190 



assist him, tliey tlien take his life, and the affair stops, no hostihty being 

 provoked anew by the act. The amonnt to be paid as blood-money depends 

 upon the importance of the person killed; women being of less value than 

 men. Ten blankets will generally pay for a common person. Occasionally, 

 the individual sought for, instead of compromising, makes fight, especially if a 

 chief or a man of influence, in which case a quasi war arises between the two 

 tribes or factions. It generally terminates without much bloodshed, and 

 leads to an amicable arrangement. This system of retaliation, which is 

 carried out in every matter, and takes the place of civil process for debt, as 

 well as actions for torts or criminal prosecutions, has worked much mischief 

 among the Indians, and been one source of slaver}^, as well as of the break- 

 ing-up of the tribes. The principal cause arises in the event of death under 

 the hands of the doctor, as he always receives his fee in advance, and on the 

 understanding that he is to cure his patient. So, if not successful in his 

 conjurations, he is called upon to refund, perhaps with damages, or, in case 

 of failure, is set upon and killed in turn. Should the patient, however, on 

 his death-bed, attribute his fate to the malignant tamahno-iis of the practi- 

 tioner, his friends do not trouble themselves with any preliminaries, but dis- 

 patch him at sight. 



Wars. — Until the influence of the whites came to be sensibly felt, and 

 their numbers thinned by disease, a state of petty warfare prevailed between 

 many of the different tribes. Even now among those who have been less inti- 

 mate in their new relations, some such condition of things exists, and jealousy 

 of each other is universal. It has been a matter of great amusement among 

 travelers to be told by every successive band that just beyond them the 

 Indians were very bad; an}^ worse than the last, however, never being 

 reached, but, like an ignis fahms, keeping a little ahead. Their wars among 

 themselves, it is probable, were never very bloody. Ross Cox gives a very 

 graphic account of the Tsinuk method, which was probably not fixr from 

 correct. Having once determined on hostilities, they give notice to the 

 enemy of the day on which they intend to make the attack, and having 

 previously engaged as auxiliaries a number of young men whom the}' pay 

 for that purpose, they embark in canoes for the scene of action. Several of 



