PREFACE

Tuts book is the outcome of forty years residence
amongst the Haidas, and is an accurate description
of what I have seen and heard in their villages and
homes. Through my knowledge of their language
I have been enabled to get all my information
regarding their customs, traditions and_ social
organization direct from the principal chiefs, men
who at that time were from sixty to eighty years old.

Native interpreters, at the best, can only give
garbled versions from the slight knowledge they
have of the English language or through the medium
of the Chinook jargon.

I was the first to attempt to reduce their language
to writing, and my Haida Grammar was published
in 1895 by the Royal Society of Canada. Old
Testament stories have been translated into Haida,

also a portion of the New Testament, and the whole

of the Book of Common Prayer.