Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 43.djvu/844

824 picture-writing upon rocks has been attributed to them, they have marked artistic ability, and exhibit their skill in ornamentation upon articles of dress and the implements of the chase. Indians who had had no instruction in drawing from the whites, employed by Dr. Chamberlain to make a series of drawings, drafted very good maps of their country, and seemed to have well grasped the idea of their work. Some of them were also able to recognize with ease the various physical features prominent in the printed maps of the Kootenay district. Their drawings of weapons, implements, etc., were excellent, and those of one of them in particular would never be suspected of being the product of aboriginal genius. "Pictures of houses, railway trains, etc., have a certain conventionality that is characteristic of savage races. Several of the Indians were able to draw an excellent and easily recognizable picture of the little steamboat that plied up and down the Columbia River. In their drawings of human beings, especial stress is laid upon the distinguishing features, and any peculiarity or abnormity is brought out with full force. Thus, a Stony Indian woman has no nose, a Chinaman has an immense single braid of hair, a white man an enormous beard, a certain Indian a colossal nose, and the like."

They have fourteen distinct names for colors, and their horses may be white, black, half white and half black, roan, "buckskin," "blue," sorrel, or mouse-colored.

The social position of women is not greatly different from that among the other surrounding tribes. Girls may be married at fifteen and young men at twenty years of age. In the olden times the young Indian wishing to marry "went at night to the lodge where slept the object of his affections, and, quietly lifting up the blankets to make sure, lay down beside her. The girl's people soon found him there, and threats were made. The young man's father meanwhile inquired where his son Was, and, on being told that he was in such-and-such a lodge, went thither with his friends and discovered the young people together. The girl then left and went with her husband to his own people. He was at liberty to send his wife back to her relatives within a year if she turned out to be bad or he was dissatisfied with her. When guilty of adultery she was punished by having one of her braids cut off by her husband." Descent seems to be traced through the mother.

Private property in land was unknown, the country belonging to the tribe collectively; and demands for money are still made by the Lower Kootenays from any stranger intruding upon their domain. The hunter had no absolute right in his game, and it was distributed among the camp in order that all might have food. Women could hold property as well as men. The horses