32 
Hlku’l.^ Here began their supernatural experiences, wherein various 
crests were secured. Gisgyawt, one of the ancestors, took his Pearled- 
yew-bow ( Belham-hakuiak P and killed a monster appearing out of a lake, 
the huge Black-bear-of-the water (^Olem-tsem’aks ) ; farther away, a huge 
Starfish with human faces on its arms emerged from the water and caught 
Gisgyawts' canoe, but was finally captured and taken as a crest. The 
crest of the Bottom-boards of the canoe originated also at the same time. 
These people ultimately joined the tribe of 'Antegwawlje, on the Nass 
(below the present Fishery bay). While they lived there Luwisiyse, the 
daughter of the first ancestre.ss, married a Nass River man, and had a 
daughter whose name was Sun-shines-on (^A^eeqyamks ), and who was to 
become the Frog-woman or Neegyamks (Sun-shines-on) and the “mother*' 
of the Frog-woman clan. After their posterity had expanded on the 
middle-Nass, they migrated up the river to a village called Tsemgunqserh, 
“Village-of-the-calling-Ravens” (the present Gitwinksilk, at the canyon), 
and may have acquired some of their Raven crests there; thence they 
moved up the river to what was to become Gitlarhdamks. They acquired 
various hunting and fishing grounds on the upper Nass. At Ksegunlseurh, 
one of their camping-places, they may have acquired the crest of the Moun- 
tain-trout (Lccurh). Ultimately, their descendants moved southwards 
through the Carrier country, and apparently sojourned with the Hagwel- 
get tribe for a while. There they acquired the Water-lily crest and possibly 
the spirit-name, Spirit-of-sickness (Ksenieseepu), which seems to have 
come from the Kwakiutl, through the Carriers. From the Carrier or 
Tsetsaut country they moved down to their present habitat at Gitwinlkul 
(People-where-it-is-narrow). Here their numbers were reduced by a 
plague. They had a quarrel with Qawm, of Kitsalas, of the same phrMry, 
and conquered at least one of his crests, the Prince-of-Ravens.® Now they 
are considered as belonging as much to the Nass as to the Skeena; and, in 
the present generation, the family has become divided into two halves, 
one of which resides on the upper Nass, and the other on the Skeena.** 
The Eagle-person (GycBdem-rhskycek ) and Water-lily crests are said to 
have been secured while this family was on its ancient migration from the 
Hagwelget country to the present Gitwinlkul. Haiwen and Wutarhkyet 
discovered in a lake a large human being who had an eagle-like head; his 
headdress consisted of a crown of Grizzly-bear claw's,^ and around it were 
the Water-lily leaves. At the same lake they also saw and adopted as 
crests the Tadpoles and the Mountain-trout. More precisely, the origin 
of these crests, in the family of Kweenu, came through the adoption 
within this family of the households of Teeriewen, Hudemerh, and Wut- 
arhkyet. These three chiefs once were members of the family of Gj^tedem- 
skanecs, of the Hagwelget (Carrier) tribe, whose emblems were Eagle- 
person, the Water-lily, and the Mountain-trout.® 
*A place now named Summerville. 
>Mrs. John Larahnit* said "a spear,” evidently by mistake. 
*Hay<ihleelarks, the usual name for smallpox. It must have been after the arrival of the Europeans on the 
American continent. 
*The respective chiefs of both branches be.ar the same name of Kweenu — a man, Dan Kweenu, at Gitlarhdamke 
(Nass): and a woman, Mrs. John Larahnitx, at Kitwanga, Skeena. 
•The crown of Griz*ly-bear claws is part of the paraphernalia of medicine-men among the .-Vthapascan tribes of 
the neighbourhood; its use has spread to the Tsimsyan, particularly the Gitksan and otner river and coast tribes. 
•Mrs. John Larahnitz (Kweenu) went as far as to say: "The myth of Eagleman and the crest belong to Hude- 
merh exclusively, not to Kweenu,” although the two families are more or less identical now. 
