The Native Races [of the Pacific states], Volume 1, Wild Tribes. Hubert Howe Bancroft
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etiquette requires the recipient to snatch it rudely from the donor with a stern and surly look.313
Among the miscellaneous customs noticed by the different authorities already quoted, may be mentioned the following. Daily bathing in the sea is practiced, the vapor-bath not being used. Children are rolled in the snow by their mothers to make them hardy. Camps and other property are moved from place to place by piling them on a plank platform built across the canoes. Whymper saw Indians near Bute Inlet carrying burdens on the back by a strap across the forehead. In a fight they rarely strike but close and depend on pulling hair and scratching; a chance blow must be made up by a present. Invitations to eat must not be declined, no matter how often repeated. Out of doors there is no native gesture of salutation, but in the houses a guest is motioned politely to a couch; guests are held sacred, and great ceremonies are performed at the reception of strangers; all important events are announced by heralds. Friends sometimes saunter along hand in hand. A secret society, independent of tribe, family, or crest, is supposed by Sproat to exist among them, but its purposes are unknown. In a palaver with whites the orator holds a long white pole in his hand, which he sticks occasionally into the ground by way of emphasis. An animal chosen as a crest must not be shot or ill-treated in the presence of any wearing its figure; boys recite portions of their elders' speeches as declamations; names are changed many times during life, at the will of the individual or of the tribe.
In sorcery, witchcraft, prophecy, dreams, evil spirits, and the transmigration of souls, the Nootkas are firm believers, and these beliefs enable the numerous sorcerers of different grades to acquire great power in the tribes by their strange ridiculous ceremonies. Most of their tricks are transparent, being deceptions worked by the aid of confederates to keep up their power; but, as in all religions, the votary must have some faith in the efficacy of their incantations. The sorcerer, before giving a special demonstration, retires apart to meditate. After spending some time alone in the forests and mountains, fasting and lacerating the flesh, he appears suddenly before the tribe, emaciated, wild with excitement, clad in a strange costume, grotesquely painted, and wearing a hideous mask. The scenes that ensue are indescribable, but the aim seems to be to commit all the wild freaks that a maniac's imagination may devise, accompanied by the most unearthly yells which can terrorize the heart. Live dogs and dead human bodies are seized and torn by their teeth; but, at least in later times, they seem not to attack the living, and their performances are somewhat less horrible and bloody than the wild orgies of the northern tribes. The sorcerer is thought to have more influence with bad spirits than with good, and is always resorted to in the case of any serious misfortune. New members of the fraternity are initiated into the mysteries by similar ceremonies. Old women are not without their traditional mysterious powers in matters of prophecy and witchcraft; and all chiefs in times of perplexity practice fasting and laceration. Dreams are believed to be the visits of spirits or of the wandering soul of some living party, and the unfortunate Nootka boy or girl whose blubber-loaded stomach causes uneasy dreams, must be properly hacked, scorched, smothered, and otherwise tormented until the evil spirit is appeased.314 Whether or not these people were cannibals, is a disputed question, but there seems to be little doubt that slaves have been sacrificed and eaten as a part of their devilish rites.315
The Nootkas are generally a long-lived race, and from the beginning to the failing of manhood undergo little change in appearance. Jewitt states that during his captivity of three years at Nootka Sound, only five natural deaths occurred, and the people suffered scarcely any disease except the colic. Sproat mentions as the commonest diseases; bilious complaints, dysentery, a consumption which almost always follows syphilis, fevers, and among the aged, ophthalmia. Accidental injuries, as cuts, bruises, sprains, and broken limbs, are treated with considerable success by means of simple salves or gums, cold water, pine-bark bandages, and wooden splints. Natural pains and maladies are invariably ascribed to the absence or other irregular conduct of the soul, or to the influence of evil spirits, and all treatment is directed to the recall of the former and to the appeasing of the latter. Still, so long as the ailment is slight, simple means are resorted to, and the patient is kindly cared for by the women; as when headache, colic, or rheumatism is treated by the application of hot or cold water, hot ashes, friction, or the swallowing of cold teas made from various roots and leaves. Nearly every disease has a specific for its cure. Oregon grape and other herbs cure syphilis; wasp-nest powder is a tonic, and blackberries an astringent; hemlock bark forms a plaster, and dog-wood bark is a strengthener; an infusion of young pine cones or the inside scrapings of a human skull prevent too rapid family increase, while certain plants facilitate abortion. When a sickness becomes serious, the sorcerer or medicine-man is called in and incantations begin, more or less noisy according to the amount of the prospective fee and the number of relatives and friends who join in the uproar. A very poor wretch is permitted to die in comparative quiet. In difficult cases the doctor, wrought up to the highest state of excitement, claims to see and hear the soul, and to judge of the patient's prospects by its position and movements. The sick man shows little fortitude, and abandons himself helplessly to the doctor's ridiculous measures. Failing in a cure, the physician gets no pay, but if successful, does not fail to make a large demand. Both the old and the helplessly sick are frequently abandoned by the Ahts to die without aid in the forest.316
After death the Nootka's body is promptly put away; a slave's body is unceremoniously thrown into the water; that of a freeman, is placed in a crouching posture, their favorite one during life, in a deep wooden box, or in a canoe, and suspended from the branches of a tree, deposited on the ground with a covering of sticks and stones, or, more rarely, buried. Common people are usually left on the surface; the nobility are suspended from trees at heights differing, as some authorities say, according to rank. The practice of burning the dead seems also to have been followed in some parts of this region. Each tribe has a burying-ground chosen on some hill-side or small island. With chiefs, blankets, skins, and other property in large amounts are buried, hung up about the grave, or burned during the funeral ceremonies, which are not complicated except for the highest officials. The coffins are often ornamented with carvings or paintings of the deceased man's crest, or with rows of shells. When a death occurs, the women of the tribe make a general howl, and keep it up at intervals for many days or months; the men, after a little speech-making, keep silent. The family and friends, with blackened faces and hair cut short, follow the body to its last resting-place with music and other manifestations of sorrow, generally terminating in a feast. There is great reluctance to explain their funeral usages to strangers; death being regarded by this people with great superstition and dread, not from solicitude for the welfare of the dead, but from a belief in the power of departed spirits to do much harm to the living.317
The Nootka character presents all the inconsistencies observable among other American aborigines, since there is hardly a good or bad trait that has not by some observer been ascribed to them. Their idiosyncrasies as a race are perhaps best given by Sproat as "want of observation, a great deficiency of foresight, extreme fickleness in their passions and purposes, habitual suspicion, and a love of power and display; added to which may be noticed their ingratitude and revengeful disposition, their readiness for war, and revolting indifference to human suffering." These qualities, judged by civilized standards censurable, to the Nootka are praiseworthy, while contrary qualities are to be avoided. By a strict application, therefore, of 'put yourself in his place' principles, to which most 'good Indians' owe their reputation, Nootka character must not be too harshly condemned. They are not, so far as physical actions are concerned, a remarkably lazy people, but their minds, although intelligent when aroused, are averse to effort and quickly fatigued; nor can they comprehend the advantage of continued effort for any future good which is at all remote. What little foresight they have, has much in common with the instinct of beasts. Ordinarily, they are quiet and well behaved, especially the higher classes, but when once roused to anger, they rage, bite, spit and kick without the slightest attempt at self-possession. A serious offense against an individual, although nominally pardoned in consideration
'I have seen the sorcerers at work a hundred times, but they use so many charms, which appear to me ridiculous, – they sing, howl, and gesticulate in so extravagant a manner, and surround their office with such dread and mystery, – that I am quite unable to describe their performances,' pp. 169-70. 'An unlucky dream will stop a sale, a treaty, a fishing, hunting, or war expedition,' p. 175.
They brought for sale 'human skulls, and hands not yet quite stripped of the flesh, which they made our people plainly understand they had eaten; and, indeed, some of them had evident marks that they had been upon the fire.'
'Rheumatism and paralysis are rare maladies.' Syphilis is probably indigenous. Amputation, blood-letting, and metallic medicine not employed. Medicines to produce love are numerous. 'Young and old of both sexes are exposed when afflicted with lingering disease.'
The custom of burning or burying property is wholly confined to chiefs. 'Night is their time for interring the dead.' Buffoon tricks, with a feast and dance, formed part of the ceremony.