IMPLEMENTS AND WEAPONS OF GEAHAM ISLAND. S5 



competition used to take place between wives of prominent chiefs as to which should 

 have the longest protruding under lip and largest labret. The contest often resulted in 

 injury to the lip by forcing into the orifice labrets of undue size. Sometimes the lip split 

 from the orifice to the surface, making it then impossible to button in the labret. It seems, 

 however, that rather than give up wearing the labret, they tied it to the lip by boring 

 a hole in the labret and attaching it to the jagged edges of the wounded lip by threads. 

 This stone labret shows evidence of having been used in this way, as one perfect hole 

 and portion of the edge of another are distinctly seen. When the narrator of the 

 above saw it, he agreed that it had evidently been fastened to the lip in the man- 

 ner described. He added that he had never seen a pierced one before, or known per- 

 sonally of such a custom, but that any doubt he had entertained as to the truth of the 

 legend was now removed by seeing this pierced labret. 



The method of preparing the lip for the reception of these large labrets was as 

 follows : — At a very early age, the under lip of the female child was pierced with a tiny 

 hole, ' and a small pin of bone or metal with a head on it was inserted in the orifice from 

 the inside. As the child increased in yeai-s, these pins were gradually exchanged for ones of 

 larger size, until on attaining womanhood, the pin was generally discarded and a small 

 labret proper was inserted in the hole ; this again being exchanged as years passed on for 

 one of a larger size, until on middle age being attained, it became possible to insert labrets 

 of huge size. This is a custom which has now fallen into disuse. It will be understood 

 from what is above stated, that a young woman could never wear a very large labret. 



Two Small Dolls or Images (Haida Kwah-keet). — [Nos. 1294 and 1289.] These are very 

 old and their origin is unknown. Report says they were highly prized by the ancients, 

 but they are not known to have been used otherwise than as children's toys. They are 

 carved in white marble. One shews a labret, the other a peculiar incision in the lower lip. 



Tivo Carved Mountain- goat Horns (Haida Nee-sang or Nee-sang-ah) . — [Nos. 1286 and 

 1287.] These peculiar head ornaments were worn only by the sons of chiefs. A lock of 

 hair above each temple was drawn tightly through the hollow of such horns and bound on 

 the outside, which gave the horns an erect position. They were worn on festive occasions. 



Two Carvel Ivory Mortars (Haida Qua-kull). — The ivory of which these mortars are 

 made is walrus tusk, and came from Northern Alaska. [Nos. 1284 and 1285.] 



In olden times the Haida cultivated a plant which possessed a sedative-narcotic 

 principle. This principle was contained in the leaves, which when of mature growth, 

 were gathered and dried like tobacco leaves. When wanted for use some of the leaves 

 were pounded in one of the large stone mortars [tow). Calcined clam shells were pul- 

 verized in the small ivory mortar. The pounded leaves were then mixed with a portion 

 of the calcined clam shell, and the compound was chewed in the same manner in 

 which the betel nut is employed in the east. This plant was called Win-dah, but at the 

 present day no trace of it can be discovered. On the introduction of tobacco by white 

 people the cultivation of windah was discontinued. The Haida made it an important 

 article of barter with the neighbouring tribes. - 



' Generally in public, at a distribution-of-property feast. 



^ Cf. Report of Progress, Geol. Surv. Can., 1878-79, p. 114 B. Mr. R. Cunningham, of Port Essington, informs 

 me that the Tshimsean used to obtain this narcotic weed in early days from the Haida, under tlie name of win-dah 

 or vAn-daw, which is its Haida appelation. Um-sin-vja' ia Tshimsean for " a foreigner," as for instance a white man, 



