62 S/Wv' TING A D 1 7;.Y 77 7vV: .V 



We wore received with the usual stoicism of the Indian 

 nature, and were it not for our efforts to pronounce their 

 terribly guttural dialect, which caused them to laugh heartily, 

 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 j)otlatchcs } 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 neighbouring 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 afternoon. 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 

 coloured 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 manifested 

 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 during 

 the night, for the fires which blazed in every direction, 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 directions jumping 

 around in a circle and grunting like pigs. This they called 

 dancing, and they apparently enjoyed it. The last dance on 



