The name Piskwaus or Piscous is given to a small tribe that lives on the little river which falls into the Columbia about 40 miles below Fort Okanagon. Their months, obtained from a chief, shew that their habits are much the same as those of their neighbours, the Salish, for the names of many of the months have reference to some of their most important usages. One of the chiefs (viz. of the Piskwaus) made only twelve names, while the other (of the Salish) reckoned thirteen. Both had some difficulty in calling to mind all the names. In several the Piskwau chief is one moon ahead of the other, which may arise from a mistake or possibly from some slight difference of seasons at the two places. The list begins at the time of the winter solstice:--1, not translated; 2, ‘cold’; 3, a certain herb; 4, ‘snow gone’; 5, a bitter root; 6, ‘going to root-ground’; 7, _camass_-root; 8, ‘hot’; 9, ‘gathering berries’; 10, ‘exhausted salmon’; 11, ‘dry’; 12 (missing in the Piskwau list) ‘house-building’; 13, ‘snow’[736]. The naming of the months from seasons (in the sense of chapter II) is wide-spread over the whole of North America; only under the curious civilisation of Arizona and neighbouring districts does the system present special features. The Creek Indians began the year immediately after the celebration of the _busk_ or ripening of the new corn, in August. The moons are:--1, big ripening; 2, little, and 3, big chestnut; 4, falling leaf; 5, big winter; 6, little winter, or big winter’s young brother; 7, windy; 8, little, and 9, big spring; 10, mulberry moon; 11, blackberry moon; 12, little ripening moon[737]. An early French author relates of certain tribes in Nouvelle France (western Canada) that they divide the year into twelve moons which are named from animals but correspond to our months. January and February are the first and the second moons in which the bear brings forth its young, March is the moon of the carp, April that of the crane, May that of the maize, June the moon in which the bustard moults, July the month of the rutting of bears, August the rutting-time of bulls, September the rutting-time of deer, October that of elks, November the rutting-time of the roebuck, December the moon in which the roe sheds its horns. The tribes who live by the sea call September the moon in which the trout spawn, October the moon of the whitefish, November that of the herring; to the other moons they give the same names as the inhabitants of the interior[738].