In Describing The Dress Of The Chopunnish, Or Nez Perces,
The Journal Says That Tippets, Or Collars, Were Worn By
The men.
"That of Hohastillpilp," says the journal, "was formed of human
scalps and adorned with the thumbs and fingers
Of several men
slain by him in battle." And yet the journal immediately adds:
"The Chopunnish are among the most amiable men we have seen.
Their character is placid and gentle, rarely moved to passion,
yet not often enlivened by gayety." In short, the Indians
were amiable savages; and it is a savage trait to love to
destroy one's enemies.
Here is an entry in the journal of May 19 which will give the reader
some notion of the privations and the pursuits of the party while shut
up in camp for weary weeks in the early summer of 1806: -
"After a cold, rainy night, during a greater part of which we lay
in the water, the weather became fair; we then sent some men to a
village above us, on the opposite side, to purchase some roots.
They carried with them for this purpose a small collection of awls,
knitting-pins, and armbands, with which they obtained several
bushels of the root of cows, and some bread of the same material.
They were followed, too, by a train of invalids from the village,
who came to ask for our assistance. The men were generally afflicted with
sore eyes; but the women had besides this a variety of other disorders,
chiefly rheumatic, a violent pain and weakness in the loins, which is
a common complaint among them; one of them seemed much dejected,
and as we thought, from the account of her disease, hysterical.
We gave her thirty drops of laudanum, and after administering
eye-water, rubbing the rheumatic patients with volatile liniment,
and giving cathartics to others, they all thought themselves
much relieved and returned highly satisfied to the village.
We were fortunate enough to retake one of the horses on which we
[Captain Lewis] had crossed the Rocky Mountains in the autumn,
and which had become almost wild since that time."
A day or two later, the journal has this significant entry:
"On parcelling out the stores, the stock of each man was found
to be only one awl, and one knitting-pin, half an ounce of vermilion,
two needles, a few skeins of thread, and about a yard of ribbon -
a slender means of bartering for our subsistence; but the men have been
so much accustomed to privations that now neither the want of meat nor
the scanty funds of the party excites the least anxiety among them."
To add to their discomfort, there was a great deal of sickness in the camp,
owing to the low diet of the men.
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