THE INDIANS OF CAPE FLATTERY. 2T 



he managed to eat such enormous quantities, for his appetite appeared insatiable. 

 He replied, that when he had eaten too much he made it a practice, before going 

 into the next lodge, to thrust his fingers down his throat, which enabled him to throw 



FiV. 13. 



Wooden ladle. 



off the load from his stomach, and prepare to do justice to the coming feast. An 

 Indian who can perform this feat dexterously, so as to eat heartily at every house, is 

 looked upon as a most welcome guest, who does justice to the hospitality of his host. 

 Sometimes the feast is confined to boiled rice and molasses, of which they are very 

 fond. This is served out in tin pans or wooden platters, and eaten with spoons 

 made of horn, procured from the northern tribes, and said to be the horn of the 

 mountain sheep. ^ If horn spoons are not at hand, they improvise an excellent 

 substitute which is simply a clam shell, and with one of large size an Indian will 

 swallow quite as much rice and molasses as by any other known method. 



After eating, they sometimes, but not always, indulge in a whiff of tobacco ; but 

 smoking is not a universal practice among them, and is rather as a stimulant than 

 a mere luxury ; the pipe is more agreeable to them in their canoes, when tired 

 with fishing or paddling ; then the Indian likes to take out his little pouch of smok- 

 ing materials, and draw a few whiffs. The article generally used is the dried 

 leaves of the Arctost uva-ursi mixed with a little tobacco ; they also use, when 

 they have no uva-ursi, either the dried leaves of the sallal Oaidtheria shallon, or 

 dried alder bark. Smoking, however, is practised even less than among some of 

 the tribes east of the Rocky Mountains, and there are no ceremonials connected with 

 its use. Occasionally an Indian wiU swallow a quantity of the smoke, which, being 

 retained a few seconds in the lungs or stomach, produces a species of stupefaction, 

 lasting from five to ten minutes and then passing off. The calumet, or pipe of 

 peace, with its gayly decorated stem, is quite unknown among these Indians. 

 They are content with anything in the shape of a pipe, and seem to prefer a clay 

 bowl, to which they affix a stem made of a dried branch of the Ruhus spectahilis. 

 They simply scrape off the bark and take out the pith, and the stem is finished. 

 The smoking occupies but a few minutes of the time devoted to a meal ; when 

 they have finished, each guest gathers what provision he may have left, and all 

 proceed to the next lodge, where another feast has been prepared ; and when all is 

 over, they return home with their gleanings. 



Otter, Fish, Seals, &c., taken by the Makahs. — Besides those already named, 

 other varieties are taken, some of which are not used for food. As several have 



* The ladles are made of wood, or of the horns of the "big-horn," Ovim montana; the spoons of 

 those of the mountain goat, Aploceras americana. — G. G. 



