Before leaving this part of the world, we will cast a brief glance at the tribes which inhabit Vancouver’s Island. They are singularly interesting, inasmuch as they combine some of the habits which distinguish the Esquimaux with others of the North American tribes, and add to them several of the customs which have been already noticed among the Polynesians, their insular position and peculiar climate no doubt affording the cause for this curious mixture.
As a type of these tribes, we will take the Ahts, though other tribes will be casually mentioned. The Ahts may rather be called a nation than a tribe, being divided into some twenty tribes, the names of which all end in “aht,” as, for example, Ohyaht, Muchlaht, Ayhuttisaht, Toquaht, etc. Altogether they number about seventeen hundred. They do not, however, act together as a nation, and each tribe is perfectly distinct, and often at war with another.
They are not a tall people, the men averaging a little less than five feet six inches, and the women being just above five feet. Possibly, from the continual paddling which they practise almost from childhood, the upper limbs of an Aht are exceedingly strong, so strong, indeed, that a slight-looking native can carry with ease on his extended fingers a weight which a white man can scarcely lift. Their power of grasp, probably from the same cause, is more like the grip of a machine than the grasp of a man; and those who have had to fight with them have found that if once an Aht be allowed to seize either the clothing or the hair, the only way to loosen his grasp is to knock him down with a blow in the throat or in the ribs—he cares nothing for a blow on the head.
When he comes to such close quarters in a quarrel, he has an awkward habit of grasping the enemy with one hand, and using with the other a knife which he has kept concealed in his long hair. Fortunately for his white opponent, so extraordinary a proceeding as a blow from the fist, which deprives him for a time of breath, bewilders and alarms him to such an extent that he seldom risks its repetition.
The legs of the Aht tribes are, as a rule, short, ill-made, bowed, and apparently deficient in power. This peculiarity is especially noticeable in the women, whose legs are so bowed, and whose toes are so turned inward, that they waddle rather than walk, and at every step they are obliged to cross their feet as a parrot does. The legs of the inland tribes are, as a rule, better developed than those of the inhabitants of the coast. Yet these unsightly limbs are by no means deficient in power. An Aht, powerfully built above, will step out of his canoe, and exhibit a pair of legs scarcely as thick as his arms, and yet he will walk in the woods for a whole day without showing any signs of fatigue.
Owing to this form of limb, the natives, though enduring enough, are not swift of foot, and can be easily overtaken by a white man on the open ground, notwithstanding the impediments of clothing, and especially of shoes, which hinder the progress of the pursuer, the pursued usually throwing off the only garment that he wears. Should he once reach the woods, pursuit is useless, as no white man can follow a naked native in them.
The color of the Ahts is a dull, but not dark, brown. Their face is broad and flat, the nose tolerably well formed when it is not dragged out of shape by rings and other ornaments, and the cheek-bones are strongly marked and broad, but not high. There is very little hair on the faces of the men, but that of the head is long, straight, and is generally allowed to hang loosely over the shoulders, though it is sometimes gathered into a knot at the back of the head, merely covered by a cap or a wreath of grass. They are very proud of their hair, so that when an Aht has been guilty of some offence which is not very serious, the best punishment is to cut off his hair, inasmuch as he will be an object of constant ridicule until it has grown again. The women divide their hair in the middle, and tie it in two plaits, one of which hangs at each side of the face, and often has a piece of lead suspended to the end to keep it straight. Mr. Sproat thinks that the physical characteristics of the Ahts have been modified by means of a large importation of Chinese, which took place about the end of the last century, and remarks that the peculiar Chinese eye is sometimes seen among these natives. Still, even if this be the fact, the modification can be but slight, as both people are undoubtedly members of the same great race, though altered by the conditions in which they have respectively been placed.
Some of the women have a hideously ugly ornament which they wear in their under lip, just as do the Botocudos of Tropical America. This practice exists only among the northern tribes, where it is carried out to an enormous extent. As the size of the ornament is gradually increased from childhood, the lip of an old woman will contain an oval ornament three inches long by two wide. There is a shallow groove round the edge so as to keep it in its place, and both sides are slightly concave. Sometimes it is used as a spoon, the woman putting on it a piece of meat that is too hot, and, when it is cool, turning it into her mouth by a contraction of the lip.
The value that is set upon this horrible disfigurement is almost ludicrous, a woman’s rank being due to the size of her lip ornament. Possibly, on account of the long time which must be occupied in stretching the orifice in the lip to the required size, the opinion of a woman with a large lip is always held in respect; and, if she should be opposed by a younger person of her own sex, she will contemptuously decline to enter into argument with a woman who has so small a lip. Some of them wear a shell ornament, like the stem of a clay tobacco-pipe, one or two inches long, stuck through the lip and projecting forward at a considerable angle with the chin. This ornament is called the hai-qua.
As for clothing, the men wear a sort of robe made by themselves, for which they have in later days substituted an European blanket. They are not at all particular as to the disposal of this robe, and even if it should fall off do not trouble themselves. The women also wear the blanket, but always have a small apron in addition to it. In their canoes they wear a cape. It is made of cedar-bark string, and is woven in nearly the same manner as the mat of the New Zealander, which has already been described; namely, by stretching the warp threads parallel to each other on a frame, and tying them together at intervals with a cross-thread which represents the woof. A specimen in my collection has the cross-threads at intervals of half an inch.