OUR TOBACCO.
THE white race of people that the Klamath Indians found in this land had a weed they called tobacco, which we call Hah-koom, and taught them to use it by smoking it in the pipe and to cultivate it by selecting a proper place, pile brush over the ground and then burn it, which would leave the ground with a loose layer of wood ashes. Over this, while the ashes were yet dry and loose, they would sow the seed and protect the crop by putting around it a brush fence. From year to year they would select from the best stalks seed for the next year and at times to hold the seed for a number of years if necessary, for if kept properly it will grow after being kept for a long time. The only thing that will bother or destroy the crop of tobacco is the deer and they often jump over the brush fence and eat every part of the crop, even to the roots.
When an Indian takes his pipe to smoke he inhales the smoke and keeps it in his lungs for ten or fifteen seconds and then blows it out through his nose mostly, some through the mouth and then he gives a slow grunt, saying a few words in a plain audible tone. These words are to the Wa-gas the white people we loved so well, wishing that the Wa-gas, would give them good luck, long life, that they could see them come back or that they themselves could go to see them and be with them, and many other kinds of wishes for the Wa-gas. The old women doctors use tobacco very freely and have pipes that hold a handful of tobacco at a single smoking, and they ask the Wa-gas to give them good luck in curing a sick person. The doctors are about the only ones of the women that smoke. The Indians have the most complete control over themselves and can smoke one, two or three times a day, or quit for a week or longer without a murmur.
CHAPTER XXXII.
OUR MERMAIDS.
THE Klamath Indians tell of the Mermaid that they said could be seen at night come and sit on a rock out in the middle of the river, at a place called Ca-neck. This rock is in a rocky and rough place in the river, some thirty miles up the river from its mouth, and some nine miles above where the White Deer-Skin Dance is held. This rock is in the middle of the river and the water in the summer time, at the low stage, just covers the top of it. On each side are whirls and eddies which the Indians have used for fishing with dip nets for many generations. There was never more than two of these Mermaids seen at a time, but they have been seen many times in the generations gone. They had very long hair, and were half fish and half women, but it is not known whether they were male or female. They looked like women and would sit there combing their long hair for hours at a time, and as they went away one could see their long hair floating in the water. The Indians say that for the past twenty years or more, they have not seen them and think they have been washed away, or that the river has been filled by the gravel and debris from the mines, which have destroyed them. They also say that they never had any fear of the Mermaids, but looked upon them as a freak of nature. They could see them plainly in the summer months while fishing, when the moon was full and sometimes they would be only a few yards away from them. These Mermaids we call Squerth-tucks.