But a method of painting which they sometimes employed, and which they were much more particular in, was by laying on the face a quantity of bear's grease of about one-eighth of an inch thick; this they raised up into ridges resembling a small bead in joiner's work with a stick prepared for the purpose, and then painted them red, which gave the face a very singular appearance.
On extraordinary occasions the king and principal chiefs used to strew over their faces, after painting, a fine black shining powder procured from some mineral, as Maquina told me it was got from the rocks. This they call pelpelth,[78] and value it highly, as, in their opinion, it serves to set off their looks to great advantage, glittering especially in the sun like silver. This article is brought them in bags by the Newchemass,[79] a very savage nation who live a long way to the north, from whom they likewise receive a superior kind of red paint, a species of very fine and rich ochre, which they hold in much estimation.
Notwithstanding this custom of painting themselves, they make it an invariable practice, both in summer and winter, to bathe once a day, and sometimes oftener; but as the paint is put on with oil, it is not much discomposed thereby, and whenever they wish to wash it off, they repair to some piece of fresh water and scour themselves with sand or rushes.
In dressing their heads on occasion of a festival or a visit, they are full as particular and almost as long as in painting. The hair, after being well oiled, is carefully gathered upon the top of the head and secured by a piece of pine or spruce bough with the green leaves upon it. After having it properly fixed in this manner, the king and principal chiefs used to strew all over it the white down obtained from a species of large brown eagle which abounds on this coast, and which they are very particular in arranging so as not to have a single feather out of place, occasionally wetting the hair to make it adhere. This, together with the bough, which is sometimes of considerable size and stuck over with feathers by means of turpentine, gives them a very singular and grotesque appearance, which they, however, think very becoming, and the first thing they do, on learning the arrival of strangers, is to go and decorate themselves in this manner.
The men also wear bracelets of painted leather or copper and large ear-rings of the latter, but the ornament on which they appear to set the most value is the nose-jewel, if such an appellation may be given to the wooden stick which some of them employ for this purpose. The king and chiefs, however, wear them of a different form, being either small pieces of polished copper or brass, of which I made many for them in the shape of hearts and diamonds, or a twisted conical shell about half an inch in length, of a bluish colour and very bright, which is brought from the south. These are suspended by a small wire or string to the hole in the gristle of the nose, which is formed in infancy by boring it with a pin, the hole being afterwards enlarged by the repeated insertion of wooden pegs of an increased size, until it becomes about the diameter of a pipe-stem, though some have them of a size nearly sufficient to admit the little finger.
The common class, who cannot readily procure the more expensive jewels that I have mentioned, substitute for them, usually, a smooth, round stick, some of which are of an almost incredible length, for I have seen them projecting not less than eight or nine inches beyond the face on each side; this is made fast or secured in its place by little wedges on each side of it. These "sprit-sail-yard fellows," as my messmate used to call them, when rigged out in this manner, made quite a strange show, and it was his delight, whenever he saw one of them coming towards us with an air of consequence proportioned to the length of his stick, to put up his hand suddenly as he was passing him, so as to strike the stick, in order, as he said, to brace him up sharp to the wind; this used to make them very angry, but nothing was more remote from Thompson's ideas than a wish to cultivate their favour.
The natives of Nootka appear to have but little inclination for the chase, though some of them were expert marksmen, and used sometimes to shoot ducks and geese; but the seal and the sea-otter form the principal objects of their hunting, particularly the latter.
Of this animal, so much noted for its valuable skin, the following description may not be uninteresting:—The sea-otter[80] is nearly five feet in length, exclusive of the tail, which is about twelve inches, and is very thick and broad where it joins the body, but gradually tapers to the end, which is tipped with white. The colour of the rest is a shining, silky black, with the exception of a broad white stripe on the top of the head. Nothing can be more beautiful than one of these animals when seen swimming, especially when on the look-out for any object. At such times it raises its head quite above the surface, and the contrast between the shining black and the white, together with its sharp ears and a long tuft of hair rising from the middle of its forehead, which looks like three small horns, render it quite a novel and attractive object. They are in general very tame, and will permit a canoe or boat to approach very near before they dive. I was told, however, that they are become much more shy since they have been accustomed to shoot them with muskets, than when they used only arrows.[81]
The skin is held in great estimation in China, more especially that of the tail, the fur of which is finer and closer set than that on the body. This is always cut off and sold separately by the natives. The value of a skin is determined by its size, that being considered as a prime skin which will reach, in length, from a man's chin to his feet. The food of the sea-otter is fish, which he is very dexterous in taking, being an excellent swimmer, with feet webbed like those of a goose. They appear to be wholly confined to the seacoast, at least to the salt water. They have usually three or four young at a time, but I know not how often they breed, nor in what place they deposit their young, though I have frequently seen them swimming around the mother when no larger than rats. The flesh is eaten by the natives, cooked in their usual mode by boiling, and is far preferable to that of the seal, of which they make much account.