THEIR FOOD. 247 



1855-56, in which the Kliketats bore a principal 

 part. 



' Prior to the war of 1855, the Kliketats had 

 many horses. Some chiefs, such as Peopeomuse- 

 muse, counted their hundreds. The tradition is 

 that horses were obtained from the southward, 

 and that the Kliketats have not been for many 

 generations in possession of them. 



' In their own country, the Kliketats lived on 

 salmon, and to no great extent by the chase, game 

 being scarce. The principal root used by them 

 as food is the peahay, a bitter root which has an 

 " elegant " bitter taste, and boils into a farina- 

 ceous jelly; next is the n'poolthla, which they 

 grind into flour; again, the "mamun" and seek- 

 ywa, which they knead into white cakes and 

 use as biscuit; these also have a bitter flavour; 

 lastly, the kamass, formerly Scilla esculenta, but 

 now " kamassia," I believe. The " calz "* which 

 you saw here is also used as food by the 

 Kliketats. They used, before the war, to culti- 

 vate potatoes and maize, and some of the chiefs 

 had horned cattle. 



' I have never been able to find that the Indians 

 of North West America, Kliketats or others, had 



* Calz, a kind of wild sun-flower, the root of which is 

 dried in the sun, and then consumed as an esculent. 



