Volume 1 — CHAPTER IV. CALIFORNIANS. (continued 2)

CALIFORNIAN DIVERSIONS.

Most important events, such as the seasons of hunting, fishing, acorn-gathering, and the like, are celebrated with feasts and dances which differ in no essential respect from those practiced by the Northern Californians. They usually dance naked, having their heads adorned with feather ornaments, and their bodies and faces painted with glaring colors in grotesque patterns. Broad stripes, drawn up and down, across, or spirally round the body, form the favorite device; sometimes one half of the body is colored red and the other blue, or the whole person is painted jet black and serves as a ground for the representation of a skeleton, done in white, which gives the wearer a most ghastly appearance.[555] The dancing is accompanied by chantings, clapping of hands, blowing on pipes of two or three reeds and played with the nose or mouth, beating of skin drums, and rattling of tortoise-shells filled with small pebbles. This horrible discord is, however, more for the purpose of marking time than for pleasing the ear.[556] The women are seldom allowed to join in the dance with the men, and when they are so far honored, take a very unimportant part in the proceedings, merely swaying their bodies to and fro in silence.

Plays, representing scenes of war, hunting, and private life, serve to while away the time, and are performed with considerable skill. Though naturally the very incarnation of sloth, at least as far as useful labor is concerned, they have one or two games which require some exertion. One of these, in vogue among the Meewocs, is played with bats and an oak-knot ball. The former are made of a pliant stick, having the end bent round and lashed to the main part so as to form a loop, which is filled with a network of strings. They do not strike but push the ball along with these bats. The players take sides, and each party endeavors to drive the ball past the boundaries of the other. Another game, which was formerly much played at the missions on the coast, requires more skill and scarcely less activity. It consists in throwing a stick through a hoop which is rapidly rolled along the ground. If the player succeeds in this, he gains two points; if the stick merely passes partially through, so that the hoop remains resting upon it, one point is scored.

But, as usual, games of chance are much preferred to games of skill. The chief of these is the same as that already described in the last chapter as being played by the natives all along the coasts of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, and which bears so close a resemblance to the odd-and-even of our school-days. They are as infatuated on this subject as their neighbors, and quite as willing to stake the whole of their possessions on an issue of chance. They smoke a species of strong tobacco in the straight pipes before mentioned;[557] but they have no native intoxicating drink.[558]

MEDICINE AND SWEAT-HOUSES.

The principal diseases are small-pox, various forms of fever, and syphilis. Owing to their extreme filthiness they are also very subject to disgusting eruptions of the skin. Women are not allowed to practice the healing art, as among the Northern Californians, the privileges of quackery being here reserved exclusively to the men. Chanting incantations, waving of hands, and the sucking powers obtain. Doctors are supposed to have power over life and death, hence if they fail to effect a cure, they are frequently killed.[559] They demand the most extortionate fees in return for their services, and often refuse to officiate unless the object they desire is promised them. Sweat-houses similar to those already described are in like manner used as a means of cure for every kind of complaint.[560] They have another kind of sudatory. A hole is dug in the sand of a size sufficient to contain a person lying at full length; over this a fire is kept burning until the sand is thoroughly heated, when the fire is removed and the sand stirred with a stick until it is reduced to the required temperature. The patient is then placed in the hole and covered, with the exception of his head, with sand. Here he remains until in a state of profuse perspiration, when he is unearthed and plunged into cold water. They are said to practice phlebotomy, using the right arm when the body is affected and the left when the complaint is in the limbs. A few simple decoctions are made from herbs, but these are seldom very efficient medicines, especially when administered for the more complicated diseases which the whites have brought among them. Owing to the insufficient or erroneous treatment they receive, many disorders which would be easily cured by us, degenerate with them into chronic maladies, and are transmitted to their children.[561]

Incremation is almost universal in this part of California.[562] The body is decorated with feathers, flowers, and beads, and after lying in state for some time, is burned amid the howls and lamentations of friends and relations. The ashes are either preserved by the family of the deceased or are formally buried. The weapons and effects of the dead are burned or buried with them.[563] When a body is prepared for interment the knees are doubled up against the chest and securely bound with cords. It is placed in a sitting posture in the grave, which is circular. This is the most common manner of sepulture, but some tribes bury the body perpendicularly in a hole just large enough to admit it, sometimes with the head down, sometimes in a standing position. The Pomos formerly burned their dead, and since they have been influenced by the whites to bury them, they invariably place the body with its head toward the south.

MOURNING FOR THE DEAD.

A scene of incremation is a weird spectacle. The friends and relatives of the deceased gather round the funeral pyre in a circle, howling dismally. As the flames mount upward their enthusiasm increases, until in a perfect frenzy of excitement, they leap, shriek, lacerate their bodies, and even snatch a handful of smoldering flesh from the fire, and devour it.

The ashes of the dead mixed with grease, are smeared over the face as a badge of mourning, and the compound is suffered to remain there until worn off by the action of the weather. The widow keeps her head covered with pitch for several months. In the Russian River Valley, where demonstrations of grief appear to be yet more violent than elsewhere, self-laceration is much practiced. It is customary to have an annual Dance of Mourning, when the inhabitants of a whole village collect together and lament their deceased friends with howls and groans. Many tribes think it necessary to nourish a departed spirit for several months. This is done by scattering food about the place where the remains of the dead are deposited. A devoted Neeshenam widow does not utter a word for several months after the death of her husband; a less severe sign of grief is to speak only in a low whisper for the same time.[564]

Regarding a future state their ideas are vague; some say that the Meewocs believe in utter annihilation after death, but who can fathom the hopes and fears that struggle in their dark imaginings. They are not particularly cruel or vicious; they show much sorrow for the death of a relative; in some instances they are affectionate toward their families.[565]

CENTRAL CALIFORNIAN CHARACTER.

Although nearly all travelers who have seen and described this people, place them in the lowest scale of humanity, yet there are some who assert that the character of the Californian has been maligned. It does not follow, they say, that he is indolent because he does not work when the fertility of his native land enables him to live without labor; or that he is cowardly because he is not incessantly at war, or stupid and brutal because the mildness of his climate renders clothes and dwellings superfluous. But is this sound reasoning? Surely a people assisted by nature should progress faster than another, struggling with depressing difficulties.

From the frozen, wind-swept plains of Alaska to the malaria-haunted swamps of Darien, there is not a fairer land than California; it is the neutral ground, as it were, of the elements, where hyperboreal cold, stripped of its rugged aspect, and equatorial heat, tamed to a genial warmth, meet as friends, inviting, all blusterings laid aside. Yet if we travel northward from the Isthmus, we must pass by ruined cities and temples, traces of mighty peoples, who there flourished before a foreign civilization extirpated them. On the arid deserts of Arizona and New Mexico is found an incipient civilization. Descending from the Arctic sea we meet races of hunters and traders, which can be called neither primitive nor primordial, living after their fashion as men, not as brutes. It is not until we reach the Golden Mean in Central California that we find whole tribes subsisting on roots, herbs and insects; having no boats, no clothing, no laws, no God; yielding submissively to the first touch of the invader; held in awe by a few priests and soldiers. Men do not civilize themselves. Had not the Greeks and the Egyptians been driven on by an unseen hand, never would the city of the Violet Crown have graced the plains of Hellas, nor Thebes nor Memphis have risen in the fertile valley of the Nile. Why Greece is civilized, while California breeds a race inferior to the lowest of their neighbors, save only perhaps the Shoshones on their east, no one yet can tell.

When Father Junípero Serra established the Mission of Dolores in 1776, the shores of San Francisco Bay were thickly populated by the Ahwashtees, Ohlones, Altahmos, Romanons, Tuolomos, and other tribes. The good Father found the field unoccupied, for, in the vocabulary of these people, there is found no word for god, angel, or devil; they held no theory of origin or destiny. A ranchería was situated on the spot where now Beach street intersects Hyde street. Were it there now, as contrasted with the dwellings of San Francisco, it would resemble a pig-sty more than a human habitation.

On the Marin and Sonoma shores of the bay were the Tomales and Camimares, the latter numbering, in 1824, ten thousand souls. Marin, chief of the Tomales, was for a long time the terror of the Spaniards, and his warriors were ranked as among the fiercest of the Californians. He was brave, energetic, and possessed of no ordinary intelligence. When quite old he consented to be baptized into the Romish Church.

YOSEMITE VALLEY INDIANS.

It has been suspected that the chief Marin was not a full-bred Indian, but that he was related to a certain Spanish sailor who was cast ashore from a wrecked galeon on a voyage from Manila to Acapulco about the year 1750. The ship-wrecked Spaniards, it has been surmised, were kindly treated by the natives; they married native wives, and lived with the Tomales as of them, and from them descended many of their chiefs; but of this we have no proof.

Yosemite Valley was formerly a stronghold to which tribes in that vicinity resorted after committing their depredations upon white settlers. They used to make their boast that their hiding place could never be discovered by white men. But during the year 1850, the marauders growing bold in their fancied security, the whites arose and drove them into the mountains. Following them thither under the guidance of Tenaya, an old chief and confederate, the white men were suddenly confronted by the wondrous beauties of the valley. The Indians, disheartened at the discovery of their retreat, yielded a reluctant obedience, but becoming again disaffected they renewed their depredations. Shortly afterward the Yosemite Indians made a visit to the Monos. They were hospitably entertained, but upon leaving, could not resist the temptation to drive off a few stray cattle belonging to their friends. The Monos, enraged at this breach of good faith, pursued and gave them battle. The warriors of the valley were nearly exterminated, scarce half a dozen remaining to mourn their loss. All their women and children were carried away into captivity. These Yosemite Indians consisted of a mixture from various tribes, outlaws as it were from the surrounding tribes. They have left as their legacy a name for every cliff and waterfall within the valley. How marvelous would be their history could we go back and trace it from the beginning, these millions of human bands, who throughout the ages have been coming and going, unknowing and unknown!

In the Southern Californians, whose territory lies south of the thirty-fifth parallel, there are less tribal differences than among any people whom we have yet encountered, whose domain is of equal extent. Those who live in the south-eastern corner of the State are thrown by the Sierra Nevada range of mountains into the Shoshone family, to which, indeed, by affinity they belong. The chief tribes of this division are the Cahuillas and the Diegueños, the former living around the San Bernardino and San Jacinto mountains, and the latter in the southern extremity of California. Around each mission were scores of small bands, whose rancherías were recorded in the mission books, the natives as a whole being known only by the name of the mission. When first discovered by Cabrillo in 1542, the islands off the coast were inhabited by a superior people, but these they were induced by the padres to abandon, following which event the people rapidly faded away. The natives called the island of Santa Cruz Liniooh, Santa Rosa Hurmal, San Miguel Twocan, and San Nicolas Ghalashat.

As we approach the southern boundary of California a slight improvement is manifest in the aborigines. The men are here well made, of a stature quite up to the average, comparatively fair-complexioned and pleasant-featured. The children of the islanders are described by the early voyagers as being white, with light hair and ruddy cheeks, and the women as having fine forms, beautiful eyes, and a modest demeanor.[566] The beard is plucked out with a bivalve shell, which answers the purpose of pincers.

DRESS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.

A short cloak of deer-skin or rabbit-skins sewed together, suffices the men for clothing; and sometimes even this is dispensed with, for they think it no shame to be naked.[567] The women and female children wear a petticoat of skin, with a heavy fringe reaching down to the knees; in some districts they also wear short capes covering the breasts.[568] On the coast and, formerly, on the islands, seals furnished the material.[569] The more industrious and wealthy embroider their garments profusely with small shells. Around Santa Barbara rings of bone or shell were worn in the nose; at Los Angeles nasal ornaments were not the fashion. The women had cylinder-shaped pieces of ivory, sometimes as much as eight inches, in length, attached to the ears by a shell ring. Bracelets and necklaces were made of pieces of ivory ground round and perforated, small pebbles, and shells.

Paint of various colors was used by warriors and dancers. Mr Hugo Reid, who has contributed valuable information concerning the natives of Los Angeles County, states that girls in love paint the cheeks sparingly with red ochre, and all the women, before they grow old, protect their complexion from the effects of the sun by a plentiful application of the same cosmetic.[570] Vizcaino saw natives on the southern coast painted blue and silvered over with some kind of mineral substance. On his asking where they obtained the silver-like material they showed him a kind of mineral ore, which they said they used for purposes of ornamentation.[571]

They take much pride in their hair, which they wear long. It is braided, and either wound round the head turban-like,[572] or twisted into a top-knot; some tie it in a queue behind. According to Father Boscana the girls are tattooed in infancy on the face, breast, and arms. The most usual method was to prick the flesh with a thorn of the cactus-plant; charcoal produced from the maguey was then rubbed into the wounds, and an ineffaceable blue was the result.[573]

DWELLINGS AND FOOD.

Dwellings, in the greater part of this region, differ but little from those of the Central Californians. In shape they are conical or semi-globular, and usually consist of a frame, formed by driving long poles into the ground, covered with rushes and earth.[574] On the coast of the Santa Barbara Channel there seems to have been some improvement in their style of architecture. It was probably here that Cabrillo saw houses built after the manner of those in New Spain.[575] It is possible that the influences of the southern civilization may have extended as far as this point. Father Boscana's description of the temples or vanquechs erected by the natives in the vicinity of San Juan Capistrano, in honor of their god, Chinigchinich, is thus translated: "They formed an enclosure of about four or five yards in circumference, not exactly round, but inclining to an oval. This they divided by drawing a line through the centre, and built another, consisting of the branches of trees, and mats to the height of about six feet, outside of which, in the other division, they formed another of small stakes of wood driven into the ground. This was called the gate, or entrance, to the vanquech. Inside of this, and close to the larger stakes, was placed a figure of their god Chinigchinich, elevated upon a kind of hurdle. This is the edifice of the vanquech."[576]

Almost every living thing that they can lay their hands on serves as food. Coyotes, skunks, wild cats, rats, mice, crows, hawks, owls, lizards, frogs, snakes, excepting him of the rattle, grasshoppers and other insects, all are devoured by the inland tribes. Stranded whales, animals of the seal genus, fish, and shell-fish, form the main support of those inhabiting the coast. Venison they are of course glad to eat when they can get it, but as they are poor hunters, it is a rare luxury. When they did hunt the deer they resorted to the same artifice as their northern neighbors, placing a deer's head and horns on their own head, and thus disguised approaching within bow-shot. Bear-meat the majority refuse to eat from superstitious motives.[577] Grasshoppers are eaten roasted. Acorns are shelled, dried, and pounded in stone mortars into flour, which is washed and rewashed in hot and cold water until the bitterness is removed, when it is made into gruel with cold water, or baked into bread. Various kinds of grass-seeds, herbs, berries, and roots, are also eaten, both roasted and raw. Wild fowl are caught in nets made of tules, spread over channels cut through the rushes in places frequented by the fowl, at a sufficient height above the water to allow the birds to swim easily beneath them. The game is gently driven or decoyed under the nets, when at a given signal, a great noise is made, and the terrified fowl, rising suddenly, become hopelessly entangled in the meshes, and fall an easy prey. Or selecting a spot containing clear water about two feet deep, they fasten a net midway between the surface and the bottom, and strewing the place with berries, which sink to the bottom under the net, they retire. The fowl approach and dive for the berries. The meshes of the net readily admit the head, but hold the prisoner tight upon attempting to withdraw it. And what is more, their position prevents them from making a noise, and they serve also as a decoy for others. Fish are taken in seines made from the tough bark of the tioñe-tree. They are also killed with spears having a movable bone head, attached to a long line, so that when a fish is struck the barb becomes loosened; line is then paid out until the fish is exhausted with running, when it is drawn in. Many of the inland tribes come down to the coast in the fishing season, and remain there until the shoals leave, when they return to the interior. Food is either boiled by dropping hot stones into water-baskets, or, more frequently, in vessels made of soap-stone.[578]

In their cooking, as in other respects, they are excessively unclean. They bathe frequently, it is true, but when not in the water they are wallowing in filth. Their dwellings are full of offal and other impurities, and vermin abound on their persons.

WEAPONS AND WAR.

Bows and arrows, and clubs, are as usual the weapons most in use. Sabres of hard wood, with edges that cut like steel, are mentioned by Father Junípero Serra.[579] War is a mere pretext for plunder; the slightest wrong, real or imaginary, being sufficient cause for a strong tribe to attack a weaker one. The smaller bands form temporary alliances; the women and children accompanying the men on a raid, carrying provisions for the march, and during an engagement they pick up the fallen arrows of the enemy and so keep their own warriors supplied. Boscana says that no male prisoners are taken, and no quarter given; and Hugo Reid affirms of the natives of Los Angeles County that all prisoners of war, after being tormented in the most cruel manner, are invariably put to death. The dead are decapitated and scalped. Female prisoners are either sold or retained as slaves. Scalps, highly prized as trophies, and publicly exhibited at feasts, may be ransomed, but no consideration would induce them to part with their living captives.[580]

Among the few articles they manufacture are fish-hooks, needles, and awls, made of bone or shell; mortars and pestles of granite, and soap-stone cooking vessels, and water-tight baskets.[581] The clay vessels which are frequently found among them now, were not made by them before the arrival of the Spaniards. The stone implements, however, are of aboriginal manufacture, and are well made. The former are said to have been procured mostly by the tribes of the mainland from the Santa Rosa islanders.[582] The instruments which they used in their manufactures were flint knives and awls; the latter Fages describes as being made from the small bone of a deer's fore-foot. The knife is double-edged, made of a flint, and has a wooden haft, inlaid with mother of pearl.[583]

On this coast we again meet with wooden canoes, although the balsa, or tule raft, is also in use. These boats are made of planks neatly fastened together and paid with bitumen;[584] prow and stern, both equally sharp, are elevated above the centre, which made them appear to Vizcaino "como barquillos" when seen beside his own junk-like craft. The paddles were long and double-bladed, and their boats, though generally manned by three or four men, were sometimes large enough to carry twenty. Canoes dug out of a single log, scraped smooth on the outside, with both ends shaped alike, were sometimes, though more rarely, used.[585] The circulating medium consisted of small round pieces of the white mussel-shell. These were perforated and arranged on strings, the value of which depended upon their length.[586] I have said before that this money is supposed to have been manufactured for the most part on Santa Rosa Island. Hence it was distributed among the coast tribes, who bought with it deer-skins, seeds, etc., from the people of the interior.

GOVERNMENT AND PUNISHMENTS.

Each tribe acknowledged one head, whose province it was to settle disputes,[587] levy war, make peace, appoint feasts, and give good advice. Beyond this he had little power.[588] He was assisted in his duties by a council of elders. The office of chief was hereditary, and in the absence of a male heir devolved upon the female nearest of kin. She could marry whom she pleased, but her husband obtained no authority through the alliance, all the power remaining in his wife's hands until their eldest boy attained his majority, when the latter at once assumed the command.

A murderer's life was taken by the relatives of his victim, unless he should gain refuge in the temple, in which case his punishment was left to their god. Vengeance was, however, only deferred; the children of the murdered man invariably avenged his death, sooner or later, upon the murderer or his descendants. When a chief grew too old to govern he abdicated in favor of his son, on which occasion a great feast was given. When all the people had been called together by criers, "the crown was placed upon the head of the chief elect, and he was enrobed with the imperial vestments," as Father Boscana has it; that is to say, he was dressed in a head-ornament of feathers, and a feather petticoat reaching from the waist half-way down to the knees, and the rest of his body painted black. He then went into the temple and performed a pas seul before the god Chinigchinich. Here, in a short time, he was joined by the other chiefs, who, forming a circle, danced round him, accompanied by the rattling of turtle-shells filled with small stones. When this ceremony was over he was publicly acknowledged chief.

As I said before, the chief had little actual authority over individuals; neither was the real power vested in the heads of families; but a system of influencing the people was adopted by the chief and the elders, which is somewhat singular. Whenever an important step was to be taken, such as the killing of a malefactor, or the invasion of an enemy's territory, the sympathies of the people were enlisted by means of criers, who were sent round to proclaim aloud the crime and the criminal, or to dilate upon the wrongs suffered at the hands of the hostile tribe; and their eloquence seldom failed to attain the desired object.[589]

MARRIAGE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.

The chief could have a plurality of wives, but the common people were only allowed one.[590] The form of contracting a marriage varied. In Los Angeles County, according to Mr Reid, the matter was arranged by a preliminary interchange of presents between the male relatives of the bridegroom and the female relatives of the bride. The former proceeded in a body to the dwelling of the girl, and distributed small sums in shell money among her female kinsfolk, who were collected there for the occasion. These afterward returned the compliment by visiting the man and giving baskets of meal to his people. A time was then fixed for the final ceremony. On the appointed day the girl, decked in all her finery, and accompanied by her family and relations, was carried in the arms of one of her kinsfolk toward the house of her lover; edible seeds and berries were scattered before her on the way, which were scrambled for by the spectators. The party was met half-way by a deputation from the bridegroom, one of whom now took the young woman in his arms and carried her to the house of her husband, who waited expectantly. She was then placed by his side, and the guests, after scattering more seeds, left the couple alone. A great feast followed, of which the most prominent feature was a character-dance. The young men took part in this dance in the rôles of hunters and warriors, and were assisted by the old women, who feigned to carry off game, or dispatch wounded enemies, as the case might be. The spectators sat in a circle and chanted an accompaniment.

According to another form of marriage the man either asked the girl's parents for permission to marry their daughter, or commissioned one of his friends to do so. If the parents approved, their future son-in-law took up his abode with them, on condition that he should provide a certain quantity of food every day. This was done to afford him an opportunity to judge of the domestic qualities of his future wife. If satisfied, he appointed a day for the marriage, and the ceremony was conducted much in the same manner as that last described, except that he received the girl in a temporary shelter erected in front of his hut, and that she was disrobed before being placed by his side.

Children were often betrothed in infancy, kept continually in each other's society until they grew up, and the contract was scarcely ever broken. Many obtained their wives by abduction, and this was the cause of many of the inter-tribal quarrels in which they were so constantly engaged.

If a man ill-treated his wife, her relations took her away, after paying back the value of her wedding presents, and then married her to another. Little difficulty was experienced in obtaining a divorce on any ground; indeed, in many of the tribes the parties separated whenever they grew tired of each other. Adultery was severely punished. If a husband caught his wife in the act, he was justified in killing her, or, he could give her up to her seducer and appropriate the spouse of the latter to himself.

CHILD-BIRTH.

At the time of child-birth many singular observances obtained; for instance, the old women washed the child as soon as it was born, and drank of the water; the unhappy infant was forced to take a draught of urine medicinally, and although the husband did not affect the sufferings of labor, his conduct was supposed in some manner to affect the unborn child, and he was consequently laid under certain restrictions, such as not being allowed to leave the house, or to eat fish and meat. The women as usual suffer little from child-bearing. One writer thus describes the accouchement of a woman in the vicinity of San Diego: "A few hours before the time arrives she gets up and quietly walks off alone, as if nothing extraordinary was about to occur. In this manner she deceives all, even her husband, and hides herself away in some secluded nook, near a stream or hole of water. At the foot of a small tree, which she can easily grasp with both hands, she prepares her 'lying-in-couch,' on which she lies down as soon as the labor pains come on. When the pain is on, she grasps the tree with both hands, thrown up backward over her head, and pulls and strains with all her might, thus assisting each pain, until her accouchement is over. As soon as the child is born, the mother herself ties the navel-cord with a bit of buck-skin string, severing it with a pair of sharp scissors, prepared for the occasion, after which the end is burned with a coal of fire; the child is then thrown into the water; if it rises to the surface and cries, it is taken out and cared for; if it sinks, there it remains, and is not even awarded an Indian burial. The affair being all over, she returns to her usual duties, just as if nothing had happened, so matter of fact are they in such matters." Purification at child-birth lasted for three days, during which time the mother was allowed no food, and no drink but warm water. The ceremony, in which mother and child participated, was as follows: In the centre of the hut a pit was filled with heated stones, upon which herbs were placed, and the whole covered with earth, except a small aperture through which water was introduced. The mother and child, wrapped in blankets, stood over the pit and were soon in a violent perspiration. When they became exhausted from the effect of the steam and the heated air, they lay upon the ground and were covered with earth, after which they again took to the heated stones and steam. The mother was allowed to eat no meat for two moons, after which pills made of meat and wild tobacco were given her. In some tribes she could hold no intercourse with her husband until the child was weaned.

Children, until they arrived at the age of puberty, remained under the control of their parents, afterward they were subject only to the chief. Like the Spartan youth, they were taught that abstinence, and indifference to hardship and privations, constitute the only true manhood. To render them hardy much unnecessary pain was inflicted. They were forbidden to approach the fire to warm themselves, or to eat certain seeds and berries which were considered luxuries.

A youth, to become a warrior, must first undergo a severe ordeal; his naked body was beaten with stinging nettles until he was literally unable to move; then he was placed upon the nest of a species of virulent ant, while his friends irritated the insects by stirring them up with sticks. The infuriated ants swarmed over every part of the sufferer's body, into his eyes, his ears, his mouth, his nose, causing indescribable pain.

Boscana states that the young were instructed to love truth, to do good, and to venerate old age.[592] At an early age they were placed under the protection of a tutelar divinity, which was supposed to take the form of some animal. To discover the particular beast which was to guide his future destinies, the child was intoxicated,[593] and for three or four days kept without food of any kind. During this period he was continually harassed and questioned, until, weak from want of food, crazed with drink and importunity, and knowing that the persecution would not cease until he yielded, he confessed to seeing his divinity, and described what kind of brute it was. The outline of the figure was then molded in a paste made of crushed herbs, on the breast and arms of the novitiate. This was ignited and allowed to burn until entirely consumed, and thus the figure of the divinity remained indelibly delineated in the flesh. Hunters, before starting on an expedition, would beat their faces with nettles to render them clear-sighted. A girl, on arriving at the age of puberty, was laid upon a bed of branches placed over a hole, which had been previously heated, where she was kept with very little food for two or three days. Old women chanted songs, and young women danced round her at intervals during her purification. In the vicinity of San Diego the girl is buried all but her head, and the ground above her is beaten until she is in a profuse perspiration. This is continued for twenty-four hours, the patient being at intervals during this time taken out and washed, and then reimbedded. A feast and dance follow.[594]

When the missionaries first arrived in this region, they found men dressed as women and performing women's duties, who were kept for unnatural purposes. From their youth up they were treated, instructed, and used as females, and were even frequently publicly married to the chiefs or great men.[595]

AMUSEMENTS.

Gambling and dancing formed, as usual, their principal means of recreation. Their games of chance differed little from those played farther north. That of guessing in which hand a piece of wood was held, before described, was played by eight, four on a side, instead of four. Another game was played by two. Fifty small pieces of wood, placed upright in a row in the ground, at distances of two inches apart, formed the score. The players were provided with a number of pieces of split reed, blackened on one side; these were thrown, points down, on the ground, and the thrower counted one for every piece that remained white side uppermost; if he gained eight he was entitled to another throw. If the pieces all fell with the blackened side up they counted also. Small pieces of wood placed against the upright pegs, marked the game. They reckoned from opposite ends of the row, and if one of the players threw just so many as to make his score exactly meet that of his opponent, the former had to commence again. Throwing lances of reed through a rolling hoop was another source of amusement. Professional singers were employed to furnish music to a party of gamblers. An umpire was engaged, whose duty it was to hold the stakes, count the game, prevent cheating, and act as referee; he was also expected to supply wood for the fire.

When they were not eating, sleeping, or gambling, they were generally dancing; indeed, says Father Boscana, "such was the delight with which they took part in their festivities, that they often continued dancing day and night, and sometimes entire weeks." They danced at a birth, at a marriage, at a burial; they danced to propitiate the divinity, and they thanked the divinity for being propitiated by dancing. They decorated themselves with shells and beads, and painted their bodies with divers colors. Sometimes head-dresses and petticoats of feathers were worn, at other times they danced naked. The women painted the upper part of their bodies brown. They frequently danced at the same time as the men, but seldom with them. Time was kept by singers, and the rattling of turtle-shells filled with pebbles. They were good actors, and some of their character-dances were well executed; the step, however, like their chanting, was monotonous and unvarying. Many of their dances were extremely licentious, and were accompanied with obscenities too disgusting to bear recital. Most of them were connected in some way with their superstitions and religious rites.[596]

These people never wandered far from their own territory, and knew little or nothing of the nations lying beyond their immediate neighbors. Mr Reid relates that one who traveled some distance beyond the limits of his own domain, returned with the report that he had seen men whose ears descended to their hips; then he had met with a race of Lilliputians; and finally had reached a people so subtly constituted that they "would take a rabbit, or other animal, and merely with the breath, inhale the essence; throwing the rest away, which on examination proved to be excrement."

CUSTOMS AND SUPERSTITIONS.

They had a great number of traditions, legends, and fables. Some of these give evidence of a powerful imagination; a few are pointed with a moral; but the majority are puerile, meaningless, to us at least, and filled with obscenities. It is said that, in some parts, the Southern Californians are great snake-charmers, and that they allow the reptiles to wind themselves about their bodies and bite them, with impunity.

Feuds between families are nursed for generations; the war is seldom more than one of words, however, unless a murder is to be avenged, and consists of mutual vituperations, and singing obscene songs about each other. Friends salute by inquiries after each other's health. On parting one says 'I am going,' the other answers 'go.'

They are very superstitious, and believe in all sorts of omens and auguries. An eclipse frightens them beyond measure, and shooting stars cause them to fall down in the dust and cover their heads in abject terror. Many of them believe that, should a hunter eat meat or fish which he himself had procured, his luck would leave him. For this reason they generally hunt or fish in pairs, and when the day's sport is over, each takes what the other has killed. Living as they do from hand to mouth, content to eat, sleep, and dance away their existence, we cannot expect to find much glimmering of the simpler arts or sciences among them.

Their year begins at the winter solstice, and they count by lunar months, so that to complete their year they are obliged to add several supplementary days. All these months have symbolic names. Thus December and January are called the month of cold; February and March, the rain; March and April, the first grass; April and May, the rise of waters; May and June, the month of roots; June and July, of salmon fishing; July and August, of heat; August and September, of wild fruits; September and October, of bulbous roots; October and November, of acorns and nuts; November and December, of bear and other hunting.

MEDICAL TREATMENT.

Sorcerers are numerous, and as unbounded confidence is placed in their power to work both good and evil, their influence is great. As astrologers and soothsayers, they can tell by the appearance of the moon the most propitious day and hour in which to celebrate a feast, or attack an enemy. Sorcerers also serve as almanacs for the people, as it is their duty to note by the aspect of the moon the time of the decease of a chief or prominent man, and to give notice of the anniversary when it comes round, in order that it may be duly celebrated. They extort black-mail from individuals by threatening them with evil. The charm which they use is a ball made of mescal mixed with wild honey; this is carried under the left arm, in a small leather bag,—and the spell is effected by simply laying the right hand upon this bag. Neither does their power end here; they hold intercourse with supernatural beings, metamorphose themselves at will, see into the future, and even control the elements. They are potent to cure as well as to kill. For all complaints, as usual, they 'put forth the charm of woven paces and of waving hands,' and in some cases add other remedies. For internal complaints they prescribe cold baths; wounds and sores are treated with lotions and poultices of crushed herbs, such as sage and rosemary, and of a kind of black oily resin, extracted from certain seeds. Other maladies they affirm to be caused by small pieces of wood, stone, or other hard substance, which by some means have entered the flesh, and which they pretend to extract by sucking the affected part. In a case of paralysis the stricken parts were whipped with nettles. Blisters are raised by means of dry paste made from nettle-stalks, placed on the bare flesh of the patient, set on fire, and allowed to burn out. Cold water or an emetic is used for fever and like diseases, or, sometimes, the sufferer is placed naked upon dry sand or ashes, with a fire close to his feet, and a bowl of water or gruel at his head, and there left for nature to take its course, while his friends and relatives sit round and howl him into life or into eternity. Snake-bites are cured by an internal dose of ashes, or the dust found at the bottom of ants' nests, and an external application of herbs.[598] The medicine-men fare better here than their northern brethren, as, in the event of the non-recovery of their patient, the death of the latter is attributed to the just anger of their god, and consequently the physician is not held responsible. To avert the displeasure of the divinity, and to counteract the evil influence of the sorcerers, regular dances of propitiation or deprecation are held, in which the whole tribe join.[599]

DEATH AND BURIAL.

The temescal, or sweat-house, is the same here as elsewhere, which renders a description unnecessary.[600] The dead were either burned or buried. Father Boscana says that no particular ceremonies were observed during the burning of the corpse. The body was allowed to lie untouched some days after death, in order to be certain that no spark of life remained. It was then borne out and laid upon the funeral pyre, which was ignited by a person specially appointed for that purpose. Everything belonging to the deceased was burned with him. When all was over the mourners betook themselves to the outskirts of the village, and there gave vent to their lamentation for the space of three days and nights. During this period songs were sung, in which the cause of the late death was related, and even the progress of the disease which brought him to his grave minutely described in all its stages. As an emblem of grief the hair was cut short in proportion to nearness of relation to or affection for the deceased, but laceration was not resorted to.[602] Mr Taylor relates that the Santa Inez Indians buried their dead in regular cemeteries. The body was placed in a sitting posture in a box made of slabs of claystone, and interred with all the effects of the dead person.[603] According to Reid, the natives of Los Angeles County waited until the body began to show signs of decay and then bound it together in the shape of a ball, and buried it in a place set apart for that purpose, with offerings of seeds contributed by the family. At the first news of his death all the relatives of the deceased gathered together, and mourned his departure with groans, each having a groan peculiar to himself. The dirge was presently changed to a song, in which all united, while an accompaniment was whistled through a deer's leg-bone. The dancing consisted merely in a monotonous shuffling of the feet.[604] Pedro Fages thus describes a burial ceremony at the place named by him Sitio de los Pedernales.[605] Immediately after an Indian has breathed his last, the corpse is borne out and placed before the idol which stands in the village, there it is watched by persons who pass the night round a large fire built for the purpose; the following morning all the inhabitants of the place gather about the idol and the ceremony commences. At the head of the procession marches one smoking gravely from a large stone pipe; followed by three others, he three times walks round the idol and the corpse; each time the head of the deceased is passed the coverings are lifted, and he who holds the pipe blows three puffs of smoke upon the body. When the feet are reached, a kind of prayer is chanted in chorus, and the parents and relatives of the defunct advance in succession and offer to the priest a string of threaded seeds, about a fathom long; all present then unite in loud cries and groans, while the four, taking the corpse upon their shoulders, proceed with it to the place of interment. Care is taken to place near the body articles which have been manufactured by the deceased during his life-time. A spear or javelin, painted in various vivid colors, is planted erect over the tomb, and articles indicating the occupation of the dead are placed at his foot; if the deceased be a woman, baskets or mats of her manufacture are hung on the javelin.[606]

Death they believed to be a real though invisible being, who gratified his own anger and malice by slowly taking away the breath of his victim until finally life was extinguished. The future abode of good spirits resembled the Scandinavian Valhalla; there, in the dwelling-place of their god, they would live for ever and ever, eating, and drinking, and dancing, and having wives in abundance. As their ideas of reward in the next world were matter-of-fact and material, so were their fears of punishment in this life; all accidents, such as broken limbs or bereavement by death, were attributed to the direct vengeance of their god, for crimes which they had committed.[607]

Though good-natured and inordinately fond of amusement, they are treacherous and unreliable. Under a grave and composed exterior they conceal their thoughts and character so well as to defy interpretation. And this is why we find men, who have lived among them for years, unable to foretell their probable action under any given circumstances.

THE SHOSHONE FAMILY.

The Shoshone Family, which forms the fourth and last division of the Californian group, may be said to consist of two great nations, the Snakes, or Shoshones proper, and the Utahs. The former inhabit south-eastern Oregon, Idaho, western Montana, and the northern portions of Utah and Nevada, are subdivided into several small tribes, and include the more considerable nation of the Bannacks. The Utahs occupy nearly the whole of Utah and Nevada, and extend into Arizona and California, on each side of the Colorado. Among the many tribes into which the Utahs are divided may be mentioned the Utahs proper, whose territory covers a great part of Utah and eastern Nevada; the Washoes along the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada, between Honey Lake and the west fork of Walker River; the Pah Utes, or, as they are sometimes called, Piutes, in western and central Nevada, stretching into Arizona and south-eastern California; the Pah Vants in the vicinity of Sevier Lake, the Pi Edes south of them, and the Gosh Utes, a mixed tribe of Snakes and Utahs, dwelling in the vicinity of Gosh Ute Lake and Mountains.

The Shoshones[608] are below the medium stature; the Utahs, though more powerfully built than the Snakes, are coarser-featured and less agile. All are of a dark bronze-color when free from paint and dirt, and, as usual, beardless. The women are clumsily made, although some of them have good hands and feet.[609]

On the barren plains of Nevada, where there is no large game, the rabbit furnishes nearly the only clothing. The skins are sewn together in the form of a cloak, which is thrown over the shoulders, or tied about the body with thongs of the same. In warm weather, or when they cannot obtain rabbit-skins, men, women and children are, for the most part, in a state of nudity. The hair is generally allowed to grow long, and to flow loosely over the shoulders; sometimes it is cut straight over the forehead, and among the Utahs of New Mexico it is plaited into two long queues by the men, and worn short by the women. Ornaments are rare; I find mention in two instances[610] of a nose-ornament, worn by the Pah Utes, consisting of a slender piece of bone, several inches in length, thrust through the septum of the nose. Tattooing is not practiced but paint of all colors is used unsparingly.[611]

The Snakes are better dressed than the Utahs, their clothing being made from the skins of larger game, and ornamented with beads, shells, fringes, feathers, and, since their acquaintance with the whites, with pieces of brilliant-colored cloth. A common costume is a shirt, leggins, and moccasins, all of buck-skin, over which is thrown, in cold weather, a heavy robe, generally of buffalo-skin, but sometimes of wolf, deer, elk, or beaver. The dress of the women differs but little from that of the men, except that it is less ornamented and the shirt is longer.[612]

DRESS OF THE SNAKES.

The dress of the Snakes seen by captains Lewis and Clarke was richer than is usually worn by them now; it was composed of a robe, short cloak, shirt, long leggins, and moccasins.

The robe was of buffalo or smaller skins, dressed with the hair on; the collar of the cloak, a strip of skin from the back of the otter, the head being at one end and the tail at the other. From this collar were suspended from one hundred to two hundred and fifty ermine-skins,[613] or rather strips from the back of the ermine, including the head and tail; each of these strips was sewn round a cord of twisted silk-grass, which tapered in thickness toward the tail. The seams were concealed with a fringe of ermine-skin; little tassels of white fur were also attached to each tail, to show off its blackness to advantage. The collar was further ornamented with shells of the pearl-oyster; the shirt, made of the dressed hides of various kinds of deer, was loose and reached half-way down the thigh; the sleeves were open on the under side as low as the elbow,—the edges being cut into a fringe from the elbow to the wrist,—and they fitted close to the arm. The collar was square, and cut into fringe, or adorned with the tails of the animals which furnished the hide; the shirt was garnished with fringes and stained porcupine-quills; the leggins were made each from nearly an entire antelope-skin, and reached from the ankle to the upper part of the thigh. The hind legs of the skin were worn uppermost, and tucked into the girdle; the neck, highly ornamented with fringes and quills, trailed on the ground behind the heel of the wearer; the side seams were fringed, and for this purpose the scalps of fallen enemies were frequently used.

The moccasins were also of dressed hide, without the hair, except in winter, when buffalo-hide, with the hair inside, answered the purpose. They were made with a single seam on the outside edge, and were embellished with quills; sometimes they were covered with the skin of a polecat, the tail of which dragged behind on the ground. Ear-ornaments of beads, necklaces of shells, twisted-grass, elk-tushes, round bones, like joints of a fish's back-bone, and the claws of the brown bear, were all worn. Eagles' feathers stuck in the hair, or a strip of otter-skin tied round the head, seem to have been the only head-dresses in use.[614] This, or something similar, was the dress only of the wealthy and prosperous tribes. Like the Utahs, the Snakes paint extensively, especially when intent upon war.[615]

DWELLINGS AND FOOD OF THE SHOSHONES.

The Snakes also build better dwellings than the Utahs. Long poles are leaned against each other in a circle, and are then covered with skins, thus forming a conical tent. A hole in the top, which can be closed in bad weather, serves as chimney, and an opening at the bottom three or four feet high, admits the occupants on pushing aside a piece of hide stretched on a stick, which hangs over the aperture as a door. These skin tents, as is necessary to a nomadic people, are struck and pitched with very little labor. When being moved from one place to another, the skins are folded and packed on the ponies, and the poles are hitched to each side of the animal by one end, while the other drags. The habitations of the people of Nevada and the greater part of Utah are very primitive and consist of heaps of brush, under which they crawl, or even of a mere shelter of bushes, semi-circular in shape, roofless, and three or four feet high, which serves only to break the force of the wind. Some of them build absolutely no dwellings, but live in caves and among the rocks, while others burrow like reptiles in the ground. Farnham gives us a very doleful picture of their condition; he says: "When the lizard, and snail, and wild roots are buried in the snows of winter, they are said to retire to the vicinity of timber, dig holes in the form of ovens in the steep sides of the sand-hills, and, having heated them to a certain degree, deposit themselves in them, and sleep and fast till the weather permits them to go abroad again for food. Persons who have visited their haunts after a severe winter, have found the ground around these family ovens strewn with the unburied bodies of the dead, and others crawling among them, who had various degrees of strength, from a bare sufficiency to gasp in death, to those that crawled upon their hands and feet, eating grass like cattle."[616] Naturally pusillanimous, weak in development, sunk below the common baser passions of the savage, more improvident than birds, more beastly than beasts, it may be possible to conceive of a lower phase of humanity, but I confess my inability to do so.

Pine-nuts, roots, berries, reptiles, insects, rats, mice, and occasionally rabbits are the only food of the poorer Shoshone tribes. Those living in the vicinity of streams or lakes depend more or less for their subsistence upon fish. The Snakes of Idaho and Oregon, and the tribes occupying the more fertile parts of Utah, having abundance of fish and game, live well the year round, but the miserable root-eating people, partly owing to their inherent improvidence, partly to the scantiness of their food-supply, never store sufficient provision for the winter, and consequently before the arrival of spring they are invariably reduced to extreme destitution. To avoid starvation they will eat dead bodies, and even kill their children for food.[617] A rat or a rabbit is prepared for eating by singeing the hair, pressing the offal from the entrails and cooking body and intestines together. Lizards, snakes, grasshoppers, and ants are thrown alive into a dish containing hot embers, and are tossed about until roasted; they are then eaten dry or used to thicken soup. Grasshoppers, seeds, and roots, are also gathered and cooked in the same manner as by the nations already described. The Gosh Utes take rabbits in nets made of flax-twine, about three feet wide and of considerable length. A fence of sage-brush is erected across the rabbit-paths, and on this the net is hung. The rabbits in running quickly along the trail become entangled in the meshes and are taken before they can escape. Lizards are dragged from their holes by means of a hooked stick. To catch ants a piece of fresh hide or bark is placed upon the ant-hill; this is soon covered by vast swarms of the insects, which are then brushed off into a bag and kept there until dead, when they are dried for future use. Among the hunting tribes antelope are gradually closed in upon by a circle of horsemen and beaten to death with clubs. They are also stalked after the fashion of the Californians proper, the hunter placing the head and horns of an antelope or deer upon his own head and thus disguised approaching within shooting distance.

NATIVE FISH-WEIR.

Fish are killed with spears having movable heads, which become detached when the game is struck, and are also taken in nets made of rushes or twigs. In the latter case a place is chosen where the river is crossed by a bar, the net is then floated down the stream and on reaching the bar both ends are drawn together. The fish thus enclosed are taken from the circle by hand, and the Shoshone as he takes each one, puts its head in his mouth and kills it with his teeth. Captain Clarke describes an ingeniously constructed weir on Snake River, where it was divided into four channels by three small islands. Three of these channels were narrow "and stopped by means of trees which were stretched across, and supported by willow stakes, sufficiently near to prevent the passage of the fish. About the centre of each was placed a basket formed of willows, eighteen or twenty feet in length, of a cylindrical form, and terminating in a conic shape at its lower extremity; this was situated with its mouth upwards, opposite to an aperture in the weir. The main channel of the water was then conducted to this weir, and as the fish entered it they were so entangled with each other, that they could not move, and were taken out by emptying the small end of the willow basket. The weir in the main channel was formed in a manner somewhat different; there were, in fact two distinct weirs formed of poles and willow sticks quite across the river, approaching each other obliquely with an aperture in each side of the angle. This is made by tying a number of poles together at the top, in parcels of three, which were then set up in a triangular form at the base, two of the poles being in the range desired for the weir, and the third down the stream. To these poles two ranges of other poles are next lashed horizontally, with willow bark and withes, and willow sticks joined in with these crosswise, so as to form a kind of wicker-work from the bottom of the river to the height of three or four feet above the surface of the water. This is so thick as to prevent the fish from passing, and even in some parts with the help of a little gravel and some stone enables them to give any direction which they wish to the water. These two weirs being placed near to each other, one for the purpose of catching the fish as they ascend, the other as they go down the river, are provided with two baskets made in the form already described, and which are placed at the apertures of the weir."

For present consumption the fish are boiled in water-tight baskets by means of red-hot stones, or are broiled on the embers; sometimes the bones are removed before the fish is cooked; great quantities are also dried for winter. Some few of the Utahs cultivate a little maize, vegetables, and tobacco, and raise stock, but efforts at agriculture are not general. The Snakes sometimes accompany the more northern tribes into the country of the Blackfeet, for the purpose of killing buffalo.[618]

In their persons, dwellings and habits, the Utahs are filthy beyond description. Their bodies swarm with vermin which they catch and eat with relish. Some of the Snakes are of a more cleanly disposition, but, generally speaking, the whole Shoshone family is a remarkably dirty one.[619]

WEAPONS OF THE SHOSHONES.

The bow and arrow are universally used by the Shoshones, excepting only some of the most degraded root-eaters, who are said to have no weapon, offensive or defensive, save the club. The bow is made of cedar, pine, or other wood, backed with sinew after the manner already described, or, more rarely, of a piece of elk-horn. The string is of sinew. The length of the bow varies. According to Farnham, that used by the Pi Utes is six feet long, while that of the Shoshones seen by Lewis and Clark was only two and a half feet in length. The arrows are from two to four feet, and are pointed with obsidian, flint, or, among the lower tribes, by merely hardening the tip with fire. Thirty or forty are usually carried in a skin quiver, and two in the hand ready for immediate use. Lances, which are used in some localities, are pointed in the same manner as the arrows when no iron can be procured. The Snakes have a kind of mace or club, which they call a poggamoggon. It consists of a heavy stone, sometimes wrapped in leather, attached by a sinew thong about two inches in length, to the end of a stout leather-covered handle, measuring nearly two feet. A loop fastened to the end held in the hand prevents the warrior from losing the weapon in the fight, and allows him to hold the club in readiness while he uses the bow and arrow.[620] They also have a circular shield about two and a half feet in diameter, which is considered a very important part of a warrior's equipment, not so much from the fact that it is arrow-proof, as from the peculiar virtues supposed to be given it by the medicine-men. The manufacture of a shield is a season of great rejoicing. It must be made from the entire fresh hide of a male two-year-old buffalo, and the process is as follows. A hole is dug in the ground and filled with red-hot stones; upon these water is poured until a thick steam arises. The hide is then stretched, by as many as can take hold of it, over the hole, until the hair can be removed with the hands and it shrinks to the required size. It is then placed upon a prepared hide, and pounded by the bare feet of all present, until the ceremony is concluded. When the shield is completed, it is supposed to render the bearer invulnerable. Lewis and Clarke also make mention of a species of defensive armor "something like a coat of mail, which is formed by a great many folds of dressed antelope skins, united by means of a mixture of glue and sand. With this they cover their own bodies and those of their horses, and find it impervious to the arrow." I find mention in one instance only, of a shield being used by the Utahs. In that case it was small, circular, and worn suspended from the neck. The fishing spear I have already described as being a long pole with an elk-horn point. When a fish is struck the shaft is loosened from its socket in the head, but remains connected with the latter by a cord.[621] Arrows are occasionally poisoned by plunging them into a liver which has been previously bitten by a rattlesnake.[622]

MANNER OF MAKING WAR.

The tribes that possess horses always fight mounted, and manage their animals with considerable address. In war they place their reliance upon strategy and surprise; fires upon the hills give warning of an enemy's approach. Prisoners of war are killed with great tortures, especially female captives, who are given over to the women of the victorious tribe and by them done to death most cruelly; it is said, however, that male prisoners who have distinguished themselves by their prowess in battle, are frequently dismissed unhurt. Scalps are taken, and sometimes portions of the flesh of a brave fallen enemy are eaten that the eater may become endued with the valor of the slain. He who takes the most scalps gains the most glory. Whether the warriors who furnished the trophies fell by the hand of the accumulator or not, is immaterial; he has but to show the spoils and his fame is established. The Snakes are said to be peculiarly skillful in eluding pursuit. When on foot, they will crouch down in the long grass and remain motionless while the pursuer passes within a few feet of them, or when caught sight of they will double and twist so that it is impossible to catch them. The custom of ratifying a peace treaty by a grand smoke, common to so many of the North American aborigines, is observed by the Shoshones.[623] The pipe, the bowl of which is usually of red stone, painted or carved with various figures and adorned with feathers, is solemnly passed from mouth to mouth, each smoker blowing the smoke in certain directions and muttering vows at the same time.

The only tools used before iron and steel were introduced by the whites were of flint, bone, or horn. The flint knife had no regular form, and had a sharp edge about three or four inches long, which was renewed when it became dull. Elk-horn hatchets, or rather wedges, were used to fell trees. They made water-proof baskets of plaited grass, and others of wicker-work covered with hide. The Snakes and some of the Utahs were versed in the art of pottery, and made very good vessels from baked clay. These were not merely open dishes, but often took the form of jars with narrow necks, having stoppers.[624]

LAWS AND GOVERNMENT.

Boats, as a rule, the Shoshones have none. They usually cross rivers by fording; otherwise they swim, or pass over on a clumsy and dangerous raft made of branches and rushes.[625] By way of compensation they all, except the poorest, have horses, and these constitute their wealth. They have no regular currency, but use for purposes of barter their stock of dried fish, their horses, or whatever skins and furs they may possess. They are very deliberate traders, and a solemn smoke must invariably precede a bargain.[626] Although each tribe has an ostensible chief, his power is limited to giving advice, and although his opinion may influence the tribe, yet he cannot compel obedience to his wishes. Every man does as he likes. Private revenge, of course, occasionally overtakes the murderer, or, if the sympathies of the tribe be with the murdered man, he may possibly be publicly executed, but there are no fixed laws for such cases. Chieftainship is hereditary in some tribes; in others it is derived from prestige.[627]

The Utahs do not hesitate to sell their wives and children into slavery for a few trinkets. Great numbers of these unfortunates are sold to the Navajos for blankets. An act which passed the legislature of Utah in 1852, legalizing slavery, sets forth that from time immemorial, slavery has been a customary traffic among the Indians; that it was a common practice among them to gamble away their wives and children into slavery, to sell them into slavery to other nations, and that slaves thus obtained were most barbarously treated by their masters; that they were packed from place to place on mules; that these unfortunate humans were staked out to grass and roots like cattle, their limbs mutilated and swollen from being bound with thongs; that they were frozen, starved, and killed by their inhuman owners; that families and tribes living at peace would steal each other's wives and children, and sell them as slaves. In view of these abuses it was made lawful for a probate judge, or selectmen, to bind out native captive women and children to suitable white persons for a term not to exceed twenty years.[628]

Polygamy, though common, is not universal; a wife is generally bought of her parents;[629] girls are frequently betrothed in infancy; a husband will prostitute his wife to a stranger for a trifling present, but should she be unfaithful without his consent, her life must pay the forfeit. The women, as usual, suffer very little from the pains of child-bearing. When the time of a Shoshone woman's confinement draws near, she retires to some secluded place, brings forth unassisted, and remains there for about a month, alone, and procuring her subsistence as best she can. When the appointed time has elapsed she is considered purified and allowed to join her friends again. The weaker sex of course do the hardest labor, and receive more blows than kind words for their pains. These people, in common with most nomadic nations, have the barbarous custom of abandoning the old and infirm the moment they find them an incumbrance. Lewis and Clarke state that children are never flogged, as it is thought to break their spirit.[630]

GAMBLING AND DRINKING.

The games of hazard played by the Shoshones differ little from those of their neighbors; the principal one appears to be the odd-and-even game so often mentioned; but of late years they have nearly abandoned these, and have taken to 'poker,' which they are said to play with such adroitness as to beat a white man. With the voice they imitate with great exactness the cries of birds and beasts, and their concerts of this description, which generally take place at midnight, are discordant beyond measure. Though they manufacture no intoxicating liquor themselves, they will drink the whisky of the whites whenever opportunity offers. They smoke the kinikkinik leaf when no tobacco can be procured from the traders.[631] In connection with their smoking they have many strange observances. When the pipe is passed round at the solemnization of a treaty, or the confirmation of a bargain, each smoker, on receiving it from his neighbor, makes different motions with it; one turns the pipe round before placing the stem to his lips; another describes a semicircle with it; a third smokes with the bowl in the air; a fourth with the bowl on the ground, and so on through the whole company. All this is done with a most grave and serious countenance, which makes it the more ludicrous to the looker-on. The Snakes, before smoking with a stranger, always draw off their moccasins as a mark of respect. Any great feat performed by a warrior, which adds to his reputation and renown, such as scalping an enemy, or successfully stealing his horses, is celebrated by a change of name. Killing a grizzly bear also entitles him to this honor, for it is considered a great feat to slay one of these formidable animals, and only he who has performed it is allowed to wear their highest insignia of glory, the feet or claws of the victim. To bestow his name upon a friend is the highest compliment that one man can offer another.

The Snakes, and some of the Utahs, are skillful riders, and possess good horses. Their horse-furniture is simple. A horse-hair or raw-hide lariat is fastened round the animal's neck; the bight is passed with a single half-hitch round his lower jaw, and the other end is held in the rider's hand; this serves as a bridle. When the horse is turned loose, the lariat is loosened from his jaw and allowed to trail from his neck. The old men and the women have saddles similar to those used for packing by the whites; they are a wooden frame made of two pieces of thin board fitting close to the sides of the horse, and held together by two cross-pieces, in shape like the legs of an isosceles triangle. A piece of hide is placed between this and the horse's back, and a robe is thrown over the seat when it is ridden on. The younger men use no saddle, except a small pad, girthed on with a leather thong. When traveling they greatly overload their horses. All the household goods and provisions are packed upon the poor animal's back, and then the women and children seat themselves upon the pile, sometimes as many as four or five on one horse.[632]

DISEASES AND BURIAL.

The poorer Utahs are very subject to various diseases, owing to exposure in winter. They have few, if any, efficient remedies. They dress wounds with pine-gum, after squeezing out the blood. The Snakes are much affected by rheumatism and consumption, caused chiefly by their being almost constantly in the water fishing, and by exposure. Syphilis has, of course, been extensively introduced among all the tribes. A few plants and herbs are used for medicinal purposes, and the medicine-men practice their wonted mummeries, but what particular means of cure they adopt is not stated by the authorities. I find no mention of their having sweat-houses.[633]

Concerning the disposal of the dead usage differs. In some parts the body is burned, in others it is buried. In either case the property of the deceased is destroyed at his burial. His favorite horse, and, in some instances, his favorite wife, are killed over his grave, that he may not be alone in the spirit land. Laceration in token of grief is universal, and the lamentations of the dead person's relatives are heard for weeks after his death, and are renewed at intervals for many months. Child-like in this, they rush into extremes, and when not actually engaged in shrieking and tearing their flesh, they appear perfectly indifferent to their loss.[634]

SHOSHONE CHARACTER.

The character of the better Shoshone tribes is not much worse than that of the surrounding nations; they are thieving, treacherous, cunning, moderately brave after their fashion, fierce when fierceness will avail them anything, and exceedingly cruel. Of the miserable root and grass eating Shoshones, however, even this much cannot be said. Those who have seen them unanimously agree that they of all men are lowest. Lying in a state of semi-torpor in holes in the ground during the winter, and in spring crawling forth and eating grass on their hands and knees, until able to regain their feet; having no clothes, scarcely any cooked food, in many instances no weapons, with merely a few vague imaginings for religion, living in the utmost squalor and filth, putting no bridle on their passions, there is surely room for no missing link between them and brutes.[635] Yet as in all men there stands out some prominent good, so in these, the lowest of humanity, there is one virtue: they are lovers of their country; lovers, not of fair hills and fertile valleys, but of inhospitable mountains and barren plains; these reptile-like men love their miserable burrowing-places better than all the comforts of civilization; indeed, in many instances, when detained by force among the whites, they have been known to pine away and die.

TRIBAL BOUNDARIES.

NORTHERN CALIFORNIANS.

To the Northern Californians, whose territory extends from Rogue River on the north to Eel River south, and from the Pacific Ocean to the Californian boundary east, including the Klamath, and other lakes, are assigned, according to the authorities, the following tribal boundaries: There are 'the Hoopahs, and the Ukiahs of Mendocino;' 'the Umpquas, Kowooses or Cooses, Macanootoony's of the Umpqua river section, Nomee Cults, and Nomee Lacks of Tehama County; the Copahs, Hanags, Yatuckets, Terwars and Tolowas, of the lower Klamath river; the Wylaks and Noobimucks of Trinity county mountains west from Sacramento plains; the Modocs of Klamath Lake, the Ylackas of Pitt River, the Ukas and Shastas of Shasta county.' Taylor, in Cal. Farmer, June 8, 1860.

'The Tototins are divided into twelve bands; eight of them are located on the coast, one on the forks of the Coquille, and three on Rogue river.' 'The Tototins, from whom is derived the generic name of the whole people speaking the language, reside on the north bank of the Tototin river, about four miles from its mouth. Their country extends from the eastern boundary of the Yahshutes, a short distance below their village, up the stream about six miles, where the fishing-grounds of the Mackanotins commence.' 'The country of the Euquachees commences at the "Three Sisters," and extends along the coast to a point about three miles to the south of their village, which is on a stream which bears their name. The mining town of Elizabeth is about the southern boundary of the Euquachees, and is called thirty miles from Port Orford. Next southward of the Euquachees are the Yahshutes, whose villages occupy both banks of the Tototin or Rogue river, at its mouth. These people claim but about two and a half miles back from the coast, where the Tototin country commences. The Yahshutes claim the coast to some remarkable headlands, about six miles south of Rogue river. South of these headlands are the Chetlessentuns. Their village is north of, but near, the mouth of a stream bearing their name, but better known to the whites as Pistol river. The Chetlessentuns claim but about eight miles of the coast; but as the country east of them is uninhabited, like others similarly situated, their lands are supposed to extend to the summit of the mountains. Next to the Chetlessentuns on the south are the Wishtenatins, whose village is at the mouth of a small creek bearing their name. They claim the country to a small trading-post known as the Whale's Head, about twenty-seven miles south of the mouth of Rogue River. Next in order are the Cheattee or Chitco band, whose villages were situated on each side of the mouth, and about six miles up a small river bearing their name.... The lands of these people extend from Whale's Head to the California line, and back from the coast indefinitely.... The Mackanotin village is about seven miles above that of the Tototins, and is on the same side of the river. They claim about twelve miles of stream. The Shistakoostees succeed them (the Mackanotins). Their village is on the north bank of Rogue river, nearly opposite the confluence of the Illinois. These are the most easterly band within my district in the South.' Parrish, in Ind. Aff. Rept., 1854, pp. 283-9. 'Dr. Hubbard, in his notes (1856) on the Indians of Rogue River and South Oregon, on the ocean, before alluded to, gives the following list of names of Rancherias and clans of the Lototen or Tutatamys tribe. Masonah Band, location, Coquille river; Chockrelatan Band, location, Coquille forks; Quatomah Band, location, Flore's creek; Laguaacha Band, location, Elk river; Cosulhenten Band, location, Port Orford; Yuquache Band, location, Yugua creek; Chetlessenten Band, location, Pistol river; Yah Shutes Band, location, Rogue river; Wishtanatan Band, location, Whale's head; Cheahtoc Band, location, Chetko; Tototen Band, location, six miles above the mouth of Rogue river; Sisticoosta Band, location, above Big Bend, of Rogue river; Maquelnoteer Band, location, fourteen miles above the mouth of Rogue river.' Cal. Farmer, June 18, 1860. The Tutotens were a large tribe, numbering thirteen clans, inhabiting the southern coast of Oregon. Golden Era, March, 1856. 'Toutounis ou Coquins, sur la rivière de ce nom et dans l'intérieur des terres.' Mofras, Explor., tom. ii., p. 335. 'On the lower part of the Clamet River are the Totutune, known by the unfavorable soubriquet of the Rogue, or Rascal Indians.' Hale's Ethnog., in U. S. Ex. Ex., vol. vi., p. 221. The bands of the Tootooton tribe 'are scattered over a great extent of country—along the coast and on the streams from the California line to twenty miles north of the Coquille, and from the ocean to the summit of the coast range of mountains.' Palmer, in Ind. Aff. Rept., 1854, p. 259. Taylor places the Tutunahs in the northwest corner of Del Norte County. MS. Map.

The Hunas live in California a little south of Rogue River, on the way north from Crescent City. Pfeiffer's Second Journ., p. 314.

Modoc, by some Moädoc, is a word which originated with the Shasteecas, who applied it indefinitely to all wild Indians or enemies. 'Their proper habitat is on the southern shore of Lower Klamath Lake, on Hot Creek, around Clear Lake, and along Lost River in Oregon.' Powers, in Overland Monthly, vol. x., p. 535. They own the Klamath River from the lake 'to where it breaks through the Siskiyou range to the westward.' Id., vol. xi., p. 21. In the northern part of Siskiyou County. MS. Map. 'The Modocs of the Klamath Lake were also called Moahtockna.' Cal. Farmer, June 22, 1860. East of the Klamaths, whose eastern boundary is twenty-five or thirty miles east of the Cascade Range, along the southern boundary of Oregon, 'and extending some distance into California, is a tribe known as the Modocks. East of these again, but extending farther south, are the Moetwas.' 'The country round Ancoose and Modoc lakes, is claimed and occupied by the Modoc Indians.' Palmer, in Ind. Aff. Rept., 1854, pp. 262-3. 'The Modocs (or Moadoc, as the word is pronounced) known in their language as the Okkowish, inhabit the Goose lake country, and are mostly within the State of California.... The word Modoc is a Shasta Indian word, and means all distant, stranger, or hostile Indians, and became applied to these Indians by white men in early days from hearing the Shastas speak of them.' See Steele, in Ind. Aff. Rept., 1864, p. 121.

The Oukskenahs, in the north-western part of Siskiyou County. MS. Map.

THE TRINITY RIVER TRIBES.

The Klamaths or Lutuami—'Lutuami, or Tlamatl, or Clamet Indians. The first of these names is the proper designation of the people in their own language. The second is that by which they are known to the Chinooks, and through them to the whites. They live on the head waters of the river and about the lake, which have both received from foreigners the name of Clamet.' Hale's Ethnog., in U. S. Ex. Ex., vol. vi., p. 218. That portion of the eastern base of the Cascade Range, south of the forty-fourth parallel, 'extending twenty-five or thirty miles east, and south to the California line, is the country of the Klamath Indians.' Palmer, in Ind. Aff. Rept., 1854, p. 262. The Tlameths 'inhabit the country along the eastern base of the Cascade and Sierra Nevada Mountains, and south to the Great Klameth Lake.' Thompson, in Ind. Aff. Rept., 1854, p. 283. The Clamets inhabit 'Roquas River, near the south boundary' (of Oregon). Warre and Vavasour, in Martin's Hudson's Bay, p. 81. 'Lutuami, Clamets; also Tlamatl—Indians of southwestern Oregon, near the Clamet Lake.' Ludewig's Ab. Lang., p. 100. 'Klamacs, sur la rivière de ce nom et dans l'intérieur des terres.' De Mofras, Explor., tom. ii., p. 335. Clamet: on the upper part of the river, and sixty miles below the lake so named. Framboise, in Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour., vol. xi., p. 255. 'Next east of the Shastas are the Klamath Lake Indians, known in their language as the Okshee, who inhabit the country about the Klamath lakes, and east about half way to the Goose Lake, to Wright Lake, and south to a line running about due east from Shasta Butte.' Steele, in Ind. Aff. Rept., 1864, pp. 120-1. 'The name of Klamath or Tlamath, belonging to the tribes on the lake where the river rises, is not known among those farther down.... Thus, at the forks, the Weitspeks call the river below Pohlik, signifying down; and that above Pehtsik, or up; giving, moreover, the same name to the population in speaking of them collectively. Three distinct tribes, speaking different languages, occupy its banks between the sea and the mouth of the Shasté, of which the lowest extends up to Bluff Creek, a few miles above the forks. Of these there are, according to our information, in all, thirty-two villages.... The names of the principal villages ... are the Weitspek (at the forks), Wahsherr, Kaipetl, Moraiuh, Nohtscho, Méhteh, Schregon, Yauterrh, Pecquan, Kauweh, Wauhtecq, Scheperrh, Oiyotl, Naiagutl, Schaitl, Hopaiuh, Rekqua, and Weht'lqua, the two last at the mouth of the river.' Gibbs, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iii., p. 138.

The Eurocs inhabit 'the lower Klamath from Weitspeck down, and along the coast for about twenty miles.' Powers, in Overland Monthly, vol. viii., p. 530. The Eurocs 'inhabit the banks of the Klamath from the junction of the Trinity to the mouth, and the sea coast from Gold Bluff up to a point about six miles above the mouth of the Klamath.' Powers' Pomo, MS.

The Cahrocs live between the Eurocs and the foot of the Klamath Mountains, also a short distance up Salmon River. 'On the Klamath River there live three distinct tribes, called the Eurocs, Cahrocs, and Modocs; which names mean respectively, "down the river," "up the river," and "head of the river."' Powers, in Overland Monthly, vol. viii., p. 328. Speaking of Indians at the junction of Salmon and Klamath Rivers, Mr. Gibbs says: 'they do not seem to have any generic appellation for themselves, but apply the terms "Kahruk," up, and "Youruk," down, to all who live above or below themselves, without discrimination, in the same manner that the others (at the junction of the Trinity) do "Pehtsik," and "Pohlik."' Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iii., p. 151.

The Tolewahs are the first tribe on the coast north of Klamath River. Gibbs, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iii., p. 139. The Tahlewahs are a 'tribe on the Klamath River.' Ludewig's Ab. Lang., p. 179. 'In the vicinity of Crescent City and Smith's River there are the ... Lopas, Talawas, and Lagoons.' Heintzelman, in Ind. Aff. Rept., 1857, pp. 391-2. 'In Del Norte County ... the Haynaggis live along Smith River, the Tolowas on the Lagoon, and the Tahatens around Crescent City.' Powers' Pomo, MS. The Cops, Hanags, Yantuckets, and Tolawas, are 'Indian tribes living near the Oregon and California coast frontiers.' Crescent City Herald, Aug. 1857. The Tolowas at the meeting point of Trinity, Humboldt, and Klamath counties. MS. Map.

The Terwars, north-west of the Tolowas. MS. Map.

The Weitspeks are the 'principal band on the Klamath, at the junction of the Trinity.' Gibbs, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iii., p. 422; Ludewig's Ab. Lang., p. 200.

The Oppegachs are a tribe at Red-Cap's Bar, on the Klamath River. Gibbs, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iii., p. 148.

The Hoopahs live 'am unteren Rio de la Trinidad, oder Trinity River.' Buschmann, Das Apache als eine Athhapask. Spr., p. 218. 'Indian tribe on the lower part of the Trinity River.' Ludewig's Ab. Lang., p. 82. The Hoopas live 'in Hoopa Valley, on the lower Trinity River.' Power's Pomo, MS., p. 85. 'The lower Trinity tribe is, as well as the river itself, known to the Klamaths by the name of Hoopah.' Gibbs, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iii., p. 139; see also p. 422. In the northern part of Klamath County. MS. Map.

'Upon the Trinity, or Hoopah, below the entrance of the south fork or Otahweiaket, there are said to be eleven ranches, the Okenoke, Agaraits, Uplegoh, Olleppauh'lkahtehtl and Pephtsoh; ... and the Haslintah, Aheltah, Sokéakeit, Tashhuanta, and Witspuk above it; A twelfth, the Méyemma, now burnt, was situated just above "New" or "Arkansas" River.' Gibbs, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iii., p. 139.

The Copahs, in the extreme north of Klamath county, north of the Hoopahs. MS. Map. The Cops are mentioned as 'living near the Oregon and California coast frontiers,' in the Crescent City Herald, Aug., 1857.

The Kailtas live on the south fork of Trinity River. Powers' Pomo, MS.

The Pataways occupy the banks of the Trinity, from the vicinity of Big Bar to South Fork. Powers' Pomo, MS.

The Chimalquays lived on New River, a tributary of the Trinity. Powers' Pomo, MS.

The Siahs 'occupied the tongue of land jutting down between Eel River, and Van Dusen's Fork.' Powers' Pomo, MS. The Sians or Siahs lived on the headwaters of Smith River. Gibbs, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iii., p. 139.

The Ehneks, Eenahs, or Eenaghs, lived above the Tolewas on Smith River. Gibbs, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iii., p. 139. 'Ehnek was the name of a band at the mouth of the Salmon or Quoratem River.' Id., p. 422; Ludewig's Ab. Lang., p. 67.

Wishosk 'is the name given to the Bay (Humboldt) and Mad River Indians by those of Eel River.' Gibbs, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iii., p. 422; Ludewig's Ab. Lang., p. 201.

The Weeyots are 'a band on the mouth of Eel River and near Humboldt Bay.' Ludewig's Ab. Lang., p. 200. The Humboldt Bay Indians call themselves Wishosk; and those of the hills Teokawilk; 'but the tribes to the northward denominate both those of the Bay and Eel River, Weyot, or Walla-walloo.' Gibbs, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iii., p. 133.

'The Patawats live on the lower waters of Mad River, and around Humboldt Bay, as far south as Arcata, perhaps originally as far down as Eureka.' Powers' Pomo, MS.

Ossegon is the name given to the Indians of Gold Bluff, between Trinidad and the Klamath. Gibbs, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iii., p. 133.

'The Lassics formerly dwelt in Mad River Valley, from the head waters down to Low Gap, or thereabout, where they borrowed on the Wheelcuttas.' Powers' Pomo, MS.

Chori was the name given to the Indians of Trinidad by the Weeyots. Gibbs, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iii., p. 133.

The Chillulahs 'occupied the banks of Redwood Creek, from the coast up about twenty miles.' Powers' Pomo, MS. The Oruk, Tchololah, or Bald Hill Indians, lived on Redwood Creek. Gibbs, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iii., p. 139.

The Wallies occupy the sandy country north of Humboldt Bay. Overland Monthly, vol. ii., p. 536.

'The Wheelcuttas had their place on the Upper Redwood Creek, from the land of the Chillulahs up to the mountains. They ranged across southward by the foot of the Bald Hills, which appear to have marked the boundary between them and the Chillulahs in that direction; and penetrated to Van Dusen's Fork, anent the Siahs and Lassics, with whom they occasionally came in bloody collision.' Powers' Pomo, MS.

The Veeards 'live around lower Humboldt Bay, and up Eel River to Eagle Prairie.' Powers' Pomo, MS.

The Shastas live to the south-west of the Lutuamis or Klamaths. Hale's Ethnog., in U. S. Ex. Ex., vol. vi., p. 218. 'Sastés, dans l'intérieur au Nord de la Californie.' Mofras, Explor., tom. ii., p. 335. 'The Shasta Indians, known in their language as Weohow—it meaning stone house, from the large cave in their country—occupy the land east of Shasta river, and south of the Siskiyou mountains, and west of the lower Klamath lake.' Steele, in Ind. Aff. Rept., 1864, p. 120. The Shastas occupy the centre of the county of that name. MS. Map. 'Indians of south-western Oregon, on the northern frontiers of Upper California.' Ludewig's Ab. Lang., p. 168. Watsahewah is the name 'of one of the Scott River bands of the Shasta family.' Gibbs, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iii., p. 422. The name is spelled variously as Shasty, Shaste, Sasté, &c.

The Palaiks live to the southeast of the Lutuamis or Klamaths. Hale's Ethnog., in U. S. Ex. Ex., vol. vi., p. 218. 'Indians of south-western Oregon, on the northern frontiers of Upper California.' Ludewig's Ab. Lang., p. 145.

On the Klamath are the Odeeilahs; in Shasta Valley the Ikarucks, Kosetahs, and Idakariúkes; and in Scott's Valley the Watsahewas and Eehs. Gibbs, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iii., p. 171.

'The Hamburg Indians, known in their language as the Tka, inhabit immediately at the mouth of Scott's river, known in their language as the Ottetiewa river.' Steele, in Ind. Aff. Rept., 1864, p. 120.

'The Scott's Valley Indians, known in their language as the Iddoa, inhabit Scott's Valley above the cañon.' Ib.

'The Yreka (a misnomer for Yeka—Shasta Butte) Indians, known in their language as the Hoteday, inhabit that part of the country lying south of Klamath river, and west of Shasta river.' Ib.

The Yuka or Uka tribe 'inhabited the Shasta Mountains in the vicinity of McCloud's fork of Pitt River.' Cal. Farmer, June 22, 1860. The Ukas are directly south of the Modocs. MS. Map. 'The Yukeh, or as the name is variously spelt, Yuka, Yuques, and Uca, are the original inhabitants of the Nome-Cult, or Round Valley, in Tehama County ... and are not to be confounded with the Yukai Indians of Russian River.' Gibbs, in Hist. Mag., vol. vii., p. 123.

'The Noser or Noza Indians ... live in the vicinity of Lassen's Butte.' Siskiyou Chronicle, May, 1859.

The Ylakas are to the southeast of the Ukas. MS. Map.

The Central Californians occupy the whole of that portion of California extending north and south, from about 40° 30´ to 35°, and east and west, from the Pacific Ocean to the Californian boundary. They are tribally divided as follows:

'The Mattoles have their habitat on the creek which bears their name, and on the still smaller stream dignified with the appellation of Bear River. From the coast they range across to Eel River, and by immemorial Indian usage and prescriptive right, they hold the western bank of this river from about Eagle Prairie, where they border upon the Veeards, up southward to the mouth of South Fork.' Powers' Pomo, MS.

The Betumkes live on the South Fork of Eel River. Gibbs, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iii., p. 634. In the northern part of Mendocino County. MS. Map.

The Choweshaks live on the head of Eel river. Gibbs, in Schoolcraft's Arch., vol. iii., p. 421. Tribes living on the Middle Fork of Eel River, in the valley called by the Indians Betumki were the Naboh Choweshak, Chawteuh Bakowa, and Samunda. Id., p. 116. The Choweshaks lived on the head of Eel River. Ludewig's Ab. Lang., p. 48.

'The Loloncooks live on Bull Creek and the lower South Fork of Eel River, owning the territory between those streams and the Pacific.' Powers' Pomo, MS.

The Batemdakaiees live in the valley of that name on the head of Eel River. Ludewig's Ab. Lang., p. 17.

RUSSIAN RIVER AND COAST TRIBES.

The Pomos consist of 'a great number of tribes or little bands, sometimes one in a valley, sometimes three or four, clustered in the region where the headwaters of Eel and Russian rivers interlace, along the estuaries of the coast and around Clear Lake. Really, the Indians all along Russian river to its mouth are branches of this great family, but below Calpello they no longer call themselves Pomos.... The broadest and most obvious division of this large family is, into Eel river Pomos and Russian river Pomos.' Powers, in Overland Monthly, vol. ix., pp. 498-9.