Note 130 — Chapter XIII

Human sacrifices are quite common among the Northern tribes. But in Vancouver they were very rare in my time, and are now still less frequent. In 1863 the burial of a chief was celebrated by the heads of several tribesmen being fixed about his grave. These were not taken by force, but surrendered by the trembling tribesmen, the victims being most likely slaves. In 1788, Meares affirms, on what we believe to be insufficient evidence, that Maquina (Moqulla) sacrificed a human being every new moon, to gratify "his unnatural appetite" for human flesh. The victim was a slave selected by the blindfolded chief catching him in a house in which a number were assembled. Meares even declares that Maquina acknowledged his weakness, and that though Callicum, another chief, avoided cannibalism, he reposed on a pillow filled with human skulls. If so, the practice has ceased. Yet cannibalism was undeniably practised at times among the Indians of both the East and West coasts. There were in 1866 Indians living in Koskeemo Sound, who still talked of the delights of human flesh. Many years ago, the Bella-Bellas ate a servant of the Hudson Bay Company, and the Nuchaltaws of Cape Mudge are affirmed by old traders to have paid the same doubtful compliment to a sailor who fell into their clutches.