"All the pleasure these poor Indians seem to have in their property is
in hoarding it up for such an occasion as I have described. They never
think of appropriating what they gather to enhance their comforts, but
are satisfied if they can make a display like this now and then; so
that the man possessing but one blanket seems to be as well off as the
one who possesses twenty; and thus it is that there is a vast amount of
dead stock accumulated in the camp doomed never to be used, but only
now and then to be transferred from hand to hand for the mere vanity of
the thing.

"There is another way, however, in which property is disposed of even
more foolishly. If a person be insulted, or meet with an accident, or
in any way suffer an injury, real or supposed, either of mind or body,
property must at once be sacrificed to avoid disgrace. A number of
blankets, shirts, or cotton, according to the rank of the person, are
torn, into small pieces and carried off."

The religion of the Tsimsheans is thus described:--

"The Tsimsheans, I find, believe in two states after death: the one
good, and the other, bad; the morally good are translated to the one,
and the morally bad are doomed to the other. The locality of the former
they think to be above, and that of the latter is somewhere beneath.
The enjoyment of heaven and the privations of hell they understand to
be carnal. They do not suppose the wicked to be destitute of food any
more than they were here, but they are treated as slaves and are badly
clothed.

"The idea they entertain of God is that He is a great chief. They call