QUEEN CHARLOTTE [SLANDS. 101 B 



their names. It was near winter, he said, a very long- time ago, when Haida accounts 

 a ship under sail appeared in the vicinity of North Island. The J J J r £ of E°Jro- 

 Indians were all very much afraid. The Chief shared in the general ! 

 fear, but feeling that it was necessary for the sake of his dignity to act 

 a bold part, he dressed himself in all the finery worn in dancing, went 

 out to sea in his canoe, and on approaching the ship performed a dance 

 (probably the Ska-ga). It would appear that the idea was at first 

 vaguely entertained that the ship was a great bird of some kind, but 

 on approaching it, the men on board were seen, and likened, from 

 their dark clothing and the general sound and unintelligible character 

 of their talk, to shags, — which sometimes indeed look almost human as 

 they sit upon the rocks. It was observed that one man would speak 

 whereupon all the others would immediately go aloft, till, something 

 more being said, they would as rapidly descend. The Haidas further 

 relate various childish stories of the surprise of those who, in a former 

 generation, first became acquainted with many things with which they 

 are now familiar, and profess to look upon these, their immediate pre- 

 decessors, with much contempt. They say, for instance, that an axe 

 having been given to one it pleased his fancy on account of its metallic 

 brightness, which he likened to the skin of a silver salmon. He did 

 not know its use, but taking the handle out, hung it round his neck 

 as an ornament. A biscuit being given to another, he supposed it to 

 be made of wood, and being after some time induced to eat it, finds it 

 altogether too dry. Molasses, tasted for the first time by an adventur- 

 ous Haida, pronounced very bad and his friends warned against it. 



On questioning another Haida of the north part of the island, he also Date of arrival 

 affirmed that the first whites had been seen near the North Island, and 

 added that they arrived at the season when almost all the people were 

 away at various rivers making their salmon fishery. This would be 

 about the month of September, which agrees pretty well with Eden- 

 saw's account, and shows that the story above given cannot refer either 

 to Douglas or Dixon, who arrived in June and July. It agrees well with 

 the date at which Bodega and Maurelle must have passed this part of 

 the coast on their way southward in 1*1*15, but it appears improbable 

 that they had any intercourse with the Haidas at this time. 



Villages. 



It is here proposed to note the various villages now inhabited by the 

 Haidas, or of which traces still remain, beginning with those of the 

 vicinity of North Island. It must be premised, however, that owing to 

 the prevalent custom by which a village is spoken of by the hereditary 

 family name of the chief, while it has besides a proper local name, and 

 very frequently a Tshimsian equivalent for the latter by which it is 

 11 



