light-house at
Cape Flattery. They camped for two weeks on the beach, and we went often
to see them. Having led such an isolated life on their islands,
surrounded by rough water, and hardly known to white men, they have
preserved many peculiarities of their tribe, and are quite different in
their looks and habits from the Indians of Puget Sound. Some of the old
women had a little piece of bone or pearl shell stuck through the lower
lip, which gave them a very barbarous appearance; but in many ways the
men had more knowledge of arts and manufactures than any other Indians
we have seen. They showed us some ornaments of chased silver, which they
offered for sale; also bottle-shaped baskets, made of roots and bark, so
closely woven together as to hold water. But most curious to us were
some little black, polished columns, about a foot high, that looked like
ebony. They were covered with carvings, very skilfully executed. When we
took them into our hands, we were surprised at their weight, and found
that they were made of a fine, black coal-slate. A man who stood by
explained to us that this slate is a peculiar product of their islands.
When first quarried, it is so soft as to be easily cut; and when
afterward rubbed with oil, and exposed to the air, it becomes intensely
hard. At the foot of the column was the bear, who guards the entrance of
their lodges; at the top, the crow, who presides over every thing. On
some were frogs and lizards. One was surmounted by the "thunder-bird," a
mythological combination of man and bird, who lives among the mountains.
When he sails out from them, the sky is darkened; and the flapping of
his wings makes the thunder, and the winking of his eyes the lightning.
It is very strange that the "thunder-bird" should be one of the deities
of the Indians of the North-west, where thunder is so rare as to be
phenomenal. We heard of him in other parts of British Columbia, and see
him represented in carvings from Sitka. Tatoosh Island, off Cape
Flattery, where the Makah Indians live, derives its name from
_Tootootche_, the Nootka name for the "thunder-bird." The Makahs
originally came from the west coast of Vancouver's Island. They deem
themselves much superior to the tribes of the interior, because they go
out on the ocean. Their home being on the rocky coast islands, they
naturally look to the water to secure their living. Their chief business
is to hunt the whale, they being the only Indians who engage