il

slipped over the head like a poncho; and they wore conical hats
of woven cedar bark or spruce roots, many adorned with figures
of fish and animals. At other times they wrapped loose robes
of sea-otter and other skins about their shoulders, or blankets
woven from the wool of the wild mountain goat. Most of them
went barefoot at all seasons, but a few wore moccasins similar
to those of the Indians inland.

ORNAMENTS

If the painted hats and beautifully patterned blankets of
the coast tribes bore the stamp of originality, so also did many
of their ornaments. Most prized were those made from dentalia
shells gathered in deep water off the west coast of Vancouver
Island, from haliotis shells traded north from California, and
from native copper that came from White River in Alaska.
From these materials, from strips of fur or painted leather, and
from dyed or undyed cedar bark, they made head-bands, neck-
laces, bracelets, anklets, ear-pendants, and nose-pendants. In-
stead of pendants dangling from the nose, some of the natives
on the west coast of Vancouver Island pushed through the
septum long shell or bone pins, humorously named by a Euro-
pean seaman ‘“‘sprit-sails’. Among the northern tribes, but
not the southern, many women wore lip-plugs (‘‘labrets’’) of
stone or wood, some of which were inlaid with haliotis shell.

DWELLINGS

Even more remarkable than the clothing and ornaments
were the dwellings, constructed from beams and planks of the
giant cedar tree. They were of two types. The northern
Indians built square houses with gabled roofs, and with a
central doorway that was generally a hole at the bottom of a
totem-pole. Inside, around the four walls, was a tier of benches,
or sometimes two and even three tiers, on which the inmates
worked and slept. The average dwelling of this type was from
40 to 50 feet square and from 15 to 20 feet high.

The second type of house, built in the area around Victoria
and Vancouver, was very different. It was a shed-like struc-
ture, several hundred feet long in some cases by 50 or 60 feet
wide, with a gently sloping roof and four or five doorways in the
long side that faced the water. Within, it was divided into
compartments, each the home of a separate family. The famous
navigator Captain Cook aptly compared it to “a long stable
with a double row of stalls, and a broad passage in the middle.”’