SALISH SPINDLE WHORLS.

References:

Plate 12, Figure 1. Human Figure and Lizards. Coast Salish.
Plate 12, Figure 2. Thunderbird and Killer Whale. Coast Salish.
Plate 12, Figure 3. Conventional Design. Coast Salish.
Plate 12, Figure 4. Archaic Thunderbird and

Killer Whale. Coast Salish.
Plate 13, Figure 5. Four Symbolic Creatures. Fraser River

Salish.

The carving of spindle whorls was peculiar to, and reached
a very high standard of perfection among, the men of the Coast
Salish Tribe, which occupies the southern portion of Vancouver
Island and lower Fraser River area. These people differed from
others on the Northwest coast not only in details of social or-
ganization and ceremonial customs, (a fact common to each tribe)
but the men did not possess the outstanding skill in bold
sculpturing of wood or in the fine carving of bone, ivory and
horn so highly developed among the Haida and Tsimsyan. Never-
theless, in addition to the carving of these spinning whorls
they gave a fine finish to their implements for fishing and
hunting.

The function of the "whirls" or "whorls" was to assist in
the rapid manipulation of the thread spun from cedar bark fabre\,
the base fibre of nettles, and other substances used for the
weaving of blankets, clothing or fishing nets. Made from maple
wood their diameter was about 7 1/2 inches. Their form was con-
cave-convex, with a strongly lipped ovoid hole in the centre
through which the spindle was passed. This measured from 3 to 4
feet in length, thick at the handle and tapering from a shoulder
which rested against the whorl. Highly polished, almost paper-
thin at the outer edge, these whorls were elaborately carved in
high relief. In some cases the designs showed the owner's crest
but among the large number collected in the areas mentioned no
two designs have ever been found alike: surely a fact which
again testifies to the fertility of imagination characteristic
of these tribes of the Northwest coast.

Small spindle whorls of stone or whale-bone were in use by
the Kwakiutl Tribe from prehistoric times onward; a very rare
specimen of that era has been recovered from the neighbourhood
of Lytton.

Similar disks for use on spindles, but made of terra cotta

instead of stone, bone or wood, have been found in the ruins of
ancient cities in Asia Minor, Africa, Italy and India. As the

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