QUEEN CHARLOTTE ISLANDS. 139 B 



length here, hut is shown in Fig. 26. They are generally carefully 

 painted with red, blue and other colours. Eattles in other forms are 

 also found; one was seen to resemble a killer whale, with a greatly 

 exaggerated back fin. (Fig. 19.) 



A carved stick is sometimes held in the hand in dancing, and struck Baton, 

 upon the floor in time with the motion of the feet. Several of those 

 which I have seen are about five feet in length, and are carved much 

 in the style of the posts which are set up in front of the houses. 

 Figures of men and conventionalized representations of animals appear 

 to be seated one above another up the length of the stick. 



A small apparatus held in the mouth to produce a peculiar noise 

 when dancing, has been mentioned in connection with that custom on 

 a former page. One which I obtained consisted of a wooden tube 

 roughly oval in section, three-quarters of an inch in greatest width, 

 with a length of an inch and a quarter. This is composed of two Vibrating 



-ii • i j mouthpiece. 



pieces tied together with a strip of bark, and within it are placed two 

 vibrating pieces, each composed of two flat pieces of wood or reed tied 

 together. In a box in one of the old houses in Parry Passage several 

 such cells were found fitted in trumpet-shaped tubes about a foot in 

 length made of cedar wood, each being composed of two pieces. 



In describing the performance of the medicine-men (p. 123 B.) a Medicine- 

 peculiar charm, or implement by which the departing soul may be mi 

 caught and perhaps replaced, was referred to. This is made from a 

 piece of bone, which from its size and general shape might be part of 

 a human femur, but may possibly be that of a bear. This bone is 

 pared down so as to have an almost perfectly symmetrical form, the 

 ends being somewhat more expanded than the middle. A human face, 

 often grotesque, ornaments the centre of one side, the remainder 

 of a human figure being sometimes carved so as to extend round over 

 the back in a more or less cramped attitude. The ends are slit, the 

 slit in each instance passing through both sides of the bone, and repre- 

 senting the mouth of a creature the eyes and nostrils of which are 

 rudely indicated in a conventional manner above. The upper side of 

 the bone is pierced by a couple of holes for its suspension over the 

 breast by a string which passes round the neck. A few small holes, 

 probably for the attachment of tassels or other little ornaments are some- 

 times made in the lower side. Some examples are neatly inlaid with 

 fragments of haliotis shell. The dimensions of two good specimens 

 are, !STo. 1 — Length 6f inches; vertical diameter in centre, 1 inch, 

 horizontal diameter, ^ inch ; vertical diameter at ends, 1J inch ; hori- 

 zontal diameter at one end, 1 inch, at the other, ■£ inch ; depth of slit 

 at ends, 1^; inches. No. 2 — the dimensions in the same order, 7i; 

 1; f; If; 1; §; \\ inches. The first of these is that represented in 

 figure 28. 



