The Native Races [of the Pacific states], Volume 1, Wild Tribes

283

'The hair of the natives is never shaven from the head. It is black or dark brown, without gloss, coarse and lank, but not scanty, worn long… Slaves wear their hair short. Now and then, but rarely, a light-haired native is seen. There is one woman in the Opechisat tribe at Alberni who had curly, or rather wavy, brown hair. Few grey-haired men can be noticed in any tribe. The men's beards and whiskers are deficient, probably from the old alleged custom, now seldom practiced, of extirpating the hairs with small shells. Several of the Nootkah Sound natives (Moouchahts) have large moustaches and whiskers.' Sproat's Scenes, pp. 25-7. 'El cabello es largo lacio y grueso, variando su color entre rubio, obscuro, castaño y negro. La barba sale á los mozos con la misma regularidad que á los de otros paises, y llega á ser en los ancianos tan poblada y larga como la de los Turcos; pero los jóvenes parecen imberbes porque se la arrancan con los dedos, ó mas comunmente con pinzas formadas de pequeñas conchas.' Sutil y Mexicana, Viage, pp. 124-5, 57. 'Hair of the head is in great abundance, very coarse, and strong; and without a single exception, black, straight and lank.' No beards at all, or a small thin one on the chin, not from a natural defect, but from plucking. Old men often have beards. Eyebrows scanty and narrow. Cook's Voy. to Pac., vol. ii., pp. 301-3. 'Neither beard, whisker, nor moustache ever adorns the face of the redskin.' Lord's Nat., vol. i., p. 143; Jewitt's Nar., pp. 61, 75, 77. Hair 'invariably either black or dark brown.' Grant, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xxvii., p. 297; Meares' Voy., p. 250; Mayne's B. C., pp. 277-8; Macfie's Vanc. Isl., p. 442; Spark's Life of Ledyard, p. 71.

284

Cook's Voy. to Pac., vol. ii., pp. 304-8; Sutil y Mexicana, Viage, pp. 126-7; Sproat's Scenes, pp. 26-7; Meares' Voy., p. 254; Macfie's Vanc. Isl., p. 442; Jewitt's Nar., pp. 21, 23, 62, 65, 77-8; Grant, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xxvii., p. 297; Mayne's B. C., pp. 277-8; Barrett-Lennard's Trav., p. 44.

285

Mayne's B. C., pp. 242, 277, with cut of a child with bandaged head, and of a girl with a sugar-loaf head, measuring eighteen inches from the eyes to the summit. Sproat's Scenes, pp. 28-30; Grant, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xxvii., p. 298; Scouler, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xi., p. 222; Meares' Voy., p. 249; Macfie's Vanc. Isl., p. 441; Sutil y Mexicana, Viage, p. 124; Lord's Nat., vol. i., p. 171; vol. ii., p. 103, cut of three skulls of flattened, conical, and natural form; Kane's Wand., p. 241; Jewitt's Nar., p. 76; Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. ii., p. 325; Barrett-Lennard's Trav., p. 45; Gordon's Hist. and Geog. Mem., p. 115.

286

At Valdes Island, 'the faces of some were made intirely white, some red, black, or lead colour.' Vancouver's Voy., vol. i., pp. 307, 341. At Nuñez Gaona Bay, 'se pintan de encarnado y negro.' Sutil y Mexicana, Viage, p. 30. At Nootka Sound, 'Con esta grasa (de ballena) se untan todo el cuerpo, y despues se pintan con una especie de barniz compuesto de la misma grasa ó aceyte, y de almagre en términos que parece este su color natural.' Chiefs only may paint in varied colors, plebeians being restricted to one.' Id., pp. 125-7. 'Many of the females painting their faces on all occasions, but the men only at set periods.' Vermilion is obtained by barter. Black, their war and mourning color, is made by themselves. Macfie's Vanc. Isl., p. 442. 'Ces Indiens enduisent leur corps d'huile de baleine, et se peignent avec des ocres.' Chiefs only may wear different colors, and figures of animals. Mofras, Explor., tom. ii., p. 344. 'Rub their bodies constantly with a red paint, of a clayey or coarse ochry substance, mixed with oil… Their faces are often stained with a black, a brighter red, or a white colour, by way of ornament… They also strew the brown martial mica upon the paint, which makes it glitter.' Cook's Voy. to Pac., vol. ii., p. 305. 'A line of vermilion extends from the centre of the forehead to the tip of the nose, and from this "trunk line" others radiate over and under the eyes and across the cheeks. Between these red lines white and blue streaks alternately fill the interstices. A similar pattern ornaments chest, arms, and back, the frescoing being artistically arranged to give apparent width to the chest.' Lord's Nat., vol. i., p. 143. 'They paint the face in hideous designs of black and red (the only colours used), and the parting of the hair is also coloured red.' Mayne's B. C., p. 277. 'At great feasts the faces of the women are painted red with vermilion or berry-juice, and the men's faces are blackened with burnt wood. About the age of twenty-five the women cease to use paint… Some of the young men streak their faces with red, but grown-up men seldom now use paint, unless on particular occasions… The leader of a war expedition is distinguished by a streaked visage from his black-faced followers.' Sproat's Scenes, p. 27-8. The manner of painting is often a matter of whim. 'The most usual method is to paint the eye-brows black, in form of a half moon, and the face red in small squares, with the arms and legs and part of the body red; sometimes one half of the face is painted red in squares, and the other black; at others, dotted with red spots, or red and black instead of squares, with a variety of other devices, such as painting one half of the face and body red, and the other black.' Jewitt's Nar., p. 64; Meares' Voy., p. 252; Barrett-Lennard's Trav., p. 46; Spark's Life of Ledyard, p. 71.

287

'The habit of tattooing the legs and arms is common to all the women of Vancouver's Island; the men do not adopt it.' Grant, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xxvii., p. 307. 'No such practice as tattooing exists among these natives.' Sproat's Scenes, p. 27. 'The ornament on which they appear to set the most value, is the nose-jewel, if such an appellation may be given to the wooden stick, which some of them employ for this purpose… I have seen them projecting not less than eight or nine inches beyond the face on each side; this is made fast or secured in its place by little wedges on each side of it.' Jewitt's Nar., pp. 65-6, 75; Mofras, Explor., tom. ii., p. 344. Cook's Voy. to Pac., vol. ii., pp. 304-8; Sutil y Mexicana, Viage, pp. 30, 126-7; Macfie's Vanc. Isl., p. 442; Whymper's Alaska, pp. 37, 74, with cut of mask. Mayne's B. C., p. 268; Kane's Wand., pp. 221-2, and illustration of a hair medicine-cap.

288

'Their cloaks, which are circular capes with a hole in the centre, edged with sea-otter skin, are constructed from the inner bark of the cypress. It turns the rain, is very soft and pliable,' etc. Belcher's Voy., vol. i., p. 112. The usual dress of the Newchemass 'is a kootsuck made of wolf skin, with a number of the tails attached to it … hanging from the top to the bottom; though they sometimes wear a similar mantle of bark cloth, of a much coarser texture than that of Nootka.' Jewitt's Nar., pp. 77-8, 21-3, 56-8, 62-6. 'Their common dress is a flaxen garment, or mantle, ornamented on the upper edge by a narrow strip of fur, and at the lower edge, by fringes or tassels. It passes under the left arm, and is tied over the right shoulder, by a string before, and one behind, near its middle… Over this, which reaches below the knees, is worn a small cloak of the same substance, likewise fringed at the lower part… Their head is covered with a cap, of the figure of a truncated cone, or like a flower-pot, made of fine matting, having the top frequently ornamented with a round or pointed knob, or bunch of leathern tassels.' Cook's Voy. to Pac., vol. ii., pp. 304-8, 270-1, 280. 'The men's dress is a blanket; the women's a strip of cloth, or shift, and blanket. The old costume of the natives was the same as at present, but the material was different.' Sproat's Scenes, pp. 25, 315. 'Their clothing generally consists of skins,' but they have two other garments of bark or dog's hair. 'Their garments of all kinds are worn mantlewise, and the borders of them are fringed' with wampum. Spark's Life of Ledyard, pp. 71-2; Colyer, in Ind. Aff. Rept., 1869, p. 533; Sutil y Mexicana, Viage, pp. 30-1, 38, 56-7, 126-8; Meares' Voy., pp. 251-4; Grant, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xxvii., p. 297; Lord's Nat., vol. i., pp. 143-4; Mofras, Explor., tom. ii., pp. 344-5; Whymper's Alaska, p. 37; Greenhow's Hist. Ogn., p. 116; Macfie's Van. Isl., pp. 431, 443; Barrett-Lennard's Trav., p. 46. See portraits in Cook's Atlas, Belcher's Voy., Sutil y Mexicana, Atlas, and Whymper's Alaska.

289

On the east side of Vancouver was a village of thirty-four houses, arranged in regular streets. The house of the leader 'was distinguished by three rafters of stout timber raised above the roof, according to the architecture of Nootka, though much inferior to those I had there seen, in point of size.' Bed-rooms were separated, and more decency observed than at Nootka Sound. Vancouver's Voy., vol. i., pp. 346-7, with a view of this village; also pp. 324-5, description of the village on Desolation Sound; p. 338, on Valdes Island; p. 326, view of village on Bute Canal; and vol. iii., pp. 310-11, a peculiarity not noticed by Cook – 'immense pieces of timber which are raised, and horizontally placed on wooden pillars, about eighteen inches above the roof of the largest houses in that village; one of which pieces of timber was of a size sufficient to have made a lower mast for a third rate man of war.' See Cook's Voy. to Pac., vol. ii., pp. 281, 313-19, and Atlas, plate 40. A sort of a duplicate inside building, with shorter posts, furnishes on its roof a stage, where all kinds of property and supplies are stored. Sproat's Scenes, pp. 37-43. 'The planks or boards which they make use of for building their houses, and for other uses, they procure of different lengths, as occasion requires, by splitting them out, with hard wooden wedges from pine logs, and afterwards dubbing them down with their chizzels.' Jewitt's Nar., pp. 52-4. Grant states that the Nootka houses are palisade inclosures formed of stakes or young fir-trees, some twelve or thirteen feet high, driven into the ground close together, roofed in with slabs of fir or cedar. Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xxvii., p. 299. The Teets have palisaded enclosures. Anderson, in Hist. Mag., vol. vii., p. 74. 'The chief resides at the upper end, the proximity of his relatives to him being according to their degree of kindred.' Macfie's Vanc. Isl., pp. 443-4; Dunn's Oregon, p. 243; Belcher's Voy., vol. i., p. 112; Lord's Nat., vol. i., pp. 158, 164-5, 167, 320-21; Seemann's Voy. of Herald, vol. i., pp. 105-6. The carved pillars are not regarded by the natives as idols in any sense. Sutil y Mexicana, Viage, pp. 128-9, 102; Barrett-Lennard's Trav., pp. 47, 73-4. Some houses eighty by two hundred feet. Colyer, in Ind. Aff. Rept., 1869, p. 533; Mayne's B. C., p. 296; Gordon's Hist. and Geog. Mem., pp. 120-1.

290

'Their heads and their garments swarm with vermin, which, … we used to see them pick off with great composure, and eat.' Cook's Voy. to Pac., vol. ii., p. 305. See also pp. 279-80, 318-24. 'Their mode of living is very simple – their food consisting almost wholly of fish, or fish spawn fresh or dried, the blubber of the whale, seal, or sea-cow, muscles, clams, and berries of various kinds; all of which are eaten with a profusion of train oil.' Jewitt's Nar., pp. 58-60, 68-9, 86-8, 94-7, 103. Sproat's Scenes, pp. 52-7, 61, 87, 144-9, 216-70. 'The common business of fishing for ordinary sustenance is carried on by slaves, or the lower class of people; – While the more noble occupation of killing the whale and hunting the sea-otter, is followed by none but the chiefs and warriors.' Meares' Voy., p. 258. 'They make use of the dried fucus giganteus, anointed with oil, for lines, in taking salmon and sea-otters.' Belcher's Voy., vol. i., pp. 112-13. Sutil y Mexicana, Viage, pp. 17, 26, 45-6, 59-60, 76, 129-30, 134-5; Grant, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xxvii., pp. 299-300; Mayne's B. C., pp. 252-7; Macfie's Vanc. Isl., pp. 165-442; Simpson's Overland Journ., vol. i., p. 239; Pemberton's Vanc. Isl., pp. 28-32; Dunn's Oregon, p. 243; Mofras, Explor., tom. ii., p. 338. The Sau-kau-lutuck tribe 'are said to live on the edge of a lake, and subsist principally on deer and bear, and such fish as they can take in the lake.' Lord's Nat., vol. i., pp. 158-9; Barrett-Lennard's Trav., pp. 48, 74-5, 76-7, 85-6, 90-1, 144-50, 197-8; vol. ii., p. 111; Cornwallis' New El Dorado, p. 100; Forbes' Vanc. Isl., pp. 54-5; Rattray's Vanc. Isl., pp. 77-8, 82-3; Hud. Bay Co., Rept. Spec. Com., 1857, p. 114.

291

Sutil y Mexicana, Viage, pp. 57, 63, 78; Jewitt's Nar., pp. 78-81; Vancouver's Voy., vol. i., p. 307; Macfie's Vanc. Isl., p. 443; Cox's Adven., vol. i., p. 100. 'The native bow, like the canoe and paddle, is beautifully formed. It is generally made of yew or crab-apple wood, and is three and a half feet long, with about two inches at each end turned sharply backwards from the string. The string is a piece of dried seal-gut, deer-sinew, or twisted bark. The arrows are about thirty inches long, and are made of pine or cedar, tipped with six inches of serrated bone, or with two unbarbed bone or iron prongs. I have never seen an Aht arrow with a barbed head.' Sproat's Scenes, p. 82. 'Having now to a great extent discarded the use of the traditional tomahawk and spear. Many of these weapons are, however, still preserved as heirlooms among them.' Barrett-Lennard's Trav., p. 42. 'No bows and arrows.' 'Generally fight hand to hand, and not with missiles.' Fitzwilliam's Evidence, in Hud. Bay Co. Rept., 1857, p. 115.

292

The Ahts 'do not take the scalp of the enemy, but cut off his head, by three dexterous movements of the knife … and the warrior who has taken most heads is most praised and feared.' Sproat's Scenes, pp. 186-202. 'Scalp every one they kill.' Macfie's Vanc. Isl., p. 470, 443, 467. One of the Nootka princes assured the Spaniards that the bravest captains ate human flesh before engaging in battle. Sutil y Mexicana, Viage, p. 130. The Nittinahts consider the heads of enemies slain in battle as spolia opima. Whymper's Alaska, pp. 54, 78; Jewitt's Nar., pp. 120-1; Lord's Nat., vol. i., pp. 155-6, 158, 166, 171, vol. ii., p. 251-3. Women keep watch during the night, and tell the exploits of their nation to keep awake. Meares' Voy., p. 267. Vancouver's Voy., vol. i., p. 396; Grant, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xxvii., p. 296; Mayne's B. C., p. 270; Barrett-Lennard's Trav., pp. 41-2, 129-36.

293

'They have no seats… The rowers generally sit on their hams, but sometimes they make use of a kind of small stool.' Meares' Voy., pp. 263-4. The larger canoes are used for sleeping and eating, being dry and more comfortable than the houses. Cook's Voy. to Pac., vol. ii., pp. 319, 327, and Atlas, pl. 41. 'The most skillful canoe-makers among the tribes are the Nitinahts and the Klah-oh-quahts. They make canoes for sale to other tribes.' 'The baling-dish of the canoes, is always of one shape – the shape of the gable-roof of a cottage.' Sproat's Scenes, pp. 85, 87-8; Mayne's B. C., p. 283, and cut on title-page. Canoes not in use are hauled up on the beach in front of their villages. Grant, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xxvii., p. 301. 'They keep time to the stroke of the paddle with their songs.' Jewitt's Nar., pp. 69-71, 75; Sutil y Mexicana, Viage, pp. 39, 133; Lord's Nat., vol. i., p. 144; Vancouver's Voy., vol. i., p. 338. Their canoes 'are believed to supply the pattern after which clipper ships are built.' Macfie's Vanc. Isl., pp. 484, 430. Barrett-Lennard's Trav., p. 50. Colyer, in Ind. Aff. Rept., 1869, p. 533.

294

Cook's Voy. to Pac., vol. ii., pp. 271, 308, 316, 326, 329-30. Sproat's Scenes, pp. 86-9, 317; Sutil y Mexicana, Viage, p. 129; Lord's Nat., vol. ii., pp. 257-8, which describes a painted and ornamented plate of native copper some one and a half by two and a half feet, kept with great care in a wooden case, also elaborately ornamented. It was the property of the tribe at Fort Rupert, and was highly prized, and only brought out on great occasions, though its use was not discovered. Macfie's Vanc. Isl., p. 165.

295

Woolen cloths of all degrees of fineness, made by hand and worked in figures, by a method not known. Cook's Voy. to Pac., vol. ii., p. 325. Sutil y Mexicana, Viage, pp. 46, 136; Lord's Nat., vol. ii., p. 254; Sproat's Scenes, pp. 88-9; Jewitt's Nar., p. 55; Macfie's Vanc. Isl., pp. 442, 451, 483-5; Mofras, Explor., tom. ii., p. 344; Pemberton's Vanc. Isl., p. 131; Cornwallis' New El Dorado, pp. 99-100. 'The implement used for weaving, (by the Teets) differed in no apparent respect from the rude loom of the days of the Pharaohs.' Anderson, in Hist. Mag., vol. vii., p. 78.

296

Sproat's Scenes, pp. 79-81, 89, 96, 111-13; Kane's Wand., pp. 220-1; Macfie's Vanc. Isl., pp. 429, 437; Cook's Voy. to Pac., vol. ii., p. 284; Sutil y Mexicana, Viage, p. 147; Lord's Nat., vol. i., pp. 165-6; Mayne's B. C., 263-5.

297

Jewitt's Nar., pp. 78-80; Sproat's Scenes, pp. 19, 55, 78-9, 92. Before the adoption of blankets as a currency, they used small shells from the coast bays for coin, and they are still used by some of the more remote tribes. Grant, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xxvii., p. 307. 'Their acuteness in barter is remarkable.' Forbes' Vanc. Isl., p. 25.

298

The Ahts 'divide the year into thirteen months, or rather moons, and begin with the one that pretty well answers to our November. At the same time, as their names are applied to each actual new moon as it appears, they are not, by half a month and more (sometimes), identical with our calendar months.' Sproat's Scenes, pp. 121-4. 'Las personas mas cultas dividen el año en catorce meses, y cada uno de estos en veinte dias, agregando luego algunos dias intercalares al fin de cada mes. El de Julio, que ellos llaman Satz-tzi-mitl, y es el primero de su año, á mas de sus veinte dias ordinarios tiene tantos intercalares quantos dura la abundancia de lenguados, atunes, etc.' Sutil y Mexicana, Viage, pp. 153-4, 148; Grant, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xxvii., pp. 295, 304; Lord's Nat., vol. ii., pp. 242-4.

299

'They shew themselves ingenious sculptors. They not only preserve, with great exactness, the general character of their own faces, but finish the more minute parts, with a degree of accuracy in proportion, and neatness in execution.' Cook's Voy. to Pac., vol. ii., pp. 326-7, and Atlas, pl. 40; Lord's Nat., vol. i., pp. 164-5, vol. ii., pp. 257-8, and cut, p. 103; Macfie's Vanc. Isl., pp. 444-7, 484; Mayne's B. C., cut on p. 271.

300

'In an Aht tribe of two hundred men, perhaps fifty possess various degrees of acquired or inherited rank; there may be about as many slaves; the remainder are independent members.' Some of the Klah-oh-quahts 'pay annually to their chief certain contributions, consisting of blankets, skins, etc.' 'A chief's "blue blood" avails not in a dispute with one of his own people; he must fight his battle like a common man.' Sproat's Scenes, pp. 113-17, 18-20, 226. Cheslakees, a chief on Johnson's Strait, was inferior but not subordinate in authority to Maquinna, the famous king at Nootka Sound, but the chief at Loughborough's Channel claimed to be under Maquinna. Vancouver's Voy., vol. i., pp. 346, 331. 'La dignidad de Tays es hereditaria de padres á hijos, y pasa regularmente á estos luego que estan en edad de gobernar, si los padres por ancianidad ú otras causas no pueden seguir mandando.' 'El gobierno de estos naturales puede llamarse Patriarcal; pues el Xefe de la nacion hace á un mismo tiempo los oficios de padre de familia, de Rey y de Sumo Sacerdote.' 'Los nobles gozan de tanta consideracion en Nutka, que ni aun de palabra se atreven los Tayses á reprehenderlos.' 'Todos consideraban á este (Maquinna) como Soberano de las costas, desde la de Buena Esperanza hasta la punta de Arrecifes, con todos los Canales interiores.' To steal, or to know carnally a girl nine years old, is punished with death. Sutil y Mexicana, Viage, pp. 140, 136, 147, 19, 25. 'There are such men as Chiefs, who are distinguished by the name or title of Acweek, and to whom the others are, in some measure, subordinate. But, I should guess, the authority of each of these great men extends no farther than the family to which he belongs.' Cook's Voy. to Pac., vol. ii., pp. 333-4. 'La forme de leur gouvernement est toute patriarcale, et la dignité de chef, héréditaire.' Mofras, Explor., tom. ii., p. 346. Several very populous villages to the northward, included in the territory of Maquilla, the head chief, were entrusted to the government of the principal of his female relations. The whole government formed a political bond of union similar to the feudal system which formerly obtained in Europe. Meares' Voy., pp. 228-9. 'The king or head Tyee, is their leader in war, in the management of which he is perfectly absolute. He is also president of their councils, which are almost always regulated by his opinion. But he has no kind of power over the property of his subjects.' Jewitt's Nar., pp. 138-9, 47, 69, 73. Kane's Wand., pp. 220-1. 'There is no code of laws, nor do the chiefs possess the power or means of maintaining a regular government; but their personal influence is nevertheless very great with their followers.' Douglas, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xxiv., p. 246.

301

'Usually kindly treated, eat of the same food, and live as well as their masters.' 'None but the king and chiefs have slaves.' 'Maquinna had nearly fifty, male and female, in his house.' Jewitt's Nar., pp. 73-4. Meares states that slaves are occasionally sacrificed and feasted upon. Voy., p. 255. The Newettee tribe nearly exterminated by kidnappers. Dunn's Oregon, p. 242. 'An owner might bring half a dozen slaves out of his house and kill them publicly in a row without any notice being taken of the atrocity. But the slave, as a rule, is not harshly treated.' 'Some of the smaller tribes at the north of the Island are practically regarded as slave-breeding tribes, and are attacked periodically by stronger tribes.' The American shore of the strait is also a fruitful source of slaves. Sproat's Scenes, pp. 89-92. 'They say that one Flathead slave is worth more than two Roundheads.' Rept. Ind. Aff., 1857, p. 327; Mayne's B. C., p. 284; Grant, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xxvii., p. 296; Lord's Nat., vol. i., pp. 154-5, 166; Kane's Wand., p. 220; Sutil y Mexicana, Viage, p. 131; Macfie's Vanc. Isl., pp. 431, 442, 470-1.