Identifier: handbooktoethnog00brit (find matches)
Title: Handbook to the ethnographical collections
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: British Museum. Dept. of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography Joyce, Thomas Athol, 1878-1942 Dalton, O. M. (Ormonde Maddock), 1866-1945
Subjects:
Publisher: (London) : Printed by order of the Trustees
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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erifji. a. liun inlaii Willi CdplxT. b. Coppei-. . 2 260 AMERICA dustry, and is performed by women. Copper was worked to asmall extent in early days, and metal generally, as soon as ironwas obtained from the whites, was worked with groat skill, asshown by the magnificent knives made by the Haida from dis-carded files obtained at the timber stations (fig. 238). In olddays tools were principally of jadeite or other hard stone (figs.232, 233). Baskets of fine quality, boxes of wood and bark forstorage, si)oons of horn and wood, and wooden dishes (fig. 239),Avere made in great quantity, and the last three were oftencovered with admirably executed carvings. In carving, as inmost crafts, the Haida are the most proficient, and their carvingsare frequently inlaid with abalone shell ; the i)ipes carved fromshale are particularly Avorthy of mention (fig. 240). The art ofthis region is quite peculiar, and consists chiefly in the repe-tition of animal and bird designs which form the totems of the
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Fig. 239.—Wooden food-bowl. Hnida of Queen Charlotte Islands. various clans ; these totemic designs, whether carved or painted,are carried out with remarkable certainty of line, and are highlydecorative; much artistic taste is shown in the shapes of carvedbowls and other utensils. Bows and arrows are used in war and hunting; the former isusually the jilain type and broad, though a narrow pattern,occasionally reinforced with backing, is found among the Tlingit.Clubs of stone, bone or antler (figs. 241-4, 245, h), daggers ofbone and copper, are found, and also cuirasses of wooden plates,recalling the defensive ax-mour of North-East Asia. There areusually three grades of society : hereditary chiefs, commoners,and slaves ; the chiefs form a council, and their respectiveimportance varies according to wealth and personal character. The tribes are divided into clans, each with a totem animalor bird, and descent is reckoned in the female line among thenorthern tril^es. and in the male line

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