112 BRITISH COLUMBIA.

glass-like nose and hung up on the near-by fish-curing frame as if he were a
salmon suspended there to dry. One after another the girl saw her brothers
suffer the same fate, until only one survived. With great courage he fought and
killed the terrible creature, then hastily fled with his sister from the ghastly spot.
Alas! they found themselves pursued by a female monster, who could also draw
her nose out to a sharp piercing point. At last, exhausted, they hid among some
trees at the edge of a lake. Soon she reached this lake and detected their shadows
reflected in the frosty water. Mistaking these for the objects of her pursuit she
dived again and again in her efforts to secure her prey, until as the frost increased
she became frozen in the icy water. So, when the brother and sister crept from
their hiding-place they were able to kill her. But, as she lay dying, she declared:
“These people will always suffer from my sharp nose”; and her words have
come too true, for from her body were born mosquitoes and other biting, stinging
pests, of which the crests of the Dragon-fly and Large Belly always remind the
descendants of the brother and his erring sister.

Another myth recounts how the Beaver crest was acquired: ‘“‘ There was in
the long ago a prince who went up into the woods to refresh himself, for he was
in deep sorrow. He went on and on until he came to a plain with a large lake,
where he stood weeping on the shore, because his brothers had been swallowed
by the supernatural Halibut. While weeping he heard a noise. On looking up,
behold! there was a large beaver in the water, with copper eyes, copper ears,
copper teeth, and copper claws. It struck the water with its tail, making a noise
like thunder. The young man returned to his camp and told his people about
this beaver. Next day they set out to hunt it. “They came to the lake, but all
was quiet, they saw nothing. While they still stood there they heard the sound
of a drum, followed by a mourning song; and after a while the beaver came out
of the water, just as their prince had described it. They agreed to kill it, for
they wanted the copper. They tried hard to break the dam in the large lake.
After many days they succeeded. Before the lake was dry the large beaver
came out. ‘The men killed and skinned it, taking off the copper claws, ears, eyes,
and teeth. As soon as they had killed it, they went down and took the Beaver
to be their crest, and therefore the Eagle Clan use no other. "When the head
chief makes a potlatch, he wears this crest on his head, and four men take hold
of the head-dress, one of each clan, so that the people know that he alone is the
Head Chief of all the Tsimshian. They always keep the Beaver Hat in the

S = 3)
family. HERALDIC AND OTHER CARVED POLES.

OrIGIN OF THE Worp “ Totem.”

The word “totem” was introduced into our language by a writer named

Long, who in his “ Voyages and Travels,” published in 1791, wrote “ one part
of the religious superstition of the savages (referring to the natives of the North-
west Coast) consists in each of them having his totem or favourite spirit, which
he believes watches over him.” Many of this traveller’s details were confused
and misleading, but it is as a result in great measure of what he wrote that the
word “totem” and “totemism” have come to signify the spiritual patron, or
guardian or tutelary protector of (1) a person; (2) a clan or gens; (3) a

society or tribe.
y ORIGIN OF CARVED POLEs.

There is no definite date available as to the possible prehistoric origin of this
custom of carving poles; but from the scanty information collected on the subject
it appears to have spread among the tribes both north and south from the northern