It is now pretty generally known that there are many _deserts_ in North
America,--as wild, waste, and inhospitable as the famed Sahara of
Africa. These deserts occupy a large portion of the central regions of
that great continent--extending, north and south, from Mexico to the
shores of the Arctic Sea; and east and west for several hundred miles,
on each side of the great vertebral chain of the Rocky Mountains. It is
true that in the vast territory thus indicated, the desert is not
continuous; but it is equally true that the fertile stripes or valleys
that intersect it, bear but a very small proportion to the whole
surface. Many tracts are there, of larger area than all the British
Islands, where the desert is scarce varied by an oasis, and where the
very rivers pursue their course amidst rocks and barren sands, without a
blade of vegetation on their banks. Usually, however, a narrow selvage
of green--caused by the growth of cotton woods, willows, and a few
humbler plants--denotes the course of a stream,--a glad sight at all
times to the weary and thirsting traveller.
These desert wastes are not all alike, but differ much in character. In
one point only do they agree,--they are all _deserts_. Otherwise they
exhibit many varieties,--both of aspect and nature. Some of them are
level plains, with scarce a hill to break the monotony of the view: and
of this character is the greater portion of the desert country extending
eastward from the Rocky Mountains to about 100 degrees of west
longitude. At this point the soil gradually becomes more fertile,--
assuming the character of timbered tracts, with prairie opening
between,--at length terminating in the vast, unbroken forests of the
Mississippi.
This eastern desert extends parallel with the Rocky Mountains,--
throughout nearly the whole of their length,--from the Rio Grande in
Mexico, northward to the Mackenzie River. One tract of it deserves
particular mention. It is that known as the _llano estacado_, or
"staked plain," It lies in North-western Texas, and consists of a barren
plateau, of several thousand square miles in extent, the surface of
which is raised nearly a thousand feet above the level of the
surrounding plains. Geologists have endeavoured to account for this
singular formation, but in vain. The table-like elevation of the Llano
estacado still remains a puzzle. Its name, however, is easier of
explanation. In the days of Spanish supremacy over this part of
Prairie-land, caravans frequently journeyed from Santa Fe in New Mexico,
to San Antonio in Texas. The most direct route between these two
provincial capitals lay across the Llano estacado; but as there were
neither mountains nor other landmarks to guide the traveller, he often
wandered from the right path,--a mistake that frequently ended in the
most terrible suffering from thirst, and very often in the loss of life.
To prevent such catastrophes, stakes were set up at such intervals as
to be seen from one another, like so many "telegraph posts;" and
although these have long since disappeared, the great plain still bears
the name, given to it from this circumstance.
Besides the contour of surface, there are other respects in which the
desert tracts of North America differ from one another. In their
vegetation--if it deserves the name--they are unlike. Some have no
vegetation whatever; but exhibit a surface of pure sand, or sand and
pebbles; others are covered with a stratum of soda, of snow-white
colour, and still others with a layer of common salt, equally white and
pure. Many of these salt and soda "prairies"--as the trappers term
them--are hundreds of square miles in extent. Again, there are deserts
of scoria, of lava, and pumice-stone,--the "cut-rock prairies" of the
trappers,--a perfect contrast in colour to the above mentioned. All
these are absolutely without vegetation of any sort.
On some of the wastes--those of southern latitudes,--the cactus appears
of several species, and also the wild agave, or "pita" plant; but these
plants are in reality but emblems of the desert itself. So, also, is
the _yucca_, which thinly stands over many of the great plains, in the
south-western part of the desert region,--its stiff, shaggy foliage in
no way relieving the sterile landscape, but rather rendering its aspect
more horrid and austere.
Again, there are the deserts known as "chapparals,"--extensive jungles
of brush and low trees, all of a thorny character; among which the
"mezquite" of several species (_mimosas_ and _acacias_), the
"stink-wood" or _creosote plant_ (_kaeberlinia_), the "grease-bush"
(_obione canescens_), several kinds of _prosopis_, and now and then, as
if to gratify the eye of the tired traveller, the tall flowering spike
of the scarlet _fouquiera_. Further to the north--especially throughout
the upper section of the Great Salt Lake territory--are vast tracts,
upon which scarce any vegetation appears, except the _artemisia_ plant,
and other kindred products of a sterile soil.
Of all the desert tracts upon the North-American continent, perhaps none
possesses greater interest for the student of cosmography than that
known as the "Great Basin." It has been so styled from the fact of its
possessing a hydrographic system of its own,--lakes and rivers that have
no communication with the sea; but whose waters spend themselves within
the limits of the desert itself, and are kept in equilibrium by
evaporation,--as is the case with many water systems of the continents
of the Old World, both in Asia and Africa.
The largest lake of the "Basin" is the "Great Salt Lake,"--of late so
celebrated in Mormon story: since near its southern shore the chief city
of the "Latter-day Saints" is situated. But there are other large lakes
within the limits of the Great Basin, both fresh and saline,--most of
them entirely unconnected with the Great Salt Lake, and some of them
having a complete system of waters of their own. There are "Utah" and
"Humboldt," "Walker's" and "Pyramid" lakes, with a long list of others,
whose names have been but recently entered upon the map, by the numerous
very intelligent explorers employed by the government of the United
States.
Large rivers, too, run in all directions through this central desert,
some of them falling into the Great Salt Lake, as the "Bear" river, the
"Weber," the "Utah," from Utah Lake,--upon which the Mormon metropolis
stands,--and which stream has been absurdly baptised by these
free-living fanatics as the "Jordan?" Other rivers are the
"Timpanogos," emptying into Lake Utah; the "Humboldt," that runs to the
lake of that name; the "Carson" river; besides many of lesser note.
The limits assigned to the Great Basin are tolerably well-defined. Its
western rim is the _Sierra Nevada_, or "snowy range" of California;
while the Rocky and Wahsatch mountains are its boundaries on the east.
Several cross-ranges, and spurs of ranges, separate it from the system
of waters that empty northward into the Columbia River of Oregon; while
upon its southern edge there is a more indefinite "divide" between it
and the great desert region of the western "Colorado." Strictly
speaking, the desert of the Great Basin might be regarded as only a
portion of that vast tract of sterile, and almost treeless soil, which
stretches from the Mexican state of Sonora to the upper waters of
Oregon; but the deserts of the Colorado on the south, and those of the
"forks" of the Columbia on the north, are generally treated as distinct
territories; and the Great Basin, with the limits already assigned, is
suffered to stand by itself. As a separate country, then, we shall here
consider it.
From its name, you might fancy that the Great Basin was a low-lying
tract of country. This, however, is far from being the case. On the
contrary, nearly all of it is of the nature of an elevated tableland,
even its lakes lying several thousand feet above the level of the sea.
It is only by its "rim," of still more elevated mountain ridges, that it
can lay claim to be considered as a "basin;" but, indeed, the name--
given by the somewhat speculative explorer, Fremont--is not very
appropriate, since later investigations show that this rim is in many
places neither definite nor regular,--especially on its northern and
southern sides, where the "Great Basin" may be said to be badly cracked,
and even to have some pieces chipped out of its edge.
Besides the mountain chains that surround it, many others run into and
intersect it in all directions. Some are spurs of the main ranges;
while others form "sierras"--as the Spaniards term them--distinct in
themselves. These sierras are of all shapes and of every altitude,--
from the low-lying ridge scarce rising above the plain, to peaks and
summits of over ten thousand feet in elevation. Their forms are as
varied as their height. Some are round or dome-shaped; others shoot up
little turrets or "needles;" and still others mount into the sky in
shapeless masses,--as if they had been flung upon the earth, and upon
one another, in some struggle of Titans, who have left them lying in
chaotic confusion. A very singular mountain form is here observed,--
though it is not peculiar to this region, since it is found elsewhere,
beyond the limits of the Great Basin, and is also common in many parts
of Africa. This is the formation known among the Spaniards as _mesas_,
or "table-mountains," and by this very name it is distinguished among
the colonists of the Cape.
The _Llano estacado_, already mentioned, is often styled a "mesa," but
its elevation is inconsiderable when compared with the _mesa_ mountains
that occur in the regions west of the great Rocky chain,--both in the
Basin and on the deserts of the Colorado. Many of these are of great
height,--rising several thousand feet above the general level; and, with
their square truncated _table-like_ tops, lend a peculiar character to
the landscape.
The characteristic vegetation of the Great Basin is very similar to that
of the other central regions of the North-American continent. Only near
the banks of the rivers and some of the fresh-water lakes, is there any
evidence of a fertile soil; and even in these situations the timber is
usually scarce and stunted. Of course, there are tracts that are
exceptional,--oases, as they are geographically styled. Of this
character is the country of the Mormons on the Jordan, their settlements
on the Utah and Bear Rivers, in Tuilla and Ogden valleys, and elsewhere
at more remote points. There are also isolated tracts on the banks of
the smaller streams and the shores of lakes not yet "located" by the
colonist; and only frequented by the original dwellers of the desert,
the red aborigines. In these oases are usually found cottonwood-trees,
of several distinct species,--one or other of which is the
characteristic, vegetation on nearly every stream from the Mississippi
to the mountains of California.
Willows of many species also appear; and now and then, in stunted forms,
the oak, the elm, maples, and sycamores. But all these last are very
rarely encountered within the limits of the desert region. On the
mountains, and more frequently in the mountain ravines pines of many
species--some of which produce edible cones--grow in such numbers as to
merit the name of forests, of greater or less extent. Among these, or
apart from them, may be distinguished the darker foliage of the cedar
(_Juniperus_) of several varieties, distinct from the _juniperus
virginiana_ of the States.
The arid plains are generally without the semblance of vegetation. When
any appears upon them, it is of the character of the "chapparal,"
already described; its principal growth being "tornilla," or
"screw-wood," and other varieties of _mezquite_; all of them species of
the extensive order of the _leguminosae_, and belonging to the several
genera of _acacias_, _mimosas_, and _robinias_. In many places
_cactacae_ appear of an endless variety of forms; and some,--as the
"pitahaya" (_cereus giganteus_), and the "tree" and "cochineal" cacti
(_opuntias_),--of gigantesque proportions. These, however, are only
developed to their full size in the regions further south,--on the
deserts of the Colorado and Gila,--where also the "tree yuccas" abound,
covering tracts of large extent, and presenting the appearance of
forests of palms.
Perhaps the most characteristic vegetation of the Great Basin--that is,
if it deserve the name of a vegetation--is the wild sage, or
_artemisia_. With this plant vast plains are covered, as far as the eye
can reach; not presenting a hue of green, as the grass prairies do, but
a uniform aspect of greyish white, as monotonous as if the earth were
without a leaf to cover it. Instead of relieving the eye of the
traveller, the artemisia rather adds to the dreariness of a desert
landscape,--for its presence promises food neither to man nor horse, nor
water for them to drink, but indicates the absence of both. Upon the
hill-sides also is it seen, along the sloping declivities of the
sierras, marbling the dark volcanic rocks with its hoary frondage.
More than one species of this wild sage occurs throughout the American
desert: there are four or five kinds, differing very considerably from
each other, and known to the trappers by such names as "wormwood,"
"grease-bush," "stink-plant," and "rabbit-bush." Some of the species
attain to a considerable height,--their tops often rising above the head
of the traveller on horseback,--while another kind scarce reaches the
knee of the pedestrian.
In some places the plains are so thickly covered with this vegetation,
that it is difficult for either man or horse to make way through them,--
the gnarled and crooked branches twisting into each other and forming an
impenetrable wattle. At other places, and especially where the larger
species grow, the plants stand apart like apple-trees in an orchard, and
bear a considerable resemblance to shrubs or small trees.
Both man and horse refuse the artemisia as food; and so, too, the less
fastidious mule. Even a donkey will not eat it. There are animals,
however,--both birds and beasts, as will be seen hereafter,--that relish
the sage-plant; and not only eat of it, but subsist almost exclusively
on its stalks, leaves, and berries.
The denizens of the Great Basin desert--I mean its human denizens--are
comprehended in two great families of the aboriginal race,--the _Utahs_
and _Snakes_, or _Shoshonees_. Of the white inhabitants--the Mormons
and trap-settlers--we have nothing to say here. Nor yet much respecting
the above-mentioned Indians, the Utahs and Snakes. It will be enough
for our purpose to make known that these two tribes are distinct from
each other,--that there are many communities or sub-tribes of both,--
that each claims ownership of a large tract of the central region, lying
between the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada; and that their limits
are not coterminal with those of the Great Basin: since the range of the
Snakes extends into Oregon upon the north, while that of the Utahs runs
down into the valley of the Rio del Norte upon the south. Furthermore,
that both are in possession of the horse,--the Utahs owning large
numbers,--that both are of roving and predatory habits, and quite as
wicked and warlike as the generality of their red brethren.
They are also as well to do in the world as most Indians; but there are
many degrees in their "civilisation," or rather in the comforts of their
life, depending upon the situation in which they may be placed. When
dwelling upon a good "salmon-stream," or among the rocky mountain
"parks," that abound in game, they manage to pass a portion of the year
in luxuriant abundance. In other places, however, and at other times,
their existence is irksome enough,--often bordering upon actual
starvation.
It may be further observed, that the Utahs and Snakes usually occupy the
larger and more fertile oases of the desert,--wherever a tract is found
of sufficient size to subsist a community. With this observation I
shall dismiss both these tribes; for it is not of them that our present
sketch is intended to treat.
This is specially designed for a far _odder_ people than either,--for
the _Yamparicos_, or "Root-diggers;" and having described their country,
I shall now proceed to give some account of themselves.
It may be necessary here to remark that the name "Diggers," has of late
been very improperly applied,--not only by the settlers of California,
but by some of the exploring officers of the United States government.
Every tribe or community throughout the desert, found existing in a
state of special wretchedness, has been so styled; and a learned
ethnologist (!), writing in the "Examiner," newspaper, gravely explains
the name, by deriving it from the gold-diggers of California! This
"conceit" of the London editor is a palpable absurdity,--since the
Digger Indians were so designated, long before the first gold-digger of
California put spade into its soil. The name is of "trapper" origin;
bestowed upon these people from the observation of one of their most
common practices,--viz, the _digging for roots_, which form an essential
portion of their subsistence. The term "yamparico," is from a Spanish
source, and has a very similar meaning to that of "Root-digger." It is
literally "Yampa-rooter," or "Yampa-root eater," the root of the "yampa"
(_anethum graviolens_) being their favourite food. The true "Diggers"
are not found in California west of the Sierra Nevada; though certain
tribes of ill-used Indians in that quarter are called by the name. The
great deserts extending between the Nevada and the Rocky Mountains are
their locality; and their limits are more or less cotemporaneous with
those of the Shoshonees or Snakes, and the Utahs,--of both of which
tribes they are supposed to be a sort of outcast kindred. This
hypothesis, however, rests only on a slight foundation: that of some
resemblance in habits and language, which are very uncertain _criteria_
where two people dwell within the same boundaries,--as, for instance,
the whites and blacks in Virginia. In fact, the language of the Diggers
can scarce be called a language at all: being a sort of gibberish like
the growling of a dog, eked out by a copious vocabulary of signs: and
perhaps, here and there, by an odd word from the Shoshonee or Utah,--not
unlikely, introduced by the association of the Diggers with these
last-mentioned tribes.
In the western and southern division of the Great Basin, the Digger
exists under the name of _Paiute_, or more properly, _Pah-Utah_,--
so-called from his supposed relationship with the tribe of the Utahs.
In some respects the Pah-Utahs differ from the Shoshokee, or
Snake-Diggers; though in most of their characteristic habits they are
very similar to each other. There might be no anomaly committed by
considering them as one people; for in personal appearance and habits of
life the Pah-Utah, and the "Shoshokee"--this last is the national
appellation of the yampa-eater,--are as like each other as _eggs_. We
shall here speak however, principally of the Shoshokees: leaving it to
be understood, that their neighbours the "Paiutes" will equally answer
the description.
Although the Shoshokees, as already observed, dwell within the same
limits as their supposed kindred the Shoshonees, they rarely or never
associate with the latter. On the contrary, they keep well out of their
way,--inhabiting only those districts of country where the larger
Shoshonee communities could not dwell. The very smallest oasis, or the
tiniest stream, affords all the fertility that is required for the
support of a Digger family; and rarely are these people found living
more than one, or at most, two or three families together. The very
necessity of their circumstances precludes the possibility of a more
extensive association; for on the deserts where they dwell, neither the
earth nor the air, nor yet the water, affords a sufficient supply of
food to support even the smallest "tribe." Not in tribes, then, but in
single families, or little groups of two or three, do the Digger Indians
dwell,--not in the larger and more fertile valleys, but in those small
and secluded; in the midst of the sage-plains, or more frequently in the
rocky defiles of the mountains that stand thickly over the "Basin."
The Shoshokee is no _nomade_, but the very reverse. A single and
isolated mountain is often the abode of his group or family; and beyond
this his wanderings extend not. There he is at home, knowing every nook
and rat-hole in his own neighbourhood; but as ignorant of the world
beyond as the "sand-rats" themselves,--whose pursuit occupies the
greater portion of his time.
In respect to his "settled" mode of life, the _Shoshokee_ offers a
striking contrast to the _Shoshonee_. Many of the latter are Indians of
noble type,--warriors who have tamed the horse, and who extend their
incursions, both hunting and hostile, into the very heart of the Rocky
Mountains,--up their fertile valleys, and across their splendid "parks,"
often bringing back with them the scalps of the savage and redoubtable
Blackfeet.
Far different is the character of the wretched Shoshokee,--the mere
semblance of a human being,--who rarely strays out of the ravine in
which he was brought forth; and who, at sight of a human face--be it of
friend or enemy--flies to his crag or cave like a hunted beast!
The Pah-Utah Diggers, however, are of a more warlike disposition; or
rather a more wicked and hostile one,--hostile to whites, or even to
such other Indians as may have occasion to travel through the deserts
they inhabit. These people are found scattered throughout the whole
southern and south-western portion of the Great Basin,--and also in the
north-western part of the Colorado desert,--especially about the Sevier
River, and on several of the tributaries of the great Colorado itself of
the west It was through this part of the country that the caravans from
California to New Mexico used to make their annual "trips,"--long before
Alta Calafornia became a possession of the United States,--and the route
by which they travelled is known as the _Spanish trail_. The object of
these caravans was the import of horses, mules, and other animals,--from
the fertile valleys of the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers, to the
more sterile settlements of New Mexico. Several kinds of goods were
also carried into these interior countries.
This Spanish trail was far from running in a direct line. The sandy,
waterless plain--known more particularly as the Colorado desert--could
not be crossed with safety, and the caravan-route was forced far to the
north; and entered within the limits of the Great Basin--thus bringing
it through the county inhabited by the Pah-Utah Diggers. The
consequence was, that these savages looked out annually for its arrival;
and, whenever an opportunity offered, stole the animals that accompanied
it, or murdered any of the men who might be found straggling from the
main body. When bent on such purposes, these Diggers for a time threw
aside their solitary habits,--assembling in large bands of several
hundred each, and following the caravan travellers, like wolves upon the
track of a gang of buffaloes. They never made their attacks upon the
main body, or when the white men were in any considerable force. Only
small groups who had lagged behind, or gone too rashly in advance, had
to fear from these merciless marauders,--who never thought of such a
thing as making captives, but murdered indiscriminately all who fell
into their hands. When horses or mules were captured, it was never done
with the intention of keeping them to ride upon. Scarcely ever do the
Pah-Utahs make such a use of the horse. Only for food were these stolen
or plundered from their owners; and when a booty of this kind was
obtained, the animals were driven to some remote defile among the
mountains, and there slaughtered outright. So long as a morsel of horse
or mule flesh remained upon the bones, the Diggers kept up a scene of
feasting and merriment--precisely similar to the _carnivals_ of the
African Bushmen, after a successful foray upon the cattle of the Dutch
settlers near the Cape. Indeed there is such a very striking
resemblance between the Bushmen of Africa and these Digger Indians of
North America; that, were it not for the distinction of race, and some
slight differences in personal appearance, they might pass as one
people. In nearly every habit and custom, the two people resemble each
other; and in many mental characteristics they appear truly identical.
The Pah-Utah Diggers have not yet laid aside their hostile and predatory
habits. They are at the present hour engaged in plundering forays,--
acting towards the emigrant trains of Californian adventurers just as
they did towards the Spanish caravans. But they usually meet with a
very different reception from the more daring Saxon travellers, who
constitute the "trains" now crossing their country; and not unfrequently
a terrible punishment is the reward of their audacity. For all that,
many of the emigrants, who have been so imprudent as to travel in small
parties, have suffered at their hands, losing not only their property,
but their lives; since hundreds of the bravest men have fallen by the
arrows of these insignificant savages! Even the exploring parties of
the United States government, accompanied by troops, have been attacked
by them; and more than one officer has fallen a victim to their
Ishmaelitish propensities.
It is not in open warfare that there is any dread of them. The smallest
party of whites need not fear to encounter a hundred of them at once;
but their attacks are made by stealth, and under cover of the night;
and, as soon as they have succeeded in separating the horses or other
animals from the travellers' camp, they drive them off so adroitly that
pursuit is impossible. Whenever a grand blow has been struck--that is,
a traveller has been murdered--they all disappear as if by magic; and
for several days after not one is to be seen, upon whom revenge might be
taken. The numerous "smokes," rising up out of the rocky defiles of the
mountains, are then the only evidence that human beings are in the
neighbourhood of the travellers' camp.
The Digger is different from other North-American Indians,--both in
physical organisation and intellectual character. So low is he in the
scale of both, as to dispute with the African Bushman, the Andaman
Islander, and the starving savage of Tierra del Fuego, the claim to that
point in the transition, which is supposed to separate the monkey from
the man. It has been variously awarded by ethnologists, and I as one
have had my doubts, as to which of the three is deserving of the
distinction. Upon mature consideration, however, I have come to the
conclusion that the Digger is entitled to it.
This miserable creature is of a dark-brown or copper colour,--the hue so
generally known as characteristic of the American aborigines. He stands
about five feet in height,--often under but rarely over this standard,--
and his body is thin and meagre, resembling that of a frog stretched
upon a fish-hook. The skin that covers it--especially that of an old
Digger--is wrinkled and corrugated like the hide of an Asiatic
rhinoceros,--with a surface as dry as parched buck-skin. His feet,
turned in at the toes,--as with all the aborigines of America,--have
some resemblance to human feet; but in the legs this resemblance ends.
The lower limbs are almost destitute of calves, and the knee-pans are of
immense size,--resembling a pair of pads or callosities, like those upon
goats and antelopes. The face is broad and angular, with high
cheek-bones; the eyes small, black, and sunken, and sparkle in their
hollow sockets, not with true intelligence, but that sort of vivacity
which may often be observed in the lower animals, especially in several
species of monkeys. Throughout the whole physical composition of the
Digger, there is only one thing that appears luxuriant,--and that is his
hair. Like all Indians he is amply endowed in this respect, and long,
black tresses--sometimes embrowned by the sun, and matted together with
mud or other filth--hang over his naked shoulders. Generally he crops
them.
In the summer months, the Digger's costume is extremely simple,--after
the fashion of that worn by our common parents, Adam and Eve. In
winter, however, the climate of his desert home is rigorous in the
extreme,--the mountains over his head, and the plains under his feet,
being often covered with snow. At this season he requires a garment to
shelter his body from the piercing blast; and this he obtains by
stitching together a few skins of the sage-hare, so as to form a kind of
shirt or body-coat. He is not always rich enough to have even a good
coat of this simple material; and its scanty skirt too often exposes his
wrinkled limbs to the biting frost.
Between the Digger and his wife, or "squaw," there is not much
difference either in costume or character. The latter may be
distinguished, by being of less stature, rather than by any feminine
graces in her physical or intellectual conformation. She might be
recognised, too, by watching the employment of the family; for it is she
who does nearly all the work, stitches the rabbit-skin shirt, digs the
"yampa" and "kamas" roots, gathers the "mezquite" pods, and gets
together the larder of "prairie crickets." Though lowest of all
American Indians in the scale of civilisation, the Digger resembles them
all in this,--he regards himself as lord and master, and the woman as
his slave.
As already observed, there is no such thing as a tribe of Diggers,--
nothing of the nature of a political organisation; and the chief of
their miserable little community--for sometimes there is a head man--is
only he who is most regarded for his strength. Indeed, the nature of
their country would not admit of a large number of them living together.
The little valleys or "oases"--that occur at intervals along the banks
of some lone desert stream,--would not, any one of them, furnish
subsistence to more than a few individuals,--especially to savages
ignorant of agriculture,--that is, not knowing how to _plant_ or _sow_.
The Diggers, however, if they know not how to _sow_, may be said to
understand something about how to _reap_, since _root-digging_ is one of
their most essential employments,--that occupation from which they have
obtained their distinctive appellation, in the language of the trappers.
Not being agriculturists, you will naturally conclude that they are
either a pastoral people, or else a nation of hunters. But in truth
they are neither one nor the other. They have no domestic animal,--many
of them not even the universal dog; and as to hunting, there is no large
game in their country. The buffalo does not range so far west; and if
he did, it is not likely they could either kill or capture so formidable
a creature; while the prong-horned antelope, which does inhabit their
plains, is altogether too swift a creature, to be taken by any wiles a
Digger might invent. The "big-horn," and the black and white-tailed
species of deer, are also too shy and too fleet for their puny weapons;
and as to the grizzly bear, the very sight of one is enough to give a
Digger Indian the "chills."
If, then, they do not cultivate the ground, nor rear some kind of
animals, nor yet live by the chase, how do these people manage to obtain
subsistence? The answer to this question appears a dilemma,--since it
has been already stated, that their country produces little else than
the wild and worthless sage plant.
Were we speaking of an Indian of tropical America, or a native of the
lovely islands of the great South Sea, there would be no difficulty
whatever in accounting for his subsistence,--even though he neither
planted nor sowed, tended cattle, nor yet followed the chase. In these
regions of luxuriant vegetation, nature has been bountiful to her
children; and, it may be almost literally alleged that the loaf of bread
grows spontaneously on the tree. But the very reverse is the case in
the country of the Digger Indian. Even the hand of cultivation could
scarce wring a crop from the sterile soil; and Nature has provided
hardly one article that deserves the name of food.
Perhaps you may fancy that the Digger is a fisherman; and obtains his
living from the stream, by the side of which he makes his dwelling. Not
even this is permitted to him. It is true that his supposed kindred,
the Shoshonees, occasionally follow the occupation of fishermen upon the
banks of the Great Snake River,--which at certain seasons of the year
swarms with the finest salmon; but the poor Digger has no share in the
finny spoil. The streams, that traverse his desert home, empty their
waters into the briny bosom of the Great Salt Lake,--a true _Dead Sea_,
where neither salmon, nor any other fish could live for an instant.
How then does the Digger obtain his food? Is he a manufacturer,--and
perforce a merchant,--who exchanges with some other tribe his
manufactured goods for provisions and "raw material?" Nothing of the
sort. Least of all is he a manufacturer. The hare-skin shirt is his
highest effort in the line of textile fabrics; and his poor weak bow,
and flint-tipped arrows, are the only tools he is capable of making.
Sometimes he is even without these weapons; and may be seen with
another,--a long stick, with a hook at one end,--the hook itself being
the stump of a lopped branch, with its natural inclination to that which
forms the stick. The object and purpose of this simple weapon we shall
presently describe.
The Digger's wife may be seen with a weapon equally simple in its
construction. This is also a stick--but a much shorter one--pointed at
one end, and bearing some resemblance to a gardener's "dibble."
Sometimes it is tipped with horn,--when this can be procured,--but
otherwise the hard point is produced by calcining it in the fire. This
tool is essentially an implement of husbandry,--as will presently
appear.
Let us now clear up the mystery, and explain how the Digger maintains
himself. There is not much mystery after all. Although, as already
stated, his country produces nothing that could fairly be termed _food_,
yet there are a few articles within his reach upon which a human being
_might_ subsist,--that is, might just keep body and soul together. One
of these articles is the bean, or legume of the "mezquite" tree, of
which there are many kinds throughout the desert region. They are known
to Spanish Americans as _algarobia_ trees; and, in the southern parts of
the desert, grow to a considerable size,--often attaining the dimension
of twenty to twenty-five feet in height.
They produce a large legume, filled with seeds and a pulp of
sweetish-acid taste,--similar to that of the "honey-locust." These
beans are collected in large quantities, by the squaw of the Digger,
stowed away in grass-woven baskets, or sometimes only in heaps in a
corner of his cave, or hovel, if he chance to have one. If so, it is a
mere wattle of artemisia, thatched and "chinked" with grass.
The mezquite seeds, then, are the _bread_ of the Digger; but, bad as is
the quality, the supply is often far behind the demands of his hungry
stomach. For vegetables, he has the "yampa" root, an umbelliferous
plant, which grows along the banks of the streams. This, with another
kind, known as "kamas" or "quamash" (_Camassia esculenta_), is a
spontaneous production; and the digging for these roots forms, at a
certain season of the year, the principal occupation of the women. The
"dibble-like" instrument already described is the _root-digger_. The
roots here mentioned, before being eaten, have to undergo a process of
cooking. The yampa is boiled in a very ingenious manner; but this piece
of ingenuity is not native to the Shoshokees, and has been obtained from
their more clever kindred, the Snakes. The pot is a _wooden one_; and
yet they can boil meat in it, or make soup if they wish! Moreover, it
is only a basket, a mere vessel of wicker-work! How, then, can water be
boiled in it? If you had not been already told how it is done, it would
no doubt puzzle you to find out.
But most likely you have read of a somewhat similar vessel among the
Chippewa Indians,--especially the tribe known as the "Assineboins," or
stone boilers--who cook their fish or flesh in pots made of birch-bark.
The phrase _stone boilers_ will suggest to you how the difficulty is got
over. The birch-bark pot is not set over fire; but stones are heated
and thrown into it,--of course already filled with water. The hot
stones soon cause the water to simmer, and fresh ones are added until it
boils, and the meat is sufficiently cooked. By just such a process the
"Snakes" cook their salmon and deer's flesh,--their wicker pots being
woven of so close a texture that not even water can pass through the
interstices.
It is not often, however, that, the Digger is rich enough to have one of
these wicker pots,--and when he has, he is often without anything to put
into it.
The _kamas_ roots are usually baked in a hole dug in the earth, and
heated by stones taken from the fire. It requires nearly two days to
bake them properly; and then, when taken out of the "oven," the mass
bears a strong resemblance to soft glue or size, and has a sweet and
rather agreeable taste,--likened to that of baked pears or quinces.
I have not yet specified the whole of the Digger's larder. Were he to
depend altogether on the roots and seeds already mentioned, he would
often have to starve,--and in reality he often _does_ starve,--for, even
with the additional supplies which his sterile soil scantily furnishes
him, he is frequently the victim of famine.
There may be a bad season of the mezquite-crop, and the bears--who are
as cunning "diggers" as he--sometimes destroy his "plantations" of yampa
and kamas. He finds a resource, however, in the prairie cricket, an
insect--or reptile, you may call it--of the _gryllus_ tribe, of a
dark-brown colour, and more like a bug than any other crawler. These,
at certain seasons of the year, make their appearance upon the desert
plains, and in such numbers that the ground appears to be alive with
them. An allied species has of late years become celebrated: on account
of a visit paid by vast numbers of them to the Mormon plantations;
where, as may be remembered, they devastated the crops,--just as the
locusts do in Africa,--causing a very severe season of famine among
these isolated people. It may be remembered also, that flocks of white
birds followed the movements of these American locusts,--preying upon
them, and thinning their multitudinous hosts.
These birds were of the gull genus (_Larus_), and one of the most
beautiful of the species. They frequent the shores and islands of the
rivers of _Prairie-land_, living chiefly upon such insects as are found
in the neighbourhood of their waters. It was but natural, therefore,
they should follow the locusts, or "grasshoppers," as the Mormons termed
them; but the _pseudo-prophet_ of these deluded people could not suffer
to pass such a fine opportunity of proving his divine inspiration: which
he did by audaciously declaring that the birds were "heaven-born," and
had been sent by the Almighty (in obedience to a prayer from him, the
prophet) to rid the country of the pest of the grasshoppers!
These prairie crickets are of a dark-brown colour,--not unlike the
_gryllus migratorius_ of Africa, and with very similar habits. When
settled thickly upon the ground, the whole surface assumes a darkish
hue, as if covered with crape; and when they are all in motion,--
creeping to and fro in search of their food,--a very singular effect is
produced. At this time they do not take to wing; though they attempt to
get out of the way, by making short hops from place to place, and
crawling with great rapidity. Notwithstanding their efforts to escape,
hundreds of them are "squashed" beneath the foot of the pedestrian, or
hoofs of the traveller's horse.
These crickets, with several bug-like insects of different species,
furnish the Digger with an important article of food. It may appear a
strange provender for a human stomach; but there is nothing unnatural
about it,--any more than about the eating of shrimps or prawns; and it
will be remembered that the Bushmen, and many other tribes of South
Africa eat the _gryllus migratorius_; while, in the northern part of
that same continent, many nations regard them as a proper article of
food. Though some writers have asserted, that it was the legume of the
locust-tree (an acacia) which was eaten by Saint John the Baptist in the
wilderness, it is easily proved that such was not the case. That his
food was the locust (_gryllus migratorius_) and wild honey, is strictly
and literally true; and at the present day, were you to visit the
"wilderness" mentioned by the Apostle, you might see people living upon
"locusts and wild honey," just as they did eighteen hundred years ago.
The Diggers _cook_ their crickets sometimes by boiling them in the pots
aforementioned, and sometimes by "roasting." They also mix them with
the mezquite seeds and pulp,--the whole forming a kind of plum-pudding,
or "cricket-pasty,"--or, as it is jocosely termed by the trappers,
"cricket-cake."
Their mode of collecting the grasshoppers is not without some display of
ingenuity. When the insects are in abundance, there is not much
difficulty in obtaining a sufficient supply; but this is not always the
case. Sometimes they appear very sparsely upon the plains; and, being
nimble in their movements, are not easily laid hold of. Only one could
be taken at a time; and, by gleaning in this way, a very limited supply
would be obtained. To remedy this, the Diggers have invented a somewhat
ingenious contrivance for capturing them wholesale,--which is effected
in the following manner:--When the whereabouts of the grasshoppers has
been discovered, a round hole--of three or four feet in diameter, and of
about equal depth--is scooped out in the centre of the plain. It is
shaped somewhat after the fashion of a kiln; and the earth, that has
been taken out, is carried out of the way.
The Digger community then all turn out--men, women, and children--and
deploy themselves into a wide circle, enclosing as large a tract as
their numbers will permit. Each individual is armed with a stick, with
which he beats the sage-bushes, and makes other violent demonstrations:
the object being to frighten the grasshoppers, and cause them to move
inward towards the pit that has been dug. The insects, thus beset, move
as directed,--gradually approaching the centre,--while the "beaters"
follow in a circle constantly lessening in circumference. After a time
the crickets, before only thinly scattered over the plain,--grow more
crowded as the space becomes contracted; until at length the surface is
covered with a black moving swarm; and the beaters, still pressing upon
them, and driving them onward, force the whole body pellmell over the
edges of the pit.
Bunches of grass, already provided are now flung over them, and upon
that a few shovelfuls of earth or sand; and then--horrible to relate!--a
large pile of artemisia stalks is heaped upon the top and set on fire!
The result is that, in a few minutes, the poor grasshoppers are smoked
to death, and parched at the same time--so as to be ready for eating,
whenever the _debris_ of the fire has been removed.
The prairie cricket is not the only article of the _flesh-meat_ kind,
found in the larder of the Digger. Another animal furnishes him with an
occasional meal. This is the "sage-hare," known to hunters as the
"sage-rabbit," but to naturalists as the _lepus artemisia_. It is a
very small animal,--less in size than the common rabbit,--though it is
in reality a true hare. It is of a silvery, or whitish-grey colour--
which adapts it to the hue of the _artemisia_ bushes on the stalks and
berries of which it feeds.
It is from the skins of this animal, that the Digger women manufacture
the rabbit-skin shirts, already described. Its flesh would not be very
agreeable to a European palate,--even with the addition of an onion,--
for it has the sage flavour to such a degree, as to be as bitter as
wormwood itself. An onion with it would not be tasted! But tastes
differ, and by the Digger the flesh of the sage-hare is esteemed one of
the nicest delicacies. He hunts it, therefore, with the greatest
assiduity; and the chase of this insignificant animal is to the Digger,
what the hunt of the stag, the elephant, or the wild boar, is to hunters
of a more pretentious ambition.
With his bow and arrows he frequently succeeds in killing a single hare;
but this is not always so easy,--since the sage-hare, like all of its
kind, is shy, swift, and cunning. Its colour, closely resembling the
hue of the artemisia foliage, is a considerable protection to it; and it
can hide among these bushes, where they grow thickly--as they generally
do--over the surface of the ground.
But the Digger is not satisfied with the scanty and uncertain supply,
which his weak bow and arrows would enable him to obtain. As in the
case of the grasshoppers, he has contrived a plan for capturing the
sage-hares by wholesale.
This he accomplishes by making a "surround," and driving the animals,
not into a _pit_, but into a _pound_. The pound is constructed
something after the same fashion as that used by the Chippewas, and
other northern Indians, for capturing the herds of reindeer; in other
words, it is an enclosure, entered by a narrow mouth--from the _jaws_ of
which mouth, two fences are carried far out into the plain, in a
gradually diverging direction. For the deer and other large animals,
the fences of the pound--as also those of the funnel that conducts to
it, require to be made of strong stakes, stockaded side by side; but
this work, as well as the timber with which to construct it, is far
beyond the reach of the Digger. His enclosure consists of a mere wattle
of artemisia stalks and branches, woven into a row of those already
standing--with here and there a patching of rude nets, made of roots and
grass. The height is not over three feet; and the sage-hare might
easily spring over it; but the stupid creature, when once "in the
pound," never thinks of looking upward; but continues to dash its little
skull against the wattle, until it is either "clubbed" by the Digger, or
impaled upon one of his obsidian arrows.
Other quadrupeds, constituting a portion of the Digger's food, are
several species of "gophers," or sand-rats, ground-squirrels, and
marmots. In many parts of the Great Basin, the small rodents abound:
dwelling between the crevices of rocks, or honeycombing the dry plains
with their countless burrows. The Digger captures them by various
wiles. One method is by shooting them with blunt arrows; but the more
successful plan is, by setting a trap at the entrance to their earthen
caves. It is the "figure of 4 trap," which the Digger employs for this
purpose, and which he constructs with ingenuity,--placing a great many
around a "warren," and often taking as many as fifty or sixty "rats" in
a single day!
In weather too cold for the gophers to come out of their caves, the
Digger then "digs" for them: thus further entitling him to his special
appellation.
That magnificent bird, the "cock of the plains," sometimes furnishes the
Digger with "fowl" for his dinner. This is a bird of the grouse family
(_tetrao urophasianus_), and the largest species that is known,--
exceeding in size the famed "cock of the woods" of northern Europe. A
full-fledged cock of the plains is as large as an eagle; and, unlike
most of the grouse kind, has a long, narrow body. His plumage is of a
silvery grey colour--produced by a mottle of black and white,--no doubt,
given him by a nature to assimilate him to the hue of the artemisia,--
amidst which he habitually dwells, and the berries of which furnish him
with most of his food.
He is remarkable for two large _goitre-like_ swellings on the breast,
covered with a sort of hair instead of feathers; but, though a
fine-looking large bird, and a grouse too, his flesh is bitter and
unpalatable--even more so than that of the sage-hare. For all that, it
is a delicacy to the Digger, and a rare one; for the cock of the plains
is neither plentiful, nor easily captured when seen.
There are several other small animals--both quadrupeds and birds--
inhabiting Digger-land, upon which an occasional meal is made. Indeed,
the food of the Digger is sufficiently varied. It is not in the quality
but the quantity he finds most cause of complaint: for with all his
energies he never gets enough. In the summer season, however, he is
less stinted. Then the berries of the buffalo-bush are ripe; and these,
resembling currants, he collects in large quantities,--placing his
rabbit-skin wrapper under the bush, and shaking down the ripe fruit in
showers. A _melange_ of prairie crickets and buffalo-berries is
esteemed by the Digger, as much as would be the best specimen of a
"currant-cake" in any nursery in Christendom!
The Digger finds a very curious species of edible bug, which builds its
nest on the ledges of the cliffs,--especially those that overhang a
stream. These nests are of a conical or pine-apple shape, and about the
size of this fruit.
This bug,--not yet classified or described by entomologists,--is of a
dark-brown colour, about the size of the ordinary cockroach; and when
boiled is considered a proper article of food,--not only by the
unfastidious Diggers, but by Indians of a more epicurean _gout_.
Besides the yampa and kamas, there are several other edible roots found
in the Digger country. Among others may be mentioned a species of
thistle (_circium virginiarum_),--the root of which grows to the size of
an ordinary carrot, and is almost as well flavoured. It requires a
great deal of roasting, or boiling, before it is sufficiently cooked to
be eaten.
The _kooyah_ is another article of food still more popular among Digger
gourmands. This is the root of the _Valeriana edulis_. It is of a
bright-yellow colour, and grows to a considerable size. It has the
characteristic odour of the well-known plant; but not so strong as in
the prepared substance of _valerian_. The plant itself does not grow in
the arid soil of the desert, but rather in the rich fertile bottoms of
the streams, or along the shores of marshy lakes,--in company with the
kamas and yampa. It is when these roots are in season, that the
Shoshokees most frequent such localities; and, indeed, this same season
is the time when all other articles of Digger food are plenteous
enough,--the summer. The winter months are to him the "tight times."
In some parts of the desert country, as already observed, grow species
of pines, with edible cones,--or rather edible seeds which the cones
contain. These seeds resemble nuts, and are about the size of the
common filberts.
More than one species of pine produces this sort of food; but in the
language of the Spanish Californians and New Mexicans, they are all
indifferently termed _pinon_, and the seeds simply _pinones_, or
"pinons." Where these are within the reach of the Digger,--as they are
in some districts,--he is then well provided for; since the pinons, when
roasted, not only form an agreeable and nutritious article of food, but
can be stored up as a winter stock,--that will keep for a considerable
time, without danger of spoiling, or growing too stale.
Such is the _commissariat_ of the Digger Indian; and, poor in quality
though it be, there are times when he cannot obtain a sufficient supply
of it. At such times he has recourse to food of a still meaner kind,--
to roots, scarce eatable, and even to the seeds of several species of
grass! Worms, grubs, the _agama comuta_, or "horned-frog of the
prairies," with other species of lizards, become his sole resource; and
in the search and capture of these he occupies himself from morning to
night.
It is in this employment that he finds use for the long sapling, with
the hooked end upon it,--the hook being used for dragging the lizards
out of clefts in the rocks, within which they have sought shelter. In
the accomplishment of this, the Digger displays an adroitness that
astonishes the traveller: often "jerking" the reptile out of some dark
crevice within which it might be supposed to have found a retreat secure
from all intruders.
Many other curious habits might be related of this abject and miserable
race of human beings; but perhaps enough has been detailed, to secure
them a place in the list of our "odd people."