274 



INCIDENTS OF TEAVEL ON THE NORTH-WEST COAST, VANCOUVER'S ISLAND, &c. [1855. 



continued for a period of from 8 to 12 months, by wliicli time 

 the liead has lost its natural shape and acquired that of a wedge, 

 the front of the skull becoming flat, broad and higher at the 

 crown, giving it a most unnatural appearance. 



Blauy people would suppose that from the extent to which 

 this is carried the operation would be attended with groat suf- 

 fering to the infant, but I have never heard the infants crying 

 or moaning, although I have seen the eyes seemingly starting 

 out of the sockets from the great pressure. But on the con- 

 trary, when the lashings were removed I have noticed them 

 cry until they were replaced. 



From the apparent dullness of the children whilst under the 

 pressure I should imagine that a state of torpor or insensibility 

 is induced, and that the return to consciousness occasioned by 

 its removal must be naturally followed by the sense of pain. 



This unnatural operation docs not however seem to injure 

 the health, the mortality amongst the Flat-Head children not 

 being perceptibly greater than amongst other Indian tribes. 

 Nor does it seem to injure their intellect, on the contrary, the 

 Flat-Heads are generally considered fully as intelligent as the 

 surrounding tribes who allow their heads to preserve their 

 natural shape ; and it is from amongst the round-heads that 

 the Flat-Heads take their slaves; looking with contempt 

 even upon the whites for having round heads, the flat-head 

 being considered as the distinguishing mark of freedom. I 

 may here remark, that, amongst the tribes who have slaves 

 there is always something which conspicuously marks the dif- 

 ference between the slave and the free, such as the Chimseyan, 

 who wear a ring in the nose, and the Babbenes who have a 

 large piece of wood inserted through the under lip. The Chi- 

 nooks, like all other Indian tribes, pluck out the beard on its first 

 appearance. 



I would willingly give a specimen of the barbarous language 

 of these people, were it possible to represent by any combination 

 of the letters of our alphabet the horrible harsh spluttering 

 sounds which proceed from their throats, apparently unguided 

 either by the tongue or lips. 



It is so difficult to accpire a mastery of their language that 

 none have been able to attain it unless those who have been 

 born amongst them. 



They have, however, by their intercourse with the English 

 and French traders succeeded in amalgamating, after a fashion, 

 some words of each of these tongues with their own and form- 

 ed a sort of Patois, barbarous enough certainly, but still 

 sufficient to enable them to communicate with the traders. 



This Patois I was enabled, after some short time, to acquire, 

 and could converse with most of the chiefs with tolerable ease. 

 There common salutation is CJah lioh ah yah, originating, as 

 I believe, in their having heard in the early days of the fur 

 trade a gentleman named Clark frequently addressed by his 

 friends, " Clark, how are you 1" This salutation is now ap- 

 plied to every white man, their own language afibrding no 

 appropriate expression. 



Their language is also peculiar in containing no oaths, or 

 any words conveying gratitude or thanks. 



Their habits are extremely filthy, their persons abounding 

 with vermin, and one of their chief amusements consists in 

 picking these disgusting insects from each others' heads and 

 eating them. On my asking an Indian one day why he ate 

 them, he replied that they bit him and he gratified his revenge 

 by biting them in return. It will naturally be supposed that 

 they are thus beset from want of combs or other means of 

 displacing the intruders ; but this is not the case, they pride 

 themselves on carrying such companions about them, and 



giving their friends the opportunity of amusing themselves in 

 hunting and eating them. 



The costume of the men consists of a musk-rat skin robe, 

 the size of one of our ordinary blankets, thrown over the 

 shoulders, without any breach-cloth, mocoassins or leggings. 



Painting the face is not much practised amongst them 

 except on extraordinary occasions, such as the death of a rela- 

 tive, some solemn feast, or going on a war party. 



The female dress consists of a girdle of cedar bark round 

 the waist, with a dense mass of strings of the same material 

 hanging from it all around and reaching almost to the knees. 

 This is their sole summer habiliment. 



They, however, in veiy severe weather add the musk-rat 

 blanket. They also make another description of blanket from 

 the skin of the wild goose, which is here taken in great abund- 

 ance. The skin is stripped from the bird with the feathers on 

 and cut into strips, which they twist so as to have the feathers 

 outwards. This makes a feathered cord, and is then netted 

 together so as to form a blanket, the feathers filling up the 

 meshes, rendering it a light and very warm covering. 



In the summer these arc entirely thrown aside, not being in 

 any case worn from feelings of delicacy. 



The men go quite naked, though the women always wear 

 the cedar petticoat. The country wllieh the Chinooks inhabit 

 being almost destitute of furs they have little to trade in with 

 the whites. 



This, coupled with their laziness — probably induced by the 

 ease with which they procure fish, which is their chief subsist- 

 ence — prevents their obtaining ornaments of European manu- 

 facture, consequently anything of the kind is seldom seen 

 amongst them. They, however, wear long strings of small shells 

 found on the coast called loquas, and used by them also as money. 



A great trafiic is carried on amongst all the tribes through 

 the medium of these shells. They are fished up from the 

 bottom of the sea, and are from an inch and a-half to two 

 inches in length ; they are white, slender, hollow and tapering 

 to a point, slightly curved and about the size of the stem of an 

 ordinary clay tobacco pipe. They are valuable in proportion 

 to their length, and their value increases according to a fixed 

 ratio, forty shells being the standard number required to extend 

 a fathoms' length, which number is in that case equal in value 

 to a beaver's skin, but if 39 be found long enough to make 

 the fathom it would be worth 2 beaver skins, if 38 three 

 skins, and so on, increasing onebeaverskin for every shell le.ss 

 than the standard number. 



The Chinooks evince very little taste in comparison with 

 some of the tribes on the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains, 

 in ornamenting either their persons or their warlike or domes- 

 tic implements. ' 



The only utensils I saw at all creditable to their decorative 

 skill were carved bowls and spoons of horn, and baskets made 

 of roots and grass woven so closely as to serve all the purposes 

 of a pail in holding and canning water. 



In these they even boil the salmon which constitute their 

 principal food. This is done by immersing the fi.sh in one of 

 the baskets filled with water, into which they throw red hot 

 stones until the fish is cooked, and I have seen fish dressed as 

 expeditiously by them in this way as if done in a kettle over 

 a fire by our own people. The salmon is taken during the 

 months of June and July in immense numbers in the Columbia 

 river and its tributaries by spearing and with gill nets. 



They have also a small hand net something like our common 

 landing net, which is used in rapids where the salmon are 

 crowded toa:ether and near the surface. 



