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Claw-marks-of-the-Bear ( Kahlaqs ), along the upper part of the shaft ; 
Halibut (Trhoihjj engraved, head-down; Split-eagle (Palrhtim-rhskycBk ); 
The-Bear’s-den person (Rh'pe-saemih), with a circular hole in the centre 
of the body; and, attached to the right side of the pole, Drum or Drum- 
person CAnuhl or Gycedem’anuhl ). 
A third pole, now fallen and destroyed, was also named The-Bear’s- 
den ( Rhpe-scemih ). It was described by Semedeek and said to contain 
the following figures: The Eagle, at the top; The-Bear’s-den person, with 
a hole in the body; Split-person (Rhsiagyet); Supernatural-halibut (Narh^ 
narom-trkoih ); and The-Bear’s-den person again, at the base, with a round 
opening in the body, through which the guests used to enter the feast house. 
The decaying fragment of the pole of Geelawaw, also belonging to 
this family, was part of a pole that fell down many years ago. This pole, 
according to one informant,^ included only one figure; but, according to 
Sqayaen, a sub-chief of the Eagle clan of Kitwanga, the figures on the 
complete pole included: the Halibut, at the top; the Eagle; the Split- 
eagle; Split-person (Rhstagyet) or Half-man, cut in two halves; and Crown- 
of-white-marten (Qaiksto’maskaH ). 
OHIGIN 
The Eagle and the Halibut are among the most ancient crests of the 
Kitwanga Eagles, as well as of their relatives abroad. They were already 
in the possession of their Tlingit ancestors, according to the family tradi- 
tions, at the time when they migrated southwards from what is now Loring 
and Hokan, Alaska. 
As the result of a feud between Eagle and Wolf clans, at Na’a (in 
Alaska), the Eagles were forced to take to flight. The traditions give an 
account of how they built a raft, on which they placed their emblems, 
Fin-of-the-Shark, the big Mother-eagle of stone (’Nawt), the small Stone- 
eagle, and the Eagle’s egg ( Hlkeviat ), a large round stone. Several mem- 
bers of this clan had raised eagles as pets, which had their nests on the 
corner posts of the original house in Alaska. These pets guided their 
masters while they migrated along the seacoast. From this occurrence 
had arisen a further crest, the Nest-house (Nluhlkem-woelp ) of the Eagles.^ 
In the course of the Eagle clan’s migrations southwards along the 
coast, kJlaray, the leader, was swallowed by the Supernatural-halibut 
(Narhnarom-irhao), as he was swimming offshore in an attempt to reach 
a canoe set adrift by the tide. After the monster was killed, his relatives 
discovered that its body was entirely covered with human faces. The 
Halibut from that moment became their crest. 
The Split-eagle ( Palrhum-rhskywk ) is another variant of the same 
crest in the ownership of most of the Tsimsyan families of this Eagle clan. 
We cannot tell for sure when it came into existence in this form, but its 
resemblance to the Russian imperial escutcheon is striking enough to sug- 
gest the presumption of its foreign origin. The Russian cossacks visited 
‘Alfred Sinclair, the interoreter, an outaider to this family. 
^Chief Semedeek, of Kitwanga, who did not know the traditions of his own family, expl.ained the origin of his 
Eagle crest in his own way. According to him, some of his forefathers had killed some eagles and taken them for 
crests (ayuks), at a big feast. At another time he said that the Eagle crest had been brought over from the Haidas 
by a woman who had taken to flight and sought refuge among the people of his clan. 
