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 
