All the Amerinds of the North-west coast carve wooden masks, but here again, the Haidas excel, though the Tlinkits are not far behind. It is the same with the other work, boxes, rattles, etc. Some of the bowls, hollowed from a single piece of wood, and carved on the exterior with their strange figures, and polished, have a decided artistic merit. The Innuit also make wooden masks, but they are crude when compared with those of Queen Charlotte Island, or the mainland in that vicinity. One feature of all these North-west masks, specially noted by Dall,[146] which resembles Mexican carvings, is the protruding tongue touching an animal. The protruding tongue is an index of life if firmly held forth, according to Squier, while if it is loose and dangling at one side it signifies death or captivity. Dall concludes that the touch of the tongue symbolises the “transmission of spiritual qualities or powers.” In the totem poles this protruding tongue touching an animal is common, while frequently the tongue protrudes without touching any other person or thing. A totem represents the guardian spirit of the individual or clan, and therefore the closer the association with it the better; hence the idea of placing the tongue upon it. [Illustration: WOODEN MASKS, N. W. COAST] “A person,” says Boas, “may have the general crest of his clan and, besides, use as his personal crest such guardian spirits as he has acquired. This accounts partly for the great multiplicity of combinations of crests which we observe on the carvings of these people.... The crest is used for ornamenting objects belonging to a member of the clan; they are carved on columns intended to perpetuate the memory of a deceased relative, painted on the house front or carved on a column which is placed in front of the house, and are also shown as masks in festivals of the clan.”[147] Some of the grave monuments of the Kwakiutls, the Chimmesyans, the Tlinkits, and others of the region are ambitious carvings and represent considerable labour on the part of the sculptor. One grave I saw at Cape Fox was presided over by two huge wooden bears, the whole sheltered by a neat roof on posts and surrounded by a balustrade. The animals must have been at least four and a half feet high. Boas describes a grave-monument bird carved out of cedar bark, which is six feet high and about twelve feet from tip to tip of the extended wings. This bird is upright like the one carved on the house-post mentioned above, and, like that, has on its stomach the carved representation of a face. This bird’s wings were originally painted black to represent feathers, but this decoration has worn off. It is now in the American Museum. The Kwakiutls also have carved some statues in wood representing chiefs in a state of nature. These are extremely crude, but are superior to much of the Moundbuilder work as shown in the pipes and other carvings that have been preserved, and not greatly behind the Mexican.