they are made fast, probably half stupefied
by the pressure. The intellect of the
Flathead Indians is not below that of their
round–headed neighbours. They are in fact
strong enough to hold neighbouring tribes in
subjection, to make slaves from among them,
and to regard the flat head as a mark of
aristocracy which they concede to none born,
even by one parent only, of inferior race.
The white men suffer in their estimation
because they are round heads, for they associate
closely the ideas of a round head and a
slave. They make slaves, treat them cruelly,
and exercise over them full powers of life
and death.

Flathead Indians live on the banks of the
Columbia River, from its mouth for about
one hundred and fifty miles along its course.
They extend for thirty or forty miles up the
mouth of Walhamette River, and are in the
country between that river and Fort Astoria,
now called Fort George. They extend along
the Cowlity River, and are between that
river and Paget's Sound. They occupy about
two–thirds of Vancouver's Island, and are to
be found also along the coasts of Paget's
Sound and the Straits of Juan de Fuca.
There are several tribes of them differing
more or less in language and in customs.
Among them, as among all Indians,
consumption is a disease as common as in
England. Even the lungs of the savage cannot
bear unwholesome exposure to vicissitudes of
weather, and a Flathead Indian thinks as
little as an English lady of fashion about
the use of dress as a protection to the body.
About Fort Vancouver the Flathead tribe is
that of the Chinooks, whose language Mr.
Kane describes as a "horrible harsh
spluttering sound which proceeds from their
throats, apparently unguided either by the
tongue or lip. None but those born among
them can acquire their speech, but they have
picked up a half–intelligible patois from the
English and French traders, carefully saluting
any European with the exclamation, Clak–
Loh–ah–yah, originating from their having
heard, in the early days of the fur trade, a
Mr. Clark frequently saluted by his friends
with 'Clark, how are you?' It is a
remarkable fact that there are no oaths in the
Indian language, and when the Indian learns
to swear, he uses European phrases picked
up from his teacher. Also these languages
are destitute of words conveying the idea of
gratitude or thanks."

All Indians, we have said, are dirty. The
Chinooks are proud of carrying preserves of
vermin in their hands, from which their
friends can pick and eat. One of these
Indians being asked why he ate such things,
replied that they bit him, and he had his
revenge by biting them in turn. The
Chinooks have no furs, but abundant fish,
on which they live with little demand on
their industry. They weave closely of roots
or grass the baskets in which they boil their
fish, by help of hot stones thrown into the
water. They dig for food the bulbous roots
of camas and wappatoo, which are somewhat
like potatoes to the taste, and which grow
in such profusion that the neighbourhood of
Fort Vancouver, in the spring, becomes one
sheet of bright ultramarine blue by reason of
the camas blossoms. The great delicacy of
the Chinooks could not be mentioned if it
were not too characteristic of the degradation
of their taste to be left out of sight. It consists
of acorns which have been deposited for
five months at the bottom of a common
urinal.

In sketching the portraits of the Indians,
who regarded Mr. Kane as a great medicine–
man, and greatly misdoubted the result to
themselves of suffering a double of their
features to fall into the magician's power,
the artist often found it best to enter a hut,
begin sketching without saying a word,
finish, and walk away. If the sitter objected,
he rose, also without speaking, and walked
away. Sometimes persuasion was effectual,
sometimes chiefs very willing to be painted
gossipped freely as they sat, told of the
enemies they had slain; one told how he had
killed his mother, at her own request, when
she was weary of life, and distressed by the
toil of a long journey. A girl of whom a
sketch had been taken on the way out was
found, on the way home, to have died very
shortly afterwards. The death was ascribed
to the white medicine–man who took her
picture, and Mr. Kane had to make an escape
by night to the next fort, or put his life into
the utmost peril.

Close neighbours to Victoria on Vancouver's
Island are the Clablum Indians, a
Flathead tribe who have a village on the
opposite side of the harbour. They have a
peculiar breed of small dogs with long hair.
The dogs are bred for the sake of this hair,
which is shorn, beaten with goosedown and
white earth, twisted by rubbing into threads,
and woven upon a rude handloom into
blankets. The artist sketched Cheaclach,
the chief, of whose inauguration he had this
account. When Cheaclach's father was too
old to govern, the son was dismissed for
thirty days—fasting and dreaming in the
mountains. At the end of the thirty days a
feast was made by the villagers, into the
midst of which the new chief rushed from
his fasting, wild with spiritual exultation.
He seized a small dog and began devouring
it alive, that being the customary first act of
the coronation ceremony. The tribe then
collected about him, singing and dancing in.
the wildest manner, and while they danced
he rushed at those whom he loved best, and
bit their bare shoulders and arms. To be
thus bitten was regarded as a high mark of
distinction, especially by those from whom
there was a piece of the flesh bitten out and
swallowed.

These Indians, among other superstitions,