SOME KITKSAN TOTEM POLES 



369 



the strength of the column to withstand the heavy winds that sweep 

 through these river valleys. While most of the figures are more or less con- 

 ventionalized, particularly those of human beings, mythical animals and 

 bears, yet the Kitksan are very independent in their treatment of most 

 other animal forms, and represent them in many different positions very 

 true to nature. This is particularly so in the case of the bird figures that 

 so often surmount the poles. It is customary to give the clan or house crest 

 the place of honor at the top of the pole and more often too at the base, 

 while more for ornamental purposes it may figure in many positions be- 

 tween, where also may be pictured some family story or exploit or some 

 connection through marriage. Every figure represented here has some clan 

 or household significance although the present generation cannot always 

 account for the appearance of human figures on some of the older columns. 

 To-day the old columns are fast going to decay and their places are not 

 being supplied by new ones. And with the loss of interest in this custom is a 

 growing ignorance which in a few years will result in much difficulty if not 

 in an impossibility in interpreting these old stories in carved tree trunks. 



Totem poles in the village of Kitwingach in front of the house of a chief of the Kanhada 



clan 



