Besides the stone or rock that constitutes the mountains and shores, which sometimes contains pieces of very coarse quartz, we found amongst the natives, things made of a hard black granite, though not remarkably compact or fine grained, a greyish whetstone, the common oil-stone of our carpenters, in coarser and finer pieces, and some black bits which are little inferior to the hone-stone. The natives also use the transparent leafy glimmer, or Muscovy glass, a brown leafy or martial sort, and they sometimes brought to us pieces of rock-crystal, tolerably transparent. The two first are, probably, found near the spot, as they seemed to be in considerable quantities; but the latter seems to be brought from a greater distance, or is very scarce; for our visitors always parted with it reluctantly. Some of the pieces were octangular, and had the appearance of being formed into that shape by art.
The persons of the natives are, in general, under the common stature; but not slender in proportion, being commonly pretty full or plump, though not muscular. Neither doth the soft fleshiness seem ever to swell into corpulence; and many of the older people are rather spare or lean. The visage of most of them is round and full, and sometimes also broad, with high prominent cheeks; and, above these, the face is frequently much depressed, or seems fallen in quite across between the temples; the nose also flattening at its base, with pretty wide nostrils, and a rounded point. The forehead rather low, the eyes small, black, and rather languishing than sparkling; the mouth round, with large round thickish lips, the teeth tolerably equal and well set, but not remarkably white. They have either no beards at all, which was most commonly the case, or a small thin one upon the point of the chin, which does not arise from any natural defect of hair on that part, but from plucking it out more or less; for some of them, particularly the old men, have not only considerable beards all over the chin, but whiskers or mustachios, both on the upper lip, and running from thence toward the lower jaw obliquely downward.[3] Their eye-brows are also scanty, and always narrow; but the hair of the head is in great abundance, very coarse and strong, and, without a single exception, black, straight, and dank, or hanging down over the shoulders. The neck is short, the arms and body have no particular mark of beauty or elegance in their formation, but are rather clumsy; and the limbs in all are very small in proportion to the other parts, and crooked or ill-made, with large feet badly shaped, and projecting ancles. Their last defect seems in a great measure to arise from their sitting so much on their hams or knees, both in their canoes and houses.
Their colour we could never positively determine, as their bodies were incrusted with paint and dirt; though, in particular cases, when these were well rubbed off, the whiteness of the skin appeared almost to equal that of Europeans; though rather of that pale effete cast which distinguishes those of our southern nations. Their children, whose skins had never been stained with paint, also equalled ours in whiteness. During their youth, some of them have no disagreeable look, if compared to the generality of the people, but this seems to be entirely owing to the particular animation attending that period of life; for, after attaining a certain age, there is hardly any distinction. Upon the whole, a very remarkable sameness seems to characterize the countenances of the whole nation; a dull phlegmatic want of expression, with very little variation, being strongly marked in all of them.
The women are nearly of the same size, colour, and form with the men, from whom it is not easy to distinguish them, as they possess no natural delicacies sufficient to render their persons agreeable; and hardly any one was seen, even amongst those who were in the prime of life, who had the least pretensions to be called handsome.
Their common dress is a flaxen garment, or mantle, ornamented on the upper edge by a narrow strip of fur, and, at the lower edge, by fringes or tassels. It passes under the left arm, and is tied over the right shoulder, by a string before and one behind, near its middle, by which means both arms are left free, and it hangs evenly, covering the left side, but leaving the right open, except from the loose part of the edges falling upon it, unless when the mantle is fastened by a girdle (of coarse matting or woollen) round the waist, which is often done. Over this, which reaches below the knees, is worn a small cloak of the same substance, likewise fringed at the lower part. In shape this resembles a round dish-cover, being quite close, except in the middle, where there is a hole just large enough to admit the head, and then, resting upon the shoulders, it covers the arms to the elbows, and the body as far as the waist. Their head is covered with a cap, of the figure of a truncated cone, or like a flower-pot, made of fine matting, having the top frequently ornamented with a round or pointed knob, or bunch of leather tassels, and there is a string that passes under the chin, to prevent its blowing off.
Besides the above dress, which is common to both sexes, the men frequently throw over their other garments the skin of a bear, wolf, or sea-otter, with the hair outward, and tie it as a cloak near the upper part, wearing it sometimes before and sometimes behind. In rainy weather, they throw a coarse mat about their shoulders. They have also woollen garments, which, however, are little in use. The hair is commonly worn hanging down loose; but some, when they have no cap, tie it in a bunch on the crown of the head. Their dress, upon the whole, is convenient, and would, by no means be inelegant, were it kept clean. But as they rub their bodies constantly over with a red paint, of a clayey or coarse ochry substance, mixed with oil, their garments, by this means, contract a rancid offensive smell, and a greasy nastiness; so that they make a very wretched dirty appearance, and what is still worse, their heads and their garments swarm with vermin, which, so depraved is their taste for cleanliness, we used to see them pick off with great composure and eat.
Though their bodies are always covered with red paint, their faces are often stained with a black, a brighter red, or a white colour, by way of ornament. The last of these gives them a ghastly, disgusting aspect. They also strew the brown martial mica upon the paint, which makes it glitter. The ears of many of them are perforated in the lobe, where they make a pretty large hole, and two others higher up on the outer edge. In these holes they hang bits of bone, quills fixed upon a leathern thong, small shells, bunches of woollen tassels, or pieces of thin copper, which our beads could never supplant. The septum of the nose, in many, is also perforated, through which they draw a piece of soft cord; and others wear, at the same place, small thin pieces of iron, brass, or copper, shaped almost like a horse-shoe, the narrow opening of which receives the septum, so as that the two points may gently pinch it, and the ornament thus hangs over the upper lip. The rings of our brass buttons, which they eagerly purchased, were appropriated to this use. About their wrists they wore bracelets or bunches of white bugle beads, made of a conic shelly substance, bunches of thongs, with tassels, or a broad black shining horny substance, of one piece. And about their ancles they also frequently wear many folds of leathern thongs, or the sinews of animals twisted to a considerable thickness.
Thus far of their ordinary dress and ornaments; but they have some that seem to be used only on extraordinary occasions, either when they exhibit themselves as strangers, in visits of ceremony, or when they go to war. Amongst the first may be considered the skins of animals, such as wolves or bears, tied on in the usual manner, but ornamented at the edges with broad borders of fur, or of the woollen stuff manufactured by them, ingeniously wrought with various figures. These are worn either separately, or over their own common garments. On such occasions, the most common head-dress is a quantity of withe, or half-beaten bark, wrapped about the head, which, at the same time, has various large feathers, particularly those of eagles, stuck in it, or is entirely covered, or we may say, powdered with small white feathers. The face, at the same time, is variously painted, having its upper and lower parts of different colours, the strokes appearing like fresh gashes, or it is besmeared with a kind of tallow, mixed with paint, which is afterward formed into a great variety of regular figures, and appears like carved work. Sometimes, again, the hair is separated into small parcels, which are tied at intervals of about two inches, to the end, with thread, and others tie it together behind, after our manner, and stick branches of the cypressus thyoides in it. Thus dressed, they have a truly savage and incongruous appearance, but this is much heightened when they assume, what may be called, their monstrous decorations. These consist of an endless variety of carved wood masks or vizors, applied on the face, or to the upper part of the head or forehead. Some of these resemble human faces, furnished with hair, beards, and eye-brows; others, the heads of birds, particularly of eagles and quebrantahuessos, and many, the heads of land and sea-animals, such as wolves, deer, and porpoises, and others. But, in general, these representations much exceed the natural size, and they are painted, and often strewed with pieces of the foliaceous mica, which makes them glitter, and, serves to augment their enormous deformity. They even exceed this sometimes, and fix on the same part of the head large pieces of carved work, resembling the prow of a canoe, painted in the same manner, and projecting to a considerable distance. So fond are they of these disguises, that I have seen one of them put his head into a tin kettle he had got from us, for want of another sort of mask. Whether they use these extravagant masquerade ornaments on any particular religious occasion, or diversion, or whether they be put on to intimidate their enemies when they go to battle, by their monstrous appearance, or as decoys when they go to hunt animals, is uncertain. But it may be concluded, that, if travellers or voyagers, in an ignorant and credulous age, when many unnatural or marvellous things were supposed to exist, had seen a number of people decorated in this manner, without being able to approach so near as to be undeceived, they would readily have believed, and, in their relations, would have attempted to make others believe, that there existed a race of beings, partaking of the nature of man and beast, more especially, when, besides the heads of animals on the human shoulders, they might have seen the whole bodies of their men-monsters covered with quadrupeds' skins.[4]
The only dress amongst the people of Nootka, observed by us, that seems peculiarly adapted to war, is a thick leathern mantle doubled, which, from its size, appears to be the skin of an elk or buffalo, tanned. This they fasten on, in the common manner, and it is so contrived, that it may reach up, and cover the breast quite to the throat, falling, at the same time, almost to the heels. It is, sometimes, ingeniously painted in different compartments; and is not only sufficiently strong to resist arrows, but, as they informed us by signs, even spears cannot pierce it, so that it may be considered as their coat of mail, or most complete defensive armour. Upon the same occasion, they sometimes wear a kind of leathern cloak, covered with rows of dried hoofs of deer, disposed horizontally, appended by leathern thongs, covered with quills, which, when they move, make a round rattling noise, almost equal to that of many small bells. It seems doubtful, however, whether this part of their garb be intended to strike terror in war, or is only to be considered as belonging to their eccentric ornaments on ceremonious occasions. For we saw one of their musical entertainments, conducted by a man dressed in this sort of cloak, with his mask on, and shaking his rattle.
Though these people cannot be viewed without a kind of horror, when equipped in such extravagant dresses, yet, when divested of them, and beheld in their common habit and actions, they have not the least appearance of ferocity in their countenances; and seem, on the contrary, as observed already, to be of a quiet, phlegmatic, and inactive disposition, destitute, in some measure, of that degree of animation and vivacity that would render them agreeable as social beings. If they are not reserved, they are far from being loquacious; but their gravity is, perhaps, rather a consequence of the disposition just mentioned, than of any conviction of its propriety, or the effect of any particular mode of education. For, even in the greatest paroxysms of their rage, they seem unable to express it sufficiently; either with warmth of language, or significancy of gestures.