Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 7).djvu/281

 care to draw three whiffs. This religious part of the ceremony is gone through only by the chief when the first pipe is filled, before entering upon business. Then the chief hands the pipe to his next neighbour, who smokes without any ceremony, and he to the next, and so on. At the conclusion of the business there is no ceremony observed.

They believe that this world will have an end, as it had a beginning; and their reason is this, that the rivers and lakes must eventually undermine the earth, and set the land afloat again, like the island of their forefathers, and then all must perish. Frequently they have asked us when it would take place—the its-owl-eigh, or end of the world.

The Oakinackens inhabit a very large tract of country, the boundary of which may be said to commence at the Priest's Rapids on the south; from thence, embracing a space of upwards of one hundred miles in breadth, it runs almost due north until it reaches the She Whaps, making a distance of more than five hundred miles in length; within this line the nation branches out into twelve tribes, under different names. These form, as it were, so many states belonging to the same union, and are governed by petty chiefs, who are, in a manner, independent; nevertheless, all are ready to unite against a common enemy. These tribes, beginning at the southern boundary and taking each according to its locality, may be classed as follows:—Ska-moy-num-achs, Ke-waught-chen-unaughs, {290} Piss-cows, Income-can-étook, Tsill-ane, Inti-étook, Battle-le-mule-emauch, or Meat-who, In-spellum, Sin-poh-ell-ech-ach, Sin-who-yelp-pe-took, Sa-milk-a-nuigh, and Oakinacken, which