Some even go so far as to have one ready, with a blank space for the date, and sometimes the cause of death to be filled in by their relations, after that event.Ī few years ago, when I returned to Victoria, at the close of my summer's work, I got $40 in hard cash from an old man in order to get him a tombstone. Everyone's ambition, now a-days, is to have a beautiful marble tombstone erected to his or her memory, with an inscription, giving the name, supposed age and date of death. A few costly marble ones, erected in the village burying ground and streets, are still standing. Some are being cut down for fire-wood, numbers fall through age, or are shaken down by the earthquakes and high winds which periodically visit these coasts and islands. Also the age of the carved columns has passed. Besides, a great change has come over these people within the last five years. After long years of acquaintance with these people, during which time many that I knew and showed kindness to as children, have grown to be men and women.
What I am about to write I received as truth, and believing it so, I send you what I have learned. Even then, the field is so vast that, after all my trouble, I must own I know but little. However, a little here, and a little there, a little now, and a little then, after a number of years, amounted to something. The answer I got was, "Everything you see carved on them has a story." " Tell me the 'story of this one, please." The answer came, "I do not know it," or, "I will tell you bye-and-bye," or, "Give me something and I will tell you all." I was prepared to wait, or to give, or do anything yet after all, I got but little. My next step was to ask why they were carved on the columns. After awhile I got to know the one from the other. "That is a raven." " And that one over there? It is an eagle," " What is that one with its wings spread?" "It is the thunder bird." "What is that animal cut out on the base of these columns?" "That is the beaver." And so forth. " What is that bird on top of that column?" 1 would ask. The first thing I found I had to learn was the style of their carvings. What I am able to say concerning them is the result of over twenty years' research under difficulties of no mean description, owing to these people being unwilling to reveal to strangers the use of the columns and the signification of the carvings thereon, as the following specimen of the method I had to use in order to learn their meaning will show. In writing about these carved columns, or totem posts, as some people call them, once so abundant in all the native villages in parts of this coast, I shall divide my subject into the following parts or headings, viz: their appearance, location, origin and meaning. The American Antiquarian and Oriental Journal, 1891, pp. The Moon Symbol on the Totem Posts on the Northwest Coast
Part 2: CARVED COLUMNS OR TOTEM POSTS OF THE HAIDASĪdditional Correspondence: A WEIRD MOURNING SONG OF THE HAIDAS Part 1 : THE MOON SYMBOL ON THE TOTEM POSTS ON THE NORTHWEST COAST The American Antiquarian and Oriental Journal, Volume XIII, 1891 CARVED COLUMNS OR TOTEM POSTS OF THE HAIDAS
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