Note (return) — Chapter IV · TRANSACTIONS AMONGST THE NATIVES OF NORTH AMERICA; DISCOVERIES ALONG THAT COAST AND THE EASTERN EXTREMITY OF ASIA, NORTHWARD TO ICY CAPE; AND RETURN SOUTHWARD TO THE SANDWICH ISLANDS. (continued 2)

As none of these people lived in the bay where we anchored, or where any of us landed, we saw none of their habitations, and I had not time to look after them. Of their domestic utensils, they brought in their boats some round and oval shallow dishes of wood, and others of a cylindrical shape much deeper. The sides were made of one piece, bent round, like our chip-boxes, though thick, neatly fastened with thongs, and the bottoms fixed in with small wooden pegs. Others were smaller, and of a more elegant shape, somewhat resembling a large oval butterboat, without a handle, but more shallow, made from a piece of wood, or horny substance. These last were sometimes neatly carved. They had many little square bags, made of the same gut with their outer frocks, neatly ornamented with very minute red feathers interwoven with it, in which were contained some very fine sinews, and bundles of small cord, made from them, most ingeniously plaited. They also brought many chequered baskets, so closely wrought as to hold water; some wooden models of their canoes; a good many little images, four or five inches long, either of wood, or stuffed, which were covered with a bit of fur, and ornamented with pieces of small quill feathers, in imitation of their shelly beads, with hair fixed on their heads. Whether these might be mere toys for children, or held in veneration, as representing their deceased friends, and applied to some superstitious purpose, we could not determine. But they have many instruments made of two or three hoops, or concentric pieces of wood, with a cross-bar fixed in the middle, to hold them by. To these are fixed a great number of dried barnacle-shells, with threads, which serve as a rattle, and make a loud noise; when they shake them. This contrivance seems to be a substitute for the rattling-bird at Nootka; and perhaps both of them are employed on the same occasions.2