190 THE CLAM. 



The stronghold opens, and the clam drinks draught 

 after draught of the cool life-o-ivino- air: then clown 



O O O ' 



upon him the savage pounces, and astonishes his 

 heated and fevered imagination by thrusting, with 

 all her force, the long sharp stick into the un- 

 guarded house : crash it goes through the quiver- 

 ing tissues ; his chance is over ! Jerked off the 

 heated stones, pitilessly his house is forced open ; 

 ropes, hinges, fastenings crack like packthread, 

 and the mollusc is ruthlessly dragged from his 

 shelly home, naked and lifeless. 



Having got the clam out, the next thing 

 is to preserve it for winter: this is effectually 

 accomplished by stringing-up and smoking. A 

 long wooden needle, with an eye at the end, is 

 threaded with cord made from native hemp ; 

 and on this the clams are strung like dried 

 apples, and thoroughly smoked, in the interior of 

 the lodge. A more effectual smoking-house could 

 hardly be found. I can imagine nothing in the 

 ' wide, wide world ' half as filthy, loathsome, and 

 disgusting as the interior of an Indian house. 

 Every group has some eatable h'sh, mollusc, 

 bird, or animal and what the men and squaws 

 do not consume, is pitched to the dusky little 

 savages, that, naked and dirty, are thick as ants 

 in a hill ; from these the residue descends to the 



