202 
lively, red, black, and green, the dififerent parts of the human body, painted separately; 
and the whole surface is covered with them. The latter picture appears to be a copy of 
the former, or perhaps it is the original: it is difficult to decide to which of the two belongs 
the priority, so much are the features of both effaced by ^e. The natives gave Captain 
Chanal to imderstand that these pictures are called Caniak in their language; ana this 
is all that he could get from them. 
From the examination which was made of the sort of redoubt where are deposited 
these two monuments of an ancient date, it was not supposed, although it appeared very 
susceptible of being defended against an enemy who might wish to attack it, that the 
object of the islanders has been to secure there for themselves a retreat, a place of refuge 
in case of attack; Captain Chanal judged, from some information which he was able to 
obtain from them, and which he thought he understood, that it was rather a place con- 
secrated to religious ceremonies, or public diversions, or perhaps to both uses.” (Pp. 
396-397.) 
“In the course of the day, Captain Chanal had had a communication with seven or 
eight canoes, which might carry in the whole sixty individuals of all ages and of both sexes; 
but, to judge from the number of huts which he distingi^hed on the borders of the channel, 
he reckoned that he had seen but a small part of its inhabitants.” (P. 397.) 
“Waiting for their return. Captain Chanal and his party availed themselves of the 
good will of a chief of the district, who had offered to accompany them, and they em- 
ployed the time in visiting two habitations, situated on this part of the coast, and built 
on a plan nearly uniform. In describing them, I shall blend the separate descriptions 
given oy Captain Chanal and Surgeon Roblet, and form of them but one; they are the 
same in the maffij and differ only by some details which are met with in the one, and are 
not to be found m the other. 
“The form of these habitations is that of a regular parallelogram, from forty-five 
to fifty feet in front by thirty-five in depth. Six, eight, or ten trees, cut and planted in 
the ground on each front, form the enclosure of a habitation, and are fastened to each 
other, by planks ten inches in width by three or four in thickness, which are solidly joined 
to the stakes, by tenons and mortices.” (P. 400.) 
“This door, the threshold of which is raised about a foot and a half above the ground, 
is of an elhptical figure; the great diameter, which is given by the height of the opening, 
is not more than three feet, and the small diameter, or the breadth, is not more than two: 
it may be conceived that it is not very convenient to enter the house by this oval. This 
opening is made in the thickness of a large trunk of a tree which rises perpendicularly 
in the middle of one of the fronts of the habitation, and occupies the whole of its height: 
it imitates the form of a gaping human mouth, or rather that of a beast, and it is sur- 
mounted by a hooked nose,* about two feet in length, proportioned, in point of size, to the 
monstrous face to which it belongs. It might, therefore, be imagined that, in the language 
of the inhabitants of North island, of Queen Charlotte’s Isles, the door of the house is call^ 
the mcndh, 
“Over the door is seen the figure of a man carved, in the attitude of a child in the womb, 
and remarkable for the extreme smallness of the parts which characterize his sex; and 
above this figure rises a gigantic statue of a man erect, which terminates the sculpture 
and the decoration of the portal; the head of this statue is dressed with a cap in the form 
of a sugar-loaf, the height of which is almost equal to that of the figure itself. On the 
parts of the surface which are not occupied bj^ the capital subjects, are interspersed carved 
figures of frogs or toads, lizards, and other animals, and arms, legs, thighs, and other parts 
of the human body: a stranger might imagine that he saw the ex voto suspended to the 
door-case of the niche of a Madonna. 
“On comparing these pieces of sculpture to those large pictures which had been seen 
the day before in a place which appears consecrated to a Supreme Being, we should be 
tempted to believe that these various figures are emblems which are connected with the 
rehgion of this people. But how inquire into the matter when the voyageur is ignorant 
of tne language of the country? All that Captain Chanal and his i>arty could comprehend 
from the answers which the chief of the district who accompanied them was pleased to 
give to the questions that they had endeavoured to make him understand, is that the erect 
figure, placed above each portal, and to which everjdhing that is below appears to serve 
as a pedestal, is the image of a chief who was held in veneration in the country. It is 
recalling the arts to their real institution, to appropriate them to honour virtue, and to 
perpetuate the memory of men who have deserved well of their fellow-creatures. 
‘It has been seen, in page 334 of this volume, that the grotesque heads which, in the extraordinary dress of the 
Tchinkitanayans, are applied over the knees, bear in like manner a hooked nose of an immoderate size. 
