52 
people in the first place, but was introduced by way of exception from 
outside, as a gift to one of the first Larahnitz from his father,^ “to show his 
paternal origin.'’ According to another account (<See The Poles of Wistis, 
of Gitsegyukla, page 55) it is one of the crests conquered by Nseqt at Kitamat, 
on the seacoast. 
The Frog crest may have come to Hlengwah either from his own 
Kitsalas ancestors or from those of Arhkawt, whose foremost relative 
abroad is Ksemrhsan of Gitlarhdamks on the upper Nass. But its present 
form as Toad (Warh’as) or Flying-frog bears more resemblance to the 
Frog of the Nass River ancestors than of those of the Tsimsyan. The 
narrative explaining the mythical origin of the Flying-frog is summarized 
elsewhere (Cf. page 43). 
The remaining crests of this family, as illustrated on the pole — N£Bqt, 
Man-crushing-log, the Door, the Strike-but-once-war-club, and the Kita- 
mat warriors — are of an exceptional type, since they illustrate semi-his- 
torical events of the near-past. They were originally the exclusive pro- 
perty of Arhkawt, but are now the legitimate possession of Hlengwah 's 
family taken as a whole. These events are recounted in lengthy narratives, 
which in bare outline are as follows: 
A party of Haidas, from Queen Charlotte islands, raided a fishing camp 
at the mouth of the Nass, massacred many of the occupants,^ and captured 
a beautiful young woman of high rank, whose name was Lutraisuh. She 
became the wife of Qawsek, a Haida chief, and gave birth to two sons, 
whom the father smothered to death after their birth, for fear that some 
day they might avenge the death of their uncles. Lutraisuh deceived her 
husband as to the sex of her third child, making him believe in the birth of 
a daughter, whose life he spared for that reason. With the help of some 
relatives of the Raven crest, Lutraisuh murdered her Haida husband, 
cut off his head, and escaped by night in a dug-out. The tale of her flight 
across the sea to the mainland is illustrated in a few poles of this clan, which 
may be called the Naeqt (Tongue-licked) clan. Her child in the bow of the 
canoe is supposed to have sucked the protruding tongue of his father’s 
head; which feature is sliown on a pole of Lselt and a small stone monument, 
at Kitwanga; and on the pole of Haray, at Kispayaks. Lutraisuh was 
rescued at the mouth of the Nass anrl was adopted there by a family of 
relatives. Her son, named Naeqt (T'ongue-licked) from the episode of his 
mother’s flight in a canoe, grew into a strong, reckless boy, inheriting many 
of his father’s characteristics. The uncles finally dismissed both mother 
and son, who then began a life of wamlerings and solitude in the forest. 
Naeqt grew up with but one ambition, that of punishing the wrongs which 
he and his mother had to suffer. He became a bold and powerful warrior 
and made friends with som.e families on the Skeena which later were to 
become the Kitwanga tribe. He fashioned for his use an armour out of 
a grizzly-bear skin reinforced inside with a coat of pitch and flakes of slate, 
and began his career as a mj'^sterious raider of coast and Nass River settle- 
ments. He was mistaken for a mythic Grizzly-bear, whose attacks could 
not be resisted, on account of a magical war club in his front paw, the 
Strike-but-once-club. But his identity was ultimately discovered, after 
Unheritance being otherwise always exclusively in the maternal line. 
*An informant stated that they were from Kispayaks (Kispiox) river, on the upper Skeena, and belonged to 
the Raven crest. 
