knows I ought to be thankful for such a perennial interest, which makes me forget for some hours every day my accursed stomach." An extreme tenderness for suffering marked his whole life. But when the subject of vivisection came under discussion, he recognized the importance of experimental physiology. While insisting upon the imposition of close restrictions in operation, and the adoption of all possible measures to save pain to the objects of experiment, he approved of that method of study, for the sake of the wide and permanent relief from suffering that would accrue from the knowledge thereby gained.
| THE INDIANS OF BRITISH COLUMBIA. |
By Dr. FRANZ BOAS.
A PICTURE of the Indians whose life we intend to describe in the following pages does not bear the well-known features of the renowned hunters and daring warriors whom we are acquainted with from "Leather-Stocking" and other Indian stories. They are no noble figures roaming on horseback over the endless prairie; they are a quiet people of fishermen, whose appearance is so different from that of our Indians that at first sight one feels astonished and disappointed. They are of short stature, light complexion, with prominent cheeks, straight black hair, and sparkling black eyes. Their type reminds one so much of that of the races of Eastern Asia that in British Columbia they are generally considered the descendants of shipwrecked Japanese navigators.
The stranger who first visits Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, is struck by the great number of Indians who live in the city. They wear clothing of European style. The men work on the wharves and steamers, sell fish and skins, or are occupied in different trades, particularly as carpenters. The women wash and work for the whites, or stroll idly about the streets. The suburbs of Victoria are almost exclusively inhabited by the Indians. There they live in miserable, filthy shanties and sheds, or even in thin canvas tents. The city has about thirteen thousand inhabitants, and of these about two thousand are Indians who stay there over summer. Besides these, about three thousand Chinese, many Sandwich-Islanders, a few negroes, and a white population coming from all parts of Europe and America, live in the city. The internationality of the population and its easy-going ways give it a peculiar character.
But this is not the place to study the customs of the Indian. We must visit him in his village, where he lives undisturbed by the contact with Europeans, according to his ancient customs.
When the rainy season of fall approaches, most of the Indians who worked in Victoria over summer return to their villages, either in their
