SIiell-Trumpets and their Distribution. 65 



thrown up like a curtain, and the external mat was 

 carefully removed from the shell, that it might have air. 

 Some of the consecrated tobacco suspended from the 

 coverings of the shell was taken by the medicine men 

 and smoked to the " Great Medicine." During this 

 ceremony everyone listened most attentively, hoping to 

 hear a sound proceed from the sacred shell. At length 

 someone imagined he heard a noise resembling a forced 

 expiration of air from the lungs, and this was considered 

 a favourable omen, and the tribe prepared for the expe- 

 dition, confident of success. If, on the contrary, the shell 

 obstinately remained silent, the result of the expedition 

 was regarded as doubtful. 



A. P. Niblack, in his work on "The Coast Indians of 

 Southern Alaska and Northern British Columbia""' gives 

 some interesting details of the traditions and myths of the 

 Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian tribes of the north-west 

 coast, in which are expressed many ideas concerning the 

 religion and cosmogony of these people. Among the Haida, 

 it was believed, the creator of all things and the bene- 

 factor of man was the great raven called Ne-kil-stlas. 

 This mythical personage was no ordinary bird, but had 

 many human attributes, and was capable of transforming 

 himself into anything in the world. The stories of his 

 adventures in peopling the world are numerous. One of 

 the most interesting of these stories is given by Niblack, 

 as follows: "According to the Haida and Kaigani the 

 first people sprang from a cockle-shell {^Cardium corbis, 

 Mast.). Ne-kil-stlas became very lonely and began to look 

 about him for a mate, but could find none. At last he 

 took a cockle-shell from the beach, and marrying it, he 

 still continued to brood and think earnestly of his wish 

 for a companion. By and by he heard a faint crj' in 



'" Report U.S. Nat. Mus., 1887-8 (1890), p. 378. 



