Page:The Columbia river , or, Scenes and adventures during a residence of six years on the western side of the Rocky Mountains among various tribes of Indians hitherto unknown (Volume 1).djvu/302

 seldom make any resistance to these summary punishments; and if the chastisement takes place in the presence of a chief, he seems delighted at the infliction.

They purchase slaves from the neighbouring tribes for beaver, otter, beads, &c. I could never learn whether any were taken by them in war. While in good health and able to work, they are well treated; but the moment they fall sick, or become unfit for labour, the unfortunate slaves are totally neglected, and left to perish in the most miserable manner. After death their bodies are thrown without any ceremony at the trunk of a tree, or into an adjoining wood. It sometimes happens that a slave is adopted by a family; in which case he is permitted to marry one of the tribe, and his children, by undergoing the flattening process, melt down into the great mass of the community.

Chastity is an item seldom inscribed on the credit side of their account current with futurity. Indeed a strict observance of it before marriage is not an article of their moral code.

Formerly an act of post-nuptial incontinence subjected the woman to the loss of life; but in latter times infractions of conjugal rights are often