TSIMSHIAN MYTHOLOGY 



[ETH. ANN. 31 



houses, and which are utilized in a great variety of ways by the native 

 woodworker. The bark of the red cedar is also used extensively for 

 making matting, baskets, and certain kinds of clothing. Strong ropes 

 are made of twigs of the cedar, while others are made of twisted cedar 

 bark. Formerly blankets were woven of the inner bark of the yellow 

 cedar, which was shredded and softened by careful beating, and then 

 woven by a simple method of twining. The wool of mountain goats 

 was also spun and woven. 



It may be said that the salmon and cedar are the foundations of 

 Northwest coast culture. 



Part of the year the Indians live in permanent villages. These 

 villages consist of large wooden houses built of cedar planks and 

 arranged in a row facing the sea. A street is leveled in front of the 



Fig. 1. Rear el 



houses, and the canoes are placed on runways on the beach in front 

 of the village. Tradition tells of villages of several rows of houses. 

 In olden times the houses of the Tsimshian were of moderate size, 

 probably about thirty feet square. The following description is based 

 on the observation of a few houses seen in the village of the G"it-qxa'la 

 in 1894 : ' While the house of the Haida 2 generally has on each side of 

 the central line three heavy beams which support the roof, the house 

 of (he Tsimshian and of the Kwakiutl has only one pair of heavy 

 beams, one on each side of the doorway. In the Kwakiutl house 

 these two beams, which rest on heavy posts, stand no more than six 

 feet apart. 3 In the houses of the Tsimshian and Ntsqa' e (figs. 1-3) 

 they stand about halfway between the central line and the lateral 



i Boas 1, 1896, pp. :80-583. 



* See G. M. Dawson, Report of Progress. G.ological Surrey "/' Canada, 1X7S-79 (pis. Ill, IV, V l. 



' The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians (Rep. U. s. Nat. Mus.for 



