[56] Klahoquahts. This and the other tribes mentioned in the text are no longer tributary to the Mooachahts, and there is no "Wickannish" tribe. As we have already seen (p. 38), it is the name of an individual--probably the chief of the Klahoquahts. It is a common name. The Nettinahts and the Klahoquahts are still renowned in canoe-making. They chisel them out of the great cedar (_Thuja gigantea_) trees in this district, for sale to other tribes. But Jewitt, who had no personal knowledge of the homes of these tribes, makes sad havoc of their names and the direction from which they came. [57] _Kootsik_, the "cotsack" of Meares. _Kootsik-poom_ is the pin by which the Indian blanket cloak is fastened. In Meares's time the people dressed in kootsiks of sea-otter skin. But even then they were getting so fond of blankets, that without "woollens" among the barter, trade was difficult. In fifteen years they learned a better use for sea-otters worth £20 apiece than to make cloaks of them. [58] The words were really _Waw-kash_ (a word of salutation) and _Tyee_. This is in most common use in Nootka Sound. The order of salutation to a man is _Quaache-is_, to a woman _Chè-is_, and at parting _Klach-she_. A married woman is _Klootsnah_; a young girl _Hah-quatl-is_; an unmarried woman (whether old or young) _Hah-quatl_--distinctions which Jewitt does not make in his brief vocabulary. The Indians have many words to express varieties of the same action. Thus _pâttēs_ means to wash. But _pâttēē_ is to wash all over; _tsont-soomik_, to wash the hands; _tsocuks_, to wash a pan, etc. _Haouwith_, or _Hawilth_, is the original word for chief, though _Tyee_ is commonly used. [59] This is one of the earliest--if not the first--account of these periodical givings away of property so characteristic of the North-Western coast Indians, and known to the whites as "Potlatches." An Indian accumulates blankets and other portable property simply to give away at such feasts. Then if a poor, he becomes a great man, and even a kind of minor chief--a Life Peer, as it were. But those who have received much are expected to return the compliment by also giving a "potlatch," to which guests come from far and near. I have described one of these in _The Races of Mankind_ (the first edition of _The Peoples of the World_), vol. i. pp. 75-90. CHAPTER V BURNING OF THE VESSEL--COMMENCEMENT OF JEWITT'S JOURNAL