THE INDIANS OF THE NORTHWEST COAST. 309 



form is at the level, d ; c is the lower platform. The fire, 6, burns on 

 the bare earth, or in a frame-work of boards filled with rocks. It is 

 here that the family sleep in winter, stretched out on the bare floor 

 or on mats with feet towards the fire. As stated, the occupants 

 of such a house are numerous, amounting in some cases to thirty or forty 

 in all, and the household may embrace a chief, his family, grand- 

 children, and the families of several of his brothers. Amongst the Kai- 

 gani most of the houses are built on log foundations, a little above the 

 ground, and the European form of door is used. In some cases the 

 carved column is set a few feet oft' with a small opening in it, but the 

 real entrance to the house is by a doorway, thus keeping up a semblance 

 of the ancient custom. The Haida houses are quite generally excavated, 

 and seldom built on raised foundations. The smaller houses, and not 

 unusually the more modern houses, consist principally of a frame 

 erected on four posts, one at each corner. 



VILLAaES. 



The villages are invariably situated along the shore, and usually near 

 a shelving beach, which admits of easily hauling up the canoes. Often, 

 through the desire to be near a good halibut fishing bank, a very ex- 

 posed site is of necessity selected. The houses are usually in a single 

 row, a few feet above extreme high water, facing toward the beach and 

 not far back from it. At high water the canoes can be hauled well up. 

 Between the houses and high-water mark is a space which serves as a 

 street, with a beaten path near the houses and patches of grass be- 

 yond. This space serves for hauling up canoes for long periods and 

 drying fish, as well as the usual purposes of a street. Sometimes the 

 two rows of houses are built, where the space is contracted, with a 

 narrow street between the rows. The houses are not very far apart in 

 the rows, are often in contact, and arranged without regard to rank or 

 precedence. There are one or more carved columns in front of each 

 house. These are at first usually painted (formerly daubed with ochre), 

 but the coat is seldom renewed. Owing to the bleaching effect of the 

 weather, the columns and houses after a while assume a grayish white 

 appearance, and become covered with moss. In the weather-cracks moss 

 and vegetation flourish, giving a very ancient appearance. At the end 

 of the village is the graveyard, with its variety of sepulchres and mort- 

 uary columns of ancient and modern form, as shown in Plate iii. 

 Scattered throughout the villages, in front and near the corners of the 

 houses, are the mortuary or commemorative columns similar to those in 

 the graveyards. These are pictured in all their variety in Plate iii. 



Behind the village, or at one end, are the small sheds in which the 

 dead are placed. 



Names of villages. — Considerable confusion has originated in the 

 enumeration of villages amongst the Haida and Kaigani by Europeans, 

 through the different names assigned to the same village. The Indians 



