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502 REPORT—1899. 
assisted by a council of elders. In all the relations of life the elders of 
the bands played an important part, and in all family consultations their 
advice was sought and listened to with the greatest deference and 
respect. In addition to the hereditary chiefs, martial chiefs or leaders 
were temporarily elected during times of warfare from among the 
warriors. It was a rare thing for the district or communal chief to lead 
or head a war party. The only part it seems they played was in sanc- 
tioning fights and in bidding them cease. My informant told me that 
the N’tlaka’pamugoé chiefs were, as a rule, peace-loving men, always 
more anxious to prevent wars than to bring them about; and that the 
grandfather of the present Lytton chief would go out after a battle and 
purchase the prisoners taken captive in the fight, who were held as slaves 
by their captors, and set them free and send them back to their own 
people again. How far this was general I cannot say. That war, how- 
ever, with the neighbouring tribes was not an unusual occurrence is clear 
from the fact that it was found necessary to fortify their villages or some 
particular portions of them by palisades, inside of which the people would 
retire when hard pressed by the enemy. The name of one of the upper 
villages close to the boundary of the Stlatlumu bears testimony to this 
fact, as it signifies in English ‘a palisaded enclosure with houses inside,’ 
and the old men of Lytton can recall the old fort of their village. These 
protective measures would seem to bear out my informant’s statements 
that the N’tlaka’pamug were not a warring people, and all the notes that 
I could gather of past encounters with other tribes show the N’tlaka’pamug 
to be the defenders and not the attackers. 
Weapons of Warfare. 
The warrior’s weapons were the bow and arrow, stone swords, and 
clubs, &c. Of these latter there were several kinds. One of these was a 
sling-club formed by inclosing a round stone in a long strip of elk-hide. 
The stone was placed in the centre of the strip and securely sewn there, 
the ends of the hide being left to swing the weapon by. This was a 
deadly weapon in the hands of a skilful person, but awkward to handle 
by those not accustomed to its use; for if not properly wielded it was just 
as likely to damage the holder as the person he struck at. A wooden 
club fashioned from the wood of the wild crab-apple tree was another 
effective weapon much used by the warriors. This would sometimes be 
studded with spikes of stone or horn. It was fastened to the wrist by a 
thong when fighting (see fig. 1). Besides these there were also stone- 
tipped spears or javelins, and elk-horn or stone tomahawks. Poisoned 
arrows were used in warfare, and these were always put in a special 
quiver of dogskin. The stone tips of these arrows were always larger 
than those used for game. The poison was obtained either from the 
rattlesnake or from certain roots. For protection the fighting men wore 
a short sleeveless shirt of doubled or trebled elk-hide, which hung from 
the shoulders, and was fastened at the sides by thongs. This shirt was 
called N’tsk‘rn in the Thompson tongue. It was usually covered with 
painted figures and symbols of war (see fig. 2).in black, white, and red 
paint. The two latter colours were mineral products. Red ochre is 
found in considerable quantities within their boundaries. The white 
paint was obtained by burning a certain kind of mineral clay which, 
when burnt, produced a fine white powder easily converted into paint by 
mixing with oil or fat, This powder was also employed by the women in 
