This ornament may have originated in the following manner: Many grease and food dishes have the form of canoes. The canoe symbolizes that a canoe-load of food is presented to the guests; and that this view is probably correct is indicated by the fact that the host in his speeches sometimes refers to the canoe filled with food which he gives to his guests. The canoe form is often modified, and a whole series of types may be established forming the transition between canoe dishes and ordinary trays. Dishes of this sort always bear a conventionalized face at each short end, while the middle part is not decorated. This is analogous to the style of the decoration of the canoe. On the whole the decoration of the canoe is totemic. It may, however, be that the peculiar manner in which the beak of the hawk is represented has given rise to the prevalence of this decoration. The upper jaw of the hawk is always shown so that its point reaches the lower jaw and turns back into the mouth. When painted or carved in front view the beak is indicated by a narrow wedge-shaped strip in the middle of the face, the point of which touches the lower margin of the chin. The sharp bow and stern of a canoe with a profile of a face on each side, when represented on a level or slightly rounded surface, would assume the same shape. Therefore it may be that originally the middle line was not the beak of the hawk, but the foreshortened bow or stern of the canoe. This decoration is so uniform that the explanation given here seems to me probable. In fig. 244 we see a painting representing a full front view of the thunder-bird. Its principal symbol is the long beak, which in front view appears like a long line descending from the nose over the mouth. In this case it is doubtful whether the body may be considered as being split along the back. Since the face is certainly represented in front view, it seems more likely that the animal is represented with spread wings, similar to the eagle in fig. 241. I have described a number of dissections applied in representing various animals. Heretofore we have had cases only in which the dissections were rather simple. In many cases in which the adaptation of the animal form to the decorative field is more difficult, the sections and distortions are much more far-reaching than those described before. [Illustration: Fig. 245. Model of totem pole with design representing a killer-whale, Haida.]