When the ceremony was concluded, Maquina invited the strangers to a feast at his house, consisting of whale-blubber, smoked herring spawn, and dried fish and train-oil, of which they ate most plentifully. The feast being over, the trays out of which they ate, and other things, were immediately removed to make room for the dance, which was to close the entertainment. This was performed by Maquina's son, the young prince Sat-sat-sok-sis, whom I have already spoken of, in the following manner:—
Three of the principal chiefs, drest in their otter-skin mantles, which they wear only on extraordinary occasions and at festivals, having their heads covered over with white down and their faces highly painted, came forward into the middle of the room, each furnished with a bag filled with white down, which they scattered around in such a manner as to represent a fall of snow. These were followed by the young prince, who was dressed in a long piece of yellow cloth, wrapped loosely around him, and decorated with small bells, with a cap on his head to which was fastened a curious mask in imitation of a wolf's head, while the rear was brought up by the king himself in his robe of sea-otter skin, with a small whistle in his mouth and a rattle in his hand, with which he kept time to a sort of tune on his whistle. After passing very rapidly in this order around the house, each of them seated himself, except the prince, who immediately began his dance, which principally consisted in springing up into the air in a squat posture, and constantly turning around on his heels with great swiftness in a very narrow circle.
This dance, with a few intervals of rest, was continued for about two hours, during which the chiefs kept up a constant drumming with sticks of about a foot in length on a long hollow plank, which was, though a very noisy, a most doleful kind of music. This they accompanied with songs, the king himself acting as chorister, while the women applauded each feat of activity in the dancer, by repeating the words, Wocash! Wocash Tyee![58] that is, Good! very good, Prince!
As soon as the dance was finished, Maquina began to give presents to the strangers, in the name of his son Sat-sat-sok-sis. These were pieces of European cloth, generally of a fathom in length, muskets, powder, shot, etc. Whenever he gave them anything, they had a peculiar manner of snatching it from him with a very stern and surly look, repeating each time the words, Wocash Tyee. This I understood to be their custom, and was considered as a compliment, which, if omitted, would be supposed as a mark of disregard for the present. On this occasion Maquina gave away no less than one hundred muskets, the same number of looking-glasses, four hundred yards of cloth, and twenty casks of powder, besides other things.
After receiving these presents, the strangers retired on board their canoes, for so numerous were they that Maquina would not suffer any but the chiefs to sleep in the houses; and, in order to prevent the property from being pillaged by them, he ordered Thompson and myself to keep guard during the night, armed with cutlasses and pistols.
In this manner tribes of savages from various parts of the coast continued coming for several days, bringing with them blubber, oil, herring spawn, dried fish, and clams, for which they received in return presents of cloth, etc., after which they in general immediately returned home. I observed that very few, if any, of them, except the chiefs, had arms, which, I afterwards learned, is the custom with these people, whenever they come upon a friendly visit or to trade, in order to show, on their approach, that their intentions are pacific.[59]
FOOTNOTES:
[42] A common mode of expressing joy. During dancing and singing this goes on continually.
[43] In 1863, when I made a special inquiry, the whole number of adult males in the Mooachaht tribe (the so-called Nootkans) was one hundred and fifty.