Metlakahtla and the North Pacific Mission of the Church Missionary Society. Eugene Stock
to eight hundred yards were thus disposed of.
"After all the property the chief is to receive has thus been openly handed to him, a day or two is taken up in apportioning it for fresh owners. When this is done, all the chiefs and their families are called together, and each receives according to his or her portion. Thus do the chiefs and their people go on reducing themselves to poverty. In the case of the chiefs, however, this poverty lasts but a short time; they are soon replenished from the next giving away, but the people only grow rich again according to their industry. One cannot but pity them, while one laments their folly.
"All the pleasure these poor Indians seem to have in their property is in hoarding it up for such an occasion as I have described. They never think of appropriating what they gather to enhance their comforts, but are satisfied if they can make a display like this now and then; so that the man possessing but one blanket seems to be as well off as the one who possesses twenty; and thus it is that there is a vast amount of dead stock accumulated in the camp doomed never to be used, but only now and then to be transferred from hand to hand for the mere vanity of the thing.
"There is another way, however, in which property is disposed of even more foolishly. If a person be insulted, or meet with an accident, or in any way suffer an injury, real or supposed, either of mind or body, property must at once be sacrificed to avoid disgrace. A number of blankets, shirts, or cotton, according to the rank of the person, are torn, into small pieces and carried off."
The religion of the Tsimsheans is thus described:—
"The Tsimsheans, I find, believe in two states after death: the one good, and the other, bad; the morally good are translated to the one, and the morally bad are doomed to the other. The locality of the former they think to be above, and that of the latter is somewhere beneath. The enjoyment of heaven and the privations of hell they understand to be carnal. They do not suppose the wicked to be destitute of food any more than they were here, but they are treated as slaves and are badly clothed.
"The idea they entertain of God is that He is a great chief. They call Him by the same term as they do their chiefs, only adding the word for above—thus, 'shimanyet' is chief, and 'lakkah' above: and hence the name of God with them is Shimanyet Lakkah. They believe that the Supreme Being never dies: that He takes great notice of what is going on amongst men, and is frequently angry, and punishes offenders. They do not know who is the author of the universe, nor do they expect that God is the author of their own being. They have no fixed ideas about these things, I fully believe; still they frequently appeal to God in trouble; they ask for pity and deliverance. In great extremities of sickness they address God, saying it is not good for them to die.
"Sometimes, when calamities are prolonged or thicken, they get enraged against God, and vent their anger against Him, raising their eyes and hands in savage anger to Heaven, and stamping their feet on the ground. They will reiterate language which means 'You are a great slave!'"
A very curious tradition respecting the first appearance of white men on the coast was related some years ago to Mr. Duncan by an old chief:—
"A large canoe of Indians were busy catching halibut in one of these channels. A thick mist enveloped them. Suddenly they heard a noise as if a large animal was striking through the water. Immediately they concluded that a monster from the deep was in pursuit of them. With all speed they hauled up their fishing lines, seized the paddles, and strained every nerve to reach the shore. Still the plunging noise came nearer. Every minute they expected to be engulfed within the jaws of some huge creature. However, they reached the land, jumped on shore, and turned round in breathless anxiety to watch the approach of the monster. Soon a boat, filled with strange-looking men, emerged from the mist The pulling of the oars had caused the strange noise. Though somewhat relieved of fear, the Indians stood spell bound with amazement. The strangers landed, and beckoned the Indians to come to them and bring them some fish. One of them had over his shoulder what was supposed only to be a stick, presently he pointed it to a bird that was flying past, a violent poo went forth, down came the bird to the ground. The Indians died. As they revived again they questioned each other as to their state, whether they were dead, and what each had felt. The whites then made signs for a fire to be lighted. The Indians proceeded at once, according to their usual tedious fashion of rubbing two sticks together. The strangers laughed, and one of them, snatching up a handful of dry grass, struck a spark into a little powder placed under it. Instantly flashed another poo and a blaze. The Indians died. After this the new comers wanted some fish boiling. The Indians therefore put the fish and water into one of their square wooden buckets, and set some stones in the fire, intending when they were hot, to cast them into the vessel, and thus boil the food The whites were not satisfied with this way. One of them fetched a tin kettle out of the boat, put the fish and the water into it, and then, strange to say, set it on the fire. The Indians looked on with astonishment. However, the kettle did not consume, the water did not run into the fire Then, again, the Indians died. When the fish was eaten, the strangers put a kettle of rice on the fire. The Indians looked at each other and whispered, 'Akshahn, akshahn,' or 'Maggots, maggots.' The rice being cooked, some molasses were produced and mixed with it. The Indians stared, and said, 'Coutzee um tsakah ahket,' or 'The grease of dead people.' The whites then tendered the rice and molasses to the Indians, but they only shrank away in disgust. Seeing this, to prove their integrity, they sat down and enjoyed it themselves. The sight stunned the Indians, and again they all died. Some other similar wonders were worked, and the profound stupor which the Indians felt each time come over them they termed death. The Indians' turn had now come to make the white strangers die. They dressed their heads and painted their faces A nok nok, or wonder working spirit possessed them. They came slowly, and solemnly seated themselves before the whites, then suddenly lifted up their heads and stared. Their reddened eyes had the desired effect. The whites died."
Among the Indians of British, Columbia no Protestant Missionary had laboured prior to 1857. Some Roman Catholic priests, however, had been in the country, and of them Captain Mayne writes:—[Footnote: "Four Years in British Columbia," p. 305.]
"If the opinion of the Hudson's Bay people of the interior is to be relied upon, the Roman Catholic priests effected no real change in the condition of the natives. The sole result of their residence among them was, that the Indians who had been brought under their influence had imbibed some notions of the Deity, almost as vague as their own traditions, and a superstitious respect for the priests themselves, which they showed by crossing themselves devoutly whenever they met one. Occasionally, too, might be seen in their lodges, pictures purporting to represent the roads to Heaven and to Hell, in which there was no single suggestion of the danger of vice and crime, but a great deal of the peril of Protestantism. These coloured prints were certainly curious in their way, and worth a passing notice. They were large, and gave a pictorial history of the human race, from the time when Adam and Eve wandered in the garden together, down to the Reformation. Here the one broad road was split into two, whose courses diverged more and more painfully. By one way the Roman Catholic portion of the world were seen trooping to bliss; the other ended in a steep bottomless precipice over which the Protestants might be seen falling. [Footnote: A fac-simile of a similar picture appeared in the Church Missionary Gleaner, of March, 1880.] Upon the more sensible and advanced of the Indians, teaching such as this had little effect. I remember the chief of the Shuswap tribe, at Kamloops, pointing out to me such an illustration hanging on his wall, and laughingly saying, in a tone that showed quite plainly how little credence he attached to it, 'There are you and your people,' putting his finger as he spoke on the figures tumbling into the pit."
"Of such kind was the only instruction that the Indiana had received prior to 1857. Its influence was illustrated in that year at Victoria, where a Roman Catholic Bishop and several priests had been resident for some time, and were known to have exerted themselves among the Songhie Indians who reside there. A cross had been raised in their village, and some of them had been baptized; but when these were called before the bishop for confirmation, they refused to come unless a greater present of blankets was made to them than had been given at their baptism. The bishop was said to have been very angry with the priests when this came to his knowledge; he having very possibly been deceived by them as to the condition of the Indians. I am informed that he had a large heart painted upon canvas, through which be drew a blanket, and represented