only burned or charred on the outside, but still raw and bloody within. As soon as it has become sufficiently cool, they shake it a little in order to remove the adhering dust or sand, and eat it with great relish. Yet I must add here, that they do not previously take the trouble to skin the mice or disembowel the rats, nor deem it necessary to clean the half-emptied entrails and maws of larger animals, which they have to cut in pieces before they can roast them. Seeds, kernels, grasshoppers, green caterpillars, the white worms already mentioned, and similar things that would be lost, on account of their smallness, in the embers and flames of an open fire, are parched on hot coals, which they constantly throw up and shake in a turtle-shell, or a kind of frying-pan woven out of a certain plant. What they have parched or roasted in this manner is ground to powder between two stones, and eaten in a dry state. Bones are treated in like manner.

They eat everything unsalted, though they might obtain plenty of salt; but since they cannot dine every day on roast meat and constantly change their quarters, they would find it too cumbersome to carry always a supply of salt with them.

The preparation of the aloë, also called mescale or maguey by the Spaniards, requires more time and labor. The roots, after being properly separated from the plants, are roasted for some hours in a strong fire, and then buried, twelve or twenty together, in the ground, and well covered with hot stones, hot ashes, and earth. In this state they have to remain for twelve or fourteen hours, and when dug out again they are of a fine yellow color, and perfectly tender, making a very palatable dish, which has served me frequently as food when I had nothing else to eat, or as dessert after dinner in lieu of fruit. But they act at first as a purgative on persons who are not accustomed to them, and leave the throat somewhat rough for a few hours afterwards.

To light a fire the Californians make no use of steel and flint, but obtain it by the friction of two pieces of wood. One of them is cylindrical, and pointed on one end, which fits into a round cavity in the other, and by turning the cylindrical piece with great rapidity between their hands, like a twirling stick, they succeed in igniting the lower piece, if they continue the process for a sufficient length of time.

The Californians have no fixed time for any sort of business, and eat, consequently, whenever they have anything, or feel inclined to do so, which is nearly always the case. I never asked one of them whether he was hungry, who failed to answer in the affirmative, even if his appearance indicated the contrary. A meal in the middle of the day is the least in use among them, because they all set out early in the morning for their foraging expeditions, and return only in the evening to the place from which they started, if they do not choose some other locality for their night quarters. The day being thus spent in running about and searching for food, they have no time left for preparing a dinner at noon. They start always empty-handed; for, if perchance something remains from their evening repasts, they certainly eat it during the night in waking moments, or on the following morning before leaving. The Californians can endure hunger easier and much longer than other people; whereas they will eat enormously if a chance is given. I often tried to buy a piece of venison from them when the skin had but lately been stripped off the deer, but regularly received the answer that nothing was left; and I knew well enough that the hunter who killed the animal needed no assistance to finish it. Twenty-four pounds of meat in twenty-four hours is not deemed an extraordinary ration for a single person, and to see anything catable before him is a temptation for a Californian which he cannot resist; and not to make away with it before night would be a victory he is very seldom capable of gaining over himself.

One of them requested from his missionary a number of goats, in order to live, as he said, like a decent man; that is, to keep house, to pasture the goats, and to support himself and his family with their milk and the flesh of the kids. But, alas! in a few days the twelve goats with which the missionary had presented him were all consumed.

A priest who had lived more than thirty years in California, and whose veracity was beyond any doubt, assured me repeatedly that he had known a Californian who one day ate seventeen watermelons at one sitting; and another native who, after having received from a soldier six pounds of unclarified sugar as pay for a certain debt, sat down and munched one piece after another till the six pounds had disappeared. He paid, however, dearly for his gluttony, for he died in consequence of it; while the melon-eater was only saved by taking a certain physic which counteracted the bad effects of his greediness. I was called myself one evening in great haste to three or four persons, who pretended to be dying, and wanted to confess. These people belonged to a band of about sixty souls, (women and children included,) to whom I had given, early in the morning, three bullocks in compensation for some labor. When I arrived at the place where they lay encamped, I learned that their malady consisted merely in belly-ache and vomiting; and, recognizing at once the cause of their disorder, I reprimanded them severely for their voracity, and went home again.

CHAPTER IV.—OF THEIR MARRIAGES AND THE EDUCATION OF THEIR children.

As soon as the young Californian finds a partner, the marriage follows immediately afterwards; and the girls go sometimes so far as to demand impetuously a husband from the missionary, even before they are twelve years old, which is their legitimate age for marrying. In all the missions, however, only one excepted, the number of men was considerably greater than that of the females.

Matrimonial engagements are concluded without much forethought or scruple, and little attention is paid to the morals or qualities of the parties; and, to confess the truth, there is hardly any difference among them in these respects; and, as far as good sense, virtue, and riches are concerned, they are always sure to marry their equals, following thus the old maxim: Si vis nubere, nube pari. It happens very often that near relations want to join in wedlock, and their engagements have, therefore, to be frustrated, such cases excepted in which the impedimentum affinitatis can be removed by a dispensation from the proper authorities.

They do not seem to marry exactly for the same reasons that induce civilized people to enter into that state; they simply want to have a partner, and the husband, besides, a servant whom he can command, although his authority in that respect is rather limited, for the women are somewhat independent, and not much inclined to obey their lords. Although they are now duly married according to the rites of the Catholic church, nothing is done on their part to solemnize the act; none of the parents or other relations and friends are present, and no wedding feast is served up, unless the missionary, instead of receiving his marriage fees, or jura stolae, presents them with a piece of meat, or a quantity of Indian corn. Whenever I joined a couple in matrimony, it took considerable time before the bridegroom succeeded in putting the wedding ring on the right finger of his future wife. As soon as the ceremony is over, the new married couple start off in different directions in search of food, just as if they were not more to each other to-day than they were yesterday; and in the same manner they act in future, providing separately for their support, sometimes without living together for weeks, and without knowing anything of their partner's abiding place.

Before they were baptized each man took as many wives as he liked, and if there were several sisters in a family he married them all together. The sonin-law was not allowed, for some time, to look into the face of his mother-inlaw or his wife's next female relations, but had to step aside, or to hide himself, when these women were present. Yet they did not pay much attention to consanguinity, and only a few years since one of them counted his own daughter (as he believed) among the number of his wives. They met without any formalities, and their vocabulary did not even contain the words "to marry," which is expressed at the present day in the Waïcuri language by the paraphrase tikére undiri-that is, "to bring the arms or hands together." They had, and still use, a substitute for the word "husband," but the etymological meaning of that expression implies an intercourse with women in general.

They lived, in fact, before the establishment of the missions in their country, in utter licentiousness, and adultery was daily committed by every one without shame and without any fear, the feeling of jealousy being unknown to them. Neighboring tribes visited each other very often only for the purpose of spending some days in open debauchery, and during such times a general prostitution prevailed. Would to God that the admonitions and instructions of those who converted these people to Christianity and established lawful marriages among them, had also induced them to desist entirely from these evil practices! Yet they deserve pity rather than contempt, for their manner of living together engenders vice, and their sense of morality is not strong enough to prevent them from yielding to the temptations to which they are constantly exposed.

In the first chapter of this book I have already spoken of the scanty popu lation of this country. It is certain that many of their women are barren, and that a great number of them bear not more than one child. Only a few out of one or two hundred bring forth eight or ten times, and if such is really the case, it happens very seldom that one or two of the children arrive at a mature age. I baptized, in succession, seven children of a young woman, yet I had to bury them all before one of them had reached its third year, and when I was about to leave the country I recommended to the woman to dig a grave for the eighth child, with which she was pregnant at the time. The unmarried people of both sexes and the children generally make a smaller group than the married and widowed.

The Californian women lie in without difficulty, and without needing any assistance. If the child is born at some distance from the mission they carry it thither themselves on the same day, in order to have it baptized, not minding a walk of two or more leagues. Yet, that many infants die among them is not surprising; on the contrary, it would be a wonder if a great number remained alive. For, when the poor child first sees the light of day, there is no other cradle provided for it but the hard soil, or the still harder shell of a turtle, in which the mother places it, without much covering, and drags it about wherever. she goes. And in order to be unencumbered, and enabled to use her limbs with greater freedom while running in the fields, she will leave it sometimes in charge of some old woman, and thus deprive the poor creature for ten or more hours of its natural nourishment. As soon as the child is a few months old the mother places it, perfectly naked, astraddle on her shoulders, its legs hanging down on both sides in front, and it has consequently to learn how to ride before it can stand on its feet. In this guise the mother roves about all day, exposing her helpless charge to the hot rays of the sun and the chilly winds that sweep over the inhospitable country. The food of the child, till it cuts its teeth, consists only in the milk of the mother, and if that is wanting or insufficient, there is rarely another woman to be found that would be willing, or, perhaps, in the proper condition, to take pity on the poor starving being. I cannot say that the Californian women are too fond of their children, and some of them may even consider the loss of one as a relief from a burden, especially if they have

already some small children. I did not see many Californian mothers who caressed their children much while they lived, or tore their hair when they died, although a kind of dry weeping is not wanting on such occasions. The father is still more insensible, and does not even look at his (or at least his wife's) child as long as it is small and helpless.

Nothing causes the Californians less trouble and care than the education of their children, which is merely confined to a short period, and ceases as soon as the latter are capable of making a living for themselves-that is, to catch mice and to kill snakes. If the young Californians have once acquired sufficient skill and strength to follow these pursuits, it is all the same to them whether they have parents or not. Nothing is done by these in the way of admonition or instruction, nor do they set an example worthy to be imitated by their offspring. The children do what they please, without fearing reprimand or punishment, however disorderly and wicked their conduct may be. It would be well if the parents did not grow angry when their children are now and then slightly chastised for gross misdemeanor by order of the missionary; but, instead of bearing with patience such wholesome correction of their little sons and daughters, they take great offence and become enraged, especially the mothers, who will scream like furies, tear out the hair, beat their naked breasts with a stone, and lacerate their heads with a piece of wood or bone till the blood flows, as I have frequently witnessed on such occasions.*

The consequence is, that the children follow their own inclinations without any restraint, and imitate all the bad habits and practices of their equals, or still older persons, without the slightest apprehension of being blamed by their fathers and mothers, even if these should happen to detect them in the act of committing the most disgraceful deeds. The young Californians who live in the missions commence roaming about as soon as mass is over, and those that spend their time in the fields go wherever, and with whomsoever, they please, not seeing for many days the faces of their parents, who, in their turn, do not manifest the slightest concern about their children, nor make any inquiries after them. These are disadvantages which the missionary has no power of amending, and such being the case, it is easy to imagine how little he can do by instruction, exhortation, and punishment, towards improving the moral condition of these young natives.

Heaven may enlighten the Californians, and preserve Europe, and especially Germany, from such a system of education, which coincides, in part, with the plan proposed by that ungodly visionary, J. J. Rousseau, in his "Emile," and which is also recommended by some other modern philosophers of the same tribe. If their designs are carried out, education, so far as faith, religion, and the fear of God are concerned, is not to be commenced before the eighteenth or twentieth year, which, if viewed in the proper light, simply means to adopt theCalifornian method, and to bring up youth without any education at all.

(TO BE CONTINUED IN THE NEXT REPORT.)

This statement does not seem to agree well with the alleged indifference of the Californian women towards their children, and the formalities which the Californians were obliged to observe, when meeting with the mothers and other female relations of their wives, renders a total absence of jealousy among them rather doubtful. Dr. Waitz has also pointed out the latter discrepancy while citing a number of facts contained in our author's work, (Anthropologie der Naturvælker, vol. iv, p. 250.) My object being simply to give an English version of Baegert's account, I abstain from all comments on such real or seeming incongruities.

24 s

ETHNOLOGY.

FROM THE LONDON ATHENEUM.

HALIFAX, NOVA SCOTIA, June 21, 1863. DURING the last winter's session of the Nova Scotian Institute of Natural Science, the Rev. John Ambrose, rector of the parish of St. Margaret's bay, a district lying on the Atlantic seaboard of this colony, brought to the notice of the Institute the existence of extensive beds of refuse shells and bones, mixed with fragments of rude pottery, and perfect and imperfect flint arrow and spear heads. Gifted with an inquiring mind, the gentleman in question naturally considered that their occurrence was not a matter of chance; and, following up the subject, he ascertained that similar beds had been known to exist on the shores of Denmark and the adjacent isles, and that they had received the name of kjøkken-mædding, or kitchen-middings, from being heaps of refuse shells, bones, &c., thrown aside by the primitive race of men who, in days of remote antiquity, visited annually, or dwelt continuously, in such positions. On perusing an article published in the report of the Smithsonian Institution for 1860, which gave an interesting account of the kitchen middings of Europe, as surveyed by the Danish archeologists, a perfect resemblance to those of the Nova Scotian coast was at once perceived, in so far at least as the few specimens then obtained from these heaps proved.

To endeavor to make a thorough search, and prove the nature of these deposits, the Council of the Institute of Natural Science decided upon having a field meeting on the spot where the kitchen middings lay; and, accordingly, on the 11th of June last, a large party proceeded by land from Halifax, the capital of the province, to St. Margaret's bay, which is distant, in a S.SW. direction, about twenty-two miles. This bay is exceedingly spacious, runs inland some eight or ten miles, and is in breadth, perhaps, five or six miles. A few islands stand at the entrance as well as at its head, and long, low, promontories, clothed with spruce, birch, and maple, stretch into the water at the NE. corner, forming snug coves and sheltered strands. It is on the shore of one of these minor bays, having a sandy beach, where canoes could be hauled up easily and safely, that the principal kjøkken-mædding, found by Mr. Ambrose, lay, on a rising knoll some twenty feet above the bay at high-water mark. It forms part of a grass field belonging to a farm-house hard by, and according to the statement of the farmer, and the appearance it presents, has been submitted to little, if any, disturbance at the hand of man. The deposit appears to have extended about fifty yards or more in length by a well-defined breadth of eight yards. Its surface is irregularly depressed and dotted over, on its western extremity, with granitic boulders of no great size. The soil which covers the mass is similar to that of the field in which it occurs, though, perhaps, a little darker in color. It grows common meadow grass and the ordinary field plants, and its depth does not exceed two or three inches when the shell deposit appears, presenting a layer of compact shells, perfect and imperfect, in which lie bones of animals and birds, flint and quartz arrow and spear heads, large and small teeth, and broken pieces of very roughly made pottery, bearing evident traces of attempt at ornament. This pottery was very dark in color, and contained in its substance grains of granitic sand, and mica in quantity. From the pieces of rim obtained, judging from their curvature, the earthen vessels could scarcely have exceeded the dimensions of a quart bowl. These bowls or cups must have been in common use, as the fragments occur in some plenty. No traces