THE CHINOOKAN TRIBES
Owing to their favorable position for barter, the Wishham acquired an unusually varied assortment of possessions. From the Klamath, who sometimes came to the Dalles, they got elk-skins and beads, which they passed on to the Chinook in exchange for slaves and canoes, and eastern bands brought them horses, buffalo-robes, and meat. From the Klickitat they secured slaves, skins, deer-meat, hazel-nuts, huckleberries, and camas, for their fish, since the Klickitat were not good fishermen, though excellent hunters. From the Wenatchee bands they obtained goat-hair robes. With the villages opposite Vancouver, Washington, they exchanged roots and berries for wapato roots, which did not grow in the neighborhood of Nihhluidih. With the Chinookan villages at the Cascades they traded their roots and berries for fish, which as obtained there were fatter than those caught by the Wishham at the Dalles. From the Yakima and other local Shahaptian bands they obtained dried roots and bread made of roots. They secured the majority of their slaves from the Wasco, and from the Klamath, who brought Modoc and Paiute captives to the intertribal mart at the Dalles. An unusual traffic arrangement was occasionally made between the Chinookan tribes on the river and the Klickitat. The former were not fond of war, so a Klickitat war-party -its size dependent on the amount of the remuneration offered -was hired to meet the enemy. The villagers so punished would perhaps hire a band of the same soldiers of fortune to prosecute a campaign of retaliation. The staple of barter was itkilak (pounded salmon). In the preparation of this article of food the salmon was beheaded and gutted, and with a sharp knife the two halves were separated from the backbone and the skin. The clear strips thus obtained were laid on a platform in the hot sun for a day. The next morning the flesh was soft, and the women squeezed it through their hands into shreds, placing the mass in large dishes or in a pit lined with grass or matting, and mixing with it the large quantities of roe taken from the fish. It was then thoroughly worked over with the hands and spread on a piece of matting. After a thorough drying for two days, or more if the sun was not hot, it was pounded fine in a maple mortar with a stone pestle, and then rammed tightly in baskets of split cattails lined with fish-skins. Such a package weighed from one hundred to one hundred and fifty pounds, and was the product of about one hundred salmon. Fish prepared in this way kept for months. No salt was used, and to the white man's palate it was rather insipid. Another method of preparing salmon was to split the fish, roast it on one side slightly, then squeeze the meat out of the skin into a pit, mix it, dry it for about three days, then place it in a wooden bowl and mix it with fish-oil. It was eaten so, or mixed with berries or with camas or other roots. Still another method, no longer in use, was to split the fish, thoroughly dry them in the sun, and tie them up in bundles, which were stored in pits lined with grass and matting. Fish so prepared could be kept for several months without spoiling. Fish-heads were dried over a slow fire and used in making soup. Fishing stations were held in the family, and the head of the family apportioned the time among his adult sons. If the members of a household became too numerous to use one station they might purchase rights in another. A half interest in a station might thus be secured for a season by the payment of two buffalo-robes; or a widow without family might dispose of her fishing station for a few trinkets and a certain number of fish yearly -enough to support her. If a man living in Nihhluidih had no station nearby, and wished some fish for immediate use, he would go to the river where some one was fishing and lower a rope to the man below, and the latter, whoever he was, would tie to the rope as many fish as were required. Inland tribes coming to the river at the fishing season, and desiring to catch any considerable quantity of fish, paid for the privilege. At the present time, since a recent decision of the Federal court, the fishing stations are held in common by the small remnant of the tribe. The principal method of taking salmon is to extend slightly beyond the edge of the rock a platform on which the fisherman takes his station armed with a long-handled dip-net, which he thrusts down into the water close to the rock. This method requires an eddy, a place where the current is up-stream, so that the flow of the water may hold the cone-shaped net extended. The salmon, in their travel up-stream, swim close along the edge, and thus the Indian's net is directly in their course, and the quantities taken are beyond belief. On favorable days a man simply lifts them out until he is physically exhausted, and another takes his place. At times three or four fish enter the net at once. Since this sort of fishing requires perpendicular rocky shores, just the right stage of water, and a reverse current, stations where it can be conducted are not numerous, and they were formerly, and some still are, used day and night. At other places and stages of the water many salmon were taken with spears, and at other times wicker traps were used. Sturgeon were caught with hook and line. Lampreys were taken in vast quantities by means of fine-meshed dip-nets, and were used fresh, or split open and dried. A few thousand of these black, snake-like objects hung up to dry make an interesting, if not an appetizing, sight. On the night following a death all the relatives and intimate friends came to the house, where at one end of the room lay the body, and at its head and feet sat two men called iyahihhlihlih, whose medicine particularly fitted them for the care of the dead, and who were supposed to be capable of receiving communications from the departed spirits. At the other end of the room were the people, singing and dancing. If the deceased were a man or a woman who had received supernatural power, his songs were of course known to somebody, and under this person's leadership the people spent the night singing his medicine-songs. During this time the iyahihhlihlih might hear the spirit of the corpse make certain requests as to the manner in which the body should be dressed, but of that the people knew nothing, and the men in care of the body gave no heed. Toward the end of the night the two men prepared the body for burial by washing it, dressing it, whether man or woman, in ornamented moccasins and leggings, and shirt or dress, and painting the face yellow. A song formerly used by a certain iyahihhlihlih when washing a body is the following:
EDWARD S. CURTIS