THE INDIANS OF THE NORTHWEST COAST, 529 



XXXV, and in Plates lv, lxiv, and lxix, as well as in the g^eiieral views of 

 Kasa an village. They are erected nsnally near the corner of the house 

 at one side, and consist, as a rule, of a short stout post or column sur- 

 mounted by a carved representation of the crest or totem of the de- 

 ceased. Tlie erection of these takes place at the ceremony known as 

 the " glorification or elevation of the dead," described in Cliapter xiii. 

 After the body has been entombed it is incumbent on the heir of the 

 deceased, if the latter has been a person of any importance, to make a 

 feast and erect one of these commemorative columns. In the southern 

 part of the Queen Charlotte Islands a very common form of this column 

 is a sh )rt stout post with a sign-board-like square formed of split planks 

 carved on the outer face. This kind is rare to the north, and not seeu 

 at all amongst the Kaigani, as far as known to the writer. 



The decay of totemio carving. — Amongst the northern Tlingit these 

 carved columns of all kinds have largely disappeared. At Sitka only 

 the stumps of the ancient ones are now found. Wherever the mission- 

 aries have gained influence with these Indians the totemic columns 

 have gradually disappeared and the old ways been given up. Of the 

 Tlingit villages which have retained many of the primitive custom* 

 Tongass (Tunghaash) is the most representative. Kasa-an stands at 

 the head of the Kaigani and Skidegate of the Haida villages in this 

 respect. Wars, epidemics, and emigration have reduced the population 

 to such an extent that former sites have been abandoned and the Indi- 

 ans are gradually concentrating into a few villages. Graves, ruins, 

 decaying houses, grass-grown village sites, graphically picture the re- 

 sults of the contact of the coast Indians with our civilization. 



t^late carvings. — The slate from which the elaborate Haida carvings 

 are made is obtained at the Slate Creek, Queen Charlotte Islands. It 

 has the desirable quality of being soft and easily carved when freshly 

 quarried, and of hardening and taking a polish after exposure to the 

 weather for some time. The general range of these carvings in boxes, 

 dishes, pipes, and models is shown in Plates xliv, xlvii, and xlviii. 

 Sometimes highly polished copper and the iridescent shell of hali- 

 otis, iind sometimes bone or ivory, are inlaid to represent eyes, teeth, 

 etc. The finest specimen of Haida sculpture known to the writer is 

 that illustrated in Plates xlix and l. Numerous other kinds of carv- 

 ings in bone, ivory, and slate, used as talismans or doctor's charms are 

 not illustrated here, being left for separate treatment under the head of 

 Shaman Paraphernalia and and Shamanistic Rites. 



MUSIC* 



Singing. — While in recent years, in the decay of the ceremonial in- 

 stitutions of the Indians of this region, the custom of singing has some- 



* In Pilliug's Bibliography of North American Languages is mentioned a manu- 

 script of 500 pages in Russian and Tlingit of vocabularies, texts, sentences, songs, 

 etc., in the Tlingit language of Sitka. Unfortunately this manuscript was inac- 

 cessible, being in the hands of its author, Mr. Alphonse Pinart. 



