84 SrORTINO AD VENTURES IN THE FAR WEST. 



terribly guttural dialect, which caused them to laugh heart- 

 ily, it is doubtful if we could have induced them to look 

 kindly upon us under the circumstances, as they do not 

 care to have white men see their meetings, or potlatches, 

 for fear they might ridicule them. We managed, however, 

 to make ourselves at home with them ; and our intrusion 

 was not, after awhile, considered to be very disagreeable. 

 The day after our arrival the neighboring tribes began to 

 pour in — men, women, and children ; some coming on 

 horseback, some afoot, but the greater number arrived in 

 canoes, which held from four to a dozen persons. When 

 all were assembled they were welcomed by the chief, and 

 the ceremony of distribution commenced late in the after- 

 noon. The highest dignitaries among the visitors received 

 presents in accordance with their dignity; some receiving 

 a pair of blankets, and others old muskets, revolvers, cheap 

 knives, pieces of cloth, deer-skins, bear-skins, strings of col- 

 ored glass beads, copper bracelets, and ear-rings, and so on, 

 until all the presents were exhausted. 



No person was forgotten, from the highest to the lowest, 

 and the result was that all were as happy as children. Not 

 a little merriment and good-natured rivalry was manifest- 

 ed when a miscellaneous collection of articles was thrown 

 among a throng of men, women, and children, for they 

 commenced struggling for them as ravenously as a body 

 of boys for pennies. This ceremony lasted for four days ; 

 and to make it as interesting as possible, the evenings, up 

 to midnight, were devoted to speech-making, gossiping, and 

 feasting and dancing, in which all, except the very aged, 

 joined with an alacrity and light- heartedness one would 

 not expect from a people so taciturn and unimpressible. 



The camp presented a very picturesque appearance dur- 

 ing the night ; for the fires, which blazed in every direc- 

 tion, were surrounded by shadowy human groups who were 

 enjoying themselves with song and story, or the gross 

 feast, while numbers of men could be seen in various direc- 

 tions jumping around in a circle and grunting like pigs. 

 This they called dancing, and they apparently enjoyed it. 



