THE INDIANS OF THE NORTHWEST COAST. 307 



after Boas. The Haida fronts are rarely ornamented with totemic rep- 

 resentations. 



Totemic and mortuary columns. — It is the custom amongst the Tlingit, 

 Kaigaui, and Tsimshian to erect carved columns in frontof the houses. 

 These usually stand some feet from the fronts. Amongst the Haida 

 they are generally in contact with the front, the doorway or entrance 

 being through a hole in the carved column about three feet from the 

 ground, into which the occupant appears to dive when he enters. This 

 form of entrance is shown in Plate xxxv, and is found occasionally 

 elsewhere, but is rather peculiar to the Haida. It is now, however, 

 being generally superseded by the European type of doorway. The 

 carved columns will be described in detail in a subsequent chapter. 



Haida permanent dwellings. — Fig. 179, Plate xxxv, represents a Haida 

 house of the conventional pattern. The posts, gg, hollowed out on the 

 backs, as shown, to reduce the weight, with carved faces, are firmly 

 planted in the ground. The upper ends are also hollowed to receive the 

 enormous log plates, s s, which give strength and solidity to the build- 

 ing. The carved column, m, at the front of the house, is usually next 

 erected, as the work up to this point requires the co-operation of many 

 hands, the gathering being the occasion of a feast and a grand distribu- 

 tion of presents (a potlatch, as it is called) amongst the participants. 

 Often, through lack of funds, the work of building a house has to be 

 postjjoned, the whole process often requiring several years. The ex- 

 penses are usually reckoned in blankets, as they are the conventional 

 gifts on such an occasion. The huge plates and purlines, the hewn 

 cedar planks, and the logs for posts and carved columns, are gotten out 

 from the forests with great labor and expense, and are towed to the vil- 

 lage site, where they are hauled up on skids, and the work of smooth- 

 finishing begun. Plate lxx illustrates an animated scene at Fort Simp- 

 son, British Columbia, where a party of Haida are represented as hauling 

 up a log on skids in the process of house construction. The relief carving 

 on the totemic columns and the posts is done either by the owner, if he 

 be expert, or if he be rich, by others hired or kept in the establishment for 

 the purpose. The materials being ready, the invited guests assemble 

 from far and near, and the different timbers are gotten up to the site of 

 the house. The posts are raised into position by means of rope guys 

 and props, and firmly planted in the deep holes dug in the ground. The 

 plates or huge logs which rest on the upr' j-hts are gotten into position 

 by what a sailor would call technically skids and parbuckles. To de- 

 scribe the process in detail, imagine the four posts (or, as in Plate lxx, 

 six posts) in Fig. 179 firmly planted in the ground, their heads being 

 hollowed out as shown. The log (or plate, as it is technically called in 

 architecture) is rolled to a distance of about 14 feet from the uprights and 

 parallel to its final position. The uprights are braced or shored on the 

 opposite side, while on the adjacent side skids are rested at an angle to 

 form an incline, up which the plate is, by the combined effort of many, 



