76 G- M. DAWSON ON THE KWAKIOOL 



those inside the houses tla-7lh'. Carved posts of the last-uamed kind, generally those which 

 support the ponderous main beams of the roof, are rather common in the Kwakiool village. 

 The designs are frequently grotesque and the carving generally very rude. The ends of 

 the main beams which project at the front of the house are also not iufrecjuently carved. 

 Large painted designs, generally in black and red, though often with the addition of blue 

 and other colours, are common on the fronts of houses. These are in the usual conven- 

 tional or heraldic style — involved, but often neatly executed. Such designs include the 

 thunder bird, the monsters Tsê-aklsh or Sî-sl-ootl, salmon, whales, " coppers," etc. 



The most valuable possession of the Kwakiool and other jortheru tribes is the "copper" 

 or copper plate of which the peculiar iorm is illustrated in my Report on the Queen Charlotte 

 Islands, already cited (p. 135 B.) A conventional face is often scraped out iipou the 

 surface of the " copper". The most valued coppers are very old and have been handed 

 down for generations. These are known as U<l-kiva. Smaller " coppers" of modern manu- 

 facture are named tld-t.loh-siim. A copper, to be of value, should be of equal thickness 

 throughout, except at the edges, where it should be thicker than elsewhere. "When struck, 

 it should emit a dull soxxnd and not ring. The dentalium shell, named a-ll-a, was former- 

 ly used as a currency, but as with other coast tribes, the blanket is now the unit of value 

 A somewhat inferior quality, known in the Hudson's Bay Company parlance as a " two 

 and a-half point" blanket, is the standard, and is vmmed ul'-hiil-as-kum. 



The Kwakiool employ the fathom, measured between the outstretched hands across 

 the chest, as their principal measure, counting nvm-pun-kj " one fathom," matl-pwi-kl " two 

 fathoms," and so on. The half-fathom, measured from the middle of the chest, is named 

 nvk-a-pôt'. The distance from the elbow to the end of the outstretched fingers is also used 

 as a measure under the name of klû-kivn-p'i-al. The next smallest unit of measurement is 

 a span, reckoned from the tip of the thumb to that of the outstretched second finger. This 

 is named " one span with the long finger," num-pmi-kh-la-hvns-kil-tsan-a-e. The short span is 

 similarly measured between the tips of the thumb and first finger, and known as num-pun- 

 kh-Imns-isan-a-e or " one span with the short finger," and soon, changing the affixed numeral. 

 In addition to the ordinary mode of counting num " one," matl " two," in-tooh " three," 

 wVfour," and so on, there are various recognised modes of enumerating articles of 

 different kinds. Thus in counting flat objects, such as blankets, the Kwakiool says 

 num-uh-sil, matl-uh-sii, etc. In counting circular or spherical objects, such as money or balls, 

 he habitually uses num-skum, malt-sum, in-iooh-strm, etc. In counting persons, the numeral 

 is again changed to nlm-ook, ma-look, In-look, moo-kv>, s1-ki-ok, etc. Again, in counting lots, 

 each made up of a like number of objects, a different termination is appended to the 

 numeral thus, — num-uh-strda " one lot," ma-a-luh-strda " two lots," in-tooh-strda " three lots," 

 mo-stàlà "four lots," sVc-l-a-st'll/i "five lots," etc. "One to each," " two to each," etc., are 

 expressed by nnlV-num-la-hi, ma-e-mall-la-hi, yall-in-looh-hi-hi, ma-e-moo-la-hi, sl-sl-ki-a-la-hi, etc. 

 The first two ordinal numbers are expressed by kl-îd'-a-kl-wa "first," mri-kil-a-h'i-kl-al- 

 a-kl-iva " next to first." These, however, appear to be seldom used, and it is difficult to 

 explain the idea to the Indians. The numeral adverbs " once," twice," thrice," are nun- 

 pun-a, mall-pvn-a, in-tooh-pun-a. 



When a child has grown large enough to leave the little cradle, tied into which 

 it spends most of its earlier days, usage demands that the cradle, together with all the 

 wrappings and bark forming the bedding and its appendages, shall be carefully collected 



