SOME OCCUPATIONS OF INDIAN TRIBES 19 



usually the &quot; manitou,&quot; or creature which a boy 

 selected for his companion and guardian through life. 



A good many occupations are connected with 

 the food supply, and everywhere near the coast or 

 the banks of Fraser River there are Indians busy 

 catching, cleaning, drying, and extracting oil from 

 fish, among which the salmon is most prized. 

 Gathering quantities of roots, berries, and nuts is a 

 favourite occupation with women and children, 

 who are made responsible for laying in large quanti 

 ties of vegetable food for winter. While men are 

 occupied with hunting and fishing, women collect 

 roots of the cedar tree, and from the bark of these 

 baskets of varied patterns are neatly manufactured. 

 Human and animal designs are interwoven with 

 pieces of coloured fibre in such a way as to give an 

 ornamental effect, though the Indian s idea is not 

 merely decoration, but a desire to portray the 

 animal helpers which he holds in reverence. Very 

 light vessels may be made from bark of birch and 

 spruce trees ; some hold several gallons, and may be 

 held on the back by leather thongs, one of which 

 passes round the forehead of the carrier. Canoes of 

 birch bark are so light that they can be carried 

 across land for several miles, and travellers have 

 many times crossed from Hudson Bay to Vancouver 

 chiefly by use of these light portable canoes. 



The manufacture of bows and arrows is an im 

 portant undertaking, for on these the hunter s life 

 and food supply entirely depend. Very great care 

 is taken in providing a bow string which will not be 

 affected by damp, and after threads of sinew have 

 been neatly plaited into one strand, the whole is 



