SJu'll-Ti niiipets and then- nistribulion. 65 



thrown up like a curtain, and tlie external mat was 

 carefully removed from the shell, that it micjht have air. 

 Some of the consecrateil tobacco suspended from the 

 coverings of the shell was taken bv the medicine men 

 and smoked to the " Great Medicine." Durini; this 

 ceremony everyone listened most attentive!}-, hopiuf^ to 

 hear a sound proceed from the sacred shell. At length 

 someone imagined he heard a noise resembling a forced 

 expiration of air from the lungs, and this was consideretl 

 a favourable omen, and the tribe prepared for the expe- 

 dition, confident c)f success. If, on the contrar}-, the shell 

 obstinately remained silent, the result of the expedition 

 was regarded as doubtful. 



A. V. Niblack, in his wc^rk on "The Coast Indians of 

 ."Southern Alaska and Northern British Columbia'"^'' gives 

 Some interesting details (A the traditions and myths of the 

 Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian tribes of the north-west 

 coast, in which are expressed many ideas concerning the 

 religion and cosmogony of these people. Among the Haida, 

 it was believed, the creator of all things and the bene- 

 factor of man was the great raven called Nc-kil-stlas. 

 This m}'thical personage was no ordinary bird, hut harl 

 many human attributes, and was capable of transforming 

 himself into an\thing in the world. The stories of liis 

 adventures in peopling the world are numerous. One of 

 the HKxst interesting of these stories is given 1)\- Niblack, 

 as follows : " According to the Haida and Kaigani the 

 first people sprang from a cockle-shell {Cardiin/i cor/ns, 

 Mast.J. Ne-kil-stlas became very lonely and began to look 

 about him for a mate, but could find none. At last he 

 tocjk a cockle-shell from the beach, and marrj-ing it, he 

 still continued to brood ami think earnestly of his wish 

 for a companion. By and by he heard a faint cr\- in 



■'" Nepoit r.S. Nut. .!///.>.. 1S87-8 ( 1890), \k 378. 



