334 NAECOTIC USAGES AND SUPERSTITIONS 



son with the older practices which pertained to the more civilized 

 regions of the continent. This is especially the case in relation to 

 their rites of sepulture, wherein they make a very marked distinc- 

 tion between the sexes. Their females are wrapped in mats, and 

 placed on an elevated platform, or in a canoe raised on poles, but 

 they invariably burn their male dead. 



The pipes of the Babeen, and also of the Clalam Indians occupy- 

 ing the neighbouring Vancouver's Island, are carved with the utmost 

 elaborateness, and in the most singular and grotesque devices, from 

 a soft blue claystone or slate. 



Their form is in part determined by the material, which is only 

 procurable in thin slabs ; so that the sculptures, wrought on both 

 sides, present a sort of double bas-relief. Erom this, singular and 

 grotesque groups are carved, without any apparent reference to the 

 final destination of the whole as a pipe. The lower side is generally a 

 straight line, and in the specimens I have examined they measure from 

 two or three, to fifteen inches; long ; so that in these the pipe-stem 

 is included. A small hollow is carved out of some ' protruding orna- 

 ment to serve as the bowl of the pipe, and from the further end a 

 perforation is drilled to connect with this. The only addition made 

 to it when in use is the insertion of a quill or straw as a mouth piece. 

 One of these shewn on Plate II., Fig. I., is from a drawing made 

 by Mr. Kane, during his residence among the Babeen Indians. The 

 original measured seven inches long. Plate III., is copied from one 

 of the largest and most elaborate of the specimens brought back 

 with him; it measures nearly fifteen inches long, and supplies a 

 highly characteristic example of Babeen art. 



Messrs. Squier and Davis conclude their remarks on the sculp- 

 tures of the mounds, by observing : " It is unnecessary to say more 

 than that, as works of art, they are immeasurably beyond anything 

 which the North American Indians are known to produce, even at 

 this day, with all the suggestions of European art, and the advan- 

 tages afforded by steel instruments. The Chinooks, and the Indians 

 of the north-western coast, carve pipes, platters, and other articles, 

 with much neatness, from slate. We see in their pipes, for instance, 

 a heterogeneous collection of pulleys, cords, barrels, and rude human 

 figures, evidently suggested by the tackling of the ships trading in 



those seas ■ The utmost that can be said of them is, that 



they are elaborate, unmeaning carvings, displaying some degree of 

 ingenuity. A much higher rank can be claimed for the Mound- 

 sculptures ; they combine taste in arrangement with skill in workman- 



