In giving some account of the tribes that were accustomed to visit Nootka, I shall commence at the southward with the Kla-iz-zarts, and the Wickinninish, premising that in point of personal appearance there prevails a wonderful diversity between the various tribes on the coast, with the exception of the feet and legs, which are badly shaped in almost all of them from their practice of sitting on them. The Kla-iz-zarts are a numerous and powerful tribe, living nearly three hundred miles to the south, and are said to consist of more than a thousand warriors.[91] They appear to be more civilised than any of the others, being better and more neatly dressed, more mild and affable in their manners, remarkable for their sprightliness and vivacity, and celebrated for their singing and dancing. They exhibit also greater marks of improvement in whatever is wrought by them; their canoes, though not superior to those of Nootka in point of form and lightness, are more highly ornamented, and their weapons and tools of every kind have a much higher finish and display more skill in the workmanship. Their cast of countenance is very different from that of the Nootkians, their faces being very broad, with a less prominent nose and smaller eyes, and the top of the head flattened as if it had been pressed down with a weight. Their complexion is also much fairer, and their stature shorter, though they are well formed and strongly set. They have a custom which appears to be peculiar to them, as I never observed it in any of the other tribes, which is to pluck out not only their beards and the hair from their bodies, but also their eyebrows, so as not to leave a vestige remaining. They were also in general more skilful in painting and decorating themselves, and I have seen some of them with no less than a dozen holes in each of their ears, to which were suspended strings of small beads about two inches in length. Their language is the same as spoken at Nootka, but their pronunciation is much more hoarse and guttural. These people are not only very expert in whaling, but are great hunters of the sea-otter and other animals, with which their country is said to abound, and the metamelth, a large animal of the deer kind, the skin of which I have already spoken of, another of a light grey colour, with very fine hair, from which they manufacture a handsome cloth, the beaver, and a species of large wild cat or tiger cat.