The Adventures of John Jewitt Part 10

"_Wik_,"[114] he replied,--that is, no; "_John klus.h.i.+sh--Thompson klus.h.i.+sh_"--John and Thompson are both good; then, turning to me, and patting me on the shoulder, he made signs to me to eat. I tried to persuade him that Hall and Wood were not there, and that none were near him but ourselves; he said, "I know very well you do not see them, but I do."

At first Maquina endeavoured to convince him that he saw nothing, and to laugh him out of his belief, but, finding that all was to no purpose, he at length became serious, and asked me if I had ever seen anyone affected in this manner, and what was the matter with him. I gave him to understand, pointing to his head, that his brain was injured, and that he did not see things as formerly.

Being convinced by Tootoosch's conduct that we had no agency in his indisposition, on our return home Maquina asked me what was done in my country in similar cases.

I told him that such persons were closely confined, and sometimes tied up and whipped, in order to make them better.[115]

After pondering for some time, he said that he should be glad to do anything to relieve him, and that he should be whipped, and immediately gave orders to some of his men to go to Tootoosch's house, bind him, and bring him to his, in order to undergo the operation.

Thompson was the person selected to administer this remedy, which he undertook very readily, and for that purpose provided himself with a good number of spruce branches, with which he whipped him most severely, laying it on with the best will imaginable, while Tootoosch displayed the greatest rage, kicking, spitting, and attempting to bite all who came near him. This was too much for Maquina, who at length, unable to endure it longer, ordered Thompson to desist and Tootoosch to be carried back, saying that if there was no other way of curing him but by whipping, he must remain mad.

The application of the whip produced no beneficial effect on Tootoosch, for he afterwards became still more deranged; in his fits of fury sometimes seizing a club and beating his slaves in a most dreadful manner, and striking and spitting at all who came near him, till at length his wife, no longer daring to remain in the house with him, came with her son to Maquina's.

The whaling season now commenced, and Maquina was out almost every day in his canoe in pursuit of them, but for a considerable time with no success, one day breaking the staff of his harpoon, another after having been a long time fast to a whale, the weapon drawing, owing to the breaking of the sh.e.l.l which formed its point, with several such like accidents, arising from the imperfection of the instrument.

At these times he always returned very morose and out of temper, upbraiding his men with having violated their obligation to continence preparatory to whaling. In this state of ill-humour he would give us very little to eat, which, added to the women not cooking when the men are away, reduced us to a very low fare.

In consequence of the repeated occurrence of similar accidents, I proposed to Maquina to make him a harpoon or foreganger of steel, which would be less liable to fail him. The idea pleased him, and in a short time I completed one for him, with which he was much delighted, and the very next day went out to make a trial of it.

He succeeded with it in taking a whale. Great was the joy throughout the village as soon as it was known that the king had secured the whale, by notice from a person stationed at the headland in the offing. All the canoes were immediately launched, and, furnished with harpoons and sealskin floats, hastened to a.s.sist in buoying it up and towing it in.

The bringing in of this fish exhibited a scene of universal festivity.

As soon as the canoes appeared at the mouth of the Cove, those on board of them singing a triumph to a slow air, to which they kept time with their paddles, all who were on sh.o.r.e, men, women, and children, mounted the roofs of their houses to congratulate the king on his success, drumming most furiously on the planks, and exclaiming _Wocash--wocash, Tyee!_

The whale, on being drawn on sh.o.r.e, was immediately cut up, and a great feast of the blubber given at Maquina's house, to which all the village were invited, who indemnified themselves for their Lent by eating as usual to excess. I was highly praised for the goodness of my harpoon, and a quant.i.ty of blubber given me, which I was permitted to cook as I pleased; this I boiled in salt water with some young nettles and other greens for Thompson and myself, and in this way we found it tolerable food.

Their method of procuring the oil, is to skim it from the water in which the blubber is boiled, and when cool, put it up into whale bladders for use; and of these I have seen them so large as, when filled, would require no less than five or six men to carry. Several of the chiefs, among whom were Maquina's brothers, who, after the king has caught the first whale, are privileged to take them also, were very desirous, on discovering the superiority of my harpoon, that I should make some for them, but this Maquina would not permit, reserving for himself this improved weapon. He, however, gave me directions to make a number more for himself, which I executed, and also made him several lances, with which he was greatly pleased.

As these people have some very singular observances preparatory to whaling, an account of them will, I presume, not prove uninteresting, especially as it may serve to give a better idea of their manners. A short time before leaving Tashees, the king makes a point of pa.s.sing a day alone on the mountain, whither he goes very privately early in the morning, and does not return till late in the evening.[116] This is done, as I afterwards learned, for the purpose of singing and praying to his G.o.d for success in whaling the ensuing season. At Cooptee the same ceremony is performed, and at Nootka after the return thither, with still greater solemnity, as for the next two days he appears very thoughtful and gloomy, scarcely speaking to any one, and observes a most rigid fast. On these occasions he has always a broad red fillet made of bark bound around his head, in token of humiliation, with a large branch of green spruce on the top, and his great rattle in his hand.

In addition to this, for a week before commencing their whaling, both himself and the crew of his canoe observe a fast, eating but very little, and going into the water several times in the course of each day to bathe, singing and rubbing their bodies, limbs, and faces with sh.e.l.ls and bushes, so that on their return I have seen them look as though they had been severely torn with briers. They are likewise obliged to abstain from any commerce with their women for the like period, the latter restriction being considered as indispensable to their success.

Early in June, Tootoosch,[117] the crazy chief, died. On being acquainted with his death, the whole village, men, women, and children, set up a loud cry, with every testimony of the greatest grief, which they continued for more than three hours. As soon as he was dead, the body, according to their custom, was laid out on a plank, having the head bound round with a red bark fillet, which is with them an emblem of mourning and sorrow. After lying some time in this manner, he was wrapped in an otter-skin robe, and, three fathoms of Ife-whaw being put about his neck, he was placed in a large coffin or box of about three feet deep, which was ornamented on the outside with two rows of the small white sh.e.l.ls. In this, the most valuable articles of his property were placed with him, among which were no less than twenty-four prime sea-otter skins.

At night, which is their time for interring the dead, the coffin was borne by eight men with two poles thrust through ropes pa.s.sed around it, to the place of burial, accompanied by his wife and family, with their hair cut short in token of grief, all the inhabitants joining the procession.

The place of burial was a large cavern on the side of a hill at a little distance from the village, in which, after depositing the coffin carefully, all the attendants repaired to Maquina's house, where a number of articles belonging to the deceased, consisting of blankets, pieces of cloth, etc., were burned by a person appointed by Maquina for that purpose, dressed and painted in the highest style, with his head covered with white down, who, as he put in the several pieces one by one, poured upon them a quant.i.ty of oil to increase the flame, in the intervals between making a speech and playing off a variety of buffoon tricks, and the whole closed with a feast, and a dance from Sat-sat-sok-sis, the king's son.

The man who performed the ceremony of burning on this occasion was a very singular character named Kinneclimmets. He was held in high estimation by the king, though only of the common cla.s.s, probably from his talent for mimicry and buffoonery, and might be considered as a kind of king's jester, or rather, as combining in his person the character of a buffoon with that of master of ceremonies and public orator to his majesty, as he was the one who at feasts always regulated the places of the guests, delivered speeches on receiving or returning visits, besides amusing the company at all their entertainments, with a variety of monkey pranks and antic gestures, which appeared to these savages the height of wit and humour, but would be considered as extremely low by the least polished people.

Almost all the kings or head chiefs of the princ.i.p.al tribes were accompanied by a similar character, who appeared to be attached to their dignity, and are called in their language _Climmer-habbee_.

This man Kinneclimmets was particularly odious to Thompson, who would never join in the laugh at his tricks, but when he began, would almost always quit the house with a very surly look, and an exclamation of "Cursed fool!" which Maquina, who thought nothing could equal the cleverness of his _Climmer-habbee_, used to remark with much dissatisfaction, asking me why Thompson never laughed, observing that I must have had a very good-tempered woman indeed for my mother, as my father was so very ill-natured a man.

Among those performances that gained him the greatest applause was his talent of eating to excess, for I have known him devour at one meal no less than seventy-five large herrings; and at another time, when a great feast was given by Maquina, he undertook, after drinking three pints of oil by way of a whet, to eat four dried salmon, and five quarts of sp.a.w.n, mixed up with a gallon of train-oil, and actually succeeded in swallowing the greater part of this mess, until his stomach became so overloaded as to discharge its contents in the dish. One of his exhibitions, however, had nearly cost him his life; this was on the occasion of Kla-quak-ee-na, one of the chiefs, having bought him a new wife, in celebration of which he ran three times through a large fire, and burned himself in such a manner that he was not able to stir for more than four weeks. These feats of savage skill were much praised by Maquina, who never failed to make him presents of cloth, muskets, etc., on such occasions.

The death of Tootoosch increased still more the disquietude which his delirium had excited among the savages, and all those chiefs who had killed our men became much alarmed lest they should be seized with the same disorder and die like him; more particularly, as I had told Maquina that I believed his insanity was a punishment inflicted on him by Quahootze, for his cruelty in murdering two innocent men who had never injured him.

FOOTNOTES:

[113] When an Indian dies, all of his property which has not been given away, is either buried with him, or, in extreme cases, burned, not for the purpose of accompanying him to the Spirit Land, but, so the people have told me, to prevent any temptation to indulge in the bad luck of mentioning his name. The only things that are exempted from this practice are the dead man's best canoes, his house-planks, and fis.h.i.+ng and hunting implements, which, with any slaves he may possess, go to his eldest son. I have known the deceased's house and all its contents to be burned; but when this is not the case, then the materials are removed elsewhere, and another building is erected. Around his grave--a box raised from the ground on pillars, often quaintly carved, or a canoe, or a box fixed up a tree--are placed various articles belonging to him (or her). At one time they buried his money with him. But for obvious reasons this custom has fallen into abeyance.

[114] _Wik_ actually means "Not I." Good is _Klooceahatli_ or _Klootakloosch_.

[115] This, it must be remembered, was in the days before Connolly.

Maquina's remark that if an insane man could not be cured but by whipping him, he must remain mad, proves that the savage chief was in advance of his time. Insanity is, however, extremely rare among the Indians.

[116] He was, as the Indians say, "making his medicine," a term of very elastic meaning.

[117] "Tootoosch" is the Thunder Bird of "Aht" mythology.

CHAPTER XII

WAR WITH THE A-Y-CHARTS--A NIGHT ATTACK--PROPOSALS TO PURCHASE THE AUTHOR

Our situation had now become unpleasant in the extreme. The summer was so far advanced that we nearly despaired of a s.h.i.+p arriving to our relief, and with that expectation almost relinquished the hope of ever having it in our power to quit this savage land. We were treated, too, with less indulgence than before, both Thompson and myself being obliged, in addition to our other employments, to perform the laborious task of cutting and collecting fuel, which we had to bring on our shoulders from nearly three miles' distance, as it consisted wholly of dry leaves, all of which near the village had been consumed.

To add to this, we suffered much abuse from the common people, who, when Maquina or some of the chiefs were not present, would insult us, calling us wretched slaves, asking us where was our Tyee or captain, making gestures signifying that his head had been cut off, and that they would do the like to us; though they generally took good care at such times to keep well out of Thompson's reach, as they had more than once experienced, to their cost, the strength of his fist. This conduct was not only provoking and grating to our feelings in the highest degree, but it convinced us of the ill disposition of these savages towards us, and rendered us fearful lest they might at some time or other persuade or force Maquina and the chiefs to put us to death.

We were also often brought to great distress for the want of provisions, so far as to be reduced to collect a scanty supply of mussels and limpets from the rocks, and sometimes even compelled to part with some of our most necessary articles of clothing in order to purchase food for our subsistence.

This was, however, princ.i.p.ally owing to the inhabitants themselves experiencing a great scarcity of provisions this season; there having been, in the first place, but very few salmon caught at Friendly Cove, a most unusual circ.u.mstance, as they generally abound there in the spring, which was by the natives attributed to their having been driven away by the blood of our men who had been thrown into the sea, which with true savage inconsistency excited their murmurs against Maquina, who had proposed cutting off our s.h.i.+p. Relying on this supply, they had in the most inconsiderate manner squandered away their winter stock of provisions, so that in a few days after their return it was entirely expended.

Nor were the king and chiefs much more fortunate in their whaling, even after I had furnished Maquina with the improved weapon for that purpose; but four whales having been taken during the season, which closes the last of May, including one that had been struck by Maquina and escaped, and was afterwards driven on sh.o.r.e about six miles from Nootka in almost a state of putridity.

These afforded but a short supply to a population, including all ages and s.e.xes, of no less than fifteen hundred persons, and of a character so very improvident, that, after feasting most gluttonously whenever a whale was caught, they were several times, for a week together, reduced to the necessity of eating but once a day, and of collecting c.o.c.kles and mussels from the rocks for their food.

And even after the cod and halibut fis.h.i.+ng commenced, in June, in which they met with tolerable success, such was the savage caprice of Maquina, that he would often give us but little to eat, finally ordering us to buy a canoe and fis.h.i.+ng implements and go out ourselves and fish, or we should have nothing. To do this we were compelled to part with our greatcoats, which were not only important to us as garments, but of which we made our beds, spreading them under us when we slept. From our want of skill, however, in this new employ, we met with no success; on discovering which, Maquina ordered us to remain at home.

Another thing, which to me in particular proved an almost constant source of vexation and disgust, and which living among them had not in the least reconciled me to, was their extreme filthiness, not only in eating fish, especially the whale, when in a state of offensive putridity, but while at their meals, of making a practice of taking the vermin from their heads or clothes and eating them, by turns thrusting their fingers into their hair and into the dish, and spreading their garments over the tubs in which the provision was cooking, in order to set in motion their inhabitants.[118]

Fortunately for Thompson, he regarded this much less than myself, and when I used to point out to him any instance of their filthiness in this respect, he would laugh and reply, "Never mind, John, the more good things the better." I must, however, do Maquina the justice to state, that he was much neater both in his person and eating than were the others, as was likewise his queen, owing, no doubt, to his intercourse with foreigners, which had given him ideas of cleanliness, for I never saw either of them eat any of these animals, but, on the contrary, they appeared not much to relish this taste in others. Their garments, also, were much cleaner, Maquina having been accustomed to give his away when they became soiled, till after he discovered that Thompson and myself kept ours clean by was.h.i.+ng them, when he used to make Thompson do the same for him.

Yet amidst this state of endurance and disappointment, in hearing repeatedly of the arrival of s.h.i.+ps at the north and south, most of which proved to be idle reports, while expectation was almost wearied out in looking for them, we did not wholly despond, relying on the mercy of the Supreme Being, to offer up to whom our devotions on the days appointed for His wors.h.i.+p was our chief consolation and support, though we were sometimes obliged, by our taskmasters, to infringe upon the Sabbath, which was to me a source of much regret.

We were, nevertheless, treated at times with much kindness by Maquina, who would give us a plenty of the best that he had to eat, and occasionally, some small present of cloth for a garment, promising me that, if any s.h.i.+p should arrive within a hundred miles of Nootka, he would send a canoe with a letter from me to the captain, so that he might come to our release. These flattering promises and marks of attention were, however, at those times when he thought himself in personal danger from a mutinous spirit, which the scarcity of provisions had excited among the natives, who, like true savages, imputed all their public calamities, of whatever kind, to the misconduct of their chief, or when he was apprehensive of an attack from some of the other tribes, who were irritated with him for cutting off the _Boston_, as it had prevented s.h.i.+ps from coming to trade with them, and were constantly alarming him with idle stories of vessels that were preparing to come against him and exterminate both him and his people.