These, By The Aid Of A Little Wax,
They Render Perfectly Water Tight.
Beside the roots on which they
mainly depend for subsistence, they collect great quantities of
seed, of various kinds, beaten with one hand out of the tops of
the plants into wooden bowls held for that purpose.
The seed thus
collected is winnowed and parched, and ground between two stones
into a kind of meal or flour; which, when mixed with water, forms
a very palatable paste or gruel.
Some of these people, more provident and industrious than the
rest, lay up a stock of dried salmon, and other fish, for winter:
with these, they were ready to traffic with the travellers for
any objects of utility in Indian life; giving a large quantity in
exchange for an awl, a knife, or a fish-hook. Others were in the
most abject state of want and starvation; and would even gather
up the fish-bones which the travellers threw away after a repast,
warm them over again at the fire, and pick them with the greatest
avidity.
The farther Captain Bonneville advanced into the country of these
Root Diggers, the more evidence he perceived of their rude and
forlorn condition. "They were destitute," says he, "of the
necessary covering to protect them from the weather; and seemed
to be in the most unsophisticated ignorance of any other
propriety or advantage in the use of clothing. One old dame had
absolutely nothing on her person but a thread round her neck,
from which was pendant a solitary bead."
What stage of human destitution, however, is too destitute for
vanity!
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