These columns are never taken down or removed, but are allowed to stand until, in many places, only the decayed stump remains. In Houkan large numbers of totem columns are standing where the houses have long since fallen down and many of them will be found in dense thickets. There is one in front of the residence of Rev. J. L. Gould that has quite a spruce tree growing in the top of it. The tall columns shown in the illustration, in front of the houses, record the adventures, genealogy and legends of the owner, and his totem. The shorter ones at the corners of the houses, and in grave yards, are commemorative columns erected in honor of a former occupant of the house.
No one is allowed to execute these carvings among the Haidas until he has first had the medicine inoculated into his fingers by the shamens.
CORNER OF THE VILLAGE OF HOUKAN
CHAPTER XXXIV
MYTHOLOGY AND NATIVE HISTORY
The column with the great heads on top, shown in the illustration, tells quite an interesting story. It is variously told in different localities, however, the versions differ only in the minor details.
The top group represents the head of an European with whitened face and long black beard, flanked on either side by children wearing tall hats, and represents the following legend: