QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 109 B 



projecting from the face about a quarter of an inch. The younger 

 women have not even this remnant of the old custom. 



The piercing of the lip was the occasion of a ceremony and giving Piercing of lip 

 away of property. During the operation the aunt of the child must' 1 " 

 hold her. The shape of the Haida lip-piece or stai-e was oval. Among 

 the Tshimsians it was more elongated, and with the Stickeen women 

 nearly circular. It was also formerly the custom to pierce the ears in 

 several places. Three perforations in each ear were usual among com- 

 mon people, but chiefs or those of importance had five or six. These 

 held little ornaments formed of plates of haliotis shell backed with thin 

 sheet copper, or the small sharp teeth of the fin-whale. This custom 

 obtains also among the Tshimsians and Stickeen Indians, and the 

 Chiefs Callicum and Maquilla of Nootka Sound, Vancouver Island, are 

 represented with the same adornment in Meares' engraving of them. 



The septum of the nose is generally perforated in both males and Perforation of 

 females, and was formerly made to sustain a pendant of haliotis shell n ° 

 or a silver ring, though it is not now used in this way. ISTo process of 

 distortion of the head or other parts of the body is practised among 

 the Haidas. 



Food. 



Like most of the tribes of the coast, the Haidas live principally on 

 fish. The halibut and salmon are chiefly depended on. A complete 

 list of the articles used by them as food would, however, indeed be a 

 long one, as few organic substances not absolutely indigestible would 

 be omitted. 



The halibut fishery is systematically pursued, and the main villages Halibut fishery 

 are so situated as to be within easy reach of the banks along the open 

 coast on which the fish abounds. The halibut is found in great num- 

 bers in all suitable localities from Cape Flattery northward, but is 

 perhaps nowhere finer, more abundant and more easily caught than in 

 the vicinity of the Queen Charlotte Islands. It may be taken in most 

 of the waters at almost any season, though more numerous on certain 

 banks at times well known to the Indians. About Skidegate, how- 

 ever, it is only caught in large numbers during a few months in the 

 spring and early summer. When the fish are most plentiful the 

 Haidas take them in large quantities, fishing with hook and. line from 

 their canoes, which are anchored by stones attached to cedar-bark ropes 

 of sufficient length. They still employ either a wooden hook armed 

 with an iron — formerly bone — barb, or a peculiarly curved iron hook 

 of their own manufacture, in preference to the ordinary fish hook. 

 These implements are described with others in treating of the arts of 

 the Haidas. 



The halibut brought to the shore are handed over by the men to the 



