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THE RED BOX

that this in some strange way showed repentance for the crime and amounted to a punishment because the life of the murderer would only last so long as the box remained secure in its high place. As the box was generally very securely attached, the murderer's Me was quite safe for many years, and no other Indian would meddle with it.

This particular red box that appeared so mysteriously at Cathlamet in the time of Kamiakin's war was, it is claimed, placed there by a son of the Chief of the Skookum Tillicums (Strong People), who had murdered a fellow Indian and was intended by him as a public confession of guilt and an expiatory sacrifice.

Be this as it may, the mere suggestion opens up many strange phases of the Indian character. No Indian ever openly humilated himself, and