PROPERTY OF THE NOOTKAS.
Captain Cook found among the Ahts very "strict notions of their having a right to the exclusive property of everything that their country produces," so that they claimed pay for even wood, water, and grass. The limits of tribal property are very clearly defined, but individuals rarely claim any property in land. Houses belong to the men who combine to build them. Private wealth consists of boats and implements for obtaining food, domestic utensils, slaves, and blankets, the latter being generally the standard by which wealth or price is computed. Food is not regarded as common property, yet any man may help himself to his neighbor's store when needy. The accumulation of property beyond the necessities of life is considered desirable only for the purpose of distributing it in presents on great feast-days, and thereby acquiring a reputation for wealth and liberality; and as these feasts occur frequently, an unsuccessful man may often take a fresh start in the race. Instead of being given away, canoes and blankets are often destroyed, which proves that the motive in this disposal of property is not to favor friends, but merely to appear indifferent to wealth. It is certainly a most remarkable custom, and one that exerts a great influence on the whole people. Gifts play an important part in procuring a wife, and a division of property accompanies a divorce. To enter the ranks of the medicine-men or magicians, or to attain rank of any kind, property must be sacrificed; and a man who receives an insult or suffers any affliction must tear up the requisite quantity of blankets and shirts, if he would retain his honor.[296] Trade in all their productions was carried on briskly between the different Nootka tribes before the coming of the whites. They manifest much shrewdness in their exchanges; even their system of presents is a species of trade, the full value of each gift being confidently expected in a return present on the next festive occasion. In their intertribal commerce, a band holding a strong position where trade by canoes between different parts may be stopped, do not fail to offer and enforce the acceptance of their services as middlemen, thereby greatly increasing market prices.[297]
The system of numeration, sufficiently extensive for the largest numbers, is decimal, the numbers to ten having names which are in some instances compounds but not multiples of smaller numbers. The fingers are used to aid in counting. The year is divided into months with some reference to the moon, but chiefly by the fish-seasons, ripening of berries, migrations of birds, and other periodical events, for which the months are named, as: 'when the herrings spawn,' etc. The unit of measure is the span, the fingers representing its fractional parts.[298] The Nootkas display considerable taste in ornamenting with sculpture and paintings their implements and houses, their chief efforts being made on the posts of the latter, and the wooden masks which they wear in war and some of their dances; but all implements may be more or less carved and adorned according to the artist's fancy. They sometimes paint fishing and hunting scenes, but generally their models exist only in imagination, and their works consequently assume unintelligible forms. There seems to be no evidence that their carved images and complicated paintings are in any sense intended as idols or hieroglyphics. A rude system of heraldry prevails among them, by which some animal is adopted as a family crest, and its figure is painted or embroidered on canoes, paddles, or blankets.[299]
NOOTKA ART AND GOVERNMENT.
To the Nootka system of government the terms patriarchal, hereditary, and feudal have been applied. There is no confederation, each tribe being independent of all the rest, except as powerful tribes are naturally dominant over the weak. In each tribe the head chief's rank is hereditary by the male line; his grandeur is displayed on great occasions, when, decked in all his finery, he is the central figure. At the frequently recurring feasts of state he occupies the seat of honor; presides at all councils of the tribe, and is respected and highly honored by all; but has no real authority over any but his slaves. Between the chief, or king, and the people is a nobility, in number about one fourth of the whole tribe, composed of several grades, the highest being partially hereditary, but also, as are all the lower grades, obtainable by feats of valor or great liberality. All chieftains must be confirmed by the tribe, and some of them appointed by the king; each man's rank is clearly defined in the tribe, and corresponding privileges strictly insisted on. There are chiefs who have full authority in warlike expeditions. Harpooners also form a privileged class, whose rank is handed down from father to son. This somewhat complicated system of government nevertheless sits lightly, since the people are neither taxed nor subjected to any laws, nor interfered with in their actions. Still, long-continued custom serves as law and marks out the few duties and privileges of the Nootka citizen. Stealing is not common except from strangers; and offenses requiring punishment are usually avenged—or pardoned in consideration of certain blankets received—by the injured parties and their friends, the chiefs seeming to have little or nothing to do in the matter.[300]
NOOTKA SLAVERY AND MARRIAGE.
Slavery is practiced by all the tribes, and the slave-trade forms an important part of their commerce. Slaves are about the only property that must not be sacrificed to acquire the ever-desired reputation for liberality. Only rich men—according to some authorities only the nobles—may hold slaves. War and kidnapping supply the slave-market, and no captive, whatever his rank in his own tribe, can escape this fate, except by a heavy ransom offered soon after he is taken, and before his whereabouts becomes unknown to his friends. Children of slaves, whose fathers are never known, are forever slaves. The power of the owner is arbitrary and unlimited over the actions and life of the slave, but a cruel exercise of his power seems of rare occurrence, and, save the hard labor required, the material condition of the slave is but little worse than that of the common free people, since he is sheltered by the same roof and partakes of the same food as his master. Socially the slave is despised; his hair is cut short, and his very name becomes a term of reproach. Female slaves are prostituted for hire, especially in the vicinity of white settlements. A runaway slave is generally seized and resold by the first tribe he meets.[301]
THE NOOTKA FAMILY.
The Nootka may have as many wives as he can buy, but as prices are high, polygamy is practically restricted to the chiefs, who are careful not to form alliances with families beneath them in rank. Especially particular as to rank are the chiefs in choosing their first wife, always preferring the daughters of noble families of another tribe. Courtship consists in an offer of presents by the lover to the girl's father, accompanied generally by lengthy speeches of friends on both sides, extolling the value of the man and his gift, and the attractions of the bride. After the bargain is concluded, a period of feasting follows if the parties are rich, but this is not necessary as a part of the marriage ceremony. Betrothals are often made by parents while the parties are yet children, mutual deposits of blankets and other property being made as securities for the fulfillment of the contract, which is rarely broken. Girls marry at an average age of sixteen. The common Nootka obtains his one bride from his own rank also by a present of blankets, much more humble than that of his rich neighbor, and is assisted in his overtures by perhaps a single friend instead of being followed by the whole tribe. Courtship among this class is not altogether without the attentions which render it so charming in civilized life; as when the fond girl lovingly caresses and searches her lover's head, always giving him the fattest of her discoveries. Wives are not ill treated, and although somewhat overworked, the division of labor is not so oppressive as among many Indian tribes. Men build houses, make boats and implements, hunt and fish; women prepare the fish and game for winter use, cook, manufacture cloth and clothing, and increase the stock of food by gathering berries and shell-fish; and most of this work among the richer class is done by slaves. Wives are consulted in matters of trade, and in fact seem to be nearly on terms of equality with their husbands, except that they are excluded from some public feasts and ceremonies. There is much reason to suppose that before the advent of the whites, the Nootka wife was comparatively faithful to her lord, that chastity was regarded as a desirable female quality, and offenses against it severely punished. The females so freely brought on board the vessels of early voyagers and offered to the men, were perhaps slaves, who are everywhere prostituted for gain, so that the fathers of their children are never known. Women rarely have more than two or three children, and cease bearing at about twenty-five, frequently preventing the increase of their family by abortions. Pregnancy and childbirth affect them but little. The male child is named at birth, but his name is afterwards frequently changed. He is suckled by the mother until three or four years old, and at an early age begins to learn the arts of fishing by which he is to live. Children are not quarrelsome among themselves, and are regarded by both parents with some show of affection and pride. Girls at puberty are closely confined for several days, and given a little water but no food; they are kept particularly from the sun or fire, to see either of which at this period would be a lasting disgrace. At such times feasts are given by the parents. Divorces or separations may be had at will by either party, but a strict division of property and return of betrothal presents is expected, the woman being allowed not only the property she brought her husband, and articles manufactured by her in wedlock, but a certain proportion of the common wealth. Such property as belongs to the father and is not distributed in gifts during his life, or destroyed at his death, is inherited by the eldest son.[302]
From the middle of November to the middle of January, is the Nootka season of mirth and festivity, when nearly the whole time is occupied with public and private gaiety. Their evenings are privately passed by the family group within doors in conversation, singing, joking, boasting of past exploits, personal and tribal, and teasing the women until bed-time, when one by one they retire to rest in the same blankets worn during the day.[303] Swimming and trials of strength by hooking together the little fingers, or scuffling for a prize, seem to be the only out-door amusements indulged in by adults, while the children shoot arrows and hurl spears at grass figures of birds and fishes, and prepare themselves for future conflicts by cutting off the heads of imaginary enemies modeled in mud.[304] To gambling the Nootkas are passionately addicted, but their games are remarkably few and uniform. Small bits of wood compose their entire paraphernalia, sometimes used like dice, when the game depends on the side turned up; or passed rapidly from hand to hand, when the gamester attempts to name the hand containing the trump stick; or again concealed in dust spread over a blanket and moved about by one player that the rest may guess its location. In playing they always form a circle seated on the ground, and the women rarely if ever join the game.[305] They indulge in smoking, the only pipes of their own manufacture being of plain cedar, filled now with tobacco by those who can afford it, but in which they formerly smoked, as it is supposed, the leaves of a native plant—still mixed with tobacco to lessen its intoxicating properties. The pipe is passed round after a meal, but seems to be less used in serious ceremonies than among eastern Indian nations.[306]