She was a school-girl, about sixteen years of age, and had been in the
boarding-school for several years, nearly ever since she had been old
enough to attend, but her parents were quite superstitious. One Friday
evening she went home to remain until the Sabbath, but on Saturday, the
first of January, 1881, she was taken sick, and the nature of her
sickness was such that in a few days she became delirious. Her parents
and friends made her believe that a bad tamahnous had been put into her,
and no one but an Indian doctor could cure her. They tamahnoused over
her some. The agency physician, Dr. Givens, was not called until the
sixth, when he left some medicine for her, but it is said that it was
not given to her. Hence she got no better, and her friends declared that
the white doctor was killing her. The agent and teacher did not like the
way the affair was being manœuvered, took charge of her, moved her to a
decent house near by, and placed white watchers with her, so that the
proper medicine should be given, and no Indian doctor brought in. The
Indians were, however, determined, if possible, to tamahnous, and
declared that if it were not allowed, she would die at three o’clock
A.M. They kept talking to her about it and she apparently believed it,
and said she would have tamahnous. But it was prevented, and before the
time set for her death, she was cured of her real sickness. But she was
not well. Still the next day she was in such a condition that it was
thought safe to move her in a boat to the boarding-house, where she
could be more easily cared for. The Indians were enraged and said that
she would die before landing, but she did not. Watchers were kept by her
constantly, but the Indians were allowed to see her. They talked,
however, to her so much about her having a bad tamahnous, that all
except her parents were forbidden to see her. They also were forbidden
to talk on the subject, and evidently obeyed. But the effect on her
imagination had been so great that, for a time, she often acted
strangely. She seldom said any thing; she would often spurt out the
medicine, when given her, as far as she could; said she saw the
tamahnous; pulled her mother’s hair, bit her mother’s finger so that it
bled, seemed peculiarly vexed at her; moaned most of the time, but
sometimes screamed very loudly, and even bit a spoon off. Sometimes she
talked rationally and sometimes she did not. But by the fifteenth she
was considerably better, walked around with help, and sat up, when told
to do so, but did not seem to take any interest in any thing. Every
thing possible was done to interest her and occupy her attention, and
she continued to grow better for three or four days more, so that the
watchers were dispensed with, except that her parents slept in the room
with her. But one night she threw off the clothes, took cold, and would
not make any effort to cough and clear her throat; and on the
twenty-second, she died, actually choking to death. It was a tolerably
clear case of death from imagination, easily accounted for on the
principles of mental philosophy, but the Indians had never studied it,
and still believe that a bad tamahnous killed her. I was afraid that
this death would cause trouble, or, at least, that a strong influence
against Christianity would result from it, but the certificates of
allotment to their land came just at that time, which pleased them so
much that the affair was smoothed over.
These and some other instances somewhat similar, though not quite so
marked, have led me to make some allowances for the older Indians, which
I would not make for whites. With small children, who were too young to
have any such belief in tamahnous, I know of not a single instance like
these mentioned. Indeed, the Indian doctors have been among the most
unfortunate in losing their children, several of them having lost from
five to ten infants each.
Some of the older uneducated Indians with the most advanced ideas have
said lately that they were ready to give up all Indian doctors, and all
tamahnous for the sick; still they would not acknowledge but that there
was some spirit in the affair, but they said it was a bad spirit, of
which the devil was the ruler, and they wished to have nothing to do
with it.
One woman, as she joined the church, wished to let me have her tamahnous
rattles, made of deer hoofs, for she said she was a Christian, had
stopped her tamahnous, and would not want them any more. Still she
thought that a spirit dwelt in them, only she thought it was a bad
spirit. Hence she was afraid to have them remain in her house, for fear
the spirit would injure her; for the same reason she was afraid to throw
them away; she was for the same reason afraid to give them to any of
her friends, even to those far away, and so she thought that the best
thing that could be done with them was to let me take them, for she
thought I could manage them. I was willing, and prize them highly
because of the reason through which I obtained them.
Other points in their religious belief did not stand so much in the way
of Christianity. They believe in the existence of a Supreme Being,
though very different from that of the whites--so much so, that the
latter has not received the name of the former; in a Deity called
Do-ki-batl by the Twanas, and Nu-ki-matl by the Clallams, who became
incarnate and did many wonderful things; in man’s sinfulness and
immortality; in the creation, renovation, and government of the world by
their great Beings; in a flood, or deluge, the tradition of which has
enough similarity to that of the Bible to make me believe that it refers
to the same: while it has so much nonsense in it as to show that they
did not receive it from the whites; in thanksgiving, prayer, sacrifices,
and purification; in a place of happiness for the soul after death,
situated somewhere within the earth, and in a place of future
punishment, also situated within the earth. The Clallams believed that
the Sun was the Supreme Deity, or that he resided in the sun, but I have
never been able to discover any such belief among the Twanas. They
believe that the spirits dwell in sticks and stones at times, and I have
seen one rough idol among the Twanas.
(_c_) BESETTING SINS.
The more prominent of these are gambling, betting, horse-racing,
potlatches, and intemperance.
Gambling is conducted in three different native ways, and many of the
Indians have also learned to play cards. The betting connected with
horse-racing belongs to the same sin. Horse-racing has not been much of
a temptation to the Clallams because they own very few horses, their
country being such that they have had but little use for them. Nearly
all of their travel is by water. The Twanas have had much more
temptation in this respect.
One of the native ways of gambling belongs to the women, the other to
the men: but there is far less temptation for the women to gamble than
there is for the men, because summer and winter, day-time and evening,
there is always something for them to do. But with the men it is
different. The rainy season and the long winter evenings hang heavily on
their hands, for they have very little indoor work. They can not read,
and hence the temptation to gamble is great.
[Illustration: GAMBLING BONES.]
One mode of gambling by the men is with small round wooden disks about
two inches in diameter. There are ten in a set, one of which is marked.
Under cover they are divided, part of them under one hand and the rest
under the other, are shuffled around, concealed under cedar-bark, which
is beaten up fine, and the object of the other party is to guess under
which hand the marked disk is.
The other game of the men is with small bones, two inches long and a
half an inch in diameter, or sometimes they are two and a half inches
long and an inch in diameter. Sometimes only one of the small ones is
used, and sometimes two, one of which is marked. They are passed very
quickly back and forth from one hand to the other, and the object is for
the opposite party to guess in which hand the marked one is. An
accompaniment is kept up by the side which is playing by singing and
pounding on a large stick with smaller ones. With both of these games
occasionally the large drum is brought in, and tamahnous songs are sung,
so as to invoke the aid of their guardian spirits.
[Illustration: BEAVER’S TEETH FOR GAMBLING OF WOMEN.]
In the women’s game usually four beaver’s teeth are used, which have
peculiar markings. They are rapidly thrown up, and the way in which they
fall determines the number of counts belonging to the party playing. The
principle is somewhat the same as with a game of dice. Formerly they bet
large sums, sometimes every thing they owned, even to all the clothes
they had, but it has not been the custom of late years. When Agent Eells
first came to Skokomish, under orders from the Superintendent of Indian
Affairs he tried to break up the gambling entirely, but there were
hardly any Indians to sustain him in the effort. They would conceal
themselves and gamble, do so by night, or go off from the reservation
where he had no control, and carry on the game--so for a time he had to
allow it, with some restrictions; that is, that the bets must be small,
the games not often, but generally only on the Fourth of July, at great
festivals, and the like. Occasionally they have had a grand time by
gathering about all the Indians on the reservation together, both men
and women, and perhaps for four days and nights, with very little sleep,
have kept up the game.
On account of their want of employment in the winter and their inability
to read, probably the sinfulness of this sin is not so great with them
as with whites. Some good, prominent Indian workers have thought that it
was hardly right to proscribe a Christian Indian from gambling. I
learned of one Protestant church which admitted Indians without saying
any thing on this subject, but which tried to stop it after they were in
the church; but I could never bring myself to think that a church full
of gambling Indians was right, and this became one of the test questions
with the men in regard to admittance into the church.
When I first saw the infatuation the game possessed for them I felt that
nothing but the gospel of Christ would ever stop it. Among the Clallams
off of the reservation none except the Christians have given it up. On
the reservation within the
[Illustration: POTLATCH HOUSE, SKOKOMISH.