Of the sea-animals, the most common that we saw in use amongst them, as food, is the porpoise; the fat or rind of which, as well as the flesh, they cut in large pieces, and, having dried them, as they do the herrings, eat them without any farther preparation. They also prepare a sort of broth from this animal in its fresh state, in a singular manner, putting pieces of it in a square wooden vessel or bucket, with water, and then throwing heated stones into it. This operation they repeat till they think the contents are sufficiently stewed or seethed. They put in the fresh, and take out the other stones, with a cleft stick, which serves as tongs; the vessel being always placed near the fire for that purpose.[[46]] This is a pretty common dish amongst them; and, from its appearance, seems to be strong, nourishing food. The oil which they procure from these and other sea-animals, is also used by them in great quantities; both supping it alone, with a large scoop or spoon, made of horn, or mixing it with other food, as sauce.
It may also be presumed that they feed upon other sea-animals, such as seals, sea-otters, and whales; not only from the skins of the two first being frequent amongst them, but from the great number of implements of all sorts intended to destroy these different animals, which clearly points out their dependance upon them; though perhaps they do not catch them in great plenty at all seasons, which seemed to be the case while we lay there, as no great number of fresh skins, or pieces of the flesh, were seen.
The same might perhaps be said of the land-animals, which, though doubtless the natives sometimes kill them, appeared to be scarce at this time; as we did not see a single piece of the flesh belonging to any of them; and though their skins be in tolerable plenty, it is probable that many of these are procured by traffic from other tribes. Upon the whole, it seems plain, from a variety of circumstances, that these people procure almost all their animal food from the sea, if we except a few birds, of which the gulls or sea-fowls, which they shoot with their arrows, are the most material.
As the Canadian pine-branches and sea-grass, on which the fish-roe is strewed, may be considered as their only winter vegetables; so, as the spring advances, they make use of several others as they come in season. The most common of these, which we observed, were two sorts of liliaceous roots, one simply tunicated, the other granulated upon its surface, called mahkatte and koohquoppa, which have a mildish sweetish taste, and are mucilaginous, and eaten raw. The next, which they have in great quantities, is a root called aheita, resembling in taste our liquorice; and another fern root, whose leaves were not yet disclosed. They also eat, raw, another small, sweetish, insipid root, about the thickness of sarsaparilla; but we were ignorant of the plant to which it belongs, and also of another root, which is very large and palmated, which we saw them dig up near the village, and afterward eat it. It is also probable that, as the season advances, they have many others which we did not see. For though there be no appearance of cultivation amongst them, there are great quantities of alder, gooseberry and currant bushes, whose fruits they may eat in their natural state, as we have seen them eat the leaves of the last, and of the lilies, just as they were plucked from the plant. It must, however, be observed, that one of the conditions which they seemed to require in all food is, that it should be of the bland or less acrid kind; for they would not eat the leek or garlic, though they brought vast quantities to sell, when they understood we were fond of it. Indeed they seemed to have no relish for any of our food; and, when offered spirituous liquors, they rejected them as something unnatural and disgusting to the palate.
Though they sometimes eat small marine animals, in their fresh state, raw, it is their common practice to roast or broil their food; for they are quite ignorant of our method of broiling, unless we allow that of preparing their porpoise broth is such; and indeed their vessels being all of wood, are quite insufficient for this purpose.
Their manner of eating is exactly consonant to the nastiness of their houses and persons; for the troughs and platters, in which they put their food, appear never to have been washed from the time they were first made, and the dirty remains of a former meal are only sweeped away by the succeeding one. They also tear every thing, solid or tough, to pieces, with their hands and teeth; for though they make use of their knives to cut off the larger portions, they have not, as yet, thought of reducing these to smaller pieces and mouthfuls, by the same means, though obviously more convenient and cleanly. But they seem to have no idea of cleanliness; for they eat the roots which they dig from the ground, without so much as shaking off the soil that adheres to them.
We are uncertain if they have any set time for meals; for we have seen them eat at all hours, in their canoes. And yet, from seeing several messes of the porpoise-broth preparing toward noon, when we visited the village, I should suspect that they make a principal meal about that time.
Their weapons are bows and arrows, slings, spears, short truncheons of bone, somewhat like the patoo patoo of New Zealand, and a small pickaxe, not unlike the common American tomahawk. The spear has generally a long point, made of bone. Some of the arrows are pointed with iron; but most commonly their points were of indented bone. The tomahawk is a stone, six or eight inches long, pointed at one end, and the other end fixed into a handle of wood. This handle resembles the head and neck of the human figure; and the stone is fixed in the mouth, so as to represent an enormously large tongue. To make the resemblance still stronger, human hair is also fixed to it. This weapon they call taaweesh, or tsuskeeah. They have another stone weapon called seeaik, nine inches or a foot long, with a square point.
From the number of stone weapons, and others, we might almost conclude that it is their custom to engage in close fight; and we had too convincing proofs that their wars are both frequent and bloody, from the vast number of human skulls which they brought to sell.
Their manufactures and mechanic arts are far more extensive and ingenious, whether we regard the design or the execution, than could have been expected from the natural disposition of the people, and the little progress that civilization has made amongst them in other respects. The flaxen and woollen garments, with which they cover themselves, must necessarily engage their first care, and are the most material of those that can be ranked under the head of manufactures. The former of these are made of the bark of a pine-tree, beat into a hempen state. It is not spun, but, after being properly prepared, is spread upon a stick, which is fastened across to two others that stand upright. It is disposed in such a manner that the manufacturer, who sits on her hams at this simple machine, knots it across with small plaited threads, at the distance of half an inch from each other. Though, by this method, it be not so close or firm as cloth that is woven, the bunches between the knots make it sufficiently impervious to the air, by filling the interstices, and it has the additional advantage of being softer and more pliable. The woollen garments, though probably manufactured in the same manner, have the strongest resemblance to woven cloth. But the various figures which are very artificially inserted in them, destroy the supposition of their being wrought in the loom; it being extremely unlikely that these people should be so dexterous as to be able to finish such a complex work, unless immediately by their hands. They are of different degrees of fineness; some resembling our coarsest rugs or blankets, and others almost equal to our finest sorts, or even softer, and certainly warmer. The wool of which they are made, seems to be taken from animals, as the fox and brown lynx; the last of which is by far the finest sort, and, in its natural state, differs little from the colour of our coarser wools; but the hair, with which the animal is also covered, being intermixed, its appearance, when wrought, is somewhat different. The ornamental parts or figures in these garments, which are disposed with great taste, are commonly of a different colour, being dyed, chiefly, either of a deep brown, or of a yellow; the last of which, when it is new, equals the best in our carpets, as to brightness.