254 NARRATIVE OF A JOURNEY 



well in a week after this occurrence, but that for two days he 

 vomited blood constantly. He is named by the Indians " Skoo- 

 koom,^^ (the strong.) 



About six weeks after, Mr. M'Leod, who again returned from a 

 visit to Walla-walla, informed me that the strong chief was dead. 

 A bullet, (or rather two of them,) killed him at last, in spite of 

 his supposed invulnerability. He was shot by one of his people 

 in a fit of jealousy. Skookoom had assisted Mr. M'Leod with 

 his boats across the portage, and, being a chief, he of course 

 received more for the service than a common man. This 

 wretch, who was but a serf in the tribe, chose to be offended by 

 it, and vented his rage by murdering his superior. He fired a 

 ball from his own gun into his breast, which brought him to the 

 ground, and then despatched him with a second, which he seized 

 from another. So poor Skookoom has passed away, and such is 

 the frail tenure upon which an Indian chief holds his authority 

 and his life. The murderer will no doubt soon die by the hand 

 of some friend or relative of the deceased ; he in his turn will be 

 killed by another, and as usual, the bloody business will go on 

 indefinitely, and may even tend to produce an open war between 

 the rival parties. 



I saw an old man here, apparently eighty years of age, who 

 had given himself three enormous longitudinal gashes in his leg, 

 to evince his grief for the loss of Tilki. From the sluggishness 

 of the circulation in the body of the poor old creature, combined 

 with a morbid habit, these wounds show no disposition to heal. 

 I dressed his limb, and gave him a strict charge to have it kept 

 clean, but knowing the universal carelessness of Indians in this 

 respect, I fear my directions will not be attended to, and the con- 

 sequence will probably be, that the old man will die miserably. 

 I spoke to him of the folly of such inflictions, and took this 

 opportunity of delivering a short lecture upon the same subject to 

 the others assembled in his lodge. 



