a 

 very important part as 

 protectors of man, we 

 find principally a num- 

 ber of fabulous monsters 

 whose help was obtained 

 by the ancestors, and 

 who therefore have 

 become the crest of the 

 clan. 



Perhaps the most 

 important among these is the si'siuL, the ftibulous double-headed 

 snake, which has one head at each end, a human head in the middle, 

 one horn on each terminal head, and two on the central human 

 head. (Fig. 10.) It has the power to assume the shape of a fish. 

 To eat it and even to touch or to see it is sure death, as all the 

 joints of the unforlunate one become dislocated, the head being 

 turned backward. But to those who enjoy supernatural help it may 



Fig. 12. 



THE Sl'SIUL. 

 1 paintinK by a Kwjikiutl Indian. 



