109 
The figures on the third pole, the nearest of the three to the river 
(Plate XXIV, figure 1) are: presumably the Cormorant (Ha-oHs) at the 
top and farther below; a Bear cub; and the ancestress Disappeared (Temdee- 
mawks), at the bottom. 
ORIGIN 
The Grizzly or the White Bear emblems and the symbolic figure of 
the ancestress Disappeared, illustrate a myth that is given as a reason for 
their possession. While the ancestors of Malee were living at Salmon 
creek ( Shegunya ),^ a young woman of their family was lost in the forest. 
Her name was Disappeared ( Temdee-mawks ). A year after, at the time when 
the bears come down to the river’s edge to feed on salmon, she was seen 
walking down to the mouth of Salmon creek, followed by two bear cubs, 
her offspring, and a huge Grizzly Bear, her supernatural husband. She 
called her people across the stream, and her two brothers Ka-ugwaits and 
Kishae responded to her appeal and took her into their canoe with the cubs. 
The Grizzly, a mythical being, sitting a short distance away, began to cry 
aloud, and the cubs jumped from the canoe and returned to his side. Then 
he swam after the canoe with them sitting on his ears. His lament was 
like a song which the people of this family have preserved as a dirge. As 
the Grizzly entered the house of his human wife’s brothers, he was stabbed 
to death. His skin, his head with his teeth, and his paws were preserved 
as well as his ribs, after the flesh had been removed and buried. These 
were thereafter used as crests in the family. 
The theme here being in its outline the same as that of the Gitran- 
dakhl clan of the Wolf phratry (page 129), we may presume that both are 
genealogically connected. The two clans, besides, probably go back to 
the same remote origin. 
A feud broke out soon after between the two brothers Ka-ugwaits 
and Kishie, which caused the disruption of the family, as we have seen 
(page 113). The ancestors of Malee, as well as those of Skateen, of 
the Nass, and Hrleem-larlne of Kispayaks, have since that time retained 
the Grizzly as their common crest, and they also share the same traditions 
of origin. 
The emblem of the Cormorant ( Ha-oHs ) is claimed only by the house- 
hold of Rsarhgyaw — a subdivision of Hrleem-larhae's family — in Kispayaks; 
and for some obscure reason it is also used^ by Malee of Gitwinlkul, on two 
of his poles. It is claimed by Rsarhgyaw in particular on the grounds 
that it was required from Skaneesem-Semaw-iget, an Eagle chief of Geetika 
on the Nass, as compensation for a murder, fairly long ago. 
FUNCTION 
The pole of the Sitting-Grizzly (Plate XX, figure 2) was erected, about 
fifty years ago, in commemoration of Arhkwundaesu, a leading member of 
Malee’s household. 
The Ribs-of-the-bear, the second (Plate XXII, figure 1) was erected 
some years later by Nees-laranows, in commemoration of Malee, after his 
death. 
‘Opposite the present village of Kispayaks. 
*lt seems to have acquired its importance only recently as a crest of Malee. It was not actually mentioned 
in his list of crests, and fails to appear on one of the two oldest poles. It is fully displayed, being repeated twice , 
only on the most recent of the three poles. 
