360 REPORT— 1902. 



other tribes, they kept slaves, the wealthy possessing several of both 

 sexes. These were generally captives taken in warfare or in some foray 

 on some distant settlement. 



DicelUngs. 



The permanent haljitation of the Tcil'Qe'uk was, as I have said, the 

 communal ' long-house.' The adoption of this style of dwelling, I learnt, 

 was primarily for purposes of mutual protection and defence in cases of 

 attack. It can readily be seen that such houses would be imperatively 

 needful where the community was small, the number of males limited, 

 and the tribe surrounded by hostile and predatory bands. Later, when 

 this need was no longer felt, custom and a recognition of the social 

 advantages of such a structure would operate to perpetuate this mode of 

 building. I think there can be but little doubt that these dwellings, first 

 erected for mutual safety and protection, have profoundly affected the 

 social life and customs of the Indians using them. The communism of 

 the HalkOme'lEm and coast Salish tribes doubtless grew out of it ; like- 

 wise their character dances, which are invariably performed during the 

 winter days and evenings in these long common houses. 



The long-house of the Tcil'Qe uk was of the half-gable or single slope 

 pattern, the front or higher side rising to 25 or 30 feet. The interior 

 was equally divided between the different families of the tribe. Each 

 family was entitled to a space 8 taJr^s ^ square. When the tribe was 

 populous these houses would extend in an unbroken line for several 

 hundred feet. The chief always occupied the centre. In this custom we 

 nave plain evidence of the truth of the statement made to me by the 

 Indians, that they adopted this style of house primarily for protective 

 purposes. The chief — the father and head of the tribe — whose loss would 

 1)0 most severely felt, is always lodged in the securest portion of the 

 structure. On either side of him dwell his brothers, the elder ones coming 

 first. After them come the lesser chiefs and notables, and beyond these 

 again the common folk. There were commonly but two doors to these 

 dwellings — one at each end. In the interior, the spaces allotted to family 

 use were separated by hanging mats or screens of grass or reeds. On 

 festive occasions these were taken down and the divisions thrown into 

 one. The beds were formed by reed mats laid one upon another, the 

 head-rests or pillows being rolls of the same. The coverings of the meaner 

 class were of the same material ; the wealthier supplemented these 

 by dressed skins and blankets made from the wool of tlie mountain 

 goat. 



The ' keckwilce,' or underground winter-house, was also occasionally 

 used by some of the Tcil'ye'uk, and known to them by the term skEm'El. 

 Lii'lEm is tho name by which the long- house was known ; which, to judge 

 hy the lam of the Sk'qo'mic and other tribes, is the collective form of the 

 term. 



The household utensils of the TcirQe'uk did not differ, except in size, 

 from those used by their congeners elsewhere. These consisted of various 

 forms of basketry, always made, as among the N'tlaka'pamuQ, from the 

 split roots of young cedar- trees ; wooden bowls, dishes, platters, and spoons. 

 As their meals were of the communistic order, large receptacles were a 



' A talc was the length of the interval or space between the outstretched arms 

 of a man, measured across his chest from the tip of the middle finger on one hand to 

 the corresponding point on the other. 



