40 
and the Eagle itself at the top, is resorted to very effectively. The lines 
of the miniature canoe are graceful and true to type. The features and 
limbs of Bullhead, the Haida chief, and of the Eagles are drawn according 
to native conventions; yet there is more than mere convention and style. 
The artist conveyed impressively through them much of the subconscious 
impressions derived from the familiar beliefs and traditions of his people. 
(4) Pole of Taelramuk, at Kispayaks 
OWNERS 
Tselramuk’s family is a subdivision of that of Nseqt {See page 38). 
They still consider each other as brothers. If they live apart now, the 
explanation given is that “their house at one time was too full, so that they 
built another beside it. Whatever was law for one was law for the other." 
Tselramuk and his relatives own a single totem pole, at Kispayaks; 
it stands behind a grave, among the totem poles of the Fireweed families 
whose principal crest is the Owl. 
DESCRIPTION 
This totem pole (Plate VI, figure 2) is called Half-way-out ( Ramdeprh- 
scetu).^ Although it seems nearly 40 feet high, it contains but one 
figure, that of a human being, squatting, at the bottom, which gives its 
name to the pole. 
ORIGIN 
The crest of Half-way-out (Ramdeprh-scetu), like several others that 
belong to the scattered descendants of the warrior Naeqt, goes back to the 
war expedition of Nseqt against the Kitamat tribe on the seacoast. It 
is the property of Tselramuk and seems to have been inherited exclusively 
in direct line from the beginning. “Haray’s® great-grandfather, Nseqt," 
according to his own account, “started on the warpath against Kitamat. 
On his way down, he came upon a camp, wherein a man sat by himself. 
He took his knife and cut the man through the middle almost in two halves, 
so strong was he. The wounded man ran out into the lake, and stood in 
the water up to the ribs." From this incident was derived the name and 
crest of Half-way-out, which Nseqt brought back with him. 
FUNCTION AND CARVER 
The pole of Half-way-out was carved over fifty years ago — a reliable 
informant^ says nearly seventy years ago — by Wawsemlarhae,^ a chief of 
the Fireweed phratry in the same village. The only figure on it is carved 
in the conventional way, its knees folded up to the point almost of reaching 
the chin, and its hands holding the shins, in the middle. 
‘Or "Only-half’protruding out of. ...” 
*OrNseqt, or the present Salomon Johnson, our old informant, and chief of the family of Nseqt, at Kispayaks. 
*John Brown, who was from 65 to TO years old (in 1925). Brown came to Kispayaks from Kisgngas, when he 
was young; and he says that he "always saw it where it stands.” 
‘Robinson, who died, a very old man about 1622. 
