298. The Ahts 'divide the year into thirteen months, or rather moons, and begin with the one that pretty well answers to our November. At the same time, as their names are applied to each actual new moon as it appears, they are not, by half a month and more (sometimes), identical with our calendar months.' Sproat's Scenes, pp. 121–4. 'Las personas mas cultas dividen el año en catorce meses, y cada uno de estos en veinte dias, agregando luego algunos dias intercalares al fin de cada mes. El de Julio, que ellos llaman Satz-tzi-mitl, y es el primero de su año, á mas de sus veinte dias ordinarios tiene tantos intercalares quantos dura la abundancia de lenguados, atunes, etc.' Sutil y Mexicana, Viage, pp. 153–4, 148; Grant, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xxvii., pp. 295, 304; Lord's Nat., vol. ii., pp. 242–4.
299. 'They shew themselves ingenious sculptors. They not only preserve, with great exactness, the general character of their own faces, but finish the more minute parts, with a degree of accuracy in proportion, and neatness in execution.' Cook's Voy. to Pac., vol. ii., pp. 326–7, and Atlas, pl. 40; Lord's Nat., vol. i., pp. 164–5, vol. ii., pp. 257–8, and cut, p. 103; Macfie's Vanc. Isl., pp. 444–7, 484; Mayne's BC, cut on p. 271.
300. 'In an Aht tribe of two hundred men, perhaps fifty possess various degrees of acquired or inherited rank; there may be about as many slaves; the remainder are independent members.' Some of the Klah-oh-quahts 'pay annually to their chief certain contributions, consisting of blankets, skins, etc.' 'A chief's "blue blood" avails not in a dispute with one of his own people; he must fight his battle like a common man.' Sproat's Scenes, pp. 113–17, 18–20, 226. Cheslakees, a chief on Johnson's Strait, was inferior but not subordinate in authority to Maquinna, the famous king at Nootka Sound, but the chief at Loughborough's Channel claimed to be under Maquinna. Vancouver's Voy., vol. i., pp. 346, 331. 'La dignidad de Tays es hereditaria de padres á hijos, y pasa regularmente á estos luego que estan en edad de gobernar, si los padres por ancianidad ú otras causas no pueden seguir mandando.' 'El gobierno de estos naturales puede llamarse Patriarcal; pues el Xefe de la nacion hace á un mismo tiempo los oficios de padre de familia, de Rey y de Sumo Sacerdote.' 'Los nobles gozan de tanta consideracion en Nutka, que ni aun de palabra se atreven los Tayses á reprehenderlos.' 'Todos consideraban á este (Maquinna) como Soberano de las costas, desde la de Buena Esperanza hasta la punta de Arrecifes, con todos los Canales interiores.' To steal, or to know carnally a girl nine years old, is punished with death. Sutil y Mexicana, Viage, pp. 140, 136, 147, 19, 25. 'There are such men as Chiefs, who are distinguished by the name or title of Acweek, and to whom the others are, in some measure, subordinate. But, I should guess, the authority of each of these great men extends no farther than the family to which he belongs.' Cook's Voy. to Pac., vol. ii., pp. 333–4. 'La forme de leur gouvernement est toute patriarcale, et la dignité de chef, héréditaire.' Mofras, Explor., tom. ii., p. 346. Several very populous villages to the northward, included in the territory of Maquilla, the head chief, were entrusted to the government of the principal of his female relations. The whole government formed a political bond of union similar to the feudal system which formerly obtained in Europe. Meares' Voy., pp. 228–9. 'The king or head Tyee, is their leader in war, in the management of which he is perfectly absolute. He is also president of their councils, which are almost always regulated by his opinion. But he has no kind of power over the property of his subjects.' Jewitt's Nar., pp. 138–9, 47, 69, 73. Kane's Wand., pp. 220–1. 'There is no code of laws, nor do the chiefs possess the power or means of maintaining a regular government; but their personal influence is nevertheless very great with their followers.' Douglas, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xxiv., p. 246.
301. 'Usually kindly treated, eat of the same food, and live as well as their masters.' 'None but the king and chiefs have slaves.' 'Maquinna had nearly fifty, male and female, in his house.' Jewitt's Nar., pp. 73–4. Meares states that slaves are occasionally sacrificed and feasted upon. Voy., p. 255. The Newettee tribe nearly exterminated by kidnappers. Dunn's Oregon, p. 242. 'An owner might bring half a dozen slaves out of his house and kill them publicly in a row without any notice being taken of the atrocity. But the slave, as a rule, is not harshly treated.' 'Some of the smaller tribes at the north of the Island are practically regarded as slave-breeding tribes, and are attacked periodically by stronger tribes.' The American shore of the strait is also a fruitful source of slaves. Sproat's Scenes, pp. 89–92. 'They say that one Flathead slave is worth more than two Roundheads.' Rept. Ind. Aff., 1857, p. 327; Mayne's BC, p. 284; Grant, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xxvii., p. 296; Lord's Nat., vol. i., pp. 154–5, 166; Kane's Wand., p. 220; Sutil y Mexicana, Viage, p. 131; Macfie's Vanc. Isl., pp. 431, 442, 470–1.
302. 'The women go to bed first, and are up first in the morning to prepare breakfast,' p. 52. 'The condition of the Aht women is not one of unseemly inferiority,' p. 93. 'Their female relations act as midwives. There is no separate place for lying-in. The child, on being born, is rolled up in a mat among feathers.' 'They suckle one child till another comes,' p. 94. 'A girl who was known to have lost her virtue, lost with it one of her chances of a favourable marriage, and a chief … would have put his daughter to death for such a lapse,' p. 95. In case of a separation, if the parties belong to different tribes, the children go with the mother, p. 96. 'No traces of the existence of polyandry among the Ahts,' p. 99. The personal modesty of the Aht women when young is much greater than that of the men, p. 315. Sproat's Scenes, pp. 28–30, 50–2, 93–102, 160, 264, 315. One of the chiefs said that three was the number of wives permitted: 'como número necesario para no comunicar con la que estuviese en cinta.' 'Muchos de ellos mueren sin casarse.' 'El Tays no puede hacer uso de sus mugeres sin ver enteramente iluminado el disco de la luna.' Sutil y Mexicana, Viage, pp. 141–6. Women treated with no particular respect in any situation. Cook's Voy. to Pac., vol. ii., p. 318. Persons of the same crest are not allowed to marry. 'The child again always takes the crest of the mother.' 'As a rule also, descent is traced from the mother, not from the father.' 'Intrigue with the wives of men of other tribes is one of the commonest causes of quarrel among the Indians.' Mayne's BC, pp. 257–8, 276; Macfie's Vanc. Isl., pp. 444–7. The women are 'very reserved and chaste.' Meares' Voy., pp. 251, 258, 265, 268; Kane's Wand., pp. 239–40. The Indian woman, to sooth her child, makes use of a springy stick fixed obliquely in the ground to which the cradle is attached by a string, forming a convenient baby-jumper. Lord's Nat., vol. ii., p. 259; Pemberton's Vanc. Isl., p. 131; Mofras, Explor., tom. ii., pp. 346–7. 'Where there are no slaves in the tribe or family they perform all the drudgery of bringing firewood, water, &c.' Grant, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xxvii., pp. 298–9, 304. No intercourse between the newly married pair for a period of ten days, p. 129. 'Perhaps in no part of the world is virtue more prized,' p. 74. Jewitt's Nar., pp. 59–60, 74, 127–9; Cornwallis' New El Dorado, p. 101.
303. 'When relieved from the presence of strangers, they have much easy and social conversation among themselves.' 'The conversation is frequently coarse and indecent.' Sproat's Scenes, pp. 50–1. 'Cantando y baylando al rededor de las hogueras, abandonándose á todos los excesos de la liviandad.' Sutil y Mexicana, Viage, p. 133.