384 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888^ 



developed amongst the iiorthem Tliugit, has been taken up by the 

 Haida with marked success. This is true also of metal-working. The 

 conical-shaped basket-work hats so common about Dixon Entrance are 

 particularly abundant in this group. The primitive copper and shell 

 ornaments were nowhere in such demand as amongst the Haida. 

 Labrets of the largest size are worn by the Haida women, who are the 

 last on the coast to cling to this custom. The origin of the tobacco 

 plant in this region is credited to the Queen Charlotte Islands, where 

 the first potatoes were also raised. While the Haida are the most ex- 

 pert canoe builders on the coast, they have sensibly adopted the Sa- 

 lishan or Wakashan type for certain purposes where strength has been 

 the prime consideration. Cedar-bark mat-making developed amongst 

 the Kwakiutl and practised by the Tsimshian is here also successfully 

 imitated. Nowhere is the art of carving and painting amongst savage 

 tribes so highly developed. Their houses are exceptionally well con- 

 structed, and the custom of erecting the carved column in contactwith 

 the front of the Tiouse and cutting a circular door-way through both, 

 seems to be nowhere so universally practised. It is in their elaborate 

 ceremonials that the most puzzling instances of foreign influence occurs. 

 The cedar-bark rope head-dresses, sashes, and girdles amongst the 

 Kwakiutl play the most important part in their winter ceremonial 

 dances, and are only worn by certain people on special occasions and 

 with special significance. Amongst tlie Haida the cedar-bark para- 

 phernalia is just as elaborate and worn without any special significance. 

 The whistles, trumpets, and other so-called musical instruments have 

 more of a Tsimshian than a Haidaorigin, butare found in equal abundance 

 and variety amongst both. The wearing of masks peculiarly enough 

 has no especially deep significance amongst the Haida other than re- 

 ferring to and illustrating their totemic legends, yet nowhere in the 

 world are such elaborate ones made and worn. Wooden masks are 

 worn by the Eskimo of southern Alaska on ceremonial occasions, but it 

 would seem that the custom of wearing masks in ceremonies amongst 

 the Haida and Tlingit really originated in the wearing of them for pro- 

 tection in war, and that this custom was in no way borrowed or derived 

 from the Eskimo. 



The number of masks in the collections of the U. S. National Museum 

 is out of all proportion to their importance or their use by the Indians. 

 There are only one or two ceremonial dances in which they are worn, 

 which is quite contrary to the accepted opinion. In most of the songs 

 accompanying the Haida dances the Tsimshian language is used and 

 many customs of the Tsimshian are avowedly followed. In this way, 

 through the latter, probably some of the practices of the Kwakiutl 

 reached the Haida. From all this it would appear that the latter have 

 been influenced in a not remote period largely by others through the 

 Tsimshian, but that the original affinities and relationship of the Haida 

 were with the Tlingit. 



