The ceremony was terminated by an exhibition of a similar character to the one of the last year, but still more cruel. A boy of twelve years old, with six bayonets run into his flesh, one through each arm and thigh, and through each side close to the ribs, was carried around the room suspended upon them, without manifesting any symptoms of pain. Maquina, on my inquiring the reason of this display, informed me that it was an ancient custom of his nation to sacrifice a man at the close of this solemnity, in honour of their God, but that his father had abolished it, and substituted this in its place.[130] The whole closed on the evening of the 29th, with a great feast of salmon spawn and oil, at which the natives, as usual, made up for their late abstinence. A few days after, a circumstance occurred, which, from its singularity, I cannot forbear mentioning. I was sent for by my neighbour Yealthlower, the king's elder brother, to file his teeth, which operation having been performed, he informed me that a new wife, whom he had a little time before purchased, having refused to sleep with him, it was his intention, provided she persisted in her refusal, to bite off her nose. I endeavoured to dissuade him from it, but he was determined, and, in fact, performed his savage threat that very night, saying that since she would not be his wife, she should not be that of any other, and in the morning sent her back to her father. The inhuman act did not, however, proceed from any innate cruelty of disposition or malice, as he was far from being of a barbarous temper; but such is the despotism exercised by these savages over their women, that he no doubt considered it as a just punishment for her offence, in being so obstinate and perverse; as he afterwards told me, that in similar cases the husband had a right with them to disfigure his wife in this way or some other, to prevent her ever marrying again. About the middle of December, we left Tashees for Cooptee. As usual at this season, we found the herrings in great plenty, and here the same scene of riotous feasting that I witnessed last year was renewed by our improvident natives, who, in addition to their usual fare, had a plentiful supply of wild geese, which were brought us in great quantities by the Eshquates. These, as Maquina informed me, were caught with nets made from bark in the fresh waters of that country. Those who take them make choice for that purpose of a dark and rainy night, and, with their canoes stuck with lighted torches, proceed with as little noise as possible to the place where the geese are collected, who, dazzled by the light, suffer themselves to be approached very near, when the net is thrown over them, and in this manner from fifty to sixty, or even more, will sometimes be taken at one cast.