Part 7 (2/2)
”They believed in a great Spirit, to whom they prayed and whom they wors.h.i.+pped everywhere, believing that this beautiful Spirit was everywhere and could hear. They wors.h.i.+pped it in the forest, in the trees, in the flowers, in the sun and wind, in the blades of gra.s.s,--alone and far from every one,--in the running water and the still lakes.”
”Oh, how beautiful!” I said, in all sincerity. ”It must be the same as my own belief; only I never heard it put into words before. And that is what Mr. Duncan has taught them?”
He turned and looked at me squarely and steadily. It was a look of weariness, of disgust.
”Oh, no,” he replied, coldly; ”that was what they believed before they knew better; before they were taught the truth; before Christianity was explained to them. That is what they believed _while they were savages_!”
We were in the library of the _Jefferson_. The room is always warm, and at that moment it was warmer than I had ever known it to be. Under the steady gaze of those s.h.i.+ning dark eyes it presently became too warm to be endured. With my curiosity quite satisfied, I withdrew to the hurricane deck, where there is always air.
Of the Indians in the territory of Alaska there are two stocks--the Thlinkits, or Coast Indians, and the Tinneh, or those inhabiting the vast regions of the interior. The Thlinkits comprise the Tsimpsians, or Chimsyans, the Kygani, or Haidahs, the true Thlinkits, or Koloshes, and the Yakutats.
The Kygani, or Haidah, Indians inhabit the Queen Charlotte Archipelago, which, although belonging to British Columbia, must be taken into consideration in any description of the Indians of Alaska. They were formerly a warlike, powerful, and treacherous race, making frequent attacks upon neighboring tribes, even as far south as Puget Sound. They are noted, not only for these savage qualities, but also for the grace and beauty of their canoes and for their delicate and artistic carvings.
Their small totems, pipes, and other articles carved out of a dark gray, highly polished slate stone obtained on their own islands, sometimes inlaid with particles of sh.e.l.l, are well known and command fancy prices.
Haidah basketry and hats are of unusual beauty and workmans.h.i.+p. The peculiar ornamentation is painted upon the hats and not woven in. The designs which are most frequently seen are the head, wings, tail, and feet of a duck,--certain details somewhat resembling a large oyster-sh.e.l.l, or a human ear,--painted in black and rich reds. The hats are usually in the plain twined weaving, and of such fine, even workmans.h.i.+p that they are entirely waterproof. The Haidahs formerly wore the nose- and ear-rings, or other ornaments, and the labret in the lower lip.
The Thlinkits,--or Kolos.h.i.+ans, as the Russians and Aleuts called them, from their habit of wearing the labret,--are divided into two tribes, the Stikines and the Sitkans; the former inhabiting the mainland in the vicinity of the Stikine River, straggling north and south for some distance along the coast.
The Sitkans dwell in the neighborhood of Sitka and on the near-by islands. They are among the tribes of Indians who gave Baranoff much trouble. They formerly painted with vermilion or lamp-black mixed with oil, traced on their faces in startling patterns. At the present time they dress almost like white people, except for the everlasting blanket on the older ones. Some of the younger women are very handsome--clean, light-brown of skin, red-cheeked, of good figure, and having large, dark eyes, at once soft and bright. They also have good, white teeth, and are decidedly attractive in their coquettish and saucy airs and graces. The young Indian women at Sitka, Yakutat, and Dundas are the prettiest and the most attractive in Alaska; nor have I seen any in the Klondike, or along the Yukon, to equal them in appearance. Also, one can barter with them for their fascinating wares without praying to heaven to be deprived of the sense of smell for a sufficient number of hours.
Among the Thlinkits, as well as among many of the Innuit, or Eskimo tribes, the strange and cruel custom prevails of isolating young girls approaching p.u.b.erty in a hut set aside for this purpose. The period of isolation varies from a month to a year, during which they are considered unclean and are allowed only liquid food, which soon reduces them to a state of painful emaciation. No one is permitted to minister to their needs but a mother or a female slave, and they cannot hold conversation with any one.
When a maiden finally emerges from her confinement there is great rejoicing, if she be of good family, and feasting. A charm of peculiar design is hung around her neck, called a ”Virgin Charm,” or ”Virtue Charm,” which silently announces that she is ”clean” and of marriageable age. Formerly, according to Dall and other authorities, the lower lip was pierced and a silver pin shaped like a nail inserted. This made the same announcement.
The chief diet of the Thlinkit is fish, fresh or smoked. Unlike the Aleutians, they do not eat whale blubber, as the whale figures in their totems, but are fond of the porpoise and seal. The women are fond of dress, and a voyager who will take a gay last year's useless hat along in her steamer trunk, will be sure to ”swap” it for a handsome Indian basket. In many places they still employ their early methods of fis.h.i.+ng--raking herring and salmon out of the streams, during a run, with long poles into which nails are driven, like a rake.
They are fond of game of all kinds. They weave blankets out of the wool of the mountain sheep. Large spoons, whose handles are carved in the form and designs of totems, are made out of the horns of sheep and goats.
The Thlinkits are divided into four totems--the whale, the eagle, the raven, and the wolf. The raven, which by the Tinnehs is considered an evil bird, is held in the highest respect by the Thlinkits, who believe it to be a good spirit.
Totemism is defined as the system of dividing a tribe into clans according to their totems. It comprises a cla.s.s of objects which the savage holds in superst.i.tious awe and respect, believing that it holds some relation to, and protection over, himself. There is the clan totem, common to a whole clan; the s.e.x totem, common to the males or females of a clan; and the individual totem, belonging solely to one person and not descending to any member of the next generation. It is generally believed that the totem has some special religious significance; but this is not true, if we are to believe that the younger and educated Indians of to-day know what totemism means. Some totems are veritable family trees. The clan totem is reverenced by a whole clan, the members of which are known by the name of their totem, and believe themselves to be descended from a common animal ancestor, and bound together by ties closer and more sacred than those of blood.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Copyright by E. A. Hegg, Juneau
Courtesy of Webster & Stevens, Seattle
OLD RUSSIAN BUILDING, SITKA]
The system of totemism is old; but the word itself, according to J. G.
Frazer, first appeared in literature in the nineteenth century, being introduced from an Ojibway word by J. Long, an interpreter. The same authority claims that it had a religious aspect; but this is denied, so far, at least, as the Thlinkits are concerned.
The Eagle clan believe themselves to be descended from an eagle, which they, accordingly, reverence and protect from harm or death, believing that it is a beneficent spirit that watches over them.
Persons of the same totem may neither marry nor have s.e.xual intercourse with each other. In Australia the usual penalty for the breaking of this law was death. With the Thlinkits, a man might marry a woman of any save his own totem clan. The raven represented woman, and the wolf, man. A young man selected his individual totem from the animal which appeared most frequently and significantly in his dreams during his lonely fast and vigil in the heart of the forest for some time before reaching the state of p.u.b.erty. The animals representing a man's different totems--clan, family, s.e.x, and individual--were carved and painted on his tall totem-pole, his house, his paddles, and other objects; they were also woven into hats, basketry, and blankets, and embroidered upon moccasins with beads. Some of the Haidah canoes have most beautifully carven and painted prows, with the totem design appearing. These canoes are far superior to those of Puget Sound. The very sweep of the prow, strong and graceful, as it cleaves the golden air above the water, proclaims its northern home. Their well-known outlines, the erect, rigid figures of the warriors kneeling in them, and the strong, swift, sure dip of the paddles, sent dread to the hearts of the Puget Sound Indians and the few white settlers in the early part of the last century. The cry of ”Northern Indians!” never failed to create a panic. They made many marauding expeditions to the south in their large and splendid canoes. The inferior tribes of the sound held them in the greatest fear and awe.
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