326 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



called sJcil. These appear also on the top of several ceremonial grass 

 hats aud woodeu helmets and batons, illustrated in the accompanying 

 plates. Their exact significance is uncertain, but the number of these 

 skil disks is in general an index of the rank, wealth, and standing of 

 the chief or owner. It is stated on some authorities and disputed ou 

 others, that each disk commemorates some meritorious act of the owner, 

 such as the giving of a great potlatch, or the gaining of a victory over 

 an enemy. In this sense it indicates the right of the owner to the 

 enjoyment of the respect and esteem of the tribe. It is also stated 

 that the holes pierced in the lobes of the ear and the disks worn on the 

 ceremonial hat also correspond to this same number. The difference of 

 opinion is doubtless due to the variation in the custom amongst dift'er- 

 ent stocks. The form of carving may be borrowed without the signifi- 

 cance being understood or remembered. The weight of evidence would 

 seem to favor the belief that each disk or sJcil had the significance indi- 

 cated, that is, of commemorating some deed of prowess of the possessor. 

 Plate LV., Fig. 292, represents another column which may be taken 

 as a type. It is found at the Kaigani village of Kasa-an, Skowl Bay, 

 Prince of Wales Island, Alaska. The top group represents the head 

 of a European, with whitened face and long, black whiskers, flanked on 

 either side by two figures representing children in sitting posture, 

 wearing tall hats. These hats in Kaigani are called Hat cachanda, 

 and each have four sMl. The group represents the following legend, 

 either commemorating an actual occurrence or else being a nursery 

 tale originally invented to frighten refractory children, becoming in 

 time, through repetition and misconception, a veritable tradition. Many 

 years ago the wife of a chief went out in a small fishing canoe, with 

 her two children, near the summer camp to get the pine boughs, on which 

 salmon spawn is collected. She drew up her canoe on the beach, and 

 warned the children not to wander off. On her return they had dis- 

 appeared. She called to them, and they answered her from the woods 

 with voices of crows. Always when she sought them, two crows 

 mocked her from the trees. The children never returned, and it was 

 said that the white traders had kidnapped them and carried them ofl" 

 in their ship. The face with the beard represents the trader, and the two 

 figures the tidnapp ed children. The figure next to the top, with the 

 instrument in his claws across his breast, represents the crane {he Jco), 

 and the legend, or rather an incident in a legend, is roughly as follows : 

 The crane was formerly an expert with tools, but they were stolen from 

 him by a mischievous character, (T^sl-an-ahl), and ever since he 

 has been bewailing his fate. The cry which the crane now utters is, 

 "I want my tools." The next figure below is hoots, the bear, holding 

 between his paws the butterfly. At the creation, when the great Tetl, 

 the benefactor of man, was looking for fair land for man to occupy, the 

 butterfly hovered over his head as he flew. When he came to the 

 country now occupied by the Haida, the butterfly pointed with his 



