96 
of wood or antler.^ We cannot but admire, too, the engineering 
skill of the Indians, who possessed no machinery of any kind to 
move the gigantic tree trunks, not even the simple pulley. To place 
a roof-beam in position they levered it up a sloping log whose end 
rested on top of the pillar; and to erect a house-post or totem-pole 
they planked one side of the excavation, bevelled off the other side, 
and raised the top of the pole with levers and supporting crib-work 
255 
Ilaida Indian village at Skidegate, Queen Chaidotte islands, B.C. 
( I^hoto by <1. M. iknrxon.) 
until the butt slid gently into its hole. Such undertakings naturally 
called for the co-operation of several men, sometimes of a whole 
community; and the completion of a house was an occasion for great 
festivities. Unfortunately, not one of these dwellings survived to 
the twentieth century, and very few ruins remain to show us the 
details of their construction. 
1 The Indians ffoiHTally smoothed their posts and planks with shark-skin or the liorse-tailed 
(equisetum) rush; but often they retained the adze marks as a deeorative feature. The adzing of a 
tree trunk readily juoduced a kind of fluting up and ilown the sfeiu. as may be seen on some of the 
totem-poles. Mr. P. A. Taverner, of the National Museum of ('anafla, .suggests that a similar praetiee 
in the Old World may have be*’n tlie forerunner of the Doric pillar, which undoubtedly had a prototype 
in wood. 
