Whenever a feast is given by the king or any of the chiefs, there is a person who acts as a master of ceremonies, and whose business it is to receive the guests as they enter the house, and point out to them their respective seats, which is regulated with great punctiliousness as regards rank; the king occupying the highest or the seat of honour, his son or brother sitting next him, and so on with the chiefs according to their quality; the private persons belonging to the same family being always placed together, to prevent any confusion. The women are seldom invited to their feasts, and only at those times when a general invitation is given to the village.[73]
As, whenever they cook, they always calculate to have an abundance for all the guests, a profusion in this respect being considered as the highest luxury, much more is usually set before them than they can eat. That which is left in the king's tray, he sends to his house for his family by one of his slaves, as do the chiefs theirs; while those who eat from the same tray, and who generally belong to the same family, take it home as common stock, or each one receives his portion, which is distributed on the spot. This custom appeared very singular to my companion and myself, and it was a most awkward thing for us, at first, to have to lug home with us, in our hands or arms, the blubber of fish that we received at these times, but we soon became reconciled to it, and were very glad of an opportunity to do it.
FOOTNOTES:
[63] The exact position of the village is lat. 49° 35' 31" N.; long. 126° 37' 32" W.
[64] According to the Admiralty Sailing Directions, the Cove is about two cables in extent, and sheltered from the sea by a small rocky high-water island on its east side. It affords anchorage in the middle for only one vessel of moderate size, though several small vessels might find shelter. When Vancouver visited it in 1792, no less than eight ships were in it, most of them small, and secured to the shore by hawsers.
[65] This means farther up the Sound; for there are villages in the interior of Vancouver Island. The Admiralty Sailing Directions declare that not a trace of the Spanish settlement now exists. This is scarcely correct, for an indistinct ridge shows the site of houses, and here and there a few bricks half hidden in the ground may be detected. I have seen a cannon ball and a Mexican dollar found there. Many of the Nootka Indians have large moustaches and whiskers, which may possibly be due to their Spanish blood, and others were decidedly Chinese-looking, a fact which may be traced to the presence of Meares's Chinese carpenters in 1778-79. Some of them can, or could, thirty years ago, by tradition, count ten in Spanish; and there is a legend in the Sound to the effect that the white men had begun to cultivate the ground, and to erect a stockade and fort; when one day a ship came with papers for the head man, who was observed to cry, and all the foreigners became sad. The next day they began moving their goods to the ship. But, as Mr. Sproat suggests, this might have reference to Meares's settlement.
[66] This is a good description of the house of Maquina's grandson, as I saw it fifty-eight years after Jewitt's time.
[67] Dog's hair. A tribe on Fraser River used to keep flocks of these curs, which they periodically clipped like sheep.
[68] Probably the Klayoquahts (see p. 77).