The Jndians of Vancouver Island 291 



tain tribes maintain the unenviable reputation of being dis- 

 tinguished in this traffic. The slaves, generally speaking, 

 though treated — they and their offspring — with contempt, are 

 not on the whole cruelly used. The mental capacity of 

 the Aht race is by no means small, but a mind travelling 

 for ages in one groove can scarcely be looked to readily shew 

 alacrity in subjects foreign to it. Mr Sproat has a very able 

 chapter on the language of the people, with a full vocabulary, 

 which establishes one important philological point — viz., that, con- 

 trary to the generalization of Max Muller, the A/it language does not 

 change. With the exception of a few words, which the surgeon of 

 Cook's voyage (Mr Anderson) mistook, the language is the same 

 as at the date of Cook's visit. The language of the Indians in the 

 interior of America, owing to their roving habits, is constantly chang- 

 ing. In the case of these Aht tribes, on the other hand, who have 

 remained for generations — perhaps for centuries — on one spot, their 

 language is less altered. The limits of this review will not permit 

 us to do more than refer the reader to the chapter itself Polygamy 

 prevails — the number of a man's wives being only limited by his 

 purse — but the women are much better treated than among the 

 horse tribes in the interior, having a voice in nearly all bargains, 

 and being often scolds of the first water. Many curious customs 

 connected with betrothal, marriage, and divorce prevail, and 

 adultery is (or was) punished with death. Wives are in reality 

 bought, but he is looked upon as a mean father-in-law who does 

 not return, in dowry with his daughter, as much as he received. 

 IMarriages are sought among other tribes to strengthen the 

 influence of the chiefs, and with an idea of preventing the 

 degeneracy of the race. A patrician marries a woman of 

 equal rank, and like other folks, often affection has nothing to do 

 with the marriage, the idea being to prevent the sangre azul from 

 being corrupted by a mixture of common blood. Before the 

 house of the head chief of the Klah-oh-quahts, there is a large stone 

 which a man must lift and carry in the presence of the people 

 before he may aspire to woo the chief's daughter. " Gentle blood and 

 long descent" is much valued, and though wealth may procure a cer- 

 tain status, and prowess in v\^ar achieve another type of military aris- 

 tocracy, yet the old family rank can only be acquired by descent from 

 a long line of chieftain sires, and is very different from ^Vic\\ parve?m 

 dignity. A certain rank can even be conferred on a woman, and 

 the various shades of "nobility" are carefully described by our 



