124 
friend. But he soon went off to the woods. A famine was brought about 
by the deep snowfall, A being, speaking like a man, invited them outside 
at night. They were frightened, but when they recognized the tracks of 
their pet, the Wolf, in the snow, they followed them until they found 
several caribou which he had killed for their use. In memory of this 
supernatural event, they assumed another Wolf as a crest, which they call 
Single- Wolf. A quarrel, within the present generation, broke out between 
Weeraih’s household and another Wolf family over the right to use this 
crest, which seems to be quite recent. The myth itself (the theme of the 
grateful animal) is likely to be post-European. 
The representation on the pole of Ligi-ralwil — one of the two chiefs 
for whom the pole stands — seems to be a more personal reference to his 
memory. 
FUNCTION 
This pole was erected under the direction of Algarem-skehl, of the 
same family, in memory of his uncles Haidzemerhs, the head-chief of this 
house, and his brother Ligi-ralwil. This happened less than forty years 
ago, according to Lselt (Snake), a reliable old informant of the same phratry 
at Kitwanga; or, according to Kweenu,^ when her mother was still unmar- 
ried — that is, possibly, sixty years ago. 
CARVER 
This is one of Hsesem-hliyawn's poles^; and it undoubtedly is among 
the very best carvings of this excellent artist, although it is now somewhat 
disfigured.® In this pole he displayed his unique ability to draw the 
utmost out of a plain cedar log. Seventeen figures — besides the stomach, 
the liver, the heart, and the bowels of the Bear, and the Hole-through- 
the-sky — are actually represented; and a feeling of movement and action 
pervades his clever arrangement. Here the artist has proceeded far, 
indeed, from the stiff, mask-like arrangement of figures on the poles, which 
was characteristic of his predecessors and of most of his contemporaries. 
The pole itself, as a type, belongs to the older period of the craft. It 
is a house-front pole, and one of the only four still in existence among the 
Gitksan, which were used as ceremonial entrances to the feast house. It 
is undoubtedly the best and most elaborate of these four — two of which 
have already fallen to the ground.** It was made out of a large log, the 
back and the core of which were removed either to reduce the weight of 
the pole or to prevent decay. 
(39) Poles of Kwawhadaq, at Gitenmaks 
OWNERS 
Kwawhadaq or Kyserhu, of Gitenmaks (Hazelton), traces back his 
ancestry to the Wild-rice people (Gitanrasrh) of the headwaters of the 
■Mrs. John Larahnils of Gitwinlkul, for a long time a resident of Kitwanga. 
*He belonged to the household of Wutarhay®t8, of the Larhsail phratry at Gitwinlkul. 
*The lower Wolf has lost its tail, and the Grizzly-bear, its snout. 
One at Kitwanga, which was re-erected by the Canadian Government and the Canadian National railways 
in 1925; and the other, at Hazelton, on the old village site. 
