A number of white men, who had been witnesses of the shameful scene, ran out and cried, “The devil is in the man.”
I denounced the custom and pleaded with them to give it up. Speaking to the old Chief Squen-es-ton, I said, “You must stop it. It is of the devil.”
“Oh,” said he, “the white man’s dance worse than the Indian’s dance.”
“How do you make that out?” I said.
“Oh, Indian man, alone, dance all round the house and sit down. And then Indian woman she dance all round and she sit down. But white man take another man’s wife and hug her all round the house.”
What could I say to the argument? What would you have said?
Potlatching.
Of the many evils of heathenism, with the exception of witchcraft, the potlatch is the worst, and one of the most difficult to root out.
At one time its demoralizing influence was so manifest that the Government passed a law prohibiting it, but this excellent law was seldom properly enforced.