Boas, Franz: Primitive art (Oslo , Leipzig [u.a.], 1927)

Art of the North Pacific Coast of North America

209

but the eye is treated quite differently and the
ear, while narrow, is not pointed and the back-
ward slant of the snout is not sufficiently
pronounced. The double headed wolf dish (e),
has small reclining ears and long eyes. The
ears of figs, c, d, e, are small and recline,
but the eye of c and d is rounded.
The forms of animals used by the northern
tribes vary considerably also. It is not safe
to base our arguments on models or on objects
made for the trade. I shall use, therefore,
exclusively, older specimens which have been
in use.
Swanton1 gives two interpretations of the
Haida house post fig. 199. He had two in-
formants; both explained the top figure as an
eagle but they differed as to the meaning of
the rest. The one claimed that the lower part
of the pole represented the story of a woman
being carried away by a killer-whale. The
woman’s face shows just below the eagle’s
beak, and the whale’s blow-hole is represented
by a small face above the face of the killer-
whale. The second informant, however, ex-
plained the large face at the bottom as that
of a grizzly bear, presumably meaning thereby,
the sea-grizzly bear; and the small figure
over it as the „sea ghost“ which usually
rides upon its back. The woman’s face he left
unexplained. From an objective point of view,
the face at the base of the pole appears as a
grizzly bear’s face. Attached to it on each side
1 John R. Swanton, The Haida, Publications of the
Jesup North Pacific Expedition, Vol. V, p. 128.
14 — Kulturforskning. B. VIII.


Fig. 199. House-post,
Haida.