CHAPTER XL.
Natives in the Neighborhood of Astoria- Their Persons and Characteristics. -
Causes of Deformity -- Their Dress. - Their Contempt of Beards-
Ornaments- Armor and Weapons.-Mode of Flattening the Head.- Extent of
the Custom.- Religious Belief.- The Two Great Spirits of the Air and of the
Fire.- Priests or Medicine Men.- The Rival Idols.- Polygamy a Cause of
Greatness- Petty Warfare.- Music, Dancing, Gambling.- Thieving a Virtue.-
Keen Traders- Intrusive Habits - Abhorrence of Drunkenness- Anecdote of
Comcomly.
A BRIEF mention has already been made of the tribes or hordes existing
about the lower part of the Columbia at the time of the settlement; a few
more particulars concerning them may be acceptable. The four tribes
nearest to Astoria, and with whom the traders had most intercourse, were,
as has heretofore been observed, the Chinooks, the Clatsops, the
Wahkiacums, and the Cathlamets. The Chinooks reside chiefly along the
banks of a river of the same name, running parallel to the sea-coast,
through a low country studded with stagnant pools, and emptying itself into
Baker's Bay, a few miles from Cape Disappointment. This was the tribe over
which Comcomly, the one-eyed chieftain, held sway; it boasted two
hundred and fourteen fighting men. Their chief subsistence was on fish,
with an occasional regale of the flesh of elk and deer, and of wild-fowl from
the neighboring ponds.
The Clatsops resided on both sides of Point Adams; they were the mere
relics of a tribe which had been nearly swept off by the small-pox, and did
not number more than one hundred and eighty fighting men.
The Wahkiacums, or Waak-i-cums, inhabited the north side of the
Columbia, and numbered sixty-six warriors. They and the Chinooks were
originally the same; but a dispute arising about two generations previous to
the time of the settlement, between the ruling chief and his brother
Wahkiacum, the latter seceded, and with his adherents formed the present
horde which continues to go by his name. In this way new tribes or clans
are formed, and lurking causes of hostility engendered.
The Cathlamets lived opposite to the lower village of the Wahkiacums, and
numbered ninety-four warriors.
These four tribes, or rather clans, have every appearance of springing from
the same origin, resembling each other in person, dress, language, and
manners. They are rather a diminutive race, generally below five feet five
inches, with crooked legs and thick ankles - a deformity caused by their
passing so much of their time sitting or squatting upon the calves of their
legs and their heels, in the bottom of their canoes - a favorite position,
which they retain, even when on shore. The women increase the deformity
by wearing tight bandages round the ankles, which prevent the circulation
of the blood, and cause a swelling of the muscles of the leg.
Neither sex can boast of personal beauty. Their faces are round, with small
but animated eyes. Their noses are broad and flat at top, and fleshy at the
end, with large nostrils. They have wide mouths, thick lips, and short,
irregular and dirty teeth. Indeed good teeth are seldom to be seen among
the tribes west of the Rocky Mountains, who live simply on fish.
In the early stages of their intercourse with white men, these savages were
but scantily clad. In summer time the men went entirely naked; in the
winter and in bad weather the men wore a small robe, reaching to the
middle of the thigh, made of the skins of animals, or of the wool of the
mountain sheep. Occasionally, they wore a kind of mantle of matting, to
keep off the rain but, having thus protected the back and shoulders, they
left the rest of the body naked.
The women wore similar robes, though shorter, not reaching below the
waist; besides which, they had a kind of petticoat, or fringe, reaching from
the waist to the knee, formed of the fibres of cedar bark, broken into
strands, or a tissue of silk grass twisted and knotted at the ends. This was
the usual dress of the women in summer; should the weather be inclement,
they added a vest of skins, similar to the robe.
The men carefully eradicated every vestige of a beard, considering it a great
deformity. They looked with disgust at the whiskers and well-furnished
chins of the white men, and in derision called them Long-beards. Both
sexes, on the other hand, cherished the hair of the head, which with them
is generally black and rather coarse. They allowed it to grow to a great
length and were very proud and careful of it, sometimes wearing it plaited,
sometimes wound round the head in fanciful tresses. No greater affront
could be offered to them than to cut off their treasured locks.
They had conical hats with narrow rims, neatly woven of bear grass or of
the fibres of cedar bark, interwoven with designs of various shapes and
colors; sometimes merely squares and triangles, at other times rude
representations of canoes, with men fishing and harpooning. These hats
were nearly waterproof, and extremely durable.
The favorite ornaments of the men were collars of bears' claws, the proud
trophies of hunting exploits; while the women and children wore similar
decorations of elks' tusks. An intercourse with the white traders, however,
soon effected a change in the toilets of both sexes. They became fond of
arraying themselves in any article of civilized dress which they could
procure, and often made a most grotesque appearance. They adapted many
articles of finery, also, to their own previous tastes. Both sexes were fond of
adorning themselves with bracelets of iron, brass, or copper. They were
delighted, also, with blue and white beads, particularly the former, and
wore broad tight bands of them round the waist and ankles, large rolls of
them round the neck, and pendants of them in the ears. The men,
especially, who in savage life carry a passion for personal decoration further
than the females, did not think their gala equipments complete unless they
had a jewel of hiaqua, or wampum, dangling at the nose. Thus arrayed,
their hair besmeared with fish oil, and their bodies bedaubed with red clay,
they considered themselves irresistible.
When on warlike expeditions, they painted their faces and bodies in the
most hideous and grotesque manner, according to the universal practice of
American savages. Their arms were bows and arrows, spears, and war
clubs. Some wore a corselet of pieces of hard wood laced together with bear
grass, so as to form a light coat of mail, pliant to the body; and a kind of
casque of cedar bark, leather, and bear grass, sufficient to protect the head
from an arrow or war club. A more complete article of defensive armor was
a buff jerkin or shirt of great thickness, made of doublings of elk skin, and
reaching to the feet, holes being left for the head and arms. This was
perfectly arrowproof; add to which, it was often endowed with charmed
virtues, by the spells and mystic ceremonials of the medicine man, or
conjurer.
Of the peculiar custom, prevalent among these people, of flattening the
head, we have already spoken. It is one of those instances of human
caprice, like the crippling of the feet of females in China, which are quite
incomprehensible. This custom prevails principally among the tribes on the
sea-coast, and about the lower parts of the rivers. How far it extends along
the coast we are not able to ascertain. Some of the tribes, both north and
south of the Columbia, practice it; but they all speak the Chinook language,
and probably originated from the same stock. As far as we can learn, the
remoter tribes, which speak an entirely different language, do not flatten
the head. This absurd custom declines, also, in receding from the shores of
the Pacific; few traces of it are to be found among the tribes of the Rocky
Mountains, and after crossing the mountains it disappears altogether. Those
Indians, therefore, about the head waters of the Columbia, and in the
solitary mountain regions, who are often called Flatheads, must not be
supposed to be characterized by this deformity. It is an appellation often
given by the hunters east of the mountain chain, to all western Indians,
excepting the Snakes.
The religious belief of these people was extremely limited and confined; or
rather, in all probability, their explanations were but little understood by
their visitors. They had an idea of a benevolent and omnipotent spirit, the
creator of all things. They represent him as assuming various shapes at
pleasure, but generally that of an immense bird. He usually inhabits the
sun, but occasionally wings his way through the aerial regions, and sees all
that is doing upon earth. Should anything displease him, he vents his wrath
in terrific storms and tempests, the lightning being the flashes of his eyes,
and the thunder the clapping of his wings. To propitiate his favor they offer
to him annual sacrifices of salmon and venison, the first fruits of their
fishing and hunting.
Besides this aerial spirit they believe in an inferior one, who inhabits the
fire, and of whom they are in perpetual dread, as, though he possesses
equally the power of good and evil, the evil is apt to predominate. They
endeavor, therefore, to keep him in good humor by frequent offerings. He is
supposed also to have great influence with the winged spirit, their sovereign
protector and benefactor. They implore him, therefore, to act as their
interpreter, and procure them all desirable things, such as success in fishing
and hunting, abundance of game, fleet horses, obedient wives, and male
children.
These Indians have likewise their priests, or conjurers, or medicine men,
who pretend to be in the confidence of the deities, and the expounders and
enforcers of their will. Each of these medicine men has his idols carved in
wood, representing the spirits of the air and of the fire, under some rude
and grotesque form of a horse, a bear, a beaver, or other quadruped, or
that of bird or fish. These idols are hung round with amulets and votive
offerings, such as beavers' teeth, and bears' and eagles' claws.
When any chief personage is on his death-bed, or dangerously ill, the
medicine men are sent for. Each brings with him his idols, with which he
retires into a canoe to hold a consultation. As doctors are prone to disagree,
so these medicine men have now and then a violent altercation as to the
malady of the patient, or the treatment of it. To settle this they beat their
idols soundly against each other; whichever first loses a tooth or a claw is
considered as confuted, and his votary retires from the field. Polygamy is
not only allowed, but considered honorable, and the greater number of
wives a man can maintain, the more important is he in the eyes of the
tribe. The first wife, however, takes rank of all the others, and is considered
mistress of the house. Still the domestic establishment is liable to
jealousies and cabals, and the lord and master has much difficulty in
maintaining harmony in his jangling household.
In the manuscript from which we draw many of these particulars, it is
stated that he who exceeds his neighbors in the number of his wives, male
children, and slaves, is elected chief of the village; a title to office which we
do not recollect ever before to have met with.
Feuds are frequent among, these tribes, but are not very deadly. They have
occasionally pitched battles, fought on appointed days, and at specific
places, which are generally the banks of a rivulet. The adverse parties post
themselves on the opposite sides of the stream, and at such distances that
the battles often last a long while before any blood is shed. The number of
killed and wounded seldom exceed half a dozen. Should the damage be
equal on each side, the war is considered as honorably concluded; should
one party lose more than the other, it is entitled to a compensation in
slaves or other property, otherwise hostilities are liable to be renewed at a
future day. They are also given to predatory inroads into the territories of
their enemies, and sometimes of their friendly neighbors. Should they fall
upon a band of inferior force, or upon a village, weakly defended, they act
with the ferocity of true poltroons, slaying all the men, and carrying off the
women and children as slaves. As to the property, it is packed upon horses
which they bring with them for the purpose. They are mean and paltry as
warriors, and altogether inferior in heroic qualities to the savages of the
buffalo plains on the east side of the mountains.
A great portion of their time is passed in revelry, music, dancing, and
gambling. Their music scarcely deserves the name; the instruments being
of the rudest kind. Their singing is harsh and discordant; the songs are
chiefly extempore, relating to passing circumstances, the persons present,
or any trifling object that strikes the attention of the singer. They have
several kinds of dances, some of them lively and pleasing. The women are
rarely permitted to dance with the men, but form groups apart, dancing to
the same instrument and song.
They have a great passion for play, and a variety of games. To such a pitch
of excitement are they sometimes roused, that they gamble away
everything they possess, even to their wives and children. They are
notorious thieves, also, and proud of their dexterity. He who is frequently
successful, gains much applause and popularity; but the clumsy thief, who
is detected in some bungling attempt, is scoffed at and despised, and
sometimes severely punished.
Such are a few leading characteristics of the natives in the neighborhood of
Astoria. They appear to us inferior in many respects to the tribes east of the
mountains, the bold rovers of the prairies; and to partake much of
Esquimaux character; elevated in some degree by a more genial climate
and more varied living style.
The habits of traffic engendered at the cataracts of the Columbia, have had
their influence along the coast. The Chinooks and other Indians at the
mouth of the river, soon proved themselves keen traders, and in their early
dealings with the Astorians never hesitated to ask three times what they
considered the real value of an article. They were inquisitive, also, in the
extreme, and impertinently intrusive; and were prone to indulge in scoffing
and ridicule at the expense of the strangers.
In one thing, however, they showed superior judgment and self-command
to most of their race; this was, in their abstinence from ardent spirits, and
the abhorrence and disgust with which they regarded a drunkard. On one
occasion a son of Comcomly had been induced to drink freely at the factory,
and went home in a state of intoxication, playing all kinds of mad pranks,
until he sank into a stupor, in which he remained for two days. The old
chieftain repaired to his friend, M'Dougal, with indignation flaming in his
countenance, and bitterly reproached him for having permitted his son to
degrade himself into a beast, and to render himself an object of scorn and
laughter to his slave.