UtensilsBentwood Boxes
Goat Horn Spoons
WhistlesA variety of single note whistles and others with two, three and four notes were used not as musical instruments, but to create sounds of spirit creatures or to make contact with the supernatural. Whistles were not usually seen by the public. A dancer often concealed a whistle in his costume or even a very small one in his mouth, blowing it as he danced.
DrumsThe deep resonant drumming that rolled throughout the longhouse during a Gitxsan ceremony came from the box drum, a large instrument made in much the same way as a bentwood box. Slender in width and open at one end, the drum was sometimes suspended by ropes from a house beam, and the drummer pounded out the beat for the dancers. The awesome sound of the drum box added much to the excitement of the dramatic enactment’s of the winter ceremonials.
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One of the most
outstanding items manufactured by Gitxsan woodworkers must
be the bentwood (or bent corner) container. Only peoples of the
northwest coast devised a large wooden container by kerfing and
steambending a single plank to form four sides. Bentwood containers
with a length greater than the width are termed boxes, while those
with a length greater than the height are referred to as chests.
Boxes varied in size from small to quite large. Some were undecorated;
others were either carved or painted, sometimes both, depending
on the intended use.
Some superb carvings of the Gitxsan
were on household utensils such as goat horn spoons. To make one
of these spoon , the horn was boiled until soft. The large end was
then split and scraped with a knife and put into a wooden mold to
harden. Refinements to thickness and shape were obtained by further
scraping. Some spoons had handles of antler or ivory: others were
carved with simple flowing lines or with elaborate designs to reflect
the family status or history.