332 EEPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1887. 



the Thlinkets * * * have no rights that the master is bound to 

 respect."* 



Among the Tacullies " slavery is common with them; all who can 

 afford it keeping slaves;" and so with the Nootkas. Slavery is 

 practiced by all the tribes and the slave trade forms an important part 

 of their commerce. Among the Haidahs "slavery is universal, and as 

 the life of the slave is of no value to the owner except as property, they 

 are treated with extreme cruelty;" and Lord says of the Indians of 

 British Columbia, " slaves are bought and sold after the fashion of dogs 

 and horses, and shells of the Dektalium are the sovereigns and shillings 

 used to pay for them." 



SHELL MONEY AND THE COMPOUNDING- OF CRIMES. 



Proceeding along the west coast from Alaska to California, various 

 authorities have reported that among the Kutchins of the Yukon, "in 

 the absence of law, murder and all other crimes are compounded for." 



Of the littoral or maritime tribes of British Columbia, among the 

 Haidahs, " crimes have no punishment by law ; murder is settled for 

 with relatives of the victim by death or by the payment of a large sum." 

 With the Indians farther to the eastward, Harmon, referring to the 

 Tacullies, says, " Murde* is not considered as a crime of great mag- 

 nitude." 



To the southward of Puget Sound and British Columbia, in addition 

 to what has been incidentally quoted elsewhere in the text, powers 

 says of the Hupas, " Murder is generally compounded for by the pay- 

 ment of shell money," and among the Gallinomero, a branch of the Po- 

 mos, the same author states that "no crime is known for which the 

 malefactor can not atone with money." Among the Karoks "the 

 murder of a man's dearest relative may be compounded for by the pay- 

 ment of money, the price of the average Indian's life being i-sapa-sora 

 (one string). * * * "A man may own as many women for slaves 

 as he can purchase." * * * No adultery is so flagrant but that 

 the husband can be placated with money at about the rate that would 

 be paid for murder." 



SHELL-MONEY ARISTOCRACY. 



Amid the dreary repulsiveness of sensualism and cruelty we catch a 

 gleam of the ludicrous as well as a revelation of the weakness and 

 vanity of these primitive barbarians, that reads like a satire or seems 

 like a burlesque on certain facies of modern society among civilized 

 pale-faces. The influence of the almighty dollar in many of the polite 

 circles of nineteenth-century civilization seems like a travesty with 

 variations and improvements upon the magic power of haik-wa, alii co- 

 chick, hawoclc, and kol-Jcol, etc., in the matter of social status among 



* Dall's Alaska, 1870. 



