BOURGEOIS - Toronto Public Library

JOURNAL 197
present of white shells. I gave the Chief in return a calico gown
for which he was thankful.
The Indians entertained us with songs and dances of various
descriptions; the Chief stood in the centre of the dance or ring
giving directions while others were beating the drum against
the wall of the house and making a terrible racket. This noise
alarmed our men who were at a distance and they came to see
what was the cause of it.
The Indians, who had favored us with a passage to this place,
went off with their canoes, and we had to look out for others,
but none could be had for any consideration; at last the Chief
consented to lend us his large canoe and to accompany llS himself.
The number of Indians at this place was about two hundred,
who had appeared at first view to be fair, but we discovered
afterwards that they made use of white paint to alter their real
appearance. They evinced no kind of surprise or curiosity at
seeing us, nor were they afraid of our arms, so that the:y must
have seen white people before f.rom below.
Their houses are built of cedar planks and, in shape, similar A house
640 feet
to the one already described; the whole range, whieh is six long.
hundred and forty feeL long by sixty broad, is under one roof;
the front is eighteen feet high and the covering is slanting: all
the appartements, which are separated by partitiqns, are square,
except the chief's, which is ninety feet long. In this room, the
posts or pillars are nearly three feet diameter at the base and
diminish gradually to the top. In one of these posts is an oval
opening answering the purpose of a door through which one
man may crawl in or out. Above, on t,he outside, are carved a
human figure as large as life, with other figures in imitat.ion of
beasts and birds.
These buildings have no flooring, the fires are in the center
and the smoke goes ont by an opening at the top. The tombs