119 
The Thunder-bird or Mountain-eagle (Skaimsem) Crest A young 
woman of this family, long ago was taken away from her village by the 
Mountain-eagle, a human-like spirit, who made her his mate. His craving 
was for the flesh of human beings; and he devoured his own children, 
who were peculiar beings, part bird and part human. When later she 
returned home, she related her supernatural experience to her relatives and 
they commemorated it by means of carvings. 
The Woodpecker or Caterpillar Crest. A hunter’s wife on Hrain island 
(now Prince Rupert) had a lover, who finally lost his life at the hands of 
the angered husband. His body was left unburied behind the village, 
until Prince-of-the-Wolves, a spirit from the mountain, appeared and 
frightened the people into flight for their indignity. The hunters then 
captured in the hills four young mountain eagles, to rear them in 
their lodge. Their sister Tsiwiladaw at the same time secretly adopted 
a small woodpecker (Kyewahlran or GitVwins) as a pet; and she hid it 
in a pit under the house. As she kept feeding it all the time, the pet 
grew into a huge monster, serpent or caterpillar like,^ whose abode was a 
tunnel underground. The parents, when they discovered it, killed it and 
adopted it as a crest. 
The ancestors of this family, before they migrated from the seacoast 
to the Nass, killed Ligi-utkwsetk, of the Gitwilgyawts tribe, who belonged 
to the Gispwudwada phratry. They were forced to concede to the family 
of their victim the use of a crest for compensation, that of the Woodpecker, 
which now is still preserved among them under the name of Caterpillar 
(Htse^nawsu). Peculiarly enough, it is represented as “a double-headed 
being, short-legged, with a head like a wolf’s. Between his twin-heads 
is a human face.” This description corresponds exactly to the figures 
that make up the crest of Split-person or Double-headed person, as it 
can be seen on the oldest pole of Weerhse, at Gitwinlkul. An aged Kit- 
wanga informant, Snake (Lselt), described Split-person in the following 
terms: “Spht-person or Twin-person had two heads and one trunk. Its 
bowels fall out of its body. On the Nass, it is an Eagle crest; here it belongs 
to the Wolves. It is of Nass origin.” 
Kweenu* described it thus: "One man with two heads. The meaning 
of the whole pole of Split-person is ‘One body, one stomach, and the 
bowels of one, for the two-head person’.” 
The Person-with-long-nose (Gitweedzarat) as used in this house is 
not given especial attention; nor does it seem to be accounted for in the 
family traditions. But is evidently a form of the familiar Wolf crest 
used elsewhere — Glass or Cutting-nose ( Dzaraohlaw ), and explained 
on page 128. 
FUNCTION 
The pole of the Thunder-bird (Skaimsem) is about thirty years old, 
since, according to Lselt, it was carved by Hsesem-hhyawn, after the death 
of Kameh-melmuk.® It was intended to commemorate Gurhshlam. But, 
•Some describe it as a grub, of the typo that burrow tunnels in trees. Kweenu said, “This woman gave birth 
to little grubs, worms, as one finds in tree trunks. One hears them burrowing their tunnels," 
•Mrs. John Larahnitn, of Kitwanga. 
•Nicknamed Gitwinlkul Jim. He himself had chosen and cut the tree. This was corroborated by Kweenu, 
Mrs. John Larahnit*, who said that it had been erected when she was very young. 
