THE INDIANS OF THE NORTHWEST COAST. 367 



comuumity has coutributed to iriake the atJ'air one loug to be remem- 

 bered, and handed down by tradition as an epoch in the history of the 

 village. 



Feasts. — So far we have considered in general dancing, singing, and 

 the distribution of presents. In preparation for a feast the northern 

 Indians (Tsimshiau, Haida, and Tlingit), if not now at least formerly, 

 washed oft' all the old i^aint, and, after smearing their bodies with 

 fresh, grease, repainted their faces, chests, and arms red, etching on 

 their totemic designs, and sprinkling it all with white down in a full- 

 dress but polite coating of tar and feathers. The feasts consist of all 

 kinds of food, quantity being the chief requisite. This, however, is 

 served on large feast dishes and eaten with ceremonial spoons, both of 

 which have been illustrated in the accompanying plates. The guests 

 sit around on the ledges or surrounding platforms, and all eat out of 

 the dishes nearest at hand. The feasts are usually kept up as long as 

 there is anything to eat. 



I. — Initiatory ceremonies. 



In this class are included all the ceremonies that mark the different 

 steps in life from birth to death. Funeral ceremonies have been de- 

 scribed. The most impartant voluntary step in life, and one that has 

 the greatest significance in our higher civilization at least, is matri- 

 mony. 



Marriage. — As a rule the Indians marry young. Polygamy is the 

 natural result of the custom by which a sister's son or a brother falls 

 heir to the relict of the uncle or brother, in addition to his own wife. 

 While the custom is now dying out, yet it is in the relations of the 

 sexes that the Indians most tenaciously cling to old-time customs. 

 Polygamy is rare, but the number of wives is regulated purely by the 

 ability or desire of the husband to maintain them. Dunn (1834) men- 

 tions a Sebassa (Tsimshian) chief who had twenty wives and hosts of 

 slaves.* The first wife has precedence. It is not uncommon amongst 

 the Tlingit for " rich and substantial men to have two wives, an old 

 and a young one." t Sometimes there is a great deal of sentiment in 

 the selection of a bride; sometimes a match is arranged or schemed 

 for by the families ; bat more often it is a commercial transaction of 

 buying and selling. A man desiring to marry a girl sends his mother 

 or a middle man to her parents to negotiate. An understanding having 

 been arrived at, he sends as many presents as he can get together to 

 her father. The ceremony is about the same throughout the northern 

 region, consisting mainly in the assembling of friends, the exchange of 

 presents, feasting, and dancing. The father invites all the daughter's 

 relations to the ceremony. On the day appointed the man invites his 

 friends to accompany him, and going to the house of the bride-elect 



* Dunn, Oregon, p. 274. 



t Langsdorff, Voyages, Part ii, p. 133, 



