THE CHINOOK INDIANS. 19 



article of food. The whites have given it the name of Chinook Olives, 

 and it is prepared as follows : — About a bushel of acorns are placed in 

 a hole dug for the purpose close to the entrance of the lodge or hut, 

 and covered over with a thin layer of grass, on top of which is laid 

 about half a foot of earth; every member of the family for the next 

 five or six months regards this hole as the special place of deposit for 

 urine, which is on no occasion to be diverted from its legitimate re- 

 ceptacle. Even should a member of the family be sick and unable to 

 reach it for this purpose, the fluid is carefully collected and carried 

 thither. However disgusting such an odoriferous preparation would 

 be to people in civilized life the product is regarded by them as the 

 greatest of all delicacies ; so great indeed is the fondness they 

 evince for this horrid preparation that even when brought amongst 

 civilized society they still yearn after it and will go any distance to ob- 

 tain it. A gentleman in charge of Fort George had taken to himself 

 a wife, a woman of this tribe, who of course partook with himself of 

 the best food the Fort could furnish ; notwithstanding which, when 

 he returned home one day his nostrils where regaled with a stench so 

 nauseating that he at once enquired where she had deposited the 

 Chinook olives, as he knew that nothing else could poison the atmos- 

 phere in such a manner. Fearful of losing her dearly-prized luxury 

 she strenuously denied their possession : his nose however, led him to the 

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

 mortification was afterwards not a little increased by learning that she 

 had purchased the delicacy with one of his best blankets. 



During the season the Chinooks are gathering Camas and fishing, 

 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 middle of each end with a crutch at top, on which the ridge pole 

 rests, and boards are 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 sk vessel, but 

 larger. In the centre the fire is made, the smoke of which escapes 

 by means of 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 flat piece of dry cedar, in which a small hoU 



