THE INDIANS OF CAPE FLATTERY. 59 



chief had a boy and girl who wore twins, and could scarcely be told apart; so they 

 dressed the boy in his sister s clothes, and delivered him to Dceaht; but as soon as 

 it became night the young savage, who had concealed a knife in his dress, cut 

 Deeaht s throat, and then made his escape to Hosett. Odiee then succeeded his bro 

 ther, and is the ancestor of a great portion of the Makahs who reside at Nceah Bay. 



In one of the lodges at Neeah Bay are three carved figures, on whose heads rests 

 the huge beam that supports the roof; of these one is intended to represent Decahks, 

 or Deeaht. Another figure, in the centre, is named Klcssakady, and is symbolical 

 of sunrise. His head is surmounted with a crescent-shaped cap, and between his 

 feet is a head representing night. The beam above is marked with circular holes, 

 to represent stars, and, according to Kalchote, the old chief, who placed it there, 

 it may be said to show the manner in which the sun, when rising, thrusts the stars 

 away with his head and tramples the night under his feet. A figure at the remote 

 end of the lodge is named Billaksakut hl, and represents a fabled giant of anti 

 quity, who could spread his feet apart, leaving a space between his legs wide 

 enough to pass the largest canoes through. These are the only carvings of any 

 note in the village, but as to their significance, as stated to me by Kalchote, there 

 is good reason to doubt its correctness. I recently asked the Indian who carved 

 them, whose name is Dick, what he intended to represent! He said he had no 

 other idea than to cut some posts to look like men, and that so far as the head 

 between the feet of Klessakady was concerned, it simply meant nothing ; but there 

 happened to be a big knot in the wood, which made it difficult to carve, so he 

 made a head of it ; and after it was done, Kalchote painted it and set it up in 

 his lodge with the other two, and gave them names, and invented the allegory 

 himself. He explained himself further by remarking that he would carve me a 

 figure if I would like, and that I could make any meaning to it I chose. Although 

 Kalchote undoubtedly associated in his mind the allegories which he related to 

 me with the images, the other Indians ridicule the idea, and say they arc only 

 Dick s work, which he did, with no particular object in view. 



Each village has its own local traditions and genealogies, and each claims to have 

 had, at former times, great men, who were head chiefs of the tribe. But it would 

 appear that really each village was a community by itself, and they were often 

 engaged in feuds among themselves ; nor is this feeling wholly extinct ; they speak 

 of each other as they do of other tribes, and it is only on questions affecting the 

 whole that they admit themselves to be all one. It is a common practice with all 

 the chiefs of these tribes, Makahs, Nittinats, Clyoquots, Nootkans, etc., to claim 

 great possessions, particularly when relating their talcs to white men. Thus, if 

 one s father or mother, or even the grandparents, belonged to another tribe, it is 

 customary to claim the land of that tribe as theirs. For instance, one, whose 

 mother was a Nittinat, will say : &quot; That is my land at Nittinat.&quot; The chief of 

 the Clyoquots, named Cedakanim, who frequently comes to Neeah Bay, told me 

 that Cape Flattery was his land, because his mother was a Makah. His wife, 

 who was the daughter of a Makah chief formerly residing at Neeah Bay, lays 

 claim, in behalf of her son, to the land around the bay, as a portion of his grand 

 father s estate. Such claims, however, are ignored by the Makahs, or looked upon 



