384	ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS.
which more hereafter) which stupefies him. The carotid is then cut, the heart is pierced, or the large vein of the arm is opened, and the victim allowed to bleed to death. Good men are killed by their friends, and bad ones by women. If a good man, small sticks, moss, and grease are placed over, around, and under him, and the body is thus burned, but is very rarely consumed. It is to be feared that a negative answer to the question is not always heeded, but if it should be, the deer meat, which is otherwise eaten, is burned as a kind of atoning sacrifice. All the bones of the deer are carefully crushed.
On the 3d of September, 1866, we were informed by Nokum that a ceremony of this kind was in progress, and we made all possible speed to the spot to witness it, as previously we had hardly believed in the truth of the story. When we arrived everything was ready. The women and children were cutting up the deer meat, and the blood was on the headstone. The victim, a blind but not decrepit old man, was sitting in apparent unconcern by the headstone, and the others were squatting in a circle around him. He was the father of a wealthy native, but had been blind for five years. This, with the death of his wife and younger son, had made him rather childish. Nokum said that he was constantly weeping for his child, and finally requested to be killed. The natives were much disturbed at our approach, and, fearing interference, refused to go on until our vessels had left. So we were not able to witness the ceremony, which, indeed, we did not regret. The truth of the statements made by Nokum hardly need further confirmation. I saw on the hill the festering re-mains of a lame native, for whom our carpenter had made a crutch on our visit in 1865. It was said that he had been disposed of in the same way. I saw the fragment of a lance still remaining in the thorax. Yet some of the natives, who might have been afraid of retribution from us, declared that he had been frozen to death during the winter. The lance-head told another story.
The stupefying agent may perhaps be prepared from the wild nux vo7nica which grows to the westward. Nokum said that it was obtained from the "deer men"; that it was soft and black. If applied to a weak man's nostrils it would throw him into a swoon instantly. Strong men were obliged to swallow a little, which was followed by the same effects. A small portion was