PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
399 
plain to avoid surprise. Like the Arabs and other wandering tribes, CHAF. 
these people move about the country, and pitch their tents wherever 
they find a convenient place, keeping, however, within their own Dec. 
district. 
They cultivate no land, and subsist entirely by the chase, and upon 
the spontaneous produce of the earth. Acorns, of which there is a 
great abundance in the country, constitute their principal vegetable 
food. In the proper season they procure a supply of these, bake them, 
and then bruise them between two stones into a paste, which will keep 
until the following season. The paste before it is dried is subjected to 
several washings in a sieve, which they say deprives it of the bitter 
taste common to the acorn. We cannot but remark the great re- 
semblance this custom bears to the method adopted by the South-sea 
Islanders to keep their bread fruit ; nor ought we to fail to notice the 
manner in which Providence points out to different tribes the same wise 
means of preserving their food, and providing against a season of scarcity. 
The country inhabited by the Indians abounds in game, and the 
rivers in fish ; and those tribes which inhabit the sea-coast make use of 
muscles and other shell fish, of which the hahotis gigantea is the most 
abundant. In the chase they are very expert, and avail themselves of 
a variety of devices to ensnare and to decoy their game. The artifice 
of deceiving the deer by placing a head of the animal upon their 
shoulders is very successfully practised by them. To do this, they 
fit the head and horns of a deer upon the head of a huntsman, the 
rest of his body being painted to resemble the colour of a deer. Thus 
disguised, the Indian sallies forth, equipped with his bow and arrows, 
approaches the pasture of the deer, whose actions and voice he then 
endeavours to imitate, taking care to conceal his body as much as pos- 
sible, for which purpose he generally selects places which are overgrown 
with long grass. 'Fhis stratagem seldom fails to entice several of the 
herd within reach of his arrows, which are frequently Sent with unerring 
aim to the heart of the animal, and he falls without alarming the herd ; 
but if the aim should fail or only wound its intended victim, the whole 
herd is immediately put to flight. 
Their method of taking ducks and geese and other wildfowl is 
