- press purpose of acquiring slaves, which is considered a
great advantage among the savages. The white population have little to fear from their attacks, except on the northern coast, where life is far from being safe, and where the natives, in some cases anthropophagi, do not hesitate to feast upon the flesh of their prisoners.
Throughout the whole country, the habitations of the Indians are rather huts than houses, from fifteen to twenty-five feet long, proportionably wide, and verging into a conical form. Cross pieces of wood are suspended in the interior for the purpose of drying their salmon and other articles of food. Fire is kindled on the ground in the centre of the cabin, the smoke escaping through the roof above. The dress of the Indians is not more recherché than their {27} dwellings. Formerly they clothed themselves very comfortably and neatly, with the furs which they possessed, but since the trade in skins has become so extensive, the natives of Oregon are much worse provided for in this respect, and the poor can scarcely protect themselves against the severity of the seasons. To this circumstance, in part, is attributed the decrease of the population, which has been observed within a few years past. Hunting and fishing are the resources on which the Indian depends for subsistence. His principal food is salmon, sturgeon, and other kinds of fish, with the ducks, wild turkeys and hares, in which the country abounds. The fruits of spontaneous growth, and particularly the root of the cammas, also afford them nourishment.[21]
Among the aborigines of Oregon there is no trace of any religious worship. They have a belief which consists in certain obscure traditions;[22] but no external forms*
