as a protection against the inclemency of the weather,* showing thus that, notwithstanding their simplicity, they understand pretty well "how to turn the mantle towards the wind." It cannot be otherwise with them; for, if they had houses, they would be compelled to carry their dwellings always with them, like snails or turtles, the necessity of collecting food urging them to wander constantly about. Thus they cannot start every morning from the same place and return thither in the evening, since, notwithstanding the small number of each little people, a small tract of land could not provide them with provisions during a whole year. To-day the water will fail them; to-morrow they have to go to some locality for gathering a certain kind of seed that serves them as food, and so they fulfil to the letter what is written of all of us, namely, that we shall have no fixed abode in this world. I am certainly not much mistaken in saying that many of them change their night-quarters more than a hundred times in a year, and hardly sleep three times successively in the same place and the same part of the country, always excepting those who are connected with the missions. Wherever the night surprises them they will lie down to sleep, not minding in the least the uncleanliness of the ground, or apprehending any inconvenience from reptiles and other vermin, of which there is an abundance in this country. They do not live under the shade of trees, as some authors have said, because there are hardly any trees in California that afford shade, nor do they dwell in earth-holes of their own making, as others have said, but sometimes, and only when it rains, they resort to the clefts and cavities of rocks, if they can find such sheltering places, which do not occur as frequently as their wants require.

Whenever they undertake to construct shelters for protecting their sick from heat or cold, the entrance is usually so low that a person has to creep on hands and feet in order to get in, and the whole structure is of such small dimensions as to render it impossible to stand erect within, or to find room to sit down on the ground for the purpose of confessing or comforting the patient. Of no better condition are the huts of those Indians who live near the missions, the same being often so small and miserable that man and wife hardly can sit or lie down in them. Even the old and infirm are utterly indifferent as to their being under shelter or not, and it happened often that I found old sick persons lying in the open air, for whose accommodation I had caused huts to be built on the preceding day. So much for habit.

As the blue sky forms the only habitation of the Californian Indians, so they wear no other covering than the brown skin with which nature has clothed them. This applies to the male sex in the full sense of the word, and even women have been found in the northern parts of California in a perfect state of nudity, while among most nations the females always covered themselves to a small extent. They did, and still continue to do, as follows: They understand how to prepare from the fibres of the aloë plant a white thread, which serves them for making cords. On these they string hundreds of small sections of water-reed, like beads of a rosary; and a good number of these strings, attached by their ends to a girdle, and placed very close and thick together, form two aprons, one of which hangs down below the abdomen, while the other covers the hind part. These aprons are about a span wide, and of different length. Among

Captain Bonneville gives a cheerless account of a village of the Root Diggers, which he saw in crossing the plain below Powder river. "They live," says he, "without any further protection from the inclemency of the season than a sort of break-weather, about three feet high, composed of sage, (or wormwood,) and erected around them in the shape of a half moon."-Washington Irving: Adventures of Captain Bonneville, p. 259.

+ German proverb.

It may not be out of place to mention here that in Mexico the dried fibres of the aloë or maguey plant (Agave Americana) are a universal substitute for hemp in the manufacture of cordage and packing-cloth.

some nations they reach down to the knees; among others to the calves, and even to the feet. Both sides of the thighs, as well as the rest of the body, remain perfectly naked. In order to save labor, some women wear, instead of the back-aprons, a piece of untanned deer-skin, or any woollen or linen rag which they can now-a-days obtain. Of the same untanned skin they make, if they can get it, their shoes or sandals, simply flat pieces, which they attach to the feet by coarse strings of the above-mentioned aloë, passing between the big and small toes and around the ankles.

Both sexes, the grown as well as the children, wear the head always uncov ered, however inclement the weather may be, even those in a certain mission who understand how to manufacture pretty good hats from palm-leaves, which, on account of their lightness, were frequently worn by the missionaries while on their travels. The men allow the hair to grow down to the shoulders. Women, on the contrary, wear it much shorter. Formerly they pierced the ears of new-born children of the male sex with a pointed stick, and by putting bones and pieces of wood into the aperture they enlarged it to such a degree that, in some grown persons, the flaps hung down nearly to the shoulders. At present, however, they have abandoned this unnatural usage. It has been asserted that they also pierce the nose. I can only say that I saw no one disfigured in that particular manner, but many middle-aged persons with their cars perforated as described above. Under certain circumstances, and on their gala days, they paint different parts of the body with red and yellow color, which they obtain by burning certain minerals.

The baptized Indians, of course, observed more decency in regard to dress. The missionaries gave each male individual, once or twice in a year, a piece of blue cloth, six spans long and two spans wide, for covering the lower part of the body, and, if their means allowed it, a short woollen coat of blue color. The women and girls were provided with thick white veils, made of wool, that covered the head and the whole body down to the feet. In some missions the women received also petticoats and jackets of blue flannel or woven cotton shirts, and the men trowsers of coarse cloth and long coats. But the women throw aside their veils, and the men their coats, as soon as they leave church, because those coverings make them feel uneasy, especially in summer, and impede the free use of their limbs, which their mode of living constantly requires. I will mention here that all these goods had to be brought from the city of Mexico, since nothing of the kind can be manufactured in California for want of the necessary materials. The number of sheep that can be kept there is small, and, moreover, they lose half their wool by passing through the thorny shrubs, of which there is an astonishing abundance in this ill-favored country.

It is not to be expected that a people in as low a state of development as the Californians should make use of many implements and utensils. Their whole furniture, if that expression can be applied at all, consists of a bow and arrows, a flint instead of a knife, a bone or pointed piece of wood for digging roots, a turtle-shell serving as basket and cradle, a large gut or bladder for fetching water and transporting it during their excursions, and a bag made like a fishing net from the fibres of the aloe, or the skin of a wild cat, in which they preserve and carry their provisions, sandals, and perhaps other insignificant things which they may happen to possess.

The bows of the Californians are more than six feet long, slightly curved, and made from the roots of wild willows. They are of the thickness of the five fingers in the middle, round, and become gradually thinner and pointed towards the ends. The bow-strings are made of the intestines of beasts. The shafts of their arrows consist of common reeds, which they straighten by the fire. They are above six spans long, and have, at the lower end, a notch to catch the string, and three or four feathers, about a finger loug, not much projecting, and let into slits made for that purpose. At the upper end of the shaft

a pointed piece of heavy wood, a span and a half long, is inserted, bearing usually at its extremity a flint of a triangular shape, almost resembling a serpent's tongue, and indented like the edge of a saw.* The Californians carry their bows and arrows always with them, and as they commence at an early age to use these weapons many of them become very skilful archers.

In lieu of knives and scissors they use sharp flints for cutting almost everything-caue, wood, aloë, and even their hair-and for disembowelling and skinning animals. With the same flints they bleed or scarify themselves, and make incisions for extracting thorns and splinters which they have accidentally

run into their limbs.

The whole art of the men consists in the manufacture of bows and arrows, while the mechanical skill of the females is merely confined to the making of the above-mentioned aprons. Of a division of labor not a trace is to be found among them; even the cooking is done by all without distinction of sex or age, every one providing for himself, and the children commence to practice that necessary art as soon as they are able to stir a fire. The time of these people is chiefly taken up by the search for food and its preparation; and if their physical wants are supplied they abandon themselves entirely to lounging, chattering, and sleep. This applies particularly to the roaming portion of the Californian Indians, for those who dwell near the missions now established in the country are sometimes put to such labor as the occasion may require.

CHAPTER III.—of theIR FOOD AND THE MANNER OF PREPARING IT.

Notwithstanding the barrenness of the country, a Californian hardly ever dies of hunger, except, perhaps, now and then an individual that falls sick in the wilderness and at a great distance from the mission, for those who are in good health trouble themselves very little about such patients, even if these should happen to be their husbands, wives, or other relations; and a little child that has lost its mother or both parents is also occasionally in danger of starving to death, because in some instances no one will take charge of it, the father being sometimes inhuman enough to abandon his offspring to its fate.

The food of the Californians, as will be seen, is certainly of a mean quality, yet it keeps them in a healthy condition, and they become strong and grow old in spite of their poor diet. The only period of the year during which the Californians can satisfy their appetite without restraint is the season of the pitahayas, which ripen in the middle of June and abound for more than eight weeks. The gathering of this fruit may be considered as the harvest of the native inhabitants. They can cat as much of it as they please, and with some this food agrees so well that they become corpulent during that period; and for this reason I was sometimes unable to recognize at first sight individuals, otherwise perfectly familiar to me, who visited me after having fed for three or four weeks on these pitahayas. They do not, however, preserve them, and when the season is over they are put again on short rations. Among the roots eaten by the Californians may be mentioned the yuka, which constitutes an important article of food in many parts of America, as, for instance, in the island of Cuba, but is not very abundant in California. In some provinces it is made into a kind of bread or cake, while the Californians, who would find this process too tedious, simply roast the yukas in a fire like potatoes. Another root eaten by the natives is that of the aloë plant, of which there are many kinds in this country. Those species of this vegetable, however, which afford nourishment -for not all of them are edible-do not grow as plentifully as the Californi ans might wish, and very seldom in the neighborhood of water; the prepara

* In the collection of Dr. E. H. Davis, of New York, there are a number of arrows obtained from the Indians of the island of Tiburon, in the Californian gulf. They auswer, in every respect, the description given in the text.

tions, moreover, which are necessary to render this plant eatable, require much time and labor, as will be mentioned hereafter. I saw the natives also frequently eat the roots of the common reed, just as they were taken out of the water. Certain seeds, some of them not larger than those of the mustard, and different sorts in pods that grow on shrubs and little trees, and of which there are, according to Father Piccolo, more than sixteen kinds, are likewise diligently sought; yet they furnish only a small quantity of grain, and all that a person can collect with much toil during a whole year may scarcely amount to twelve bushels.*

It can be said that the Californians eat, without exception, all animals they can obtain. Besides the different kinds of larger indigenous quadrupeds and birds already mentioned, they live now-a-days on dogs and cats; horses, asses and mules; item, on owls, mice and rats; lizards and snakes; bats, grasshoppers and crickets; a kind of green caterpillar without hair, about a finger long, and an abominable white worm of the length and thickness of the thumb, which they find occasionally in old rotten wood, and consider as a particular delicacy. The chase of game, such as deer and rabbits, furnishes only a small portion of a Californian's provisions. Supposing that for a hundred families three hundred deer are killed in the course of a year, which is a very favorable estimate, they would supply each family only with three meals in three hundred and sixty-five days, and thus relieve but in a very small degree the hunger and the poverty of these people. The hunting for snakes, lizards, mice and field-rats, which they practice with great diligence, is by far more profitable and supplies them with a much greater quantity of articles for consumption. Snakes, especially, are a favorite sort of small game, and thousands of them find annually their way into the stomachs of the Californians.

In catching fish, particularly in the Pacific, which is much richer in that respect than the gulf of California, the natives use neither nets‡ nor hooks, but a kind of lance,—that is, a long, slender, pointed piece of hard wood, which they handle very dexterously in spearing and killing their prey. Sea-turtles are caught in the same manner.

I have now mentioned the different articles forming the ordinary food of the Californians; but, besides these, they reject nothing that their teeth can chew or their stomachs are capable of digesting, however tasteless or unclean and disgusting it may be. Thus they will eat the leaves of the Indian fig-tree, the tender shoots of certain shrubs, tanned or untanned leather; old straps of raw hide with which a fence was tied together for years; item, the bones of poultry, sheep, goats and calves; putrid meat or fish swarming with worms, damaged wheat or Indian corn, and many other things of that sort which may serve to appease the hunger they are almost constantly suffering. Anything that is thrown to the hogs will be also accepted by a Californian, and he takes it without feeling offended, or thinking for a moment that he is treated below his dignity. For this reason no one took the trouble to clean the wheat or maize, which was cooked for them in a large kettle, of the black worms and little bugs, even if the numbers of these vermin had been equal to that of the grains. By a daily distribution of about 150 bushels of bran, (which they are in the habit of eating without any preparation,) I could have induced all my parishioners

*One malter, in German, which is about equivalent to twelve bushels. In the introduction.

Venegas mentions fishing-nets made of the pita plant, (Noticia de la California, vol. i, p. 52.) According to Baegert, (Appendix i, p. 322,) no such plant exists in California, and the word "pita" only signifies the thread twisted from the aloe. In refuting Venegas, Father Baegert hardly ever refers to the original Spanish work, nor mentions the name of its author, but attacks the French translation, which was published in Paris in the year 1767. He probably acted so from motives of delicacy, Venegas himself being a priest and brother Jesuit. The effect of this proceeding, as can be imagined, is comical in a high degree.

to remain permanently in the mission, excepting during the time when the pitahayas are gathered.

I saw one day a blind man, seventy years of age, who was busily engaged in pounding between two stones an old shoe made of raw deer-skin, and whenever he had detached a piece, he transferred it promptly to his mouth and swallowed it; and yet this man had a daughter and grown grand-children. As soon as any of the cattle are killed and the hide is spread out on the ground to dry, half a dozen boys or men will instantly rush upon it and commence to work with knives, flints and their teeth, tearing and scratching off pieces, which they eat immediately, till the hide is full of holes or scattered in all directions. In the mission of St. Ignatius and in others further towards the north, there are persons who will attach a piece of meat to a string and swallow it and pull it out again a dozen times in succession, for the sake of protracting the enjoyment of its taste.

I must here ask permission of the kind reader to mention something of an exceedingly disgusting and almost inhuman nature, the like of which probably never has been recorded of any people in the world, but which demonstrates better than anything else the whole extent of the poverty, uncleanness and voracity of these wretched beings. In describing the pitahayas, I have already stated that they contain a great many small seeds resembling grains of powder. For some reason unknown to me these seeds are not consumed in the stomach, but pass off in an undigested state, and in order to save them the natives collect, during the season of the pitahayas, that which is discharged from the human body, separate the seeds from it, and roast, grind and eat them, making merry over their loathsome meals, which the Spaniards therefore call the second harvest of the Californians. When I first heard that such a filthy habit existed among them, I was disinclined to believe the report, but to my utter regret I became afterwards repeatedly a witness to the proceeding, which they are unwilling to abandon like many other bad practices. Yet I must say in their favor that they have always abstained from human flesh, contrary to the horrible usage of so many other American nations who can obtain their daily food much easier than these poor Californians.

They have no other drink but the water, and Heaven be praised that they are unacquainted with such strong beverages as are distilled in many American provinces from Indian corn, the aloe and other plants, and which the Americans in those parts merely drink for the purpose of intoxicating themselves. When a Californian encounters, during his wanderings, a pond or pool, and feels a desire to quench his thirst, he lies flat on the ground and applies his mouth directly to the water. Sometimes the horns of cattle are used as drinking vessels.

Having thus far given an account of the different articles used as aliment by the aborigines of the peninsula, I will now proceed to describe in what manner they prepare their victuals. They do not cook, boil, or roast like people in civilized countries, because they are neither acquainted with these methods, nor possessed of vessels and utensils to employ for such purposes; and, besides, their patience would be taxed beyond endurance, if they had to wait till a piece of meat is well cooked or thoroughly roasted. Their whole process simply consists in burning, singeing, or roasting in an open fire all such victuals as are not eaten in a raw state. Without any formalities the piece of meat, the fish, bird, snake, field-mouse, bat, or whatever it may be, is thrown into the flames, or on the glowing embers, and left there to smoke and to sweat for about a quarter of an hour; after which the article is withdrawn, in most cases

* Introduction.

This statement is corroborated in all particulars by Clavigero, in his Storia della California, (Venice, 1789,) vol. i, p. 117.