Page:Voyages in the Northern Pacific - 1896.djvu/77

Rh the Chinook tongue, signifies Thunder. The village consists of about thirty houses, built of wood, and very large; they are formed of boards, with the edges resting on each other, and fastened with stripes of bark to upright posts, which are stuck in the ground on either side of them. Some have ridge-pole and rafters, but the chief part are nearly flat on the top; they have old mats spread inside and out, to keep out the wind and rain. In every house there are from five to fifteen families, and each family has a fire in the middle of the building. On the sides they have their bed places, raised about a foot from the earth, and covered with mats; where they pig in all together, men, women, and children. The houses are decorated with rude carved images, which they call clamas, or gods, but they do not seem to pay any kind of homage or attention to them. Their furniture consists of boxes or chests, hollowed from the solid wood, of all sizes, and curiously carved; and of a number of baskets, which they work so close as to hold water. In the boxes they keep their property and spare garments, and also their dry provision. When the Indians shift to their winter quarters, they carry all the planks and mats of their houses with them, leaving nothing but the rafters and frame standing. They are filthy to the extreme; allow whole piles of fish entrails and other uncleanness to lie in the middle of the houses, never attempting to clear it away. Even in their eating they are very nasty; I have frequently seen them with a piece of meat, half roasted, in the dirt and