210 ETHNOGRAPHY. 



the Falls of the Spokan, and as these natives seldom go to hunt the 

 buffalo, their principal subsistence is derived from roots, game, and 

 the smaller kinds of fish. Some of them have lately begun to raise 

 potatoes, and it seems likely that the arts of cultivation will, before 

 long, be common among them. Being out of the usual track of 

 traders and trappers, their character has been less affected by inter- 

 course with the whites, than is the case with the tribes on the great 

 rivers. They speak a dialect of the Salish, and resemble in appear- 

 ance the other natives belonging to this stock. 



The origin of the appellation by which this tribe is known to the 

 whites deserves to be noticed, as an example of the odd circumstances 

 to which these nicknames are sometimes due. The first who visited 

 the tribe were Canadian traders, one of whom, it appears, was of a 

 close, niggardly temper. The natives soon remarked this, and the 

 chief at length gave his sentiments upon it, Indian fashion, observing 

 that the white man had the " heart of an awl," meaning, a contracted, 

 illiberal disposition the term awl being used by them as we some- 

 times employ the word pin, to denote a very trifling object. The 

 expression was rendered by the interpreter literally, "un casur 

 d'alene," and greatly amused the trader's companions, who thence- 

 forth spoke of the chief who used it, as " the caeur d'alene chief," a 

 soubriquet which came in time to be applied to the whole tribe. It 

 was, perhaps, by some similar " lucus a non lucendo" process, that the 

 very inapplicable names of Tetes-plattes and Nez-perc&s chanced to be 

 given to the Salish and Sahaptin, of whom the first never flatten the 

 head, and the latter rarely, if ever, have the nose perforated. 



H. PISKWAUS OR PISCOUS. 



This name properly belongs to the tribe who live on the small 

 river which falls into the Columbia on the west side, about forty 

 miles below Fort Okanagan. But it is here extended to all the tribes 

 as far down as the " Priest's Rapids," who speak the same dialect 

 with the first-named. This whole region is very poor in roots and 

 game, and the natives who wander over it are looked upon by the 

 other Indians as a miserable, beggarly people. They have, besides, 

 the reputation of being great thieves, which our experience went to 

 confirm. 



It would appear, from the following list of their months, obtained 

 from the chief of one of their bands, that their habits are much the 



