THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
317 
fome, from their fize, to walk over them. In a word, their 
houfes are as filthy as hog-fties ; every thing in and about 
them {linking of fifii, train-oil, and fmoke. 
But, amidft all the filth and confufion that are found in 
the houfes, many of them are decorated with images. 
Thefe are nothing more than the trunks of very large trees, 
four or five feet high, fet up fingly, or by pairs, at the up¬ 
per end of the apartment, with the front carved into a 
human face; the arms and hands cut out upon the fides, 
and varioully painted; fo that the whole is a truly mon- 
ftrous figure. The general name of thefe images is Klum- 
ma ; and the names of two particular ones, which flood 
abreaif of each other, three or four feet afunder, in one of 
the houfes, were Natchkoa and Matfeeta . Mr. Webber’s 
view of the infide of a Nootka houfe, in which thefe 
images are reprefented, will convey a more perfedl idea of 
them than any defcription. A mat, by way of curtain, for 
the mod: part, hung before them, which the natives were 
not willing, at all times, to remove; and when they did un¬ 
veil them, they feemed to fpeak of them in a very myfte- 
rious manner. It fhould feem that they are, at times, ac- 
cuftomed to make offerings to them; if we can draw this 
inference from their defiring us, as we interpreted their 
figns, to give fomething to thefe images, when they drew 
afide the mats that covered them *. It was natural, from 
thefe 
It Ihould ieem, that Mr. Webber was obliged to repeat his offerings pretty fre¬ 
quently, before he could be permitted to finifli his drawing of thefe images. The follow¬ 
ing account is in his own words : “ After having made a general view of their habita¬ 
tions, I fought for an infide, which might furnifh me with fufficient matter to convey 
“ a perfect idea of the mode in which thefe people live. Such was foon found. While 
“ * was employed, a man approached me with a large knife in his hand, feemingly dif- 
pleafedj when he obferved that my eyes were fixed on two reprefentations of human 
t{ figures 3 
