2^4 Journal of Trai'cl and Natural History 



Indian woman not to shoot a fine specimen of the Bubo Virginian- 

 us, which, in his ornithological zeal, he wished to acquire, as it con- 

 tained the spirit of her grandfather ! "Clayher" is the personification 

 of sickness and death. He lives in a country where there are few 

 deer, no salmon, and poor houses. There the blankets are thin 

 and the canoes leaky. Clayher is personified as an old man, with 

 a long grey beard, and a figure of flesh ^\^thout bones, and is 

 believed to wander at night seeking men's souls, which he steals 

 away : and unless the doctors can recover them, the losers will die. 

 In wishing death to any one, the natives blow and say, " Clayher, 

 come quickly!" Tootoosch is the thunder-bird flapping his wings, 

 and the lightning is the serpent which darts out of his mouth. 

 They have a medicine for everything — ^love philtres and death doses, 

 but it is doubtful if they know anything of the action of poisons. 

 Their medicine is principally sorcery, but invalids are often taken 

 away from the lodges and left to perish. An ugly feature in the 

 Aht ladies is their habit of producing abortion, but infanticide is 

 (doubtfully) said not to obtain among them. They bury their dead 

 principally in boxes up in trees, and have many ceremonies con- 

 nected with death and sepulture. The great feasts in which tlie 

 accumulated property is given away are very curious, as well as the 

 custom of giving new names ; but for these, as well as other sec- 

 tions which we cannot even touch on, we must refer to the work 

 itself. The concluding chapters are worthy of the attention of 

 philanthropists who are cogitating over the subject of our treat- 

 ment of the aborigines, and the momentous question, " AVhat is to 

 become of them?" Robert Brown. 



