THE INDIANS OF THE NORTHWEST COAST. 241 



aucl the most bestial practices obtain. Early voyagers invariably 

 mention the modest, reserved, and decorous bearing of the Tlingit, 

 Haida, and Tsimshian women. Unfortunately, in recent years, the pur- 

 chase of women, and the practice of sanctioned prostitution have, under 

 the spur of artificial needs of finery and luxuries, had a most demoral- 

 izing effect on them, and, with the rum question, are the serious problem 

 which confronts the friend of the Indian. In their inveterate addiction 

 to gambling and their craving for tobacco and alcohol they possess 

 simply the vices incident to savagism. In their disregard for the lives 

 and feelings of slaves, and in their practices of compounding murder 

 and other crimes by the payment of indemnity to the relatives of the 

 injured, we see simply the operations of custom, which with them has 

 the force of law. Murder, seduction, wounds, accidental killing, loss of 

 articles belonging to another, refusal to marry a widow according to 

 law, casus belli in general, any wrong may be righted by payment of 

 an indemnity in the currency of the region. 



Sir James Douglas, Governor of the Hudson Bay Company about 

 1840, says : 



If unmarried womeu prove frail, the paitner of their guilt, if discovered, is bound 

 to make reparation to the parents, soothing their wounded honor with handsome 

 presents. A failure to do this would cause the friends of the offending fair one to use 

 force to hack up their demands and to revenge the insult. It must not, however, 

 be supposed they would be induced to act this part from any sense of reflected shame, 

 or from a desire of discouraging vice by making a severe example of the vicious, or 

 that the girl herself has any visitings of remorse, or that the parents think her a bit 

 the worse for the accident, or her character in any way blemished. Such are not 

 their feelings, for the offender is simply regarded as a robber who has committed 

 depredations on their merchandise, their only anxiety being to make the damages 

 exacted as heavy as possible.* 



Petroff illustrates as follows the curious custom of paying for in- 

 juries: 



Wars are frequently avoided by an indemnity arrangement, and they go so far in 

 this system of compensation that they demand payment for losses from parties who 

 have been in no way instrumental in causing them. For instance, an Indian at Sitka 

 broke into the room of two miners in their absence, emptied a demijohn of liquor, 

 and died in consequence, and the relatives of the robber demanded and received pay- 

 ment from the unfortunate Caucasians. If a man be attacked by a savage dog and 

 kills him in self-defense, he must pay for the dog to the Tlingit owner. A small 

 trading schooner, while running before a furious gale, rescued two Tlingit from a 

 sinking canoe, which had been carried to sea. The canoe was nearly as long as the 

 schooner and could ^ot be carried or towed, seeing which, the natives themselves cut 

 the worthless craft adrift. When the humane captain landed the rescued men at 

 their village he was astonished by a peremptory demand for payment for the canoe, 

 backed by threats of retaliation or vengeance.* 



To such an extent was this question of indemnity carried, that when 

 the Russians at Sitka tried to interfere with the killing of slaves on 

 ceremonial occasions, they were only successful in preventing itbyran- 



■ Quoted inPetroff's Report, p. 177. * Petroff Report, p. 165. 



H. Mis. 142, i»t. 2 1(5 



