of the social life of the Chilliwack. It seems, moreover, peculiar to them, as I have not found it elsewhere.
The tribe was originally endogamous; but later, closer contact with the neighbouring tribes made a strict observance of this rule impolitic, and led to the taking of wives from other communities. Polygamy was common among the Chilliwack, a man having sometimes as many as ten wives. The number of a man’s wives was ordered, as a rule, partly by his inclinations and partly by his ability to support them. Like most of the other tribes, they kept slaves, the wealthy possessing several of both sexes. These were generally captives taken in warfare or in some foray on some distant settlement.
Dwellings
The permanent habitation of the Chilliwack was, as I have said, the communal long-house. The adoption of this style of dwelling, I learnt, was primarily for purposes of mutual protection and defence in cases of attack. It can readily be seen that such houses would be imperatively needful where the community was small, the number of males limited, and the tribe surrounded by hostile and predatory bands. Later, when this need was no longer felt, custom and a recognition of the social advantages of such a structure would operate to perpetuate this mode of building. I think there can be but little doubt that these dwellings, first erected for mutual safetly and protection, have profoundly affected the social life and customs of the Indians using them. The communism of the Halkomelem and coast Salish tribes doubtless grew out of it; likewise their character dances, which are invariably performed during the winter days and evenings in these long common houses.
The long-house of the Chilliwack was of the half gable or single slope pattern, the front or higher side rising 25 or 30 feet. The interior was equally divided between the different families of the tribe. Each family was entitled to a space eight talcs square. (A talc was the length of the interval or space between the outstretched arms of a man, measured across his chest from the tip of the middle finger on one hand to the corresponding point on the other.) When the tribe was populous these houses would extend in an unbroken line for several hundred feet. The chief always occupied the centre. In this custom we have plain evidence of the truth of the statement made to me by the Indians, that they adopted this style of house primarily for protective purposes. The chief — the father and head of the tribe — whose loss would be most severely felt, is always lodged in the securest portion of the structure. On either side of him dwell his brothers, the elder ones coming first. After them come the lesser chiefs and notables, and beyond these again the common folk. There were commonly but two doors to these dwellings, one at each end. In the interior, the spaces allotted to family use were separated by hanging mats or screens of grass or reeds. On festive occasions these were taken down and the divisions thrown into one. The beds were formed by reed mats laid one upon another, the head-rests or pillows being rolls of the same. The coverings of the meaner class were of the same material; the wealthier supplemented these by dressed skins and blankets made from the wool of the mountain-goat.
The keekwilee, or underground winter-house, was also occasionally used by some of the Chilliwack, and known to them by the term skemel. Lalem is the name by which the long-house was known, which, to judge by the lam of the Squamish and other tribes, is the collective form of the term.
The household utensils of the Chilliwack did not differ, except in size, from those used by their congeners elsewhere. These consisted of various forms of basketry, always made, as among the Thompsons, from the split roots of young cedar-trees; wooden bowls, dishes, platters, and spoons. As their meals were of the communistic order, large receptacles were a necessity. Consequently we find these utensils habitually formed on a larger scale among the Chilliwack than among the other tribes. They had enormous cedar troughs, ten or more feet long and two or three feet wide, called skwelstel; big maple dishes, called kamomolp latsel. Besides these were the ordinary heklatsel, or big platter; and the memel latsel, or small platter; the qsieqelc, or wooden dipper or spoon, and the qalo, or horn-spoon.
Dress
The dress of the Chilliwack was similar to that of the contiguous Salish tribes described by me in former reports.
Shamanism
Shamanism was prevalent among the Chilliwack, and exercised a pervasive and paramount influence in their lives. The shamans were of three classes: the sqelam, or doctor, the term signifying “to heal or make well”; the olia, or soothsayer, from ulia ‘to dream’; and the yeuwa, or witch, or sorcerer, from yeuwa cto bewitch or enchant.' The last was of either sex; the others were invariably men. The office of the sqelam, despite his title of “healer,” was not to attend to or cure wounds or such bodily injuries; that was one of the functions of the olia. There is great significance in this fact. An external wound or injury was a matter of comparatively simple import; there was nothing mysterious about it. It was the natural result of a known and comprehended cause. The functions of the sqelam were rather to restore health and vigour to the body when prostrate or suffering from some inward sickness or malady, as when under the supposed influence of some spell or enchantment. He was pre-eminently the “pathologist” of the tribe. Pathological conditions among the Chilliwack, as among other primitive peoples, were regarded as the result of maleficent and mysterious agencies, which could only be controlled or counteracted by incantations and rites performed by one versed in the mysteries, as a sqelam.
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