i76 



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



Fearful of losing her dcarly-ijrized luxury she strenuously 

 denied its possession : his nose however soon led him to the 

 place of deposit, and they were soon consigned to the river. 

 His niortificatiou was afterwards not a little increased by learn- 

 ing that she had purchased the delicacy with one of his best 

 blankets. 



During the season the Chinooks are gathering Camas and iish- 

 ing they live in lodges constructed by means of a few poles 

 covered with mats made of rushes, which can be easily moved 

 from place to place ; but in the villages they build permanent 

 huts of split cedar boards. Having selected a dry place for 

 the village a hole is dug about three feet deep and about twenty 

 feet square, round the sides of this square cedar boards are sunk 

 and fastened together with cords and twisted roots, rising about 

 four feet above the outer level; two posts are sunk at the mid- 

 dle of each end with a crotch at top, on which the ridge pole 

 is laid, and boards laid from thence to the top of the upright 

 boards. Fastened in the same manner round the interior are 

 erected sleeping places, one above another something like the 

 berths in a vessel, but larger. In the centre the fire is made, 

 the smoke of which escapes from a hole left in the roof for that 

 purpose. These lodges are filthy beyond description and swarm 

 with vermin. The fire is procured by means of a small flat 

 piece of dry cedar, in which a small hollow is cut with a chan- 

 nel for the ignited charcoal to run over ; this piece the Indian 

 sits on to hold it steady while he rapidly twirls a round stick 

 of the same wood between the palms of his hands with the 

 point pressed into the hollow of the flat piece. In a very short 

 time sparks begin to fall through the channel upon finely 

 frayed cedar bark placed underneath which they soon ignite. 

 There is a great deal of knack in doing this, but those who are 

 used to it will light a fire in a very short time. The men 

 usually carry these sticks about with them, as after they have 

 been once used they produce the fire quicker. 



The only warlike implements I have seen amongst them were 

 bows and arrows. The bows are made from the Yew tree, and 

 the arrows are feathered and pointed with sharp bone. These 

 they use with great jDrecision. 



Their canoes are hollowed out of the cedar, and some of 

 them are very large, as this tree grows to an immense size in 

 the neighbourhood. They make them very light, and from 

 their formation they are capable of withstanding very heavy 

 seas. 



Slavery is carried to a great extent along the North-West 

 coastandin Vancouver's Island; and the Chinooks, considering 

 how much they themselves have been reduced, still retain a 

 large number of slaves. These are usually procured from the 

 Chastay tribe who live near the Umqua, a river south of the 

 Columbia emptying into the Pacific. They are sometimes seized 

 by war parties, but are often bought from their own people. 

 They do not flatten the head, nor is the child of one of them 

 (although by a Chinook father), allowed this distinguishing mark 

 offreedom. Theirslaveryisof themostabjeotdescription : the 

 Chinook men and women treat them with great severity, and 

 exercise the power of life and death at pleasure. An instance 

 of the manner in which the Chastay slaves are treated pre- 

 sented itself to my own observation one morning while I was 

 out sketching on Vancouver's Island. I saw upon the rocks 

 the dead body of a young woman whom I had seen a few days 

 previously walking about in perfect health, thrown out to the 

 vultures and crows. I mentioned it to a gentleman of the Hud- 

 son's Bay Coy., who accompanied me to the lodge she belonged 

 to, where we found an Indian woman, her mistress, who made 

 , light of her death, and who was no doubt the cause of it. She 



said a slave had no right to burial. She was furious on being 

 told that the slave was as good as her.self. " She, the daughter 

 of a chief, no bettorthan a slave." She then stalked out of the 

 lodge with great dignity ; the next morning she had taken down 

 the lodge and was gone. I was also told by an eye witness, of a 

 chief who, having erected a colossal idol of wood, sacrificed five 

 slaves to it, bai-barously murdering them at its base, and asking 

 in a boasting tone who among them could afi'ord to kill so 

 many slaves. One of the slaves was a handsome girl who had 

 lived from her infancy in his family, and begged most piteously 

 for her life, reminding him of the care she had taken of his 

 children and all the services she had rendered ; but all her 

 pleadings were of no avail, and the bnital wretch with his own 

 hand plunged a knife four times into her body before she ceased 

 her appeals for mercy. The only distinction made in her favour 

 was that she was buried, instead of being, like her miserable 

 companions, thrown out on the beach. 



The principal amusement of the Chinooks is gambling, 

 which is carried to great excess amongst them. You never 

 visit the camp but you hear the eternal gambling song of " he 

 ha, ha," accompanied by the beating of small sticks on some 

 hollow substance. Their games do not exceed two or three, 

 and are of a simple nature. The one most generally played 

 consists in holding in each hand a small piece of stick the 

 thickness of a goose quill and about an inch and a-half in 

 length, one plain and the other distinguished by a little thread 

 wound round it, the opposite party being required to guess in 

 which hand the marked stick is to be found. A Chinook will 

 play at this simple game for days and nights together until he 

 has gambled away everything he possesses even to his wife. 

 They play, however, with much equanimity, and I never saw 

 any ill-feeling evinced by the loser against his successful oppo- 

 nent. They will cheat if they can, and pride themselves on 

 its success ; if detected no unpleasant consequence follows, the 

 offending party being merely laughed at and allowed to amend 

 his play. 



Another game to which they are very partial is played by 

 two or three on each side ; the rivals sit on the ground oppo- 

 site each other with the stakes lying in the centre, one begins 

 with his hands on the ground in which he holds four small 

 sticks covered from sight by a small mat, these he arranges in 

 any one of a certain number of forms prescribed by the rules 

 of the game, and his opponent on the opposite side endeavours 

 to guess which form he has chosen ; if successful a stick is 

 stuck up in his favour, and the sticks are handed to the next, 

 if not the player counts and still goes on till discovered. When 

 those on one side have gone through the others commence. 

 At the conclusion the sticks are counted and the greater num- 

 ber wins. This game is also accompanied by singing, in which 

 all the bystanders join. 



Another game which I have seen amongst them is called 

 Al-kol-loch, and is one that is universal along the Columbia 

 river. It is considered the most interesting and important as it 

 requires great skill. A smooth level piece of ground is chosen, 

 and a slight barrier of a couple of sticks laid lengthways is 

 made at each end ; these are 40 or 50 feet apart and a few inches 

 high, the two opponents, stripped naked, are armed each with 

 a very slight spear about 3 feet long and finely pointed with bone ; 

 one of them takes a ring made of bone or some heavy wood, 

 and wound round with cord about three inches in diameter, on 

 the inner circumference of which are fastened six beads of 

 different colours at equal distances, to each of which a separate 

 numerical value is attached ; the ring is then rolled along the 

 ground to one of the barriers and is followed at the distance of 



