Volume 1 — CHAPTER IV. CALIFORNIANS.

Groupal Divisions; Northern, Central, and Southern Californians, and Shoshones—Country of the Californians—The Klamaths, Modocs, Shastas, Pitt River Indians, Eurocs, Cahrocs, Hoopahs, Weeyots, Tolewas, and Rogue River Indians and their Customs—The Tehamas, Pomos, Ukiahs, Gualalas, Sonomas, Petalumas, Napas, Suscols, Suisunes, Tamales, Karquines, Ohlones, Tulomos, Thamiens, Olchones, Rumsens, Escelens, and others of Central California—The Cahuillas, Diegueños, Islanders, and Mission Rancherias of Southern California—The Snakes or Shoshones proper, Utahs, Bannocks, Washoes and other Shoshone Nations.

Of the seven groups into which this work separates the nations of western North America, the Californians constitute the third, and cover the territory between latitude 43° and 32° 30´, extending back irregularly into the Rocky Mountains. There being few distinctly marked families in this group, I cannot do better in subdividing it for the purpose of description than make of the Californians proper three geographical divisions, namely, the Northern Californians, the Central Californians, and the Southern Californians. The Shoshones, or fourth division of this group, who spread out over south-eastern Oregon, southern Idaho, and the whole of Nevada and Utah, present more distinctly marked family characteristics, and will therefore be treated as a family.

HOME OF THE CALIFORNIANS.

The same chain of mountains, which, as the Cascade Range, divides the land of the Columbians, holds its course steadily southward, and entering the territory of the Californian group forms, under the name of the Sierra Nevada, the partition between the Californians proper and the Shoshones of Idaho and Nevada. The influence of this range upon the climate is also here manifest, only intenser in degree than farther north. The lands of the Northern Californians are well watered and wooded, those of the central division have an abundance of water for six months in the year, namely, from November to May, and the soil is fertile, yielding abundantly under cultivation. Sycamore, oak, cotton-wood, willow, and white alder, fringe the banks of the rivers; laurel, buckeye, manzanita, and innumerable berry-bearing bushes, clothe the lesser hills; thousands of acres are annually covered with wild oats; the moist bottoms yield heavy crops of grass; and in summer the valleys are gorgeous with wild-flowers of every hue. Before the blighting touch of the white man was laid upon the land, the rivers swarmed with salmon and trout; deer, antelope, and mountain sheep roamed over the foot-hills, bear and other carnivora occupied the forests, and numberless wild fowl covered the lakes. Decreasing in moisture toward the tropics, the climate of the Southern Californians is warm and dry, while the Shoshones, a large part of whose territory falls in the Great Basin, are cursed with a yet greater dryness.

The region known as the Great Basin, lying between the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada and the Wahsatch Mountains, and stretching north and south from latitude 33° to 42°, presents a very different picture from the land of the Californians. This district is triangular in shape, the apex pointing toward the south, or southwest; from this apex, which, round the head of the Gulf of California, is at tide level, the ground gradually rises until, in central Nevada, it reaches an altitude of about five thousand feet, and this, with the exception of a few local depressions, is about the level of the whole of the broad part of the basin. The entire surface of this plateau is alkaline. Being in parts almost destitute of water, there is comparatively little timber; sage-brush and greasewood being the chief signs of vegetation, except at rare intervals where some small stream struggling against almost universal aridity, supports on its banks a little scanty herbage and a few forlorn-looking cotton-wood trees. The northern part of this region, as is the case with the lands of the Californians proper, is somewhat less destitute of vegetable and animal life than the southern portion which is indeed a desert occupied chiefly by rabbits, prairie-dogs, sage-hens, and reptiles. The desert of the Colorado, once perhaps a fertile bottom, extending northward from the San Bernardino Mountains one hundred and eighty miles, and spreading over an area of about nine thousand square miles, is a silent unbroken sea of sand, upon whose ashy surface glares the mid-day sun and where at night the stars draw near through the thin air and brilliantly illumine the eternal solitude. Here the gigantic cereus, emblem of barrenness, rears its contorted form, casting weird shadows upon the moonlit level. In such a country, where in winter the keen dust-bearing blast rushes over the unbroken desolate plains, and in summer the very earth cracks open with intense heat, what can we expect of man but that he should be distinguished for the depths of his low attainment.

But although the poverty and barrenness of his country account satisfactorily for the low type of the inhabitant of the Great Basin, yet no such excuse is offered for the degradation of the native of fertile California. On every side, if we except the Shoshone, in regions possessing far fewer advantages than California, we find a higher type of man. Among the Tuscaroras, Cherokees, and Iroquois of the Atlantic slope, barbarism assumes its grandest proportions; proceeding west it bursts its fetters in the incipient civilization of the Gila; but if we continue the line to the shores of the Pacific we find this intellectual dawn checked, and man sunk almost to the utter darkness of the brute. Coming southward from the frozen land of the Eskimo, or northward from tropical Darien we pass through nations possessing the necessaries and even the comforts of life. Some of them raise and grind wheat and corn, many of them make pottery and other utensils, at the north they venture out to sea in good boats and make Behemoth their spoil. The Californians on the other hand, comparatively speaking, wear no clothes, they build no houses, do not cultivate the soil, they have no boats, nor do they hunt to any considerable extent; they have no morals nor any religion worth calling such. The missionary Fathers found a virgin field whereon neither god nor devil was worshiped. We must look, then, to other causes for a solution of the question why a nobler race is not found in California; such for instance as revolutions and migrations of nations, or upheavals and convulsions of nature, causes arising before the commencement of the short period within which we are accustomed to reckon time.

TRIBAL DIVERSITY.

There is, perhaps, a greater diversity of tribal names among the Californians than elsewhere in America; the whole system of nomenclature is so complicated and contradictory that it is impossible to reduce it to perfect order. There are tribes that call themselves by one name, but whose neighbors call them by another; tribes that are known by three or four names, and tribes that have no name except that of their village or chief.[423] Tribal names are frequently given by one writer which are never mentioned by any other;[424] nevertheless there are tribes on whose names authorities agree, and though the spelling differs, the sound expressed in these instances is about the same. Less trouble is experienced in distinguishing the tribes of the northern division, which is composed of people who resemble their neighbors more than is the case in central California, where the meaningless term 'Indians,' is almost universally applied in speaking of them.[425]

Another fruitful source of confusion is the indefinite nickname 'Digger' which is applied indiscriminately to all the tribes of northern and middle California, and to those of Nevada, Utah, and the southern part of Oregon. These tribes are popularly known as the Californian Diggers, Washoe Diggers, Shoshone Diggers of Utah, etc., the signification of the term pointing to the digging of roots, and in some parts, possibly, to burrowing in the ground. The name is seemingly opprobrious, and is certainly no more applicable to this people than to many others. By this territorial division I hope to avoid, as far as possible, the two causes of bewilderment before alluded to; neither treating the inhabitants of an immense country as one tribe, nor attempting to ascribe distinct names and idiosyncrasies to hundreds of small, insignificant bands, roaming over a comparatively narrow area of country and to all of which one description will apply.

NATIONS OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.

The Northern Californians, the first tribal group, or division, of which I shall speak, might, not improperly, be called the Klamath family, extending as they do from Rogue River on the north, to the Eel River south, and from the Pacific Ocean to the Californian boundary east, and including the Upper and Lower Klamath and other lakes. The principal tribes occupying this region are the Klamaths,[426] who live on the headwaters of the river and on the shores of the lake of that name; the Modocs,[427] on Lower Klamath Lake and along Lost River; the Shastas, to the south-west of the lakes, near the Shasta Mountains; the Pitt River Indians; the Eurocs on the Klamath River between Weitspek and the coast; the Cahrocs[428] on the Klamath River from a short distance above the junction of the Trinity to the Klamath Mountains; the Hoopahs in Hoopah Valley on the Trinity near its junction with the Klamath; numerous tribes on the coast from Eel River and Humboldt Bay north, such as the Weeyots,[429] Wallies, Tolewahs, etc., and the Rogue River Indians,[430] on and about the river of that name.[431]

The Northern Californians are in every way superior to the central and southern tribes.[432] Their physique and character, in fact, approach nearer to the Oregon nations than to the people of the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys. This applies more particularly to the inland tribes. The race gradually deteriorates as it approaches the coast, growing less in stature, darker in color, more and more degraded in character, habits, and religion. The Rogue River Indians must, however, be made an exception to this rule. The tendency to improve toward the north, which is so marked among the Californians, holds good in this case; so that the natives on the extreme north-west coast of the region under consideration, are in many respects superior to the interior but more southerly tribes.

PHYSICAL PECULIARITIES.

The Northern Californians round the Klamath lakes, and the Klamath, Trinity, and Rogue rivers, are tall, muscular, and well made,[433] with a complexion varying from nearly black to light brown, in proportion to their proximity to, or distance, from the ocean or other large bodies of water; their face is large, oval, and heavily made, with slightly prominent cheek-bones, nose well set on the face and frequently straight, and eyes which, when not blurred by ophthalmia, are keen and bright. The women are short and some of them quite handsome, even in the Caucasian sense of the word;[434] and although their beauty rapidly fades, yet they do not in old age present that unnaturally wrinkled and shriveled appearance, characteristic of the Central Californians. This description scarcely applies to the people inhabiting the coast about Redwood Creek, Humboldt Bay, and Eel River, who are squat and fat in figure, rather stoutly built, with large heads covered with coarse thick hair, and repulsive countenances, who are of a much darker color, and altogether of a lower type than the tribes to the east and north of them.[435]

DRESS IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.

Dress depends more on the state of the climate than on their own sense of decency. The men wear a belt, sometimes a breech-clout, and the women an apron or skirt of deer-skin or braided grass; then they sometimes throw over the shoulders a sort of cloak, or robe, of marten or rabbit skins sewn together, deer-skin, or, among the coast tribes, seal or sea-otter skin. When they indulge in this luxury, however, the men usually dispense with all other covering.[436] Occasionally we find them taking great pride in their gala dresses and sparing no pains to render them beautiful. The Modocs, for instance, took large-sized skins, and inlaid them with brilliant-colored duck-scalps, sewed on in various figures; others, again, embroidered their aprons with colored grasses, and attached beads and shells to a deep fringe falling from the lower part.[437] A bowl-shaped hat, or cap, of basket-work, is usually worn by the women, in making which some of them are very skillful. This hat is sometimes painted with various figures, and sometimes interwoven with gay feathers of the woodpecker or blue quail.[438] The men generally go bare-headed, their thick hair being sufficient protection from sun and weather. In the vicinity of the lakes, where, from living constantly among the long grass and reeds, the greatest skill is acquired in weaving and braiding, moccasins of straw or grass are worn.[439] At the junction of the Klamath and Trinity rivers their moccasins have soles of several thicknesses of leather.[440] The natives seen by Maurelle at Trinidad Bay, bound their loins and legs down to the ankle with strips of hide or thread, both men and women.

The manner of dressing the hair varies; the most common way being to club it together behind in a queue, sometimes in two, worn down the back, or occasionally in the latter case drawn forward over the shoulders. The queue is frequently twisted up in a knot on the back of the head—en castanna—as Maurelle calls it. Occasionally the hair is worn loose, and flowing, and some of the women cut it short on the forehead. It is not uncommon to see wreaths of oak or laurel leaves, feathers, or the tails of gray squirrels twisted in the hair; indeed, from the trouble which they frequently take to adorn their coiffure, one would imagine that these people were of a somewhat æsthetic turn of mind, but a closer acquaintance quickly dispels the illusion. On Eel River some cut all the hair short, a custom practiced to some extent by the Central Californians.[441]

FACIAL ORNAMENTATION.

As usual these savages are beardless, or nearly so.[442] Tattooing, though not carried to any great extent, is universal among the women, and much practiced by the men, the latter confining this ornamentation to the breast and arms. The women tattoo in three blue lines, extending perpendicularly from the centre and corners of the lower lip to the chin. In some tribes they tattoo the arms, and occasionally the back of the hands. As they grow older the lines on the chin, which at first are very faint, are increased in width and color, thus gradually narrowing the intervening spaces. Now, as the social importance of the female is gauged by the width and depth of color of these lines, one might imagine that before long the whole chin would be what Southey calls "blue, darkly, deeply, beautifully blue;" but fashion ordains, as in the lip-ornament of the Thlinkeets, that the lines should be materially enlarged only as the charms of youth fade, thus therewith gauging both age and respectability.[443] In some few tribes, more especially in the vicinity of the lakes, the men paint themselves in various colors and grotesque patterns. Among the Modocs the women also paint. Miller says that when a Modoc warrior paints his face black before going into battle it means victory or death, and he will not survive a defeat.[444] Both men and women pierce the dividing cartilage of the nose, and wear various kinds of ornaments in the aperture. Sometimes it is a goose-quill, three or four inches long, at others, a string of beads or shells. Some of the more northerly tribes wear large round pieces of wood or metal in the ears.[445] Maurelle, in his bucolic description of the natives at Trinidad bay, says that "on their necks they wear various fruits, instead of beads."[446] Vancouver, who visited the same place nearly twenty years later, states that "all the teeth of both sexes were by some process ground uniformly down horizontally to the gums, the women especially, carrying the fashion to an extreme, had their teeth reduced even below this level."[447]

Here also we see in their habitations the usual summer and winter residences common to nomadic tribes. The winter dwellings, varying with locality, are principally of two forms—conical and square. Those of the former shape, which is the most widely prevailing, and obtains chiefly in the vicinity of the Klamath lakes and on the Klamath and Trinity rivers, are built in the manner following: A circular hole, from two to five feet in depth, and varying in diameter, is dug in the ground. Round this pit, or cellar, stout poles are sunk, which are drawn together at the top until they nearly meet; the whole is then covered with earth to the depth of several inches. A hole is left in the top, which serves as chimney and door, a rude ladder or notched pole communicating with the cellar below, and a similar one with the ground outside. This, however, is only the commoner and lighter kind of conical house. Many of them are built of much heavier timbers, which, instead of being bent over at the top, and so forming a bee-hive-shaped structure, are leaned one against the other.

The dwellings built by the Hoopahs are somewhat better. The inside of the cellar is walled up with stone; round this, and at a distance of a few feet from it, another stone wall is built on the surface level, against which heavy beams or split logs are leaned up, meeting at the top, or sometimes the lower ends of the poles rest against the inside of the wall, thus insuring the inmates against a sudden collapse of the hut.[448]

CALIFORNIAN HABITATIONS.

The square style of dwelling is affected more by the coast tribes, although occasionally seen in the interior. A cellar, either square or round, is dug in the same manner as with the conical houses. The sides of the hole are walled with upright slabs, which project some feet above the surface of the ground. The whole structure is covered with a roof of sticks or planks, sloping gently outward, and resting upon a ridge-pole. The position of the door varies, being sometimes in the roof, sometimes on a level with the ground, and occasionally high up in the gable. Its shape and dimensions, however, never alter; it is always circular, barely large enough to admit a full-grown man on hands and knees. When on the roof or in the gable, a notched pole or mud steps lead up to the entrance; when on the ground, a sliding panel closes the entrance. In some cases, the excavation is planked up only to a level with the ground. The upper part is then raised several feet from the sides, leaving a bank, or rim, on which the inmates sleep; occasionally there is no excavation, the house being erected on the level ground, with merely a small fire-hole in the centre. The floors are kept smooth and clean, and a small space in front of the door, paved with stones and swept clean, serves as gossiping and working ground for the women.[449]

The temporary summer houses of the Northern Californians are square, conical, and inverted-bowl-shaped huts; built, when square, by driving light poles into the ground and laying others horizontally across them; when conical, the poles are drawn together at the top into a point; when bowl-shaped, both ends of the poles are driven into the ground, making a semi-circular hut. These frames, however shaped, are covered with neatly woven tule matting,[450] or with bushes or ferns.[451]

HUNTING AND FISHING.

The Californians are but poor hunters; they prefer the snare to the bow and arrow. Yet some of the mountain tribes display considerable dexterity in the chase. To hunt the prong-buck, the Klamath fastens to each heel a strip of ermine-skin, and keeping the herd to the windward, he approaches craftily through the tall grass as near as possible, then throwing himself on his back, or standing on his head, he executes a pantomime in the air with his legs. Naturally the antelope wonder, and being cursed with curiosity, the simple animals gradually approach. As soon as they arrive within easy shooting-distance, down go the hunter's legs and up comes the body. Too late the antelope learn their mistake; swift as they are, the arrow is swifter; and the fattest buck pays the penalty of his inquisitiveness with his life. The Veeards, at Humboldt Bay, construct a slight fence from tree to tree, into which inclosure elk are driven, the only exit being by a narrow opening at one end, where a pole is placed in such a manner as to force the animal to stoop in passing under it, when its head is caught in a noose suspended from the pole. This pole is dragged down by the entangled elk, but soon he is caught fast in the thick undergrowth, and firmly held until the hunter comes up.[452] Pitfalls are also extensively used in trapping game. A narrow pass, through which an elk or deer trail leads, is selected for the pit, which is ten or twelve feet deep. The animals are then suddenly stampeded from their feeding-grounds, and, in their wild terror, rush blindly along the trail to destruction.[453] The bear they seldom hunt, and if one is taken, it is usually by accident, in one of their strong elk-traps. Many of the tribes refuse to eat bear-meat, alleging that the flesh of a man-eating animal is unclean; but no doubt Bruin owes his immunity as much to his teeth and claws as to his uncleanness.

FISHING BY NIGHT ON THE KLAMATH.

Fishing is more congenial to the lazy taste of these people than the nobler but more arduous craft of hunting; consequently fish, being abundant, are generally more plentiful in the aboriginal larder than venison. Several methods are adopted in taking them. Sometimes a dam of interwoven willows is constructed across a rapid at the time when salmon are ascending the river; niches four or five feet square are made at intervals across the dam, in which the fish, pressed on by those behind, collect in great numbers and are there speared or netted without mercy. Much ingenuity and labor are required to build some of the larger of these dams. Mr Gibbs describes one thrown across the Klamath, where the river was about seventy-five yards wide, elbowing up the stream in its deepest part. It was built by first driving stout posts into the bed of the river, at a distance of some two feet apart, having a moderate slope, and supported from below, at intervals of ten or twelve feet, by two braces; the one coming to the surface of the water, the other reaching to the string-pieces. These last were heavy spars, about thirty feet in length, and secured to each post by withes. The whole dam was faced with twigs, carefully peeled, and placed so close together as to prevent the fish from passing up. The top, at this stage of the water, was two or three feet above the surface. The labor of constructing this work must, with the few and insufficient tools of the natives, have been immense. Slight scaffolds were built out below it, from which the fish were taken in scoop-nets; they also employ drag-nets and spears, the latter having a movable barb, which is fastened to the shaft with a string in order to afford the salmon play.[454] On Rogue River, spearing by torch-light—a most picturesque sight—is resorted to. Twenty canoes sometimes start out together, each carrying three persons—two women, one to row and the other to hold the torch, and a spearman. Sometimes the canoes move in concert, sometimes independently of each other; one moment the lights are seen in line, like an army of fire-flies, then they are scattered over the dark surface of the water like ignes fatui. The fish, attracted by the glare, rise to the surface, where they are transfixed by the unerring aim of the spearmen. Torchlight spearing is also done by driving the fish down stream in the day-time by dint of much wading, yelling, and howling, and many splashes, until they are stopped by a dam previously erected lower down; another dam is then built above, so that the fish cannot escape. At night fires are built round the edge of the enclosed space, and the finny game speared from the bank.[455] Some tribes on the Klamath erect platforms over the stream on upright poles, on which they sleep and fish at the same time. A string leads from the net either to the fisherman himself or to some kind of alarm; and as soon as a salmon is caught, its floundering immediately awakens the slumberer. On the sea-shore smelts are taken in a triangular net stretched on two slender poles; the fisherman wades into the water up to his waist, turns his face to the shore, and his back to the incoming waves, against whose force he braces himself with a stout stick, then as the smelts are washed back from the beach by the returning waves, he receives them in his net. The net is deep, and a narrow neck connects it with a long network bag behind; into this bag the fish drop when the net is raised, but they cannot return. In this manner the fisherman can remain for some time at his post, without unloading.

Eels are caught in traps having a funnel-shaped entrance, into which the eels can easily go, but which closes on them as soon as they are in. These traps are fastened to stakes and kept down by weights. Similar traps are used to take salmon.

When preserved for winter use, the fish are split open at the back, the bone taken out, then dried or smoked. Both fish and meat, when eaten fresh, are either broiled on hot stones or boiled in water-tight baskets, hot stones being thrown in to make the water boil. Bread is made of acorns ground to flour in a rough stone mortar with a heavy stone pestle, and baked in the ashes. Acorn-flour is the principal ingredient, but berries of various kinds are usually mixed in, and frequently it is seasoned with some high-flavored herb. A sort of pudding is also made in the same manner, but is boiled instead of baked.

They gather a great variety of roots, berries, and seeds. The principal root is the camas,[456] great quantities of which are dried every summer, and stored away for winter provision. Another root, called kice, or kace,[457] is much sought after. Of seeds they have the wocus,[458] and several varieties of grass-seeds. Among berries the huckleberry and the manzanita berry are the most plentiful.[459] The women do the cooking, root and berry gathering, and all the drudgery.

The winter stock of smoked fish hangs in the family room, sending forth an ancient and fish-like smell. Roots and seeds are, among some of the more northerly tribes, stored in large wicker boxes, built in the lower branches of strong, wide-spreading trees. The trunk of the tree below the granary is smeared with pitch to keep away vermin.[459] The Modocs are sometimes obliged to cache their winter hoard under rocks and bushes; the great number of their enemies and bad character of their ostensibly friendly neighbors, rendering it unsafe for them to store it in their villages. So cunningly do they conceal their treasure that one winter, after an unusually heavy fall of snow, they themselves could not find it, and numbers starved in consequence.[460]

Although the Northern Californians seldom fail to take a cold bath in the morning, and frequently bathe at intervals during the day, yet they are never clean.[461]

WAR AND WEAPONS.

The Northern Californians are not of a very warlike disposition, hence their weapons are few, being confined chiefly to the bow and arrow.[462] The bow is about three feet in length, made of yew, cedar, or some other tough or elastic wood, and generally painted. The back is flat, from an inch and a half to two inches wide, and covered with elk-sinews, which greatly add both to its strength and elasticity; the string is also of sinew. The bow is held horizontally when discharged, instead of perpendicularly as in most countries. The arrows are from two to three feet long, and are made sometimes of reed, sometimes of light wood. The points, which are of flint, obsidian, bone, iron, or copper, are ground to a very fine point, fastened firmly into a short piece of wood, and fitted into a socket in the main shaft, so that on withdrawing the arrow the head will be left in the wound. The feathered part, which is from five to eight inches long, is also sometimes a separate piece bound on with sinews. The quiver is made of the skin of a fox, wild-cat, or some other small animal, in the same shape as when the animal wore it, except at the tail end, where room is left for the feathered ends of arrows to project. It is usually carried on the arm.[463]

Mr Powers says: "doubtless many persons who have seen the flint arrow-heads made by the Indians, have wondered how they succeeded with their rude implements, in trimming them down to such sharp, thin points, without breaking them to pieces. The Veeards—and probably other tribes do likewise—employ for this purpose a pair of buck-horn pincers, tied together at the point with a thong. They first hammer out the arrow-head in the rough, and then with these pincers carefully nip off one tiny fragment after another, using that infinite patience which is characteristic of the Indian, spending days, perhaps weeks, on one piece. There are Indians who make arrows as a specialty, just as there are others who concoct herbs and roots for the healing of men."[464] The Shastas especially excelled in making obsidian arrow-heads; Mr Wilkes of the Exploring Expedition notices them as being "beautifully wrought," and Lyon, in a letter to the American Ethnological Society, communicated through Dr E. H. Davis, describes the very remarkable ingenuity and skill which they display in this particular. The arrow-point maker, who is one of a regular guild, places the obsidian pebble upon an anvil of talcose slate and splits it with an agate chisel to the required size; then holding the piece with his finger and thumb against the anvil, he finishes it off with repeated slight blows, administered with marvelous adroitness and judgment. One of these artists made an arrow-point for Mr Lyon out of a piece of a broken porter-bottle. Owing to his not being acquainted with the grain of the glass, he failed twice, but the third time produced a perfect specimen.[465] The Wallies poison their arrows with rattlesnake-virus, but poisoned weapons seem to be the exception.[466] The bow is skilfully used; war-clubs are not common.[467]

WAR AND ITS MOTIVES.

Wars, though of frequent occurrence, were not particularly bloody. The casus belli was usually that which brought the Spartan King before the walls of Ilion, and Titus Tatius to incipient Rome—woman. It is true, the Northern Californians are less classic abductors than the spoilers of the Sabine women, but their wars ended in the same manner—the ravished fair cleaving to her warrior-lover. Religion also, that ever-fruitful source of war, is not without its conflicts in savagedom; thus more than once the Shastas and the Umpquas have taken up arms because of wicked sorceries, which caused the death of the people.[468] So when one people obstructed the river with their weir, thereby preventing the ascent of salmon, there was nothing left for those above but to fight or starve.

Along Pitt River, pits from ten to fifteen feet deep were formerly dug, in which the natives caught man and beast. These man-traps, for such was their primary use, were small at the mouth, widening toward the bottom, so that exit was impossible, even were the victim to escape impalement upon sharpened elk and deer horns, which were favorably placed for his reception. The opening was craftily concealed by means of light sticks, over which earth was scattered, and the better to deceive the unwary traveler, footprints were frequently stamped with a moccasin in the loose soil. Certain landmarks and stones or branches, placed in a peculiar manner, warned the initiated, but otherwise there was no sign of impending danger.[469]

Some few nations maintain the predominancy and force the weaker to pay tribute.[470] When two of these dominant nations war with each other, the conflict is more sanguinary. No scalps are taken, but in some cases the head, hands, or feet of the conquered slain are severed as trophies. The Cahrocs sometimes fight hand to hand with ragged stones, which they use with deadly effect. The Rogue River Indians kill all their male prisoners, but spare the women and children.[471] The elk-horn knives and hatchets are the result of much labor and patience.[472]

The women are very ingenious in plaiting grass, or fine willow-roots, into mats, baskets, hats, and strips of parti-colored braid for binding up the hair. On these, angular patterns are worked by using different shades of material, or by means of dyes of vegetable extraction. The baskets are of various sizes, from the flat, basin-shaped, water-tight, rush bowl for boiling food, to the large pointed cone which the women carry on their backs when root-digging or berry-picking.[473] They are also expert tanners, and, by a comparatively simple process, will render skins as soft and pliable as cloth. The hide is first soaked in water till the hair loosens, then stretched between trees or upright posts till half dry, when it is scraped thoroughly on both sides, well beaten with sticks, and the brains of some animal, heated at a fire, are rubbed on the inner side to soften it. Finally it is buried in moist ground for some weeks.

MANUFACTURES AND BOATS.

The interior tribes manifest no great skill in boat-making, but along the coast and near the mouth of the Klamath and Rogue rivers, very good canoes are found. They are still, however, inferior to those used on the Columbia and its tributaries. The lashed-up-hammock-shaped bundle of rushes, which is so frequently met in the more southern parts of California, has been seen on the Klamath,[474] but I have reason to think that it is only used as a matter of convenience, and not because no better boat is known. It is certain that dug-out canoes were in use on the same river, and within a few miles of the spot where tule buoys obtain. The fact is, this bundle of rushes is the best craft that could be invented for salmon-spearing. Seated astride, the weight of the fisherman sinks it below the surface; he can move it noiselessly with his feet so that there is no splashing of paddles in the sun to frighten the fish; it cannot capsize, and striking a rock does it no injury. Canoes are hollowed from the trunk of a single redwood, pine, fir, sycamore, or cottonwood tree. They are blunt at both ends and on Rogue River many of them are flat-bottomed. It is a curious fact that some of these canoes are made from first to last without being touched with a sharp-edged tool of any sort. The native finds the tree ready felled by the wind, burns it off to the required length, and hollows it out by fire. Pitch is spread on the parts to be burned away, and a piece of fresh bark prevents the flames from extending too far in the wrong direction. A small shelf, projecting inward from the stern, serves as a seat. Much trouble is sometimes taken with the finishing up of these canoes, in the way of scraping and polishing, but in shape they lack symmetry. On the coast they are frequently large; Mr Powers mentions having seen one at Smith River forty-two feet long, eight feet four inches wide, and capable of carrying twenty-four men and five tons of merchandise. The natives take great care of their canoes, and always cover them when out of the water to protect them from the sun. Should a crack appear they do not caulk it, but stitch the sides of the split tightly together with withes. They are propelled with a piece of wood, half pole, half paddle.[475]

WEALTH IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.

Wealth, which is quite as important here as in any civilized communities, and of much more importance than is customary among savage nations, consists in shell-money, called allicochick, white deer-skins, canoes, and, indirectly, in women. The shell which is the regular circulating medium is white, hollow, about a quarter of an inch through, and from one to two inches in length. On its length depends its value. A gentleman, who writes from personal observation, says: "all of the older Indians have tattooed on their arms their standard of value. A piece of shell corresponding in length to one of the marks being worth five dollars, 'Boston money,' the scale gradually increases until the highest mark is reached. For five perfect shells corresponding in length to this mark they will readily give one hundred dollars in gold or silver."[476] White deer-skins are rare and considered very valuable, one constituting quite an estate in itself.[477] A scalp of the red-headed woodpecker is equivalent to about five dollars, and is extensively used as currency on the Klamath. Canoes are valued according to their size and finish. Wives, as they must be bought, are a sign of wealth, and the owner of many is respected accordingly.[478]

Among the Northern Californians, hereditary chieftainship is almost unknown. If the son succeed the father it is because the son has inherited the father's wealth, and if a richer than he arise the ancient ruler is deposed and the new chief reigns in his stead. But to be chief means to have position, not power. He can advise, but not command; at least, if his subjects do not choose to obey him, he cannot compel obedience.

There is most frequently a head man to each village, and sometimes a chief of the whole tribe, but in reality each head of a family governs his own domestic circle as he thinks best. As in certain republics, when powerful applicants become multiplied—new offices are created, as salmon-chief, elk-chief, and the like. In one or two coast tribes the office is hereditary, as with the Patawats on Mad River, and that mysterious tribe at Trinidad Bay, mentioned by Mr Meyer, the Allequas.[479]

Their penal code is far from Draconian. A fine of a few strings of allicochick appeases the wrath of a murdered man's relatives and satisfies the requirements of custom. A woman may be slaughtered for half the sum it costs to kill a man. Occasionally banishment from the tribe is the penalty for murder, but capital punishment is never resorted to. The fine, whatever it is, must be promptly paid, or neither city of refuge nor sacred altar-horns will shield the murderer from the vengeance of his victim's friends.[480]

WOMEN AND DOMESTIC AFFAIRS.

In vain do we look for traces of that Arcadian simplicity and disregard for worldly advantages generally accorded to children of nature. Although I find no description of an actual system of slavery existing among them, yet there is no doubt that they have slaves. We shall see that illegitimate children are considered and treated as such, and that women, entitled by courtesy wives, are bought and sold. Mr Drew asserts that the Klamath children of slave parents, who, it may be, prevent the profitable prostitution or sale of the mother, are killed without compunction.[481]

Marriage, with the Northern Californians, is essentially a matter of business. The young brave must not hope to win his bride by feats of arms or softer wooing, but must buy her of her father, like any other chattel, and pay the price at once, or resign in favor of a richer man. The inclinations of the girl are in nowise consulted; no matter where her affections are placed, she goes to the highest bidder, and "Mammon wins his way where seraphs might despair." Neither is it a trifling matter to be bought as a wife; the social position of the bride herself, as well as that of her father's family thereafter, depends greatly upon the price she brings; her value is voted by society at the price her husband pays for her, and the father whose daughter commands the greatest number of strings of allicochick, is greatly to be honored. The purchase effected, the successful suitor leads his blushing property to his hut and she becomes his wife without further ceremony. Wherever this system of wife-purchase obtains, the rich old men almost absorb the female youth and beauty of the tribe, while the younger and poorer men must content themselves with old and ugly wives. Hence their eagerness for that wealth which will enable them to throw away their old wives and buy new ones. When a marriage takes place among the Modocs, a feast is given at the house of the bride's father, in which, however, neither she nor the bridegroom partake. The girl is escorted by the women to a lodge, previously furnished by public contributions, where she is subsequently joined by the man, who is conducted by his male friends. All the company bear torches, which are piled up as a fire in the lodge of the wedded pair, who are then left alone. In some tribes this wife-traffic is done on credit, or at least partially so; but the credit system is never so advantageous to the buyer as the ready-money system, for until the full price is paid, the man is only 'half-married,' and besides he must live with his wife's family and be their slave until he shall have paid in full.[482] The children of a wife who has cost her husband nothing are considered no better than bastards, and are treated by society with contumely; nobody associates with them, and they become essentially ostracized. In all this there is one redeeming feature for the wife-buyer; should he happen to make a bad bargain he can, in most instances, send his wife home and get his money back. Mr Gibbs asserts that they shoot their wives when tired of them, but this appears inconsistent with custom.

ADULTERY AND CHASTITY.

Polygamy is almost universal, the number of wives depending only on the limit of a man's wealth. The loss of one eye, or expulsion from the tribe, are common punishments for adultery committed by a man. A string of beads, however, makes amends. Should the wife venture on any irregularity without just compensation, the outraged honor of her lord is never satisfied until he has seen her publicly disemboweled. Among the Hoopahs the women are held irresponsible and the men alone suffer for the crime.[483] Illegitimate children are life-slaves to some male relative of the mother, and upon them the drudgery falls; they are only allowed to marry one in their own station, and their sole hope of emancipation lies in a slow accumulation of allicochick, with which they can buy their freedom. We are told by Mr Powers that a Modoc may kill his mother-in-law with impunity. Adultery, being attended with so much danger, is comparatively rare, but among the unmarried, who have nothing to fear, a gross licentiousness prevails.[484]

Among the Muckalucs a dance is instituted in honor of the arrival of the girls at the age of puberty. On the Klamath, during the period of menstruation the women are banished from the village, and no man may approach them. Although the principal labor falls to the lot of the women, the men sometimes assist in building the wigwam, or even in gathering acorns and roots.[485] Kane mentions that the Shastas, or, as he calls them, the Chastays, frequently sell their children as slaves to the Chinooks.[486] Dances and festivities, of a religio-playful character, are common, as when a whale is stranded, an elk snared, or when the salmon come. There is generally a kind of thanksgiving-day once a year, when the people of neighboring tribes meet and dance. The annual feast of the Veeards is a good illustration of the manner of these entertainments. The dance, which takes place in a large wigwam, is performed by as many men as there is room for, and a small proportion of women. They move in a circle slowly round the fire, accompanying themselves with their peculiar chant. Each individual is dressed in all the finery he can muster; every valuable he possesses in the way of shells, furs, or woodpecker-scalps, does duty on this occasion; so that the wealth of the dancers may be reckoned at a glance. When the dance has concluded, an old gray-beard of the tribe rises, and pronounces a thanksgiving oration, wherein he enumerates the benefits received, the riches accumulated, and the victories won during the year; exhorting the hearers meanwhile, by good conduct and moral behavior, to deserve yet greater benefits. This savage Nestor is listened to in silence and with respect; his audience seeming to drink in with avidity every drop of wisdom that falls from his lips; but no sooner is the harangue concluded than every one does his best to violate the moral precepts so lately inculcated, by a grand debauch.

The Cahrocs have a similar festival, which they call the Feast of the Propitiation. Its object is much the same as that of the feast just described, but in place of the orator, the chief personage of the day is called the Chareya, which is also the appellation of their deity. No little honor attaches to the position, but much suffering is also connected with it. It is the duty of the Chareya-man to retire into the mountains, with one attendant only, and there to remain for ten days, eating only enough to keep breath in his body. Meanwhile the Cahrocs congregate in honor of the occasion, dance, sing, and make merry. When the appointed period has elapsed, the Chareya-man returns to camp, or is carried by deputies sent out for the purpose, if he have not strength to walk. His bearers are blindfolded, for no human being may look upon the face of the Chareya-man and live. His approach is the signal for the abrupt breaking up of the festivities. The revelers disperse in terror, and conceal themselves as best they may to avoid catching sight of the dreaded face, and where a moment before all was riot and bustle, a deathly stillness reigns. Then the Chareya-man is conducted to the sweat-house, where he remains for a time. And now the real Propitiation-Dance takes place, the men alone participating in its sacred movements, which are accompanied by the low, monotonous chant of singers. The dance over, all solemnity vanishes, and a lecherous saturnalia ensues, which will not bear description. The gods are conciliated, catastrophes are averted, and all is joy and happiness.[487]

SPORTS AND GAMES.

A passion for gambling obtains among the northern Californians as elsewhere. Nothing is too precious or too insignificant to be staked, from a white or black deer-skin, which is almost priceless, down to a wife, or any other trifle. In this manner property changes hands with great rapidity.

I have already stated that on the possession of riches depend power, rank, and social position, so that there is really much to be lost or won. They have a game played with little sticks, of which some are black, but the most white. These they throw around in a circle, the object being seemingly to make the black ones go farther than the white. A kind of guess-game is played with clay balls.[488] There is also an international game, played between friendly tribes, which closely resembles our 'hockey.' Two poles are set up in the ground at some distance apart, and each side, being armed with sticks, endeavors to drive a wooden ball round the goal opposite to it.[489] In almost all their games and dances they are accompanied by a hoarse chanting, or by some kind of uncouth music produced by striking on a board with lobster-claws fastened to sticks, or by some other equally primitive method. Before the introduction of spirituous liquors by white men drunkenness was unknown. With their tobacco for smoking, they mix a leaf called kinnik-kinnik.[490]

MEDICAL TREATMENT.

The diseases and ailments most prevalent among these people are scrofula, consumption, rheumatism, a kind of leprosy, affection of the lungs, and sore eyes, the last arising from the dense smoke which always pervades their cabins.[491] In addition to this they have imaginary disorders caused by wizards, witches, and evil spirits, who, as they believe, cause snakes and other reptiles to enter into their bodies and gnaw their vitals. Some few roots and herbs used are really efficient medicine, but they rely almost entirely upon the mummeries and incantations of their medicine men and women.[492] Their whole system of therapeutics having superstition for a basis, mortality is great among them, which may be one of the causes of the continent being, comparatively speaking, so thinly populated at the time of its discovery. Syphilis, one of the curses for which they may thank the white man, has made fearful havoc among them. Women doctors seem to be more numerous than men in this region; acquiring their art in the temescal or sweat-house, where unprofessional women are not admitted. Their favorite method of cure seems to consist in sucking the affected part of the patient until the blood flows, by which means they pretend to extract the disease. Sometimes the doctress vomits a frog, previously swallowed for the occasion, to prove that she has not sucked in vain. She is frequently assisted by a second physician, whose duty it is to discover the exact spot where the malady lies, and this she effects by barking like a dog at the patient until the spirit discovers to her the place. Mr Gibbs mentions a case where the patient was first attended by four young women, and afterward by the same number of old ones. Standing round the unfortunate, they went through a series of violent gesticulations, sitting down when they could stand no longer, sucking, with the most laudable perseverance, and moaning meanwhile most dismally. Finally, when with their lips and tongue they had raised blisters all over the patient, and had pounded his miserable body with hands and knees until they were literally exhausted, the performers executed a swooning scene, in which they sank down apparently insensible.[493] The Rogue River medicine-men are supposed to be able to wield their mysterious power for harm, as well as for good, so that should a patient die, his relatives kill the doctor who attended him; or in case deceased could not afford medical attendance, they kill the first unfortunate disciple of Æsculapius they can lay hands on, frequently murdering one belonging to another tribe; his death, however, must be paid for.[494]

But the great institution of the Northern Californians is their temescal, or sweat-house, which consists of a hole dug in the ground, and roofed over in such a manner as to render it almost air-tight. A fire is built in the centre in early fall, and is kept alive till the following spring, as much attention being given to it as ever was paid to the sacred fires of Hestia; though between the subterranean temescal, with its fetid atmosphere, and lurid fire-glow glimmering faintly through dense smoke on swart, gaunt forms of savages, and the stately temple on the Forum, fragrant with fumes of incense, the lambent altar-flame glistening on the pure white robes of the virgin priestesses, there is little likeness. The temescal[495] is usually built on the brink of a stream; a small hatchway affords entrance, which is instantly closed after the person going in or out. Here congregate the men of the village and enact their sudorific ceremonies, which ordinarily consist in squatting round the fire until a state of profuse perspiration sets in, when they rush out and plunge into the water. Whether this mode of treatment is more potent to kill or to cure is questionable. The sweat-house serves not only as bath and medicine room, but also as a general rendezvous for the male drones of the village. The women, with the exception of those practicing or studying medicine, are forbidden its sacred precincts on pain of death; thus it offers as convenient a refuge for henpecked husbands as a civilized club-house. In many of the tribes the men sleep in the temescal during the winter, which, notwithstanding the disgusting impurity of the atmosphere, affords them a snug retreat from the cold gusty weather common to this region.[496]

BURIAL AND MOURNING.

Incremation obtains but slightly among the Northern Californians, the body usually being buried in a recumbent position. The possessions of the deceased are either interred with him, or are hung around the grave; sometimes his house is burned and the ashes strewn over his burial-place. Much noisy lamentation on the part of his relatives takes place at his death, and the widow frequently manifests her grief by sitting on, or even half burying herself in, her husband's grave for some days, howling most dismally meanwhile, and refusing food and drink; or, on the upper Klamath, by cutting her hair close to the head, and so wearing it until she obtains consolation in another spouse. The Modocs hired mourners to lament at different places for a certain number of days, so that the whole country was filled with lamentation. These paid mourners were closely watched, and disputes frequently arose as to whether they had fulfilled their contract or not.[497] Occasionally the body is doubled up and interred in a sitting position, and, rarely, it is burned instead of buried. On the Klamath a fire is kept burning near the grave for several nights after the burial, for which rite various reasons are assigned. Mr Powers states that it is to light the departed shade across a certain greased pole, which is supposed to constitute its only approach to a better world. Mr Gibbs affirms that the fire is intended to scare away the devil, obviously an unnecessary precaution as applied to the Satan of civilization, who by this time must be pretty familiar with the element. The grave is generally covered with a slab of wood, and sometimes two more are placed erect at the head and foot; that of a chief is often surrounded with a fence; nor must the name of a dead person ever be mentioned under any circumstances.[498]

BURIAL CEREMONIES AT PITT RIVER.

The following vivid description of a last sickness and burial by the Pitt River Indians, is taken from the letter of a lady eye-witness to her son in San Francisco:—

It was evening. We seated ourselves upon a log, your father, Bertie, and I, near the fire round which the natives had congregated to sing for old Gesnip, the chief's wife. Presently Sootim, the doctor, appeared, dressed in a low-necked, loose, white muslin, sleeveless waist fastened to a breech-cloth, and red buck-skin cap fringed and ornamented with beads; the face painted with white stripes down to the chin, the arms from wrist to shoulder, in black, red, and white circles, which by the lurid camp-fire looked like bracelets, and the legs in white and black stripes,—presenting altogether a merry-Andrew appearance. Creeping softly along, singing in a low, gradually-increasing voice, Sootim approached the invalid and poised his hands over her as in the act of blessing. The one nearest him took up the song, singing low at first, then the next until the circle was completed; after this the pipe went round; then the doctor taking a sip of water, partly uncovered the patient and commenced sucking the left side; last of all he took a pinch of dirt and blew it over her. This is their curative process, continued night after night, and long into the night, until the patient recovers or dies.

Next day the doctor came to see me, and I determined if possible to ascertain his own ideas of these things. Giving him some muck-a-muck,[499] I asked him, "What do you say when you talk over old Gesnip?" "I talk to the trees, and to the springs, and birds, and sky, and rocks," replied Sootim, "to the wind, and rain, and leaves, I beg them all to help me." Iofalet, the doctor's companion on this occasion, volunteered the remark: "When Indian die, doctor very shamed, all same Boston doctor;[500] when Indian get well, doctor very smart, all same Boston doctor." Gesnip said she wanted after death to be put in a box and buried in the ground, and not burned. That same day the poor old woman breathed her last—the last spark of that wonderful thing called life flickered and went out; there remained in that rude camp the shriveled dusky carcass, the low dim intelligence that so lately animated it having fled—whither? When I heard of it I went to the camp and found them dressing the body. First they put on Gesnip her best white clothes, then the next best, placing all the while whatever was most valuable, beads, belts, and necklaces, next the body. Money they put into the mouth, her daughter contributing about five dollars. The knees were then pressed up against the chest, and after all of her own clothing was put on, the body was rolled up in the best family bear-skin, and tied with strips of buckskin.

Then Soomut, the chief and husband, threw the bundle over his shoulders, and started off for the cave where they deposit their dead, accompanied by the whole band crying and singing, and throwing ashes from the camp-fire into the air. And thus the old barbarian mourns: "Soomut had two wives—one good, one bad; but she that was good was taken away, while she that is bad remains. O Gesnip gone, gone, gone!" And the mournful procession take up the refrain: "O Gesnip gone, gone, gone!" Again the ancient chief: "Soomut has a little boy, Soomut has a little girl, but no one is left to cook their food, no one to dig them roots. O Gesnip gone, gone, gone!" followed by the chorus. Then again Soomut: "White woman knows that Gesnip was strong to work; she told me her sorrow when Gesnip died. O Gesnip gone, gone, gone!" and this was kept up during the entire march, the dead wife's virtues sung and chorused by the whole tribe, accompanied by the scattering of ashes and lamentations which now had become very noisy. The lady further states that the scene at the grave was so impressive that she was unable to restrain her tears. No wonder then that these impulsive children of nature carry their joy and sorrow to excess, even so far as in this instance, where the affectionate daughter of the old crone had to be held by her companions from throwing herself into the grave of her dead mother. After all, how slight the shades of difference in hearts human, whether barbaric or cultured!

As before mentioned, the ruling passion of the savage seems to be love of wealth; having it, he is respected, without it he is despised; consequently he is treacherous when it profits him to be so, thievish when he can steal without danger, cunning when gain is at stake, brave in defense of his lares and penates. Next to his excessive venality, abject superstition forms the most prominent feature of his character. He seems to believe that everything instinct with animal life—with some, as with the Siahs, it extends to vegetable life also—is possessed by evil spirits; horrible fancies fill his imagination. The rattling of acorns on the roof, the rustling of leaves in the deep stillness of the forest is sufficient to excite terror. His wicked spirit is the very incarnation of fiendishness; a monster who falls suddenly upon the unwary traveler in solitary places and rends him in pieces, and whose imps are ghouls that exhume the dead to devour them.[501]

Were it not for the diabolic view he takes of nature, his life would be a comparatively easy one. His wants are few, and such as they are, he has the means of supplying them. He is somewhat of a stoic, his motto being never do to-day what can be put off until to-morrow, and he concerns himself little with the glories of peace or war. Now and then we find him daubing himself with great stripes of paint, and looking ferocious, but ordinarily he prefers the calm of the peaceful temescal to the din of battle. The task of collecting a winter store of food he converts into a kind of summer picnic, and altogether is inclined to make the best of things, in spite of the annoyance given him in the way of reservations and other benefits of civilization. Taken as a whole, the Northern Californian is not such a bad specimen of a savage, as savages go, but filthiness and greed are not enviable qualities, and he has a full share of both.[502]

THE CENTRAL CALIFORNIANS.

The Central Californians occupy a yet larger extent of territory, comprising 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.

NATIONS OF CENTRAL CALIFORNIA.

The Native Races of this region are not divided, as in the northern part of the state, into comparatively large tribes, but are scattered over the face of the country in innumerable little bands, with a system of nomenclature so intricate as to puzzle an Œdipus. Nevertheless, as among the most important, I may mention the following: The Tehamas, from whom the county takes its name; the Pomos, which name signifies 'people', and is the collective appellation of a number of tribes living in Potter Valley, where the head-waters of Eel and Russian rivers interlace, and extending west to the ocean and south to Clear Lake. Each tribe of the nation takes a distinguishing prefix to the name of Pomo, as, the Castel Pomos and Ki Pomos on the head-waters of Eel River; the Pome Pomos, Earth People, in Potter Valley; the Cahto Pomos, in the valley of that name; the Choam Chadéla Pomos, Pitch-pine People, in Redwood Valley; the Matomey Ki Pomos, Wooded Valley People, about Little Lake; the Usals, or Camalél Pomos, Coast People, on Usal Creek; the Shebalne Pomos, Neighbor People, in Sherwood Valley, and many others. On Russian River, the Gallinomeros occupy the valley below Healdsburg; the Sanéls, Socoas, Lamas, and Seacos, live in the vicinity of the village of Sanél; the Comachos dwell in Ranchería and Anderson valleys; the Ukiahs, or Yokias, near the town of Ukiah, which is a corruption of their name;[503] the Gualalas[504] on the creek which takes its name from them, about twenty miles above the mouth of Russian River. On the borders of Clear Lake were the Lopillamillos, the Mipacmas, and Tyugas; the Yolos, or Yolays, that is to say, 'region thick with rushes,' of which the present name of the county of Yolo is a corruption, lived on Cache Creek; the Colusas occupied the west bank of the Sacramento; in the Valley of the Moon, as the Sonomas called their country, besides themselves there were the Guillicas, the Kanimares, the Simbalakees, the Petalumas, and the Wapos; the Yachichumnes inhabited the country between Stockton and Mount Diablo. According to Hittel, there were six tribes in Napa Valley: the Mayacomas, the Calajomanas, the Caymus, the Napas, the Ulucas, and the Suscols; Mr Taylor also mentions the Guenocks, the Tulkays, and the Socollomillos; in Suisun Valley were the Suisunes, the Pulpones, the Tolenos, and the Ullulatas; the tribe of the celebrated chief Marin lived near the mission of San Rafael, and on the ocean-coast of Marin County were the Bolanos and Tamales; the Karquines lived on the straits of that name. Humboldt and Mülhlenpfordt mention the Matalanes, Salses, and Quirotes, as living round the bay of San Francisco. According to Adam Johnson, who was Indian agent for California in 1850, the principal tribes originally living at the Mission Dolores, and Yerba Buena, were the Ahwashtes, Altahmos, Romanans, and Tulomos; Choris gives the names of more than fifteen tribes seen at the Mission, Chamisso of nineteen, and transcribed from the mission books to the Tribal Boundaries of this group, are the names of nearly two hundred rancherías. The Socoisukas, Thamiens, and Gergecensens roamed through Santa Clara County. The Olchones inhabited the coast between San Francisco and Monterey; in the vicinity of the latter place were the Rumsens or Runsiens, the Ecclemaches, Escelens or Eslens, the Achastliens, and the Mutsunes. On the San Joaquin lived the Costrowers, the Pitiaches, Talluches, Loomnears, and Amonces; on Fresno River the Chowclas, Cookchaneys, Fonechas, Nookchues, and Howetsers; the Eemitches and Cowiahs, lived on Four Creeks; the Waches, Notoowthas, and Chunemmes on King River, and on Tulare Lake, the Talches and Woowells.

In their aboriginal manners and customs they differ but little, so little, in fact, that one description will apply to the whole division within the above-named limits. The reader will therefore understand that, except where a tribe is specially named, I am speaking of the whole people collectively.

The conflicting statements of men who had ample opportunity for observation, and who saw the people they describe, if not in the same place, at least in the same vicinity, render it difficult to give a correct description of their physique. They do not appear to deteriorate toward the coast, or improve toward the interior, so uniformly as their northern neighbors; but this may be accounted for by the fact that several tribes that formerly lived on the coast have been driven inland by the settlers and vice versa.

PHYSICAL PECULIARITIES.

Some ethnologists see in the Californians a stock different from that of any other American race; but the more I dwell upon the subject, the more convinced I am, that, except in the broader distinctions, specific classifications of humanity are but idle speculations. Their height rarely exceeds five feet eight inches, and is more frequently five feet four or five inches, and although strongly they are seldom symmetrically built. A low retreating forehead, black deep-set eyes, thick bushy eyebrows, salient cheek-bones, a nose depressed at the root and somewhat wide-spreading at the nostrils, a large mouth with thick prominent lips, teeth large and white, but not always regular, and rather large ears, is the prevailing type. Their complexion is much darker than that of the tribes farther north, often being nearly black; so that with their matted, bushy hair, which is frequently cut short, they present a very uncouth appearance.[505]

The question of beard has been much mooted; some travelers asserting that they are bearded like Turks, others that they are beardless as women. Having carefully compared the pros and cons, I think I am justified in stating that the Central Californians have beards, though not strong ones, and that some tribes suffer it to grow, while others pluck it out as soon as it appears.[506]

DRESS IN CENTRAL CALIFORNIA.

During summer, except on festal occasions, the apparel of the men is of the most primitive character, a slight strip of covering round the loins being full dress; but even this is unusual, the majority preferring to be perfectly unencumbered by clothing. In winter the skin of a deer or other animal is thrown over the shoulders, or sometimes a species of rope made from the feathers of water-fowl, or strips of otter-skin, twisted together, is wound round the body, forming an effectual protection against the weather. The women are scarcely better clad, their summer costume being a fringed apron of tule-grass, which falls from the waist before and behind nearly down to the knees, and is open at the sides. Some tribes in the northern part of the Sacramento Valley wear the round bowl-shaped hat worn by the natives on the Klamath. During the cold season a half-tanned deer-skin, or the rope garment above mentioned, is added. The hair is worn in various styles. Some bind it up in a knot on the back of the head, others draw it back and club it behind; farther south it is worn cut short, and occasionally we find it loose and flowing. It is not uncommon to see the head adorned with chaplets of leaves or flowers, reminding one of a badly executed bronze of Apollo or Bacchus. Ear-ornaments are much in vogue; a favorite variety being a long round piece of carved bone or wood, sometimes with beads attached, which is also used as a needle-case. Strings of shells and beads also serve as ear-ornaments and necklaces. The head-dress for gala days and dances is elaborate, composed of gay feathers, skillfully arranged in various fashions.[507]

PERSONAL ADORNMENT.

Tattooing is universal with the women, though confined within narrow limits. They mark the chin in perpendicular lines drawn downward from the corners and centre of the mouth, in the same manner as the Northern Californians; they also tattoo slightly on the neck and breast. It is said that by these marks women of different tribes can be easily distinguished. The men rarely tattoo, but paint the body in stripes and grotesque patterns to a considerable extent. Red was the favorite color, except for mourning, when black was used. The friars succeeded in abolishing this custom except on occasions of mourning, when affection for their dead would not permit them to relinquish it. The New Almaden cinnabar mine has been from time immemorial a source of contention between adjacent tribes. Thither, from a hundred miles away, resorted vermilion-loving savages, and often such visits were not free from blood-shed.[508] A thick coat of mud sometimes affords protection from a chilly wind. It is a convenient dress, as it costs nothing, is easily put on, and is no incumbrance to the wearer. The nudity of the savage more often proceeds from an indifference to clothing than from actual want. No people are found entirely destitute of clothing when the weather is cold, and if they can manage to obtain garments of any sort at one time of year they can at another.

DWELLINGS IN CENTRAL CALIFORNIA.

Their dwellings are about as primitive as their dress. In summer all they require is to be shaded from the sun, and for this a pile of bushes or a tree will suffice. The winter huts are a little more pretentious. These are sometimes erected on the level ground, but more frequently over an excavation three or four feet deep, and varying from ten to thirty feet in diameter. Round the brink of this hole willow poles are sunk upright in the ground and the tops drawn together, forming a conical structure, or the upper ends are bent over and driven into the earth on the opposite side of the pit, thus giving the hut a semi-globular shape. Bushes, or strips of bark, are then piled up against the poles, and the whole is covered with a thick layer of earth or mud. In some instances, the interstices of the frame are filled by twigs woven cross-wise, over and under, between the poles, and the outside covering is of tule-reeds instead of earth. A hole at the top gives egress to the smoke, and a small opening close to the ground admits the occupants.

Each hut generally shelters a whole family of relations by blood and marriage, so that the dimensions of the habitation depend on the size of the family.[509]

Thatched oblong houses are occasionally met with in Russian River Valley, and Mr Powers mentions having seen one among the Gallinomeros which was of the form of the letter L, made of slats leaned up against each other, and heavily thatched. Along the centre the different families or generations had their fires, while they slept next the walls. Three narrow holes served as doors, one at either end and one at the elbow.[510] A collection of native huts is in California called a ranchería, from rancho, a word first applied by the Spaniards to the spot where, in the island of Cuba, food was distributed to repartimiento Indians.

FOOD AND METHODS OF OBTAINING IT.

The bestial laziness of the Central Californian prevents him from following the chase to any extent, or from even inventing efficient game-traps. Deer are, however, sometimes shot with bow and arrow. The hunter, disguised with the head and horns of a stag, creeps through the long grass to within a few yards of the unsuspecting herd, and drops the fattest buck at his pleasure. Small game, such as hares, rabbits, and birds, are also shot with the arrow. Reptiles and insects of all descriptions not poisonous are greedily devoured; in fact, any life-sustaining substance which can be procured with little trouble, is food for them. But their main reliance is on acorns, roots, grass-seeds, berries and the like. These are eaten both raw and prepared. The acorns are shelled, dried in the sun, and then pounded into a powder with large stones. From this flour a species of coarse bread is made, which is sometimes flavored with various kinds of berries or herbs. This bread is of a black color when cooked, of about the consistency of cheese, and is said, by those who have tasted it, to be not at all unpalatable.[511] The dough is frequently boiled into pudding instead of being baked. A sort of mush is made from clover-seed, which is also described as being rather a savory dish. Grasshoppers constitute another toothsome delicacy. When for winter use, they are dried in the sun; when for present consumption, they are either mashed into a paste, which is eaten with the fingers, ground into a fine powder and mixed with mush, or they are saturated with salt water, placed in a hole in the ground previously heated, covered with hot stones, and eaten like shrimps when well roasted. Dried chrysalides are considered a bonne bouche, as are all varieties of insects and worms. The boiled dishes are cooked in water-tight baskets, into which hot stones are dropped. Meat is roasted on sticks before the fire, or baked in a hole in the ground. The food is conveyed to the mouth with the fingers.

ACORNS AND WILD FOWL.

Grasshoppers are taken in pits, into which they are driven by setting the grass on fire, or by beating the grass in a gradually lessening circle, of which the pit is the centre. For seed-gathering two baskets are used; a large one, which is borne on the back, and another smaller and scoop-shaped, which is carried in the hand; with this latter the tops of the ripe grass are swept, and the seed thus taken is thrown over the left shoulder into the larger basket. The seeds are then parched and pulverized, and usually stored as pinole,[512] for winter use.[513] When acorns are scarce the Central Californian resorts to a curious expedient to obtain them. The woodpecker, or carpintero as the Spaniards call it, stores away acorns for its own use in the trunks of trees. Each acorn is placed in a separate hole, which it fits quite tightly. These the natives take; but it is never until hunger compels them to do so, as they have great respect for their little caterer, and would hold it sacrilege to rob him except in time of extreme need.[514] Wild fowl are taken with a net stretched across a narrow stream between two poles, one on either bank. Decoys are placed on the water just before the net, one end of which is fastened to the top of the pole on the farther bank. A line passing through a hole in the top of the pole on the bank where the fowler is concealed, is attached to the nearest end of the net, which is allowed to hang low. When the fowl fly rapidly up to the decoys, this end is suddenly raised with a jerk, so that the birds strike it with great force, and, stunned by the shock, fall into a large pouch, contrived for the purpose in the lower part of the net.[515]

Fish are both speared and netted. A long pole, projecting sometimes as much as a hundred feet over the stream, is run out from the bank. The farther end is supported by a small raft or buoy. Along this boom the net is stretched, the nearer corner being held by a native. As soon as a fish becomes entangled in the meshes it can be easily felt, and the net is then hauled in.[516] On the coast a small fish resembling the sardine is caught on the beach in the receding waves by means of a hand-net, in the manner practiced by the Northern Californian heretofore described.[517] The Central Californians do not hunt the whale, but it is a great day with them when one is stranded.[518] In reality their food was not so bad as some writers assert. Before the arrival of miners game was so plentiful that even the lazy natives could supply their necessities. The 'nobler race,' as usual, thrust them down upon a level with swine. Johnson thus describes the feeding of the natives at Sutter's Fort: "Long troughs inside the walls were filled with a kind of boiled mush made of the wheat-bran; and the Indians, huddled in rows upon their knees before these troughs, quickly conveyed their contents by the hand to the mouth." "But," writes Powers to the author, "it is a well-established fact that California Indians, even when reared by Americans from infancy, if they have been permitted to associate meantime with others of their race, will, in the season of lush blossoming clover, go out and eat it in preference to all other food."[519]

In their personal habits they are filthy in the extreme. Both their dwellings and their persons abound in vermin, which they catch and eat in the same manner as their northern neighbors.[520]

CALIFORNIAN WEAPONS.

Their weapons are bows and arrows, spears, and sometimes clubs. The first-named do not differ in any essential respect from those described as being used by the Northern Californians. They are well made, from two and a half to three feet long, and backed with sinew; the string of wild flax or sinew, and partially covered with bird's down or a piece of skin, to deaden the twang.

The arrows are short, made of reed or light wood, and winged with three or four feathers. The head is of flint, bone, obsidian, or volcanic glass, sometimes barbed and sometimes diamond-shaped. It is fastened loosely to the shaft, and can be extracted only from a wound by cutting it out. The shaft is frequently painted in order that the owner may be able to distinguish his own arrows from others. Spears, or rather javelins, are used, seldom exceeding from four and a half to five feet in length. They are made of some tough kind of wood and headed with the same materials as the arrows. Occasionally the point of the stick is merely sharpened and hardened in the fire.[521] The head of the fishing-spear is movable, being attached to the shaft by a line, so that when a fish is struck the pole serves as a float. Some of the tribes formerly poisoned their arrows, but it is probable that the custom never prevailed to any great extent. M. du Petit-Thouars was told that they used for this purpose a species of climbing plant which grows in shady places. It is said that they also poison their weapons with the venom of serpents.[522] Pedro Fages mentions that the natives in the country round San Miguel use a kind of sabre, made of hard wood, shaped like a cimeter, and edged with sharp flints. This they employ for hunting as well as in war, and with such address that they rarely fail to break the leg of the animal at which they hurl it.[523]

BATTLES AND WEAPONS.

Battles, though frequent, were not attended with much loss of life. Each side was anxious for the fight to be over, and the first blood would often terminate the contest. Challenging by heralds obtained. Thus the Shumeias challenge the Pomos by placing three little sticks, notched in the middle and at both ends, on a mound which marked the boundary between the two tribes. If the Pomos accept, they tie a string round the middle notch. Heralds then meet and arrange time and place, and the battle comes off as appointed.[524] Among some tribes, children are sent by mutual arrangement into the enemy's ranks during the heat of battle to pick up the fallen arrows and carry them back to their owners to be used again.[525] When fighting, they stretch out in a long single line and endeavor by shouts and gestures to intimidate the foe.[526]

Notwithstanding the mildness of their disposition and the inferiority of their weapons, the Central Californians do not lack courage in battle, and when captured will meet their fate with all the stoicism of a true Indian. For many years after the occupation of the country by the Spaniards, by abandoning their villages and lying in ambush upon the approach of the enemy, they were enabled to resist the small squads of Mexicans sent against them from the presidios for the recovery of deserters from the missions. During the settlement of the country by white people, there were the usual skirmishes growing out of wrong and oppression on the one side, and retaliation on the other; the usual uprising among miners and rancheros, and vindication of border law, which demanded the massacre of a village for the stealing of a cow.

Trespass on lands and abduction of women are the usual causes of war among themselves. Opposing armies, on approaching each other in battle array, dance and leap from side to side in order to prevent their enemies from taking deliberate aim. Upon the invasion of their territory they rapidly convey the intelligence by means of signals. A great smoke is made upon the nearest hilltop, which is quickly repeated upon the surrounding hills, and thus a wide extent of country is aroused in a remarkably short time.

The custom of scalping, though not universal in California, was practiced in some localities. The yet more barbarous habit of cutting off the hands, feet, or head of a fallen enemy, as trophies of victory, prevailed more widely. They also plucked out and carefully preserved the eyes of the slain.

It has been asserted that these savages were cannibals, and there seems to be good reason to believe that they did devour pieces of the flesh of a renowned enemy slain in battle. Human flesh was, however, not eaten as food, nor for the purpose of wreaking vengeance on or showing hate for a dead adversary, but because they thought that by eating part of a brave man they absorbed a portion of his courage. They do not appear to have kept or sold prisoners as slaves, but to have either exchanged or killed them.[527]

IMPLEMENTS AND MANUFACTURES.

They are not ingenious, and manufacture but few articles requiring any skill. The principal of these are the baskets in which, as I have already mentioned, they carry water and boil their food. They are made of fine grass, so closely woven as to be perfectly water-tight, and are frequently ornamented with feathers, beads, shells, and the like, worked into them in a very pretty manner. Fletcher, who visited the coast with Sir Francis Drake in 1579, describes them as being "made in fashion like a deep boale, and though the matter were rushes, or such other kind of stuffe, yet it was so cunningly handled that the most part of them would hold water; about the brimmes they were hanged with peeces of the shels of pearles, and in some places with two or three linkes at a place, of the chaines forenamed ... and besides this, they were wrought vpon with the matted downe of red feathers, distinguished into diuers workes and formes."[528] The baskets are of various sizes and shapes, the most common being conical or wide and flat. Their pipes are straight, the bowl being merely a continuation of the stem, only thicker and hollowed out.[529]

NO BOATS IN SAN FRANCISCO BAY.

It is a singular fact that these natives about the bay of San Francisco and the regions adjacent, had no canoes of any description. Their only means of navigation were bundles of tule-rushes about ten feet long and three or four wide, lashed firmly together in rolls, and pointed at both ends. They were propelled, either end foremost, with long double-bladed paddles. In calm weather, and on a river, the centre, or thickest part of these rafts might be tolerably dry, but in rough water the rower, who sat astride, was up to his waist in water.[530] It has been asserted that they even ventured far out to sea on them, but that this was common I much doubt.[531] They were useful to spear fish from, but for little else; in proof of which I may mention, on the authority of Roquefeuil, that in 1809-11, the Koniagas employed by the Russians at Bodega, killed seals and otters in San Francisco Bay under the very noses of the Spaniards, and in spite of all the latter, who appear to have had no boats of their own, could do to prevent them. In their light skin baidarkas, each with places for two persons only, these bold northern boatmen would drop down the coast from Bodega Bay, where the Russians were stationed, or cross over from the Farallones in fleets of from forty to fifty boats, and entering the Golden Gate creep along the northern shore, beyond the range of the Presidio's guns, securely establish themselves upon the islands of the bay and pursue their avocation unmolested. For three years, namely from 1809 to 1811, these northern fishermen held possession of the bay of San Francisco, during which time they captured over eight thousand otters. Finally, it occurred to the governor, Don Luis Argüello, that it would be well for the Spaniards to have boats of their own. Accordingly four were built, but they were so clumsily constructed, ill equipped, and poorly manned, that had the Russians and Koniagas felt disposed, they could easily have continued their incursions. Once within the entrance, these northern barbarians were masters of the bay, and such was their sense of security that they would sometimes venture for a time to stretch their limbs upon the shore. The capture of several of their number, however, by the soldiers from the fort, made them more wary thereafter. Maurelle, who touched at Point Arenas in 1775, but did not enter the bay of San Francisco, says that "a vast number of Indians now presented themselves on both points, who passed from one to the other in small canoes made of fule, where they talked loudly for two hours or more, till at last two of them came alongside of the ship, and most liberally presented us with plumes of feathers, rosaries of bone, garments of feathers, as also garlands of the same materials, which they wore round their head, and a canister of seeds which tasted much like walnuts." The only account of this voyage in my possession is an English translation, in which "canoes made of fule" might easily have been mistaken for boats or floats of tule.[532] Split logs were occasionally used to cross rivers, and frequently all means of transportation were dispensed with, and swimming resorted to.

Captain Phelps, in a letter to the author, mentions having seen skin boats, or baidarkas, on the Sacramento River, but supposes that they were left there by those same Russian employés.[533] Vancouver, speaking of a canoe which he saw below Monterey, says: "Instead of being composed of straw, like those we had seen on our first visit to San Francisco, it was neatly formed of wood, much after the Nootka fashion, and was navigated with much adroitness by four natives of the country. Their paddles were about four feet long with a blade at each end; these were handled with great dexterity, either entirely on one side or alternately on each side of their canoe."[534] I account for the presence of this canoe in the same manner that Captain Phelps accounts for the skin canoes on the Sacramento, and think that it must have come either from the south or north.

The probable cause of this absence of boats in Central California is the scarcity of suitable, favorably located timber. Doubtless if the banks of the Sacramento and the shores of San Francisco Bay had been lined with large straight pine or fir trees, their waters would have been filled with canoes; yet after all, this is but a poor excuse; for not only on the hills and mountains, at a little distance from the water, are forests of fine trees, but quantities of driftwood come floating down every stream during the rainy season, out of which surely sufficient material could be secured for some sort of boats.

Shells of different kinds, but especially the variety known as aulone, form the circulating medium. They are polished, sometimes ground down to a certain size, and arranged on strings of different lengths.[535]

CHIEFTAINSHIP AND ITS RIGHTS.

Chieftainship is hereditary, almost without exception. In a few instances I find it depending upon wealth, influence, family, or prowess in war, but this rarely. In some parts, in default of male descent, the females of the family are empowered to appoint a successor.[536] Although considerable dignity attaches to a chief, and his family are treated with consideration, yet his power is limited, his principal duties consisting in making peace and war, and in appointing and presiding over feasts. Every band has its separate head, and two or even three have been known to preside at the same time.[537] Sometimes when several bands are dwelling together they are united under one head chief, who, however, cannot act for the whole without consulting the lesser chiefs. Practically, the heads of families rule in their own circle, and their internal arrangements are seldom interfered with. Their medicine-men also wield a very powerful influence among them.[538] Sometimes, when a flagrant murder has been committed, the chiefs meet in council and decide upon the punishment of the offender. The matter is, however, more frequently settled by the relatives of the victim, who either exact blood for blood from the murderer or let the thing drop for a consideration. Among the Neeshenams revenge must be had within twelve months after the murder or not at all.[539]

RULERS OF NEW ALBION.

According to Fletcher's narrative, there seems to have been much more distinction of rank at the time of Drake's visit to California than subsequent travelers have seen; however, allowance must be made for the exaggerations invariably found in the reports of early voyagers. In proof of this, we have only to take up almost any book of travel in foreign lands printed at that time; wherein dragons and other impossible animals are not only zoölogically described, but carefully drawn and engraved, as well as other marvels in abundance. Captain Drake had several temptations to exaggerate. The richer and more important the country he discovered, the more would it redound to his credit to have been the discoverer; the greater the power and authority of the chief who formally made over his dominions to the queen of England, the less likely to be disputed would be that sovereign's claims to the ceded territory. Fletcher never speaks of the chief of the tribe that received Drake, but as 'the king,' and states that this dignitary was treated with great respect and ceremony by the courtiers who surrounded him. These latter were distinguished from the canaille by various badges of rank. They wore as ornaments chains "of a bony substance, euery linke or part thereof being very little, and thinne, most finely burnished, with a hole pierced through the middest. The number of linkes going to make one chaine, is in a manner infinite; but of such estimation it is amongst them, that few be the persons that are admitted to weare the same; and euen they to whom its lawfull to use them, yet are stinted what number they shall vse, as some ten, some twelue, some twentie, and as they exceed in number of chaines, so thereby are they knowne to be the more honorable personages." Another mark of distinction was a "certain downe, which groweth vp in the countrey vpon an herbe much like our lectuce, which exceeds any other downe in the world for finenesse, and beeing layed vpon their cawles, by no winds can be remoued. Of such estimation is this herbe amongst them, that the downe thereof is not lawfull to be worne, but of such persons as are about the king (to whom also it is permitted to weare a plume of feather on their heads, in signe of honour), and the seeds are not vsed but onely in sacrifice to their gods." The king, who was gorgeously attired in skins, with a crown of feather-work upon his head, was attended by a regular body-guard, uniformly dressed in coats of skins. His coming was announced by two heralds or ambassadors, one of whom prompted the other, during the proclamation, in a low voice. His majesty was preceded in the procession by "a man of large body and goodly aspect, bearing the septer or royall mace;" all of which happened, if we may believe the worthy chaplain of the expedition, on the coast just above San Francisco Bay, three hundred years ago.[540]

HOW A BRIDE IS WON.

Slavery in any form is rare, and hereditary bondage unknown.[541] Polygamy obtains in most of the tribes, although there are exceptions.[542] It is common for a man to marry a whole family of sisters, and sometimes the mother also, if she happen to be free.[543] Husband and wife are united with very little ceremony. The inclinations of the bride seem to be consulted here more than among the Northern Californians. It is true she is sometimes bought from her parents, but if she violently opposes the match she is seldom compelled to marry or to be sold. Among some tribes the wooer, after speaking with her parents, retires with the girl; if they agree, she thenceforth belongs to him; if not, the match is broken off.[544] The Neeshenam buys his wife indirectly by making presents of game to her family. He leaves the gifts at the door of the lodge without a word, and, if they are accepted, he shortly after claims and takes his bride without further ceremony. In this tribe the girl has no voice whatever in the matter, and resistance on her part merely occasions brute force to be used by her purchaser.[545]

CHILD-BIRTH AND THE COUVADE.

When an Oleepa lover wishes to marry, he first obtains permission from the parents. The damsel then flies and conceals herself; the lover searches for her, and should he succeed in finding her twice out of three times she belongs to him. Should he be unsuccessful he waits a few weeks and then repeats the performance. If she again elude his search, the matter is decided against him.[546] The bonds of matrimony can be thrown aside as easily as they are assumed. The husband has only to say to his spouse, I cast you off, and the thing is done.[547] The Gallinomeros acquire their wives by purchase, and are at liberty to sell them again when tired of them.[548] As usual the women are treated with great contempt by the men, and forced to do all the hard and menial labor; they are not even allowed to sit at the same fire or eat at the same repast with their lords. Both sexes treat children with comparative kindness;[549] boys are, however, held in much higher estimation than girls, and from early childhood are taught their superiority over the weaker sex. It is even stated that many female children are killed as soon as born,[550] but I am inclined to doubt the correctness of this statement as applied to a country where polygamy is practiced as extensively as in California. Old people are treated with contumely, both men and women, aged warriors being obliged to do menial work under the supervision of the women. The Gallinomeros kill their aged parents in a most cold-blooded manner. The doomed creature is led into the woods, thrown on his back, and firmly fastened in that position to the ground. A stout pole is then placed across the throat, upon either end of which a person sits until life is extinct.[551] A husband takes revenge for his wife's infidelities upon the person of her seducer, whom he is justified in killing. Sometimes the male offender is compelled to buy the object of his unholy passions. In consequence of their strictness in this particular, adultery is not common among themselves, although a husband is generally willing to prostitute his dearest wife to a white man for a consideration. The Central Californian women are inclined to rebel against the tyranny of their masters, more than is usual in other tribes. A refractory Tahtoo wife is sometimes frightened into submission. The women have a great dread of evil spirits, and upon this weakness the husband plays. He paints himself in black and white stripes to personate an ogre, and suddenly jumping in among his terrified wives, brings them speedily to penitence. Child-bearing falls lightly on the Californian mother. When the time for delivery arrives she betakes herself to a quiet place by the side of a stream; sometimes accompanied by a female friend, but more frequently alone. As soon as the child is born the mother washes herself and the infant in the stream. The child is then swaddled from head to foot in strips of soft skin, and strapped to a board, which is carried on the mother's back. When the infant is suckled, it is drawn round in front and allowed to hang there, the mother meanwhile pursuing her usual avocations. So little does child-bearing affect these women, that, on a journey, they will frequently stop by the way-side for half an hour to be delivered, and then overtake the party, who have traveled on at the usual pace. Painful parturition, though so rare, usually results fatally to both mother and child when it does occur. This comparative exemption from the curse, "in sorrow shalt thou bring forth," is doubtless owing partly to the fact that the sexes have their regular season for copulation, just as animals have theirs, the women bringing forth each year with great regularity. A curious custom prevails, which is, however, by no means peculiar to California. When child-birth overtakes the wife, the husband puts himself to bed, and there grunting and groaning he affects to suffer all the agonies of a woman in labor. Lying there, he is nursed and tended for some days by the women as carefully as though he were the actual sufferer. Ridiculous as this custom is, it is asserted by Mr Tylor to have been practiced in western China, in the country of the Basques, by the Tibareni at the south of the Black Sea, and in modified forms by the Dyaks of Borneo, the Arawaks of Surinam, and the inhabitants of Kamchatka and Greenland.[552] The females arrive early at the age of puberty,[553] and grow old rapidly.[554]