[95] FISHERIES OF THE UNITED STATES. 365 



only eaten by the medicine nipn. Porpoises are highly esteemed for 

 food. Seals also abound. The skin of the hair-seal is taken off whole, 

 blown full of air, and dried with the hair side in. It is used as a buoy 

 in the capture of the whale, and is usually painted on the outside with 

 rude devices in red, vermilion, or ocher. The seals, though sometimes 

 killed with spears, are often shot with guns ; but when they congregate 

 during the breeding season, the Indians approach them with torches 

 and clubs and kill numbers by knocking them on the head. The flesh 

 of all the species of seal is eaten, and the skins of the fur-seals are sold 

 to the whites. 



The abundant supply of marine food, and the ease with which the In- 

 dians can obtain their subsistence from the ocean, makes them improv- 

 ident in laying in supplies, with the exception of halibut, for winter use. 

 On any day during the year, when the weather is favorable, they can 

 procure provisions enough in a few hours to last them for several days. 



The usual dress of the men consists of a shirt and blanket, the old 

 men being content with the blanket only. Nearly all of them, however, 

 have suits of clothing obtained from white persons, but these are only 

 worn on arrival of strangers or when the Indians work for the whites, 

 and they usually take them off at night, when they return to their 

 lodges. During rainy weather they wear, in addition to blankets, con- 

 ical hats and bear-skin cloaks. When whaling, they wear a bear-skin 

 thrown over the shoulders ; and when fishing, a small cape made from 

 the fibers of bark. The women usually wear a sbirt or long chemise, 

 reaching from the neck to the feet ; and some of them have, in addition, 

 calico shirts tied as petticoats around their waists, or petticoats made 

 of blankets or other coarse material. Formerly their dress was merely 

 a blanket and a cincture of fringed bark reaching from the waist to the 

 knees. The young women of the present day sometimes dress them- 

 selves in calico gowns or plaid shawls of bright colors. They also wear 

 glass beads of various colors and sizes about their neck and ankles, with 

 perhaps a dozen or more of bracelets made of brass wire around each 

 wrist, nose and ear-ornaments composed of shells, beads, and strips of 

 leather, and paint their faces with grease and vermilion. Both sexes 

 wear nose-pendants, usually made from small pieces of Haliotis shell. 

 The men wear their hair long; but when whaling they tie it up in a 

 knot behind the head. They also decorate themselves by winding 

 wreaths of evergreens around the knob of hair, or stick in sprigs of 

 spruce and feathers. This head-dress is sometimes varied by substitut- 

 ing a wreath of sea- weed, or a bunch of cedar bark in the form of a tur- 

 ban. They paint their faces either black or red, or in stripes of various 

 colors. 



The Makahs claim that they were created on the Cape, and that ani- 

 mals were first produced. The first men sprang from an intimate inter- 

 course of a star, which fell from heaven, with some of the animals ; and 

 from their offspring came the races of Nittinats, Clyoquots, and Makahs. 



