IMPLEMENTS ANJ) WEAPONS OF GEAHAM ISLAND. S7 



Miscellaneous Notes. 



The Sun. — The aiicieut Haida iu a mauner worshipped the suu. They considered it 

 to be a great spirit, and in times of distress or peril its assistance was invoked. When 

 small-pox visited the Queen Charlotte Islands lor the first time, presents of blankets, 

 clothes, dance-dresses, ornaments, etc., were hung outside the lodge to propitiate the suu, 

 while the people cried, " Preserve us sun, do not kill us," etc. Other spirits besides the 

 sun were propitiated or i«voked by the Haida. 



Origin of some of the Stars. — When the great flood took place which covered the face 

 of the earth, a man had just stretched a sea-otter skin. As the waters rose he took refuge 

 with his effects in his canoe. 



The flood rose to the skies, the canoe was swamped and the man was drowned. The 

 sea-otter stretcher had been on top of the canoe and floated. When the waters subsided 

 the sea-otter stretcher remained in the skies, where now it is seen as the group of stars 

 Koh-cet-ovy, which white people call the Great Bear. Koh, a sea otter. Koh-eet-ow, a frame 

 for stretching sea-otter skins. 



The water-bailer and triangular foot-board of the canoe also remained on high after 

 the waters subsided ; the former is now seen as the Pleiades, and the latter as the Hyades. 

 (Houf-oo a water-bailer, Pleiades ; TuUh-ulc-lhley or foot-board for a canoe, Hyades). The 

 outline of the Pleiades resembles a water-bailer, and the outline of the Hyades that of the 

 foot-board of a canoe. 



The ancient Haida are said to have had names for all the constellations, but most of 

 these are now forgotten. 



Festivals — Lah-out festival of the dead. Lag-un-ing festival of the house-building. 



Festivals for the dead were held as soon after the decease as sufficient food could be 

 amassed and guests collected. Festivals were tribal, and all were guests except those of 

 the same crest or totem as the deceased who were non-participants. The ancient Haida 

 are said to have always endeavoured to hold their distribution-of-property feasts at the 

 full of the moon, but the reason for this is not now known. 



A Visit to Spirit-land. — A certain young man (name unknown) was mourning for his 

 eldest brother and his sister's son, who had both been murdered shortly before, and he 

 resolved to try and penetrate the mystery of the place where their spirits had gone to in 

 the heavens. 



He went to the top of a mountain with his bow and wood to make arrows. He sat 

 down and made fifty arrows, which, one after another he shot up into space, where they 

 disappeared. He then made fifty more, which he shot iip with the same result. He then 

 made a third lot of fifty, which he disposed of in the sami' manner. Then a fourth lot 

 followed, and he noticed that the arrows were now fixed one in another by the point of 

 each entering into the notch of the preceding one. 



When he had finished shooting th(^se last fifty arrows they reached nearly to the 

 earth. So, to complete the connection, he stuck one end of his bow in the earth and 

 leant the other against the string of arrows. Seizing the pillar of arrows he put his foot 

 on the bow and commenced to climb aloft. To his surprise he now observed that each 

 arrow was transfixed thror\gh a human head, which was strung as it were on this line of 

 arrows, crown of head down and under jaw^ uppermost. This afforded him good foot- 

 Sec. II, 189L 8. 



