THE MUSEUM. 
6l 
of wings; about 
some that are 
half male and 
half fe m a 1 e ; 
about butterfly- 
mules ; about 
stone ( fossil ) 
butter flies; 
about butter¬ 
flies that resem¬ 
ble lichens, and 
a hundred other 
things besides, 
perhaps. 
GAMES OF THE HAIDAH INDIANS. 
BY JAMES DEANS. 
The principal amusement of the young Haidah Indians, on the northwest coast 
of British Columbia, is sailing about in canoes, often in little ones made for them by 
their relatives. The boys also make little ships which they rig up and sail about. 
They also spend a great deal of their time in fishing. The Haidahs are great sailors 
and are constantly making voyages to distant parts. The girls make themselves 
dolls with rags ; sometimes they make them out of a piece of wood which they dress 
in a fragment of blanket. The boys make a sort of whistle, peculiar to themselves. 
It is made in this manner : A piece of wood, four inches long and an inch thick, is 
split in two, lengthwise; the rough edges of the split parts are then smoothed 
for half the length and hollowed out; a blade of grass is laid between the two parts, 
which are then firmly tied together in order to prevent the grass from being displaced. 
By blowing through the cavity a variety of sounds can be made. 
It has been common, from unknown times, for all the native tribes on this coast 
to play the game of “ shinny,” being played in the same way that our own fathers 
used to play it, and as I have often played it myself, with crooked stick and wooden 
ball. Another game with which they amuse themselves is played in this manner: 
A number of young persons squat around the fire ; one of the number, by request, 
takes a piece of wood in his or her hands and rolls it backward and forward 
between the palms, saying in their language, “ Bent wood, will you tell me who kisses 
the girls (or, if a girl, the boys) ? Bent wood, tell me who is a bad boy (or girl, as 
the case may be) ? ” And so on through an endless number of questions, the stick, 
which is bent in this shape, "|, always pointing to one or the other of the party. This 
pastime is very amusing and causes unbounded merriment. 
