342 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



manner and armed with all sorts of weapons, such as spears, bludgeons, dirks, and 

 fire-arms; while tbe women, more ferocious, if possible, than the warriors themselves, 

 were exciting the tumultuary band to actual violence by the most fiendish screams 

 and gestures * * * The chief 's life was demanded in atonement, but refused by 

 his party as being of more value than that of the person slain. » * * The parties 

 met with a loud war-whoop ; for a minute or two a clashing of arms was heard ; and 

 when both sides simultaneously receded from the spot, we beheld the bodies of two 

 slaves that had been sacrificed in lieu of the chief. * 



This atoned for the outrage and satisfied the requirements of blood 

 revenge. 



Dunn (1835) mentions a feud between the Port Stewart and Tongass 

 Indians, in the course of which the latter cut off a war party of thirty 

 of the former and massacred them.t In the Port Stewart region, 

 Vancouver (1793) has left a record for all time of the character of this 

 tribe in the names given to Traitor's Cove and Escape Point, commem- 

 orative of his hostile encounter with them, and his narrative makes 

 them out to have been the most villainous Indians on the coast. | 

 Simpson (1841) says that between the Haida of Queen Charlotte Isl- 

 ands, and the Bella Bella, a deadly feud had long subsisted : 



About six weeks before onr arrival, the latter, to the number of three hundred, 

 had attacked a village of the former, butchering all the inhabitants but one man 

 and one woman. These two the victorious chief was carrying away as living tro- 

 phies of his triumph ; * * » while standing in a boastful manner on the gur.wale 

 of his canoe, and vowing all sorts of vengeance against his victims, he was shot 

 down by a desperate effort of his male prisoner. The Bella Bellas, their joy being 

 now turned into grief, cut the throats of the prisoners, threw their spoils overboard, 

 and returned home rather as fugitives than as conquerors. ^ 



Poole ( 1863 ), speaking of the ravages of small-pox on the coast, says : 

 The Bella-Bella tribe, though not to be despised, were formerly by no means a 

 match for their born foes the Bella Coolas, who used always to cut off a great num- 

 ber of the Bella-Bella whenever these ventured from their own territory. But now 

 the Bella-Bella, though deplorably reduced in their own tribe, found themselves in 

 numbers and force far ahead of the Bella Coolas, and were accordingly preparing, 

 might and main, to administer condign punishment to their ancient enemies. || 



DUELS. 



Duels or trials by combat were, sometimes resorted to not only in case 

 of dispute between indivduals, but to settle feuds between families or 

 gentes. The combatants protected their bodies with thick leather 

 shirts and wooden armor outside ; wore masks and helmets of wood ; 

 and, armed with daggers, stepped forth to the encounter, encouraged 

 by the songs and cries of their friends. 



PEACE CUSTOMS. 



On the approach of a canoe or party the intention of which is at first 

 doubtful, the token of peace was the blowing in the air of white feath- 



* Simpson, Journey, Vol. ii, p. 205-6, § Simpson, Journey, Vol. i, p. 203. 



t Dunn, Oregon, p. 290. II Poole, Queen Charlotte Islands, p. 185. 



:t Vancouver, Voyage, Vol. li, pp. 358 to 366. 



