uncivil specimens behavior celebrations
dozens wreaths garlands especially
There are a great many interesting stories about the first settlement of
San Gabriel, and the habits and customs of the Indians there. They were a
very polite people to each other, and used to train their children in some
respects very carefully.
If a child were sent to bring water to an older person, and he tasted it
on the way, he was made to throw the water out and go and bring fresh
water; when two grown-up persons were talking together, if a child ran
between them, he was told that he had done an uncivil thing. These are
only specimens of their rules for polite behavior. They seem to me as good
as ours.
These Indians were very fond of flowers, of which the whole country is
full. They used to make long garlands and wreaths, not only to wear on
their heads, but to reach way down to their feet. These they wore at
festivals and celebrations; and sometimes at these festivals they used to
have what they called “song contests.”
Two of the best singers, or poets, would be matched together to see which
could sing the better, or make the better verses. That seems to me a
more interesting kind of match than the spelling matches we have in our
villages.
But there is nothing of this sort to be seen in San Gabriel now, or indeed
anywhere in California. The Indians have been driven away by the white
people who wanted their lands; year by year more and more white people
have come, and the Indians have been robbed of more and more of their
lands, and have died off by hundreds, until there are not many left.
Mr. Connor was much interested in collecting all he could of the curious
stone bowls and pestles they used to make, and of their baskets and lace
work. He spent much of his time riding about the country; and whenever he
came to an Indian hut he would stop and ask if they had any stone bowls
they would like to sell.
The bowls especially were a great curiosity. Nobody knew how long ago
they had been made. When the missionaries first came to the country they
found the Indians using them; they had them of all sizes, from those so
large that they are almost more than a man can lift down to the tiny ones
no bigger than a tea-cup. But big and little, they were all made in the
same way out of solid stone, scooped out in the middle, by rubbing another
stone round and round on them.
Even yet people who are searching for such curiosities sometimes find
big grave mounds in which dozens of them are buried--buried side by side
with the people who used to eat out of them. There is nothing left of the
people but their skulls and a few bones; but the bowls will last as long
as the world stands.
--HELEN HUNT JACKSON.