LOST AETS OF PEIMITIVE KACES. 153 



or borrowed new patterns. A little farther progress 

 of civilization will probably turn the attention of this 

 people into new channels, and their later works, as 

 well as their own earlier grotesque figures, will become 

 obsolete and forgotten; and if exhumed by anti- 

 quaries, might give very false impressions as to the 

 history and progress of the tribe, unless some historical 

 account of the circumstances were preserved. 



The case of the Queen Charlotte Islanders might be 

 made to indicate even a change of religion as well as of 

 art, for their grotesque carvings are their penates, the 

 tokens or signs of their guardian manitous (Fig. 29) , 

 to which their more modern carvings, often copied 

 from European models, bear no relation. 



The Haida Indians of the Queen Charlotte Islands, 

 when first visited by Europeans, dwelt in villages 

 composed of large houses, laboriously constructed of 

 wooden planks, and in front of each house was an 

 immense obelisk or pillar of wood, often so large that 

 the doorway was cut through its substance. This 

 pillar was elaborately carved with great labour, from 

 top to bottom, with totems or armorial bearings of the 

 family. They used vessels of wood and of the horns 

 of the mountain sheep and goat, which were in like 

 manner adorned with carvings of animal and grotesque 

 forms. Their masks, rattles, and maces, used in their 

 dances, were all highly finished pieces of carving, 

 and often inlaid with pearly plates of the shell of 

 the Haliotis. Their canoes, constructed out of a single 

 large tree, were beautifully modelled, carved and 



