Gwa'yasdams

"To make matters worse, in front of the houses were wide plank walks hidden by nettles and covered with large white slugs, these wretched creatures made it so slimy and slippery that we frequently took head long plunges into the nettle beds. Then again the shock on picking oneself out of this predicament to come face to face with that Spirit of the Woods with its outstretched arms and diabolical face. But there she stands towering above the nettles; we reached a little above her knee as we stood beside her. She is a Dsonokoa or wood spirit."
Carr Lecture on Totems, 1913:50-51

"This figure, more than twenty feet high, was erected by a man in preparation for the occasion when his wife's family would come to pay him the marriage debt. The hands are outstretched to receive the property."
Curtis 1915:296

"In some cases, the bride's father gives at the same time a copper, names, and privileges to his son-in-law, but ordinarily this payment is deferred until a later time, . . . when 'the repayment of the marriage debt' takes place."
Boas1966:54

"The old people let those stinging nettles grow up around the village. In the fall they cut them down and dried them; then they spun them [the fibres] to make twine for eulachon fishing nets."
Mrs. Alice Smith 'Du'ta', née Glendale, Da'naxda'xw tribe. Macnair, personal communication, Dzawadi 1968.