The two towns or villages mentioned in the course of my Journal seem to be the only inhabited parts of the sound. The number of inhabitants in both might be pretty exactly computed from the canoes that were about the ships the second day after our arrival. They amounted to about a hundred, which, at a very moderate allowance, must, upon an average, have held five persons each; but, as there were scarcely any women, very old men, children, or youths amongst them at that time, I think it will be rather rating the number of the inhabitants of the two towns too low, if we suppose they could be less than four times the number of our visitors, that is, two thousand in the whole.
The village at the entrance of the sound stands on the side of a rising ground, which has a pretty steep ascent from the beach to the verge of the wood in which space it is situated.
The houses are disposed in three ranges or rows, rising gradually behind each other, the largest being that in front and the others less; besides a few straggling or single ones at each end. These ranges are interrupted or disjoined at irregular distances by narrow paths or lanes that pass upward; but those which run in the direction of the houses between the rows are much broader. Though there be some appearance of regularity in this disposition, there is none in the single houses; for each of the divisions made by the paths may be considered either as one house or as many, there being no regular or complete separation, either without or within, to distinguish them by. They are built of very long and broad planks[[44]], resting upon the edges of each other, fastened or tied by withes of pine-bark here and there, and have only slender posts, or rather poles, at considerable distances on the outside, to which they are also tied; but within are some larger poles placed aslant. The height of the sides and ends of these habitations is seven or eight feet, but the back part is a little higher, by which means the planks that compose the roof, slant forward, and are laid on loose, so as to be moved about, either to be put close to exclude the rain, or in fair weather to be separated, to let in the light, and carry out the smoke. They are, however, upon the whole, miserable dwellings, and constructed with little care or ingenuity. For though the side-planks be made to fit pretty closely in some places, in others they are quite open, and there are no regular doors into them, the only way of entrance being either by a hole where the unequal length of the planks has accidentally left an opening, or, in some cases, planks are made to pass a little beyond each other, or overlap, about two feet asunder, and the entrance is in this space. There are also holes or windows in the sides of the houses to look out at; but without any regularity of shape or disposition, and these have bits of mat hung before them to prevent the rain getting in.
On the inside, one may frequently see from one end to the other of these ranges of buildings without interruption. For though in general there be the rudiments, or rather vestiges, of separations on each side, for the accommodation of different families, they are such as do not intercept the sight, and often consist of no more than pieces of plank, running from the side toward the middle of the house, so that if they were complete, the whole might be compared to a long stable with a double range of stalls, and a broad passage in the middle. Close to the sides in each of these parts is a little bench of boards, raised five or six inches higher than the rest of the floor, and covered with mats, on which the family sit and sleep. These benches are commonly seven or eight feet long and four or five broad. In the middle of the floor, between them is the fire-place, which has neither hearth nor chimney. In one house, which was in the end of a middle range, almost quite separated from the rest by a high close partition, and the most regular as to design of any that I saw, there were four of these benches, each of which held a single family at a corner, but without any separation by boards; and the middle part of the house appeared common to them all.
Their furniture consists chiefly of a great number of chests and boxes of all sizes, which are generally piled upon each other close to the sides or ends of the house, and contain their spare garments, skins, masks, and other things which they set a value upon. Some of these are double, or one covers the other as a lid, others have a lid fastened with thongs, and some of the very large ones have a square hole, or scuttle, cut in the upper part, by which the things are put in and taken out. They are often painted black, studded with the teeth of different animals, or carved with a kind of frieze-work and figures of birds or animals as decorations. Their other domestic utensils are mostly square and oblong pails or buckets to hold water and other things, round wooden cups and bowls, and small shallow wooden troughs about two feet long, out of which they eat their food, and baskets of twigs, bags of matting, &c. Their fishing implements and other things also, lie or hang up in different parts of the house, but without the least order, so that the whole is a complete scene of confusion; and the only places that do not partake of this confusion are the sleeping-benches, that have nothing on them but the mats, which are also cleaner or of a finer sort than those they commonly have to sit on in their boats.
The nastiness and stench of their houses are, however, at least equal to the confusion; for, as they dry their fish within doors, they also gut them there, which, with their bones and fragments thrown down at meals, and the addition of other sorts of filth, lie every where in heaps, and are, I believe, never carried away till it becomes troublesome, from their size, to walk over them. In a word, their houses are as filthy as hog-sties, every thing in and about them stinking of fish, train-oil, and smoke.
But, amidst all the filth and confusion that are found in the houses, many of them are decorated with images. These are nothing more than the trunks of very large trees four or five feet high, set up singly or by pairs at the upper end of the apartment, with the front carved into a human face, the arms and hands cut out upon the sides and variously painted; so that the whole is a truly monstrous figure. The general name of these images is Klumma, and the names of two particular ones which stood abreast of each other, three or four feet asunder in one of the houses, were Natchkoa and Matseeta. Mr. Webber’s view of the inside of a Nootka house in which these images are represented, will convey a more perfect idea of them than any description. A mat, by way of curtain, for the most part hung before them, which the natives were not willing at all times to remove; and when they did unveil them, they seemed to speak of them in a very mysterious manner. It should seem that they are at times accustomed to make offerings to them, if we can draw this inference from their desiring us, as we interpreted their signs, to give something to these images when they drew aside the mats that covered them.[[45]] It was natural, from these circumstances, for us to think that they were representatives of their gods, or symbols of some religious or superstitious object; and yet we had proofs of the little real estimation they were in, for with a small quantity of iron or brass, I could have purchased all the gods (if their images were such) in the place. I did not see one that was not offered to me; and I actually got two or three of the very smallest sort.
The chief employment of the men seems to be that of fishing and killing land or sea animals for the sustenance of their families, for we saw few of them doing any thing in the houses; whereas the women were occupied in manufacturing their flaxen or woollen garments, and in preparing the sardines for drying, which they also carry up from the beach in twig baskets, after the men have brought them in their canoes. The women are also sent in the small canoes to gather muscles and other shell-fish, and perhaps on some other occasions, for they manage these with as much dexterity as the men, who, when in the canoes with them, seem to pay little attention to their sex, by offering to relieve them from the labour of the paddle; nor, indeed, do they treat them with any particular respect or tenderness in other situations. The young men appeared to be the most indolent or idle set in this community, for they were either sitting about in scattered companies, to bask themselves in the sun, or lay wallowing in the sand upon the beach like a number of hogs, for the same purpose, without any covering. But this disregard of decency was confined to the men. The women were always properly clothed, and behaved with the utmost propriety, justly deserving all commendation for a bashfulness and modesty becoming their sex, but more meritorious in them, as the men seem to have no sense of shame. It is impossible, however, that we should have been able to observe the exact mode of their domestic life and employments, from a single visit (as the first was quite transitory) of a few hours. For it may be easily supposed that on such an occasion, most of the labour of all the inhabitants of the village would cease upon our arrival, and an interruption be given even to the usual manner of appearing in their houses, during their more remiss or sociable hours when left to themselves. We were much better enabled to form some judgment of their disposition, and, in some measure, even of their method of living, from the frequent visits so many of them paid us at our ships in their canoes, in which it should seem they spend a great deal of time, at least in the summer season; for we observed that they not only eat and sleep frequently in them, but strip off their clothes and lay themselves along to bask in the sun, in the same manner as we had seen practised at their village. Their canoes of the larger sort are, indeed, sufficiently spacious for that purpose and perfectly dry; so that, under shelter of a skin, they are, except in rainy weather, much more comfortable habitations than their houses.
Though their food, strictly speaking, may be said to consist of every thing animal or vegetable that they can procure, the quantity of the latter bears an exceedingly small proportion to that of the former. Their greatest reliance seems to be upon the sea, as affording fish, muscles, and smaller shell-fish and sea-animals. Of the first, the principal are herrings and sardines, the two species of bream formerly mentioned, and small cod; but the herrings and sardines are not only eaten fresh in their season, but likewise serve as stores, which after being dried and smoked, are preserved by being sewed up in mats, so as to form large bales three or four feet square. It seems that the herrings also supply them with another grand resource for food, which is a vast quantity of roe very curiously prepared: it is strewed upon, or as it were, incrustated about small branches of the Canadian pine; they also prepare it upon a long narrow sea-grass, which grows plentifully upon the rocks under water. This caviare, if it may be so called, is kept in baskets or bags of mat, and used occasionally, being first dipped in water. It may be considered as the winter bread of these people, and has no disagreeable taste. They also eat the roe of some other fish, which, from the size of its grains, must be very large, but it has a rancid taste and smell. It does not appear that they prepare any other fish in this manner, to preserve them for any length of time. For though they split and dry a few of the bream and chimæræ, which are pretty plentiful; they do not smoke them as the herrings and sardines.
The next article on which they seem to depend for a large proportion of their food, is the large muscle; great abundance of which are found in the sound. These are roasted in their shells, then stuck upon long wooden skewers, and taken off occasionally as wanted, being eat without any other preparation, though they often dip them in oil as a sauce. The other marine productions, such as the smaller shell-fish, though they contribute to increase the general stock, are by no means to be looked upon as a standing or material article of their food, when compared to those just mentioned.