168 Mackenzie’s Voyages

of the crowd was so great that they could not move. At
length a lane was made to accommodate the approach of
the chief’s eldest son. Mackenzie stepped forward to meet
him, and presented his hand, whereupon the young man, with
a gesture, broke the string of a very handsome robe of sea-
otter skins he was wearing and flung it over the shoulders of
the explorer, which was as flattering a reception as could
be expected.

The whole party was then banqueted for three hours
with various native delicacies, the crowd remaining the
entire time to indulge their curiosity. Mackenzie presented
the young chief with a blanket and the old man with a
pair of scissors whose use was explained to him. His beard
was of great length, and, with a twinkle of humour, he
forthwith began to put the new instrument into use.

The village contained four elevated houses and seven on
the ground-level; the population was in the neighbourhood
of two hundred. A large house fifty by forty-five feet was in
the course of erection. The pillars, carved with totem
figures, were two and a half feet in diameter. ‘The whole
when finished would approximate in a crude way to the form
of a Greek temple. Here and there were erections of thick
cedar boards, neatly joined, measuring twenty by eight feet,
decorated with painted hieroglyphics and symbolic figures
of different animals, highly conventionalised. “The work was
executed with a degree of correctness that was not to be
expected from such an uncultivated people; but their
sculpture, it was observed, was superior to their painting.!

Mackenzie formally visited the chief the next day, and
was favoured with a sight of his treasures, which he kept
in huge cedar chests, whose outer surfaces were decorated
with carvings in low relief set off with various colours. He

1 See ‘‘ Indian Tribes,’ Appendix C.

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