The Direction Of All Of These Vaults Is East And West,
The Door Being On The Eastern Side, Partially Stopped
With wide
boards decorated with rude pictures of men and other animals.
On entering he found in some of them
Four dead bodies, carefully wrapped
in skins, tied with cords of grass and bark, lying on a mat,
in a direction east and west. The other vaults contained only bones,
which were in some of them piled to the height of four feet.
On the tops of the vaults, and on poles attached to them,
bung brass kettles and frying-pans with holes in their bottoms,
baskets, bowls, sea-shells, skins, pieces of cloth, hair, bags of
trinkets and small bones - the offerings of friendship or affection,
which have been saved by a pious veneration from the ferocity
of war, or the more dangerous temptations of individual gain.
The whole of the walls as well as the door were decorated with strange
figures cut and painted on them; and besides were several wooden
images of men, some so old and decayed as to have almost lost
their shape, which were all placed against the sides of the vaults.
These images, as well as those in the houses we have lately seen,
do not appear to be at all the objects of adoration; in this place
they were most probably intended as resemblances of those whose
decease they indicate; when we observe them in houses, they occupy
the most conspicuous part, but are treated more like ornaments
than objects of worship."
The white men were visited at their camp by many Indians from the villages
farther up the stream. The journal says: -
"We had an opportunity of seeing to-day the hardihood of the Indians
of the neighboring village. One of the men shot a goose,
which fell into the river and was floating rapidly toward
the great shoot, when an Indian observing it plunged in after it.
The whole mass of the waters of the Columbia, just preparing to descend
its narrow channel, carried the animal down with great rapidity.
The Indian followed it fearlessly to within one hundred and fifty feet
of the rocks, where he would inevitably have been dashed to pieces;
but seizing his prey he turned round and swam ashore with great composure.
We very willingly relinquished our right to the bird in favor of
the Indian who had thus saved it at the imminent hazard of his life;
he immediately set to work and picked off about half the feathers,
and then, without opening it, ran a stick through it and carried it
off to roast."
With many hair's-breadth escapes, the expedition now passed
through the rapids or "great shoot." The river here is one hundred
and fifty yards wide and the rapids are confined to an area four
hundred yards long, crowded with islands and rocky ledges.
They found the Indians living along the banks of the stream
to be kindly disposed; but they had learned, by their intercourse
with tribes living below, to set a high value on their wares.
They asked high prices for anything they had for sale.
The journal says:
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