﻿l86 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 78 



at an angle to form an incline up which the log plate is rolled. Ropes 

 are rove over the top of the post, under and over the log, then back 

 again over the post. The ropes serve as a parbuckle, take the weight 

 of the log and hold it in position. Forked pike poles are rested against 

 the log with their other ends in the ground to help the parbuckle take 

 the weight as the plate is gradually rolled up, the poles being shifted 

 as it rises. The combined efforts of the workers suffice to get the 

 plate to the top of the incline. By means of pushing with poles and 

 by pulling on the parbuckle the log is finally rolled into the rounded 

 notch at the top of the house post. According to old accounts this 

 work was conducted with much confusion, shouting, and sometimes 

 fighting. The clan which finished first taunted their competitors who 

 were still struggling to get the other log into position. The entire 

 procedure, together with the festivities that followed the completion 

 of the task, was the cause of much bad blood between neighboring 

 villages. 



The erection of memorial columns or totem poles was accomplished 

 by means of poles, props, and rope guys in much the same manner 

 that construction gangs erect telephone and telegraph poles. The 

 essential dift'erence is in the use of a forked pike pole by the Indians, 

 the more modern method using steel-capped pike poles and the block 

 and tackle. 



Long hewn plates are grooved or beveled to receive the upper and 

 lower ends of the split slabs forming the side and front and rear 

 walls of the house. The top purlines form the supports for the roof 

 which is made up of " shakes " or slabs of wood and bark held down 

 by superimposed cross i)ieces and by rocks. In some of the newer 

 houses at Kasaan the writer found large copper spikes and some made 

 from wrought iron which held the s])liced beams and girders in place. 

 Usually there were only wooden pins and i)egs placed at strategic 

 points. The method relied on most for holding the framework together 

 was dovetailing or the placing of interlocking mortises at the places 

 of juncture of all beams and girder plates. Mere weight sufficed to 

 keep the two huge main log plates in position. 



The smoke hole is surmounted by a shutter which is closed in the 

 direction of the wind. The shutter has a motion about the axle. 

 When the wind changes and blows down the smoke hole a chain or 

 rope is pulled and the shutter revolves to the other position against 

 the wind. As the house faces the beach, and the wind usually blows 

 up or down channel, the shutter faces one side or other rather than 

 the front or rear of the house. 



