NORTHWEST COAST INDIANS ai 
character of the Indians was shown by the way in which the little ones 
were treated. Some of the older men, in accordance with their rank, 
preserved the proverbial Indian dignity, but there was enough laughter 
throughout the assemblage to convince one of the mistake of the popular 
notion that the Indians are always morose. 
At first there was a speech in Kwakiutl by a chief from Alert Bay, 
in which I caught occasionally the name of the superintendent of the 
cannery. Then there was a similar speech with much gesticulation by a 
young man of the Nootka. This was interpreted in Chinook, and since 
I could understand this jargon, I realized that the Indians were having 
a labor agitation. Other canneries had been paying bounties to secure 
the Indians to work for them, and the Indians wanted five dollars for 
each one who had come to work at the Rivers Inlet cannery. ‘They also 
thought that the women who put the salmon into the cans were not paid 
enough. They finally decided not to go out to tend the nets, unless the 
wages of the women were increased and the bounty was forthcoming. 
After the speeches came a dance by the daughter of the chief. She 
was gorgeously costumed, looking like an oriental princess in a red robe 
decorated with rows of pearl buttons. She wore a carved and painted 
headdress, in which were sea lion whiskers carrying eagle down, and 
which had many ermine skins that hung down her back. ‘The dance 
was simple and was of short duration, but the mere appearance of so 
distinguished a person seemed to be considered a great honor. This 
dance was followed by others, after which the two masters of ceremonies, 
old Indian neighbors of the owner of the house, brought in a curiously- 
gowned personage, wearing a grotesque carved and painted wooden 
mask. This individual followed his leaders part way around the fire, 
threatening them in screeching tones apparently made with a whistle. 
Finally, as though out of patience, the Indians turned on him and drove 
him back a little distance, but he retired with dignity, turning his back 
upon them. This operation was repeated, until he had gone around the 
fire several times, when he disappeared with many screeches through a 
little door at the back of the house, behind the blankets of the masters 
of ceremonies. 
During this performance the fire caught in the roof of the house, 
but there was no panic among these people, noted as a race for their 
stolidness. Presently a pail appeared lowered on a rope from the roof. 
The pail was filled with water and pulled to the ceiling and the water 
