﻿NO. 



SM ITIISOXJAX I".XI'I.(»K.\II()XS, l<;22 



127 



was great]}' increased by this means. The size of a ])<)le, and the 

 style of the carvings, Hke the name assumed by the owner, were corre- 

 lated to a nicety witli the cost of the potlatch and the amount of 

 property disbursed. The noble families were very careful of their 

 dignitv. ( )nce a }()ung man who was preparing to take a swim, 



Fig. 121. — A pole at the village of Howkan, showing (near 

 the top) a representation of the Czar of Russia who sold 

 Alaska to the U. S. A. ( Photograph by Julius Sternberg, 

 for the Smithsonian Institution.) 



slipped on a treacherous rock and capsized on this beach. His father 

 at once ordered that a slave be killed, so that nobody would laugh at 

 his son. Slave people, who merely represented objects of value, were 

 often dispatched at ]:)Otlatches, to add lustre to the occasion, and to 

 show that the owner was so rich that the value of a slave was nothing 

 to him. 



