490 HEPORT— 1900. 



always suspended over the girl's head while she danced, and when she 

 had finished it was taken down and thrown to the audience, who 

 litei'ally cut and tore it to pieces. In later times, after the intro- 

 duction of Hudson's Bay blankets, the pieces secured from the sadls of 

 these were sewn together to make baby blankets of. 



Fotlatches, 



The Sk'qu'mic in common with other tribes of this region were given 

 to holding ' potlatclies.' These have been so often described tliat it is un- 

 necessary to give au account of them here. They were the occasion of 

 great gatherings. Whole tribes from long distances would be invited 

 sometimes. Representatives from Lytton and Kamloops in the interior, 

 and from the upper coast and Vancouver's Island, were present on one 

 occasion at QoiQoi. Over 2,000 in all sat down to the feast. An immense 

 quantity of property was distributed on this occasion, estimated by Mi*. 

 J. Miller, who was present, to be worth over |)^5,000. On another and 

 later occasion chief SemEla'no, the head of one of the confederated bands 

 at the mouth of the Fraser, gave away ^3,000 in silver and 2,000 

 blankets. 



Wars. 



The Sk'qo'niic would sometimes wage war svith their northern neigh- 

 bours the Stlatlumii or Lillooets. They had also to defend themselves 

 from marauding bands of Chilcotins, but their most dreaded enemies were 

 the U'keltaws, a I (and of the Kwakiutl tribe. These latter were long the 

 scourge of the coast from the northern end of Vancouvei 's Island to the 

 Columbia, and from the mouth of the Fraser up to Yale. There is not a 

 tribe on the Fraser that has not memories of evil times and bitter losses 

 caused by the visits of this band. Only on one occasion is it recorded 

 that the Sk'qo'mic got the better of their foes, and that since the white 

 man's time and the advent of lirearms. It is told that the yk-qo'mic 

 scouts brought timely wai-ning of the approach of two war canoes of 

 U'keltaws. The Sk-qO'mic at that time had a courageous and resourceful 

 leader in their head chief Kiapila'noQ. He assembled a number of the 

 bravest men and best shots of the tribe and hid them in a log hut built 

 for the purpose at the mouth of the narrows leading into Burrard Inlet. 

 On the flats immediately in front of the hut he placed some of the women 

 and children, who were to jDretend to be gathering drift wood. When 

 the U'keltaws came into the narrows they at once perceived the women 

 and children, and, thinking to secure these for slaves in the apparent 

 absence of the men, they landed. The women and children now tied 

 towards the woods, drawing their pursuers after them close to the hut. 

 The hidden Sk'qo'mic now opened tire upon the U'keltaws and killed 

 every one without harm to themselves. The very name of this band was 

 a terror to the other tribes, and the mothers would frighten their children 

 into silence and quiet by saying the U'keltaws were coming for them. 

 In most of the villages they had palisaded enclosures to retire into when 

 hard pressed by this enemy. 



Food. 



The principal and staple food of the Sk'o'mic was salmon. These, 

 fresh in season and dried out of season, were to them what bread is to the 

 European and rice to the Oriental, and great was the distress and famine 



