STRANGE TRIBUTE TO THE DEPARTED. 21 



the happy hunting-grounds to which he has gone 

 all the luxuries and necessaries his good fortune 

 enabled him to enjoy in this : so it generally 

 happens that two or three slaves (male and 

 female), two or three horses, and two or three 

 dogs are shot, and laid on or in the earth where 

 rests the remains of the departed ! But I have 

 always observed that very old slaves, and very 

 ancient canine and equine quadrupeds, are 

 deemed by the sorrowing relatives quite good 

 enough to send on such a hazardous journey 

 a wise economy, worthy of a better cause. 

 These slaves are bought and sold after the 

 fashion of dogs and horses, and shells of the 

 dentalium are the sovereigns and shillings used 

 to pay for them. 



Indians are, without an exception, most in- 

 veterate gamblers. I do not know a single tribe 

 and I have seen something of almost every 

 tribe east and west of the Rocky Mountains 

 that have not some curious games of chance. 

 Along the coast the stakes are usually strings 

 of shells, and the game played is called met-ala. 

 It is played with the four incisor-teeth of the 

 beaver, engraved much after the fashion of our 

 dice ; but, instead of being thrown from a box, 

 they are sent broadcast from the hand, on a deer 



