404 PICTURE-WRITING OF THE AMERICAN INDIANS. 
ders, on both forearms, from the elbow down over the back of the hands to the 
knuckles, and on both legs below the knee to the ankle. 
Almost all of the Indian women of the northwest coast have tattoo marks on their 
hands and arms, and some on the face; but as a general thing these marks are mere 
dots or straight lines having no particular significance. With the Haidas, however, 
every mark has its meaning; those on the hands and arms of the women indicate 
the family name, whether they belong to the bear, beaver, wolf, or eagle totems, or 
any of the family of fishes. As one of them quaintly remarked to me, ‘If you were 
tattooed with the design of a swan, the Indians would know your family name.” 
In order to illustrate this tattooing as correctly as possible I inclose herewith 
sketches of the tattoo marks on two women and their husbands, taken by me at Port 
Townsend. 
The man on the left hand of Fig. 525 is a tattooed Haida. On his 
breast is the cod (kahatta), split from the head to the tail and laid open; 
on each thigh is the octopus (noo), and below each knee is the frog 
(fikamkostan). s 
Fic. 527,—T wo forms of skulpin, Haida. 
The woman in the same figure has on her breast the head and fore- 
paws of the beaver (tsching); on each shoulder is the head of the eagle 
or thunder-bird (skamskwin); on each arm, extending to and covering 
the back of the hand, is the halibut (hargo); on the right leg is the 
skulpin (kull); on the left leg is the frog (flkamkostan). 
The woman in Fig. 526 has a bear’s head (hoorts) on her breast. On 
each shoulder is the eagle’s head, and on her arms and legs are figures 
of the bear. 
The back of the man in the same figure has the wolf (wasko), split in 
halves and tattooed between his shoulders, which is shown enlarged in 
Fig. 531. Wasko is a mythological being of the wolf species, similar 
to the chu-chu-hmex! of the Makah Indians, an antediluvian demon sup- 
posed to live in the mountains. 
