372 THE BELLA COOLA INDIANS

WAR WITH THE CARRIERS

The only other people with whom the Bella Coola came into
frequent conflict were the Carriers. Some of the latter used
to spend the winter among the coastal tribes, and had even
intermarried with them to a considerable extent, but their mode
of life was so different that they were always viewed as foreign
in thought and outlook. The Bella Coola despised them for
their dirtiness, their fondness for unsavoury food, and, above
all, for their ignorance of kusiut and susaok matters. This dis-
trust was mutual and not infrequently led to bloodshed. Owing
to the location of the Carriers, they could not be reached by
canoes, and the Bella Coola had no liking for long overland
journeys. The mobility and relative lack of permanent vil-
lages made it difficult to bring the Carriers to bay, so that
warfare between them and the Bella Coola usually took the
form of a killing followed by a raid for revenge; continued
hostility was virtually unknown. The people of the lower vil-
lages were scarcely affected, but in former times there seems
to have been a considerable amount of intermittent fighting
between the inhabitants of the upper valley and the Carriers
living east of them.

The following account, claimed to be historical, describes
what was said to be a typical raid, followed by a counter-
attack.

On one occasion all the young people of Sinx?, Nukiis, Asdn-dn-i, and
Snuiali went on a picnic to a large, clear tract of ground up the valley,
where they spent their time, playing and singing. Towards nightfall two
young men, who had not come with the others, drew near cautiously until
they could call a girl who was a friend of one of the two. She slipped off
quietly from her companions and passed the night with her lover and his
comrade in the woods. Towards dawn a party of marauding Carrier
Indians swooped down on the sleeping picnickers who, unarmed and un-
prepared, could make no resistance. With the exception of two pretty
girls carried off as slaves, all were slain. The three who had been in the
woods hurried back to the villages with the news.

The men of the four towns prepared for action. They went to the
picnic ground and brought back the corpses for burial, thus learning for