ing family held from one to half a dozen slaves, and some of the chiefs having even many more. Among these slaves, gathered in this promiscuous way from these various sources, it would be nothing strange to find a good many who would be bandy-legged and otherwise ill-shaped; and the earlier writers observing these, and not making the proper inquiries as to where they originally belonged, it was noted down by them that the Chinooks and other Indians on the lower Columbia were bow-legged, which statement is ever afterward reiterated by writers who are not themselves informed on the facts by personal observation. It is not denied here that occasionally some of these people were crooked-limbed, but the rule was the other way—that they usually had wellformed extremities.
In like manner, on imperfect information, a belief has become prevalent that the process of flattening the head of the babe is attended with great pain to the child. I find on careful inquiry that this is not so. It should be remembered that at birth the bones of the head of the child are extremely soft. When the babe has been properly wrapped and fastened in its wooden cradle, a little bag, say four inches wide and eight inches long, filled with feathers or some other soft material, is placed longitudinally upon its forehead and bound on; it is then nursed to sleep. When it wakens, this, in due time, is taken off. This treatment is kept up for eight months or a year, some mothers continuing it longer than others. The child is always laid on its back during the treatment, and the weight of the feathers causes the head to flatten in its growth, and it is attended with no pain to the child.
These Indians believed in one Supreme Being, the creator of all things, and they call him "Ecahnie." Then they have subordinate gods, and the principal one is
