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.

[Sidenote: 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.

[Sidenote: 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.

[Sidenote: 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.

[Sidenote: 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]

[Sidenote: 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]

[Sidenote: 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]

[Sidenote: 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]

[Sidenote: 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.

[Sidenote: 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]

[Sidenote: 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]

[Sidenote: 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.

[Sidenote: 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]

[Sidenote: 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]

[Sidenote: 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.

[Sidenote: 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]

[Sidenote: 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]

[Sidenote: 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]

[Sidenote: 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]

[Sidenote: 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]

[Sidenote: 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.

[Sidenote: 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 Oedipus. 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.

[Sidenote: 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]

[Sidenote: 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]

[Sidenote: 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.

[Sidenote: 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.

[Sidenote: 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.

[Sidenote: 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]

[Sidenote: 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]

[Sidenote: 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]

[Sidenote: 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]

[Sidenote: 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]

[Sidenote: 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]

[Sidenote: 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]

[Sidenote: 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]

[Sidenote: 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]

[Sidenote: CALIFORNIAN DIVERSIONS.]

Most important events, such as the seasons of hunting, fishing,

acorn-gathering, and the like, are celebrated with feasts and dances

which differ in no essential respect from those practiced by the

Northern Californians. They usually dance naked, having their heads

adorned with feather ornaments, and their bodies and faces painted with

glaring colors in grotesque patterns. Broad stripes, drawn up and down,

across, or spirally round the body, form the favorite device; sometimes

one half of the body is colored red and the other blue, or the whole

person is painted jet black and serves as a ground for the

representation of a skeleton, done in white, which gives the wearer a

most ghastly appearance.[555] The dancing is accompanied by chantings,

clapping of hands, blowing on pipes of two or three reeds and played

with the nose or mouth, beating of skin drums, and rattling of

tortoise-shells filled with small pebbles. This horrible discord is,

however, more for the purpose of marking time than for pleasing the

ear.[556] The women are seldom allowed to join in the dance with the

men, and when they are so far honored, take a very unimportant part in

the proceedings, merely swaying their bodies to and fro in silence.

Plays, representing scenes of war, hunting, and private life, serve to

while away the time, and are performed with considerable skill. Though

naturally the very incarnation of sloth, at least as far as useful labor

is concerned, they have one or two games which require some exertion.

One of these, in vogue among the Meewocs, is played with bats and an

oak-knot ball. The former are made of a pliant stick, having the end

bent round and lashed to the main part so as to form a loop, which is

filled with a network of strings. They do not strike but push the ball

along with these bats. The players take sides, and each party endeavors

to drive the ball past the boundaries of the other. Another game, which

was formerly much played at the missions on the coast, requires more

skill and scarcely less activity. It consists in throwing a stick

through a hoop which is rapidly rolled along the ground. If the player

succeeds in this, he gains two points; if the stick merely passes

partially through, so that the hoop remains resting upon it, one point

is scored.

But, as usual, games of chance are much preferred to games of skill. The

chief of these is the same as that already described in the last chapter

as being played by the natives all along the coasts of Oregon,

Washington, and British Columbia, and which bears so close a resemblance

to the odd-and-even of our school-days. They are as infatuated on this

subject as their neighbors, and quite as willing to stake the whole of

their possessions on an issue of chance. They smoke a species of strong

tobacco in the straight pipes before mentioned;[557] but they have no

native intoxicating drink.[558]

[Sidenote: MEDICINE AND SWEAT-HOUSES.]

The principal diseases are small-pox, various forms of fever, and

syphilis. Owing to their extreme filthiness they are also very subject

to disgusting eruptions of the skin. Women are not allowed to practice

the healing art, as among the Northern Californians, the privileges of

quackery being here reserved exclusively to the men. Chanting

incantations, waving of hands, and the sucking powers obtain. Doctors

are supposed to have power over life and death, hence if they fail to

effect a cure, they are frequently killed.[559] They demand the most

extortionate fees in return for their services, and often refuse to

officiate unless the object they desire is promised them. Sweat-houses

similar to those already described are in like manner used as a means of

cure for every kind of complaint.[560] They have another kind of

sudatory. A hole is dug in the sand of a size sufficient to contain a

person lying at full length; over this a fire is kept burning until the

sand is thoroughly heated, when the fire is removed and the sand stirred

with a stick until it is reduced to the required temperature. The

patient is then placed in the hole and covered, with the exception of

his head, with sand. Here he remains until in a state of profuse

perspiration, when he is unearthed and plunged into cold water. They are

said to practice phlebotomy, using the right arm when the body is

affected and the left when the complaint is in the limbs. A few simple

decoctions are made from herbs, but these are seldom very efficient

medicines, especially when administered for the more complicated

diseases which the whites have brought among them. Owing to the

insufficient or erroneous treatment they receive, many disorders which

would be easily cured by us, degenerate with them into chronic maladies,

and are transmitted to their children.[561]

Incremation is almost universal in this part of California.[562] The

body is decorated with feathers, flowers, and beads, and after lying in

state for some time, is burned amid the howls and lamentations of

friends and relations. The ashes are either preserved by the family of

the deceased or are formally buried. The weapons and effects of the dead

are burned or buried with them.[563] When a body is prepared for

interment the knees are doubled up against the chest and securely bound

with cords. It is placed in a sitting posture in the grave, which is

circular. This is the most common manner of sepulture, but some tribes

bury the body perpendicularly in a hole just large enough to admit it,

sometimes with the head down, sometimes in a standing position. The

Pomos formerly burned their dead, and since they have been influenced by

the whites to bury them, they invariably place the body with its head

toward the south.

[Sidenote: MOURNING FOR THE DEAD.]

A scene of incremation is a weird spectacle. The friends and relatives

of the deceased gather round the funeral pyre in a circle, howling

dismally. As the flames mount upward their enthusiasm increases, until

in a perfect frenzy of excitement, they leap, shriek, lacerate their

bodies, and even snatch a handful of smoldering flesh from the fire, and

devour it.

The ashes of the dead mixed with grease, are smeared over the face as a

badge of mourning, and the compound is suffered to remain there until

worn off by the action of the weather. The widow keeps her head covered

with pitch for several months. In the Russian River Valley, where

demonstrations of grief appear to be yet more violent than elsewhere,

self-laceration is much practiced. It is customary to have an annual

Dance of Mourning, when the inhabitants of a whole village collect

together and lament their deceased friends with howls and groans. Many

tribes think it necessary to nourish a departed spirit for several

months. This is done by scattering food about the place where the

remains of the dead are deposited. A devoted Neeshenam widow does not

utter a word for several months after the death of her husband; a less

severe sign of grief is to speak only in a low whisper for the same

time.[564]

Regarding a future state their ideas are vague; some say that the

Meewocs believe in utter annihilation after death, but who can fathom

the hopes and fears that struggle in their dark imaginings. They are not

particularly cruel or vicious; they show much sorrow for the death of a

relative; in some instances they are affectionate toward their

families.[565]

[Sidenote: CENTRAL CALIFORNIAN CHARACTER.]

Although nearly all travelers who have seen and described this people,

place them in the lowest scale of humanity, yet there are some who

assert that the character of the Californian has been maligned. It does

not follow, they say, that he is indolent because he does not work when

the fertility of his native land enables him to live without labor; or

that he is cowardly because he is not incessantly at war, or stupid and

brutal because the mildness of his climate renders clothes and dwellings

superfluous. But is this sound reasoning? Surely a people assisted by

nature should progress faster than another, struggling with depressing

difficulties.

From the frozen, wind-swept plains of Alaska to the malaria-haunted

swamps of Darien, there is not a fairer land than California; it is the

neutral ground, as it were, of the elements, where hyperboreal cold,

stripped of its rugged aspect, and equatorial heat, tamed to a genial

warmth, meet as friends, inviting, all blusterings laid aside. Yet if we

travel northward from the Isthmus, we must pass by ruined cities and

temples, traces of mighty peoples, who there flourished before a foreign

civilization extirpated them. On the arid deserts of Arizona and New

Mexico is found an incipient civilization. Descending from the Arctic

sea we meet races of hunters and traders, which can be called neither

primitive nor primordial, living after their fashion as men, not as

brutes. It is not until we reach the Golden Mean in Central California

that we find whole tribes subsisting on roots, herbs and insects; having

no boats, no clothing, no laws, no God; yielding submissively to the

first touch of the invader; held in awe by a few priests and soldiers.

Men do not civilize themselves. Had not the Greeks and the Egyptians

been driven on by an unseen hand, never would the city of the Violet

Crown have graced the plains of Hellas, nor Thebes nor Memphis have

risen in the fertile valley of the Nile. Why Greece is civilized, while

California breeds a race inferior to the lowest of their neighbors, save

only perhaps the Shoshones on their east, no one yet can tell.

When Father Junípero Serra established the Mission of Dolores in 1776,

the shores of San Francisco Bay were thickly populated by the

Ahwashtees, Ohlones, Altahmos, Romanons, Tuolomos, and other tribes. The

good Father found the field unoccupied, for, in the vocabulary of these

people, there is found no word for god, angel, or devil; they held no

theory of origin or destiny. A ranchería was situated on the spot where

now Beach street intersects Hyde street. Were it there now, as

contrasted with the dwellings of San Francisco, it would resemble a

pig-sty more than a human habitation.

On the Marin and Sonoma shores of the bay were the Tomales and

Camimares, the latter numbering, in 1824, ten thousand souls. Marin,

chief of the Tomales, was for a long time the terror of the Spaniards,

and his warriors were ranked as among the fiercest of the Californians.

He was brave, energetic, and possessed of no ordinary intelligence. When

quite old he consented to be baptized into the Romish Church.

[Sidenote: YOSEMITE VALLEY INDIANS.]

It has been suspected that the chief Marin was not a full-bred Indian,

but that he was related to a certain Spanish sailor who was cast ashore

from a wrecked galeon on a voyage from Manila to Acapulco about the year

1750. The ship-wrecked Spaniards, it has been surmised, were kindly

treated by the natives; they married native wives, and lived with the

Tomales as of them, and from them descended many of their chiefs; but of

this we have no proof.