146 
The Kispayaks ancestors in their migrations once saw a mythic Eaven 
emerge from the water. They had built a raft, and, while crossing a large 
lake on.it, had nearly perished in a storm. Wudzi’adawrh, one of their 
leaders, was drowned. The survivors, after the storm,. beheld a Raven 
flying in the water, at the spot where Wudzi’adawrh had fallen overboard. 
It was not actually the reflection of a bird of the air .above, as they first 
thought, but the drowned man himself reappearing to them under the 
water in the guise of a Raven. From that time they owned the Raven 
as their main crest, under the title of Raven-of-the-water (" Qaqem-dzem^aks ). 
The Ssedzan family of the Ginahdawks explain their Raven crest 
otherwise. The Raven, whose name for them is Raven-with-human-face 
(Wiltselems-gyeikehl-qaq) once spoke to them in a vision, near their 
village of Larhpsae. He was no other than Nees-nont, an imcle who had 
died and come back with the body of the Raven and a human face; the 
body and feet of the Raven being of stone. His words were: “Son, use 
this as a crest. 
FUNCTION 
This pole, the oldest at Hagwelget, was erected “before the telegraph 
line came” (that is, the Great Western Union, in 1866), in memory of 
Siedzan, Anklawrh’s daughter, whose ashes were placed in the box formerly 
at the top of the pole.- 
CARVER 
W'utarhayaits of Gitwinlkul, a Gitksan, was the carver, and his work 
here is of the poorest of the kind. When the pole was erected, a wooden 
imitation of a huge lump of fungus or punk, resembling a hollow ball, was 
made out of wood by Tcelee, a Larhsselyu, of what is now Moricetown; 
and it was fastened to the pole, at the back of the human figure below the 
tw'o Ravens. It disappeared many years ago. 
(49) Poles and House Paintings at Oaldo 
Qaldo is the uppermost village of the Gitksan. It is situated near 
the headwaters of the Skeena, about 80 miles above Hazelton, and over 
250 miles from the seacoast. Its totem poles are actually the farthest 
removed from the seacoast, and there w'ere only a very few, three or four 
in all. This is also true of Kisgagas, farther down the river. 
Mr. D. Jenness, who visited Qaldo in the spring of 1924, wrote: 
“At old Kuldo, none of the old houses are standing, but there are five new ones, a 
smoke-house .... In front of two of the modern houses are two small totem-poles 
about 7 or 8 feet high. The only carving on them seems to be a large head at the top 
(Plate XXVII, figure 6). There was about 4^ feet of snow on the ground, so we did not 
see as much as w'e had hoped. . . . The fallen totem pole, the main object of the trip, 
is 37 feet long, in good condition.” 
(See The pole of Kyauiugyet, of Qaldo). 
Ut is most exceptional for the Raven crest to l)e used, as it is here, in the Wolf phratry. This may have resulted 
from the former acknowledged custom of these people of intermarrjnng with families of the Raven phratry. Their 
presumed relatives of Ha^velgct in the same way use the Raven while belonging to the Grizzly-bear clan whose 
normal associations are with the Wolf, not the Raven. 
*D, Jenness. 
