COLUMBIA RIVER. 347 



pass before any are sold. The price of a large salmon is about ten 

 cents in trade. 



Here we unexpectedly found the medicine-man, employed in going 

 through his incantations and preparing his medicines. One of our 

 young Indians, who was a chief, landed, without knowing what was 

 going on, for the purpose of making the inquiries we desired. He 

 was met with direful looks, and in great wrath ordered by all the 

 men to leave the place : they seemed at the instant, desirous to wreak 

 vengeance upon him for his intrusion. His retreat was precipitate, 

 as he well knew the consequences of delay and the danger of disturb- 

 ing the medicine-man during his incantations. If the patient should 

 die, they invariably impute the fatal result to the disturbance, and 

 ascribe the death to the intruder. This invariably leads to his 

 being put to death, by the nearest of kin, who deems this act a duty. 

 Plumondon said, that he was not at all surprised at the fear the young 

 chief showed ; for he had himself been placed in similar circum- 

 stances a short time before, when his father had died. The medicine- 

 man imputed his death to a chief of the Klackatacks, whom this young 

 chief shortly afterwards killed. Occurrences of this description have 

 led to long and bloody wars among the tribes ; and the only way 

 of settling and overcoming this difficulty, is by paying a valuation 

 for the deceased. I understood that from five to twenty blankets, 

 according to rank, and the estimation in which the deceased was held, 

 is considered a proper indemnity. 



We encamped a few miles above Oak Point, on the prairie, in a 

 grove of trees. The next morning was beautiful, and the birds were 

 singing blithely around us. Our Indians were as merry as the birds. 

 There was an entire absence of game birds, though a great number 

 of singrinfT ones were seen. 



We passed during the day Coffin Rock, which is about seven 

 miles above the Mount Coffin before spoken of It is of small 

 dimensions, and has been the burial-place of chiefs, who are usually 

 interred in canoes, which are provided with all the necessary appen- 

 dages for their journey to the land of spirits and their hunting- 

 grounds. The mode of disposing of their dead seems to have been 

 different on the south side of the Columbia. On the Cowlitz we 

 observed many canoes near the bank of the river, supported between 

 four trees : these contain the remains of their dead, are painted 

 in a variety of figures, and have gifts from their friends hung 



