TSIMSHIAN STORIES IN CARVED WOOD 
By Lieutenant George T. Emmons 
HE Kitksan as well as the other 
| divisions of the Tsimshian pos- 
sess neither letters nor hiero- 
glyphics, yet through the plastic and 
graphic arts they have been enabled to 
preserve and illustrate their legends, 
traditions and much of their life history. 
Carving in wood, bone and _ stone, 
weaving in the wool of the mountain 
goat, in maple and cedar bark and spruce 
root show a much higher degree of de- 
velopment than painting. The last has 
never advanced beyond simple outline 
with no sense of perspective and with 
four simple colors, consequently little 
variation in shade or tone. 
Cruder and more primitive than either 
the Tsimshian proper or the Niska, the 
Kitksan nevertheless follow natural 
forms with wonderful accuracy, and 
besides portraying the typical features 
of their race, they express action in 
animal figures — born no doubt of that 
close study of nature upon which the 
hunter’s life depends. Their art is more 
realistic than conventional, but as it has 
been developed slowly through genera- 
tions a certain amount of usage prevails 
which is the more noticeable in the hu- 
man, bear and mythical animal figures. 
Without discussing the origin of the 
Kitksan, the fact that their art has been 
borrowed from the coast cannot be ques- 
tioned, for the reason that there are 
found more than two hundred miles 
inland in the midst of birch and cotton- 
wood forests, sea animal forms emblem- 
atic of the family crests that have come 
to them through intercourse and inter- 
marriage with the seaward divisions of 
this people. Besides, all their folk-lore 
and traditions speak of a migration 
down the Skeena to salt water, and a 
further proof is that the contiguous 
Déné tribes are wholly wanting in any 
sense of art. 
Some of the finest specimens of carv- 
ing are said to have been executed by 
Tsimshian imported for the purpose, but 
the average work represents home talent, 
and while often archaic, is more realistic 
and original and interesting in the por- 
trayal of local traditions and the fauna 
of the country than the finer carving. 
At the village of the old Kitzegukla 
on the Skeena River, some _ thirteen 
miles below Hazelton, is a very interest- 
ing heraldic column of the Kish-hasht 
family. It is rather crude in its execu- 
tion but’it illustrates more than the 
usual number of stories. The tree is 
simply barked and brought to a dull 
point at the top. Below this occurs in 
order representations of, first, the moun- 
tain goat painted white and _ black; 
second, the sun within which is the 
figure of the moose hunter, Kuke-shan, 
carrying a small basket; third, the 
monkey woman Pighish, and at the base 
the big horned owl (gwuk-gwu-nooks). 
These stories told in wood go back to 
the time when men and animals were 
supposed to be very close to one another; 
when they intermarried and saw each 
other under a spell of witchery that made 
all appear human, except that the ani- 
mals wore coats of fur which they could 
at will remove and appear in human 
form, or put on and become as animals. 
THE STORY OF THE MOUNTAIN GOAT 
(These stories were told by John Malo, an old 
Kitksan at Hazelton, June 20, 1913. They are 
prosaic but typical native explanation of a totem 
pole, similar to the many on exhibition in the 
American Museum) 
In the early days of life, before the great 
cold which caused the dispersion of the 
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