368 
SCENES IN THE PACIFIC. 
ficulation and dumb show, the different motions of fishing;, 
hunting, war, marriage, and whatever else is most important 
among them. 
In passing from one place to another by land, they go on 
foot. On these journeys the women carry the furniture and 
do all the labor, except bearing and using the bows and 
arrows of their masters, and the flints, tinder, feathers and sin¬ 
ew’s, used in repairing them. The men bore holes in their 
ears to which they attach little boxes, in which these latter 
articles are secured. Their mode of navigation is perhaps the 
worst found among any people. The “ Balsa” is the only 
thing of the boat kind known among them. It is constructed 
entirely of bulrushes. These they tie into bundles about ten 
feet in length, large in the middle and tapering to points at the 
ends. These bundles are lashed together in sufficient quantity 
to buoy up the required number of persons, more or less ; who 
sit flat upon the craft, soaked in water, plying their paddles. 
Being pointed at each end, these craft are propelled either way 
with equal facility. In calm weather some of them float their 
upper surfaces above the water, but in stormy, and indeed 
most of them in all kinds of weather, are either below 7 , or on 
a level w’ith the water. 
These Indians also make baskets of the bark of trees, which 
they use in transporting w’ater and in roasting their seeds and 
roots. This latter operation is done by the women over a 
brisk charcoal fire with such rapidity and skill, as thoroughly 
to parch the seeds w’ithout burning the baskets. Some of 
these baskets are very neatly ornamented with feathers 
Their bow 7 s and arrow’s exhibit considerable ingenuity. The 
former are from three to four and a half feet long—the wood 
part very well wrought, and the backs covered with the sinew 
of the deer, w’hich gives them great elasticity and power. 
The arrow’s also are of the best, form, with points of flint let 
into the w’ood, and secured by tendons. The Indians use these 
weapons with great effect. The smallest bird is killed with 
them. Their patience, cunning and skill combined, is per- 
