cleanly. But they
seem to have no idea of cleanliness; for they eat the roots which
they dig from the ground, without so much as shaking off the soil that
adheres to them.

We are uncertain if they have any set time for meals; for we have seen
them eat at all hours in their canoes. And yet, from seeing several
messes of the porpoise broth preparing toward noon, when we visited
the village, I should suspect that they make a principal meal about
that time.

Their weapons are bows and arrows, slings, spears, short truncheons
of bone, somewhat like the _patoo patoo_ of New Zealand, and a small
pick-axe, not unlike the common American _tomahawk_. The spear has
generally a long point, made of bone. Some of the arrows are pointed
with iron; but most commonly their points were of indented bone. The
tomahawk is a stone, six or eight inches long, pointed at one end, and
the other end fixed into a handle of wood. This handle resembles
the head and neck of the human figure; and the stone is fixed in the
mouth, so as to represent an enormously large tongue. To make the
resemblance still stronger, human hair is also fixed to it. This
weapon they call _taaweesh_, or _tsuskeeah_. They have another stone
weapon called _seeaik_, nine inches or a foot long, with a square
point.

From the number of stone weapons and others, we might almost conclude,
that it is their custom to engage in close fight; and we had too
convincing proofs that their wars are both frequent and bloody, from
the vast number of human sculls which they brought to sell.

Their manufactures and mechanic arts are far more extensive and
ingenious, whether we regard the design or the execution, than could
have been expected from the natural disposition of the people, and
the little progress that civilization has made amongst them in other
respects. The flaxen and woollen garments, with which they cover
themselves, must necessarily engage their first care; and are the most
material of those that can be racked under the head of manufactures.
The former of these are made of the bark of a pine-tree, beat into a
hempen state. It is not spun, but, after being properly prepared, is
spread upon a stick, which is fastened across to two others that stand
upright. It is disposed in such a manner, that the manufacturer, who
sits on her hams at this simple machine, knots it across with small
plaited threads, at the distance of half an inch from each other.
Though, by this method,