“Thou, whose Almighty word
Chaos and darkness heard,
And took their flight,
Hear us, we humbly pray,
And where the Gospel day
Sheds not its glorious ray
Let there be light.”
--_Marriott._
Reference has been made to the old type of heathen house, built of
split cedar boards bound together with poles and withes or ropes made
of cedar bark. The roof was formed of slabs of cedar, held down by
large stones or by poles extending from one end to the other. Later
on the roofs were made of rafters, on which were laid “shakes”--large
split shingles--after the manner of the early settlers’ barns.
Under this roof, and immediately over the beds, were great sheets of
cedar bark or large rush mats, placed thus better to protect the beds
if the roof should leak, which it often did. There was no window, no
door, except a board propped up against the entrance; no chimney, the
smoke finding its way out through the cracks in the sides and roof; no
floor except the hard beaten earth.
These houses, which varied in size from buildings as large as a huge
barn to a small shack, were usually placed near the sea-shore or on
the bank of a river. The larger ones usually accommodated a number
of families, sometimes as many as eight or ten, and the building was
divided by low partitions into sections for each family.
Besides this type of house they constructed for winter use
an underground hut, usually spoken of as a “keekwillie
house”--“keekwillie” being Chinook for deep or underground. A deep pit
was dug in the ground and stout poles were placed leaning together like
a tepee, with a hole at the centre. The earth was heaped up around and
upon the top, very much as eastern farmers cover their potato pits. The
hole in the top was the only doorway, the only passageway for light,
and the only opening for the smoke to escape.
A notched pole was placed up the side of the roof and another protruded
from the interior through the opening in the top. By these two poles
the occupants passed in and out of this dwelling. You had to be
careful, if your clothing was made of any inflammable material, in
passing through the opening in the top, so close was it to the fire
built below.
In olden days whole villages lived in these keekwillie or sweat houses
during the winter, which were united by underground passages. In times
of war they were thus able to find shelter from an enemy by passing
from one to another.
In the summer camps the people lived under shelters made of large
rush-mats, open on one side. In front of this opening the camp-fire
was built. Of course, now many of them live in canvas tents or
“sail-houses,” as they call them, “sail” being the Chinook equivalent
for cloth of any kind. Many others of them live in small frame houses.
Speaking of the mats, these were very skilfully made by the women from
the large bulrushes which line the river banks. These were dried and
then woven together with a native twine made from the inner bark of the
cedar, or wild wiry grass. These mats were a very useful commodity,
for besides being used to form a shelter, they were sometimes laid in
several thicknesses and made a very comfortable bed.
TOOLS.
In olden times the An-ko-me-nums had tools for all purposes peculiar
to themselves. The Stone Age came down to later times among this
people. Trees were felled and split and canoes were shaped by means of
axes which were made of stone, carved into shape and notched. Around
this notch was fastened a rawhide thong or cedar withe, attached to
a handle. To assist in splitting the cedar logs wedges of wood, horn
or bone were used. And in order to prevent the wooden wedge from
splitting, withes from cedar boughs were firmly tied around its top.
Planks from two to five feet wide were split out of large trees by
means of these stone hammers and wedges.
[Illustration]
Their boards were planed, as were their canoes, with chisels and adzes
made of jade, a beautiful dark green stone, of a nature similar to
flint, which was found in large boulders in the bed of the Fraser and
other rivers. Later these adzes were made from old files provided by
the trading companies.
Hammers made of stone and shaped something like a pestle, and stone
mortars for crushing berries and mixing food, were among their
implements.
They had paint pots of stone, pipes made of slate or wood, needles
of various sizes made of wood or bone, knives of slate and granite,
besides spear-points and arrow-heads of flint and quartz.
CLOTHING AND ORNAMENTS.
In early days, on some parts of the Coast, the clothing of the people
was made from cedar bark. This was prepared by taking the inner bark
of the great cedar, soaking it in fresh water until it was completely
soft, and then beating it on a plank with an instrument made of bone or
very hard wood having grooves and ridges. It was then separated, the
soft parts being parcelled out into threads or skeins. These were laid
in the sun to bleach, or were dyed black or red, as suited their taste,
the natural color being pale yellow.
These threads were woven into rough cloth, which was made up for women
into a long, rough garment, without sleeves, tight around the neck and
tied sometimes with a string of the same material around the waist.
For men they made a cape with a hole in it for the head; it would come
down and protect the breast and shoulders. The same material was used
for towels or for packing the baby’s bed. The ordinary breech-clout was
made out of this cedar cloth.
Later the hair of the dog and mountain goat’s wool were spun together
and woven into blankets on simple native looms. Some of these blankets
were very beautiful, with patterns all their own, representing, as in
the case of the northern tribes, the totems of the wearers. Of course,
in later years the common garment was the “Indian blanket,” sold by the
Hudson’s Bay Company.
Chiefs and people of high rank wore the skins of animals, some of
which were dressed and tanned by native methods. Some were clothed in
the most beautiful furs--the priceless sea-otter, the bear, and other
animals--and were thus recognized as great chiefs or great hunters.
All were fond of ornaments, such as ear-rings, necklaces, bracelets,
finger rings, ankle bangles and nose jewels. Some wore large rings in
their noses, while slaves often had a long stick through the hole
in their noses. There was also the remarkable lip button or labret,
worn by perforating the lower lips of the females, which insertion was
enlarged with increasing age, from one to three and a half inches long
and from one-quarter to one and a half inches wide. These latter were
only worn by people of high rank.
Long shells like goose quills, called toothpick shells, about three
inches long, taken from the salt water, were much used as ornaments.
They were strung together and sold by the fathom, five fathoms being
reckoned the price of a slave.
The men of nearly all the Coast tribes had the lobe of the ear
perforated, this being done in early childhood, and frequently in olden
times you would see them with large rings or large pieces of abalone
shell hanging to their noses.
Ear-rings were worn in a series of perforations in the lobe of the ear.
We have seen them with three and four smaller pieces of abalone shell
at the upper part of the ear, or a very large one at the lower part
of the ear. At a more recent date these were replaced by ear-rings of
silver and gold of various designs, like their white friends.
PAINTING AND TATTOOING.
Tattooings were sometimes observed on their wrists and arms and
breasts, but the custom was not so general as with the northern tribes.
They, however, in common with other Indian peoples, were accustomed
to the use of paints in decorating the body. They had their own native
paints, some made from ground stone, others from a certain kind of
clay. They had also very strong dyes from sundry kinds of roots and
bark; also an oily substance from salmon roe, as well as several kinds
of gum from trees.
In dressing they painted the eyebrows black, like a half moon, the face
sometimes checked in small red squares, arms and legs and part of the
body red. Sometimes but half the face was painted red in squares, and
sometimes black. At other times the whole face was as black as tar.
Some also covered the face with a quantity of bear’s grease, almost
an eighth of an inch thick, or laid it on in ridges like beads in a
joiner’s work and then painted the ridge red.
They often told us that on a hot day this was to keep the sun from
burning the face, and in the winter they claimed it kept the cold,
sharp wind from cutting or chapping the skin.
Chiefs and people of rank used a kind of mineral or black shining
powder, glistening in the sun like silver, taken from the rocks.
The picture of a fierce warrior, almost nude, painted up with these
striking colors, and brandishing a knife, stone axe or war-club, and in
later years armed with a flint-lock musket, was enough to terrify the
beholder.
As for the ornamental effect of painting the person, of course that is
a matter of taste with the Indian, as with other people. These colors
were not easily removed in washing, and often had to wear off.
STRANGE AND CRUEL CUSTOMS.
At one time the Indians were very fond of bathing, entering the water
once a day or oftener. In the early morning they would arouse the
children and drive them into the water for their morning bath. Even
when the ice had formed on the river, they were compelled to break the
ice and plunge in. The little chaps naturally shrank from this rigorous
treatment, and their parents, with what seemed little feeling, would
take the needle-covered branches of the spruce and whip them until they
obeyed. It is safe to say that only the hardier ones survived.
FLATTENING THE HEAD.
Many of the southern tribes of the British Columbia Coast were in the
habit of deforming the heads of their children. This custom resembles
that of foot-binding among the Chinese, and other similar barbarous
practices common to most heathen peoples. The Flatheads compressed the
foreheads, of their little ones by means of boards or a hard cushion,
or even a flat stone. The child was laid in its little basket cradle or
placed upon a narrow piece of board, to one end of which another board
was attached with thongs. The upper board was pulled tight down over
the child’s forehead, and thus the head was pressed gradually out of
shape and the forehead flattened back.
[Illustration: TWO FLATHEAD CENTENARIANS.]
In the northern part of Vancouver Island they use a circular bandage,
whereby the skull acquires an extraordinary length and forms what
is called the sugar-loaf head. Some of the natives of the west coast
of the island placed a bandage over the forehead of the child and then
laid a flat stone upon this, thus securing the necessary deformation.
The effect of this pressure was to stupefy the senses and to crush out
the intellect. Many of the children died under this cruel practice.
Again and again I have expostulated with them, and often have whipped
out my knife and cut the cords which bound the little sufferer, only to
incur the anger of the parents, who themselves were bound by inexorable
custom.
OTHER CRUEL PRACTICES.
The heathen were neglectful and even cruel to their old people. They
have been known to leave them on islands to starve to death, and when
sick they were often left in places where one would hardly leave a dog.
When a woman became a mother, and needed the most tender care, she was
put outside in a cold, wretched place, all alone, and there had to
remain for weeks.
Oh, cruel, cruel heathenism, how much shame and misery and suffering
must be laid at thy door! But, thank God! the power of the everlasting
Gospel has wrought a marvellous change in many of these particulars,
and now something of the love and sympathy which marks other Christian
lives is expressed in the dealings of the people with one another.