The Native Races (Complete 5 Part Edition). Hubert Howe Bancroft

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СКАЧАТЬ to hold communication with oracles, and would enter caverns and wooded ravines, sending thence doleful sounds, to frighten the people, who were by such tricks easily imposed upon and led to believe in their deceits and juggleries.868

      As to ailments, Lower Californians are subject to consumption, burning fevers, indigestion, and cutaneous diseases. Small pox, measles, and syphilis, the last imported by troops, have destroyed numberless lives. Wounds inflicted by the bites of venomous reptiles may be added to the list of troubles. Loss of appetite is with them, generally, a symptom of approaching death. They submit resignedly to the treatment prescribed by their medicine-men, however severe or cruel it may be. They neglect their aged invalids, refusing them attendance if their last sickness proves too long, and recovery appears improbable. In several instances they have put an end to the patient by suffocation or otherwise.869

      Diseases are treated externally by the application of ointments, plasters, and fomentations of medicinal herbs, particularly the wild tobacco. Smoke is also a great panacea, and is administered through a stone tube placed on the suffering part. The usual juggleries attend the practice of medicine. In extreme cases they attempt to draw with their fingers the disease from the patient's mouth. If the sick person has a child or sister, they cut its or her little finger of the right hand, and let the blood drop on the diseased part. Bleeding with a sharp stone and whipping the affected part with nettles, or applying ants to it, are among the remedies used. For the cure of tumors, the medicine-men burst and suck them with their lips until blood is drawn. Internal diseases are treated with cold-water baths. The means employed by the medicine-man are repeated by the members of the patient's family and by his friends. In danger even the imitation of death startles them. If an invalid is pronounced beyond recovery, and he happens to slumber, they immediately arouse him with blows on the head and body, for the purpose of preserving life.870

      DEATH AND BURIAL IN LOWER CALIFORNIA.

      Death is followed by a plaintive, mournful chant, attended with howling by friends and relatives, who beat their heads with sharp stones until blood flows freely. Without further ceremony they either inter or burn the body immediately, according to the custom of the locality: in the latter case they leave the head intact. Oftentimes they bury or burn the body before life has actually left it, never taking pains to ascertain the fact.871

      Weapons and other personal effects are buried or burned with the owner; and in some localities, where burying is customary, shoes are put to the feet, so that the spiritualized body may be prepared for its journey. In Colechá and Guajamina mourning ceremonies are practiced certain days after death—juggleries—in which the priest pretends to hold converse with the departed spirit through the scalp of the deceased, commending the qualities of the departed, and concluding by asking on the spirit's behalf that all shall cut off their hair as a sign of sorrow. After a short dance, more howling, hair-pulling, and other ridiculous acts, the priest demands provisions for the spirit's journey, which his hearers readily contribute, and which the priest appropriates to his own use, telling them it has already started. Occasionally they honor the memory of their dead by placing a rough image of the departed on a high pole, and a quama or priest sings his praises.872

      The early missionaries found the people of the peninsula kind-hearted and tractable, although dull of comprehension and brutal in their instincts, rude, narrow-minded, and inconstant. A marked difference of character is observable between the Cochimís and the Pericúis. The former are more courteous in their manners and better behaved; although cunning and thievish, they exhibit attachment and gratitude to their superiors; naturally indolent and addicted to childish pursuits and amusements, they lived among themselves in amity, directing their savage and revengeful nature against neighboring tribes with whom they were at variance. The Pericúis, before they became extinct, were a fierce and barbarous nation, unruly and brutal in their passions, cowardly, treacherous, false, petulant, and boastful, with an intensely cruel and heartless disposition, often shown in relentless persecutions and murders. In their character and disposition the Guaicuris did not differ essentially from the Pericúis. In the midst of so much darkness there was still one bright spot visible, inasmuch as they were of a cheerful and happy nature, lovers of kind and lovers of country. Isolated, occupying an ill-favored country, it was circumstances, rather than any inherent incapacity for improvement, that held these poor people in their low state; for, as we shall see at some future time, in their intercourse with civilized foreigners, they were not lacking in cunning, diplomacy, selfishness, and other aids to intellectual progress.873

      NORTHERN MEXICANS.

      The Northern Mexicans, the fourth and last division of this group, spread over the territory lying between parallels 31° and 23° of north latitude. Their lands have an average breadth of about five hundred miles, with an area of some 250,000 square miles, comprising the states of Sonora, Sinaloa, Chihuahua, Durango, Nuevo Leon, and the northern portions of Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí and Tamaulipas.

      Nearly parallel with the Pacific seaboard, and dividing the states of Sonora and Sinaloa from Chihuahua and Durango, runs the great central Cordillera; further to the eastward, passing through Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and San Luis Potosí, and following the shore line of the Mexican Gulf, the Sierra Madre continues in a southerly direction, until it unites with the first-named range at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. All of these mountains abound in mineral wealth. The table-land between them is intersected by three ridges; one, the Sierra Mimbres, issuing from the inner flank of the Western Cordillera north of Arispe, extending in a northerly direction and following the line of the Rio Grande. The middle mountainous divide crosses from Durango to Coahuila, while the third rises in the state of Jalisco and taking an easterly and afterward northerly direction, traverses the table-land and merges into the Sierra Madre in the state of San Luis Potosí. On these broad table-lands are numerous lakes fed by the streams which have their rise in the mountains adjacent; in but few spots is the land available for tillage, but it is admirably adapted to pastoral purposes. The climate can hardly be surpassed in its tonic and exhilarating properties; the atmosphere is ever clear, with sunshine by day, and a galaxy of brilliant stars by night; the absence of rain, fogs, and dews, with a delicious and even temperature, renders habitations almost unnecessary. All this vast region is occupied by numerous tribes speaking different languages and claiming distinct origins. Upon the northern seaboard of Sonora and Tiburon Island are the Ceris, Tiburones, and Tepocas; south of them the Cahitas, or Sinaloas, which are general names for the Yaquis and Mayos, tribes so called from the rivers on whose banks they live. In the state of Sinaloa there are also the Cochitas, Tuvares, Sabaibos, Zuaques, and Ahomes, besides many other small tribes. Scattered through the states of the interior are the Ópatas, Eudeves, Jovas, Tarahumares, Tubares, and Tepehuanes, who inhabit the mountainous districts of Chihuahua and Durango. East of the Tarahumares, in the northern part of the first-named state, dwell the Conchos. In Durango, living in the hills round Topia, are the Acaxées; south of whom dwell the Xiximes. On the table-lands of Mapimi and on the shores of its numerous lakes, the Irritilas and many other tribes are settled; while south of these again, in Zacatecas and San Luis Potosí, are the Guachichiles, Huamares, and Cazcanes, and further to the east, and bordering on the gulf shores we find the country occupied by scattered tribes, distinguished by a great variety of names, prominent among which are the Carrizas or Garzas, Xanambres, and Pintos.874

      PHYSICAL PECULIARITIES IN NORTH MEXICO.

      Most of these nations are composed of men of large stature; robust, and well formed, with an erect carriage; the finest specimens are to be found on the sea-coast, exceptions being the Ópatas and Chicoratas, the former inclining to corpulency, the latter being short, although active and swift runners. The women are well limbed and have good figures, but soon become corpulent. The features of these people are quite regular, the head round and well shaped, with black and straight hair; they have high cheek-bones and handsome mouths, with a generally mild and pleasing expression of countenance. They have piercing black eyes, and can distinguish objects at great СКАЧАТЬ