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

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СКАЧАТЬ them quite handsome, even in the Caucasian sense of the word;434 and although their beauty rapidly fades, yet they do not in old age present that unnaturally wrinkled and shriveled appearance, characteristic of the Central Californians. This description scarcely applies to the people inhabiting the coast about Redwood Creek, Humboldt Bay, and Eel River, who are squat and fat in figure, rather stoutly built, with large heads covered with coarse thick hair, and repulsive countenances, who are of a much darker color, and altogether of a lower type than the tribes to the east and north of them.435

      DRESS IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.

Dress depends more on the state of the climate than on their own sense of decency. The men wear a belt, sometimes a breech-clout, and the women an apron or skirt of deer-skin or braided grass; then they sometimes throw over the shoulders a sort of cloak, or robe, of marten or rabbit skins sewn together, deer-skin, or, among the coast tribes, seal or sea-otter skin. When they indulge in this luxury, however, the men usually dispense with all other covering.436 Occasionally we find them taking great pride in their gala dresses and sparing no pains to render them beautiful. The Modocs, for instance, took large-sized skins, and inlaid them with brilliant-colored duck-scalps, sewed on in various figures; others, again, embroidered their aprons with colored grasses, and attached beads and shells to a deep fringe falling from the lower part.437 A bowl-shaped hat, or cap, of basket-work, is usually worn by the women, in making which some of them are very skillful. This hat is sometimes painted with various figures, and sometimes interwoven with gay feathers of the woodpecker or blue quail.438 The men generally go bare-headed, their thick hair being sufficient protection from sun and weather. In the vicinity of the lakes, where, from living constantly among the long grass and reeds, the greatest skill is acquired in weaving and braiding, moccasins of straw or grass are worn.439 At the junction of the Klamath and Trinity rivers their moccasins have soles of several thicknesses of leather.440 The natives seen by Maurelle at Trinidad Bay, bound their loins and legs down to the ankle with strips of hide or thread, both men and women.

The manner of dressing the hair varies; the most common way being to club it together behind in a queue, sometimes in two, worn down the back, or occasionally in the latter case drawn forward over the shoulders. The queue is frequently twisted up in a knot on the back of the head—en castanna—as Maurelle calls it. Occasionally the hair is worn loose, and flowing, and some of the women cut it short on the forehead. It is not uncommon to see wreaths of oak or laurel leaves, feathers, or the tails of gray squirrels twisted in the hair; indeed, from the trouble which they frequently take to adorn their coiffure, one would imagine that these people were of a somewhat æsthetic turn of mind, but a closer acquaintance quickly dispels the illusion. On Eel River some cut all the hair short, a custom practiced to some extent by the Central Californians.441

      FACIAL ORNAMENTATION.

As usual these savages are beardless, or nearly so.442 Tattooing, though not carried to any great extent, is universal among the women, and much practiced by the men, the latter confining this ornamentation to the breast and arms. The women tattoo in three blue lines, extending perpendicularly from the centre and corners of the lower lip to the chin. In some tribes they tattoo the arms, and occasionally the back of the hands. As they grow older the lines on the chin, which at first are very faint, are increased in width and color, thus gradually narrowing the intervening spaces. Now, as the social importance of the female is gauged by the width and depth of color of these lines, one might imagine that before long the whole chin would be what Southey calls "blue, darkly, deeply, beautifully blue;" but fashion ordains, as in the lip-ornament of the Thlinkeets, that the lines should be materially enlarged only as the charms of youth fade, thus therewith gauging both age and respectability.443 In some few tribes, more especially in the vicinity of the lakes, the men paint themselves in various colors and grotesque patterns. Among the Modocs the women also paint. Miller says that when a Modoc warrior paints his face black before going into battle it means victory or death, and he will not survive a defeat.444 Both men and women pierce the dividing cartilage of the nose, and wear various kinds of ornaments in the aperture. Sometimes it is a goose-quill, three or four inches long, at others, a string of beads or shells. Some of the more northerly tribes wear large round pieces of wood or metal in the ears.445 Maurelle, in his bucolic description of the natives at Trinidad bay, says that "on their necks they wear various fruits, instead of beads."446 Vancouver, who visited the same place nearly twenty years later, states that "all the teeth of both sexes were by some process ground uniformly down horizontally to the gums, the women especially, carrying the fashion to an extreme, had their teeth reduced even below this level."447

      Here also we see in their habitations the usual summer and winter residences common to nomadic tribes. The winter dwellings, varying with locality, are principally of two forms—conical and square. Those of the former shape, which is the most widely prevailing, and obtains chiefly in the vicinity of the Klamath lakes and on the Klamath and Trinity rivers, are built in the manner following: A circular hole, from two to five feet in depth, and varying in diameter, is dug in the ground. Round this pit, or cellar, stout poles are sunk, which are drawn together at the top until they nearly meet; the whole is then covered with earth to the depth of several inches. A hole is left in the top, which serves as chimney and door, a rude ladder or notched pole communicating with the cellar below, and a similar one with the ground outside. This, however, is only the commoner and lighter kind of conical house. Many of them are built of much heavier timbers, which, instead of being bent over at the top, and so forming a bee-hive-shaped structure, are leaned one against the other.

The dwellings built by the Hoopahs are somewhat better. The inside of the cellar is walled up with stone; round this, and at a distance of a few feet from it, another stone wall is built on the surface level, against which heavy beams or split logs are leaned up, meeting at the top, or sometimes the lower ends of the poles rest against the inside of the wall, thus insuring the inmates against a sudden collapse of the hut.448

      CALIFORNIAN HABITATIONS.

The square style of dwelling is affected more by the coast tribes, although occasionally seen in the interior. A cellar, either square or round, is dug in the same manner as with the conical houses. The sides of the hole are walled with upright slabs, which project some feet above the surface of the ground. The whole structure is covered with a roof of sticks or planks, sloping gently outward, and resting upon a ridge-pole. The position of the door varies, being sometimes in the roof, sometimes on a level with the ground, and occasionally high up in the gable. Its shape and dimensions, however, never alter; it is always circular, barely large enough to admit a full-grown man on hands and knees. When on the roof or in the gable, a notched pole or mud steps lead up to the entrance; when on the ground, a sliding panel closes the entrance. In some cases, the excavation is planked up only to a level with the ground. The upper part is then raised several feet from the sides, leaving a bank, or rim, on which the inmates sleep; occasionally there is no excavation, the house being erected on the level ground, with merely a small fire-hole in the centre. The floors are kept smooth and clean, and a small space in front of the door, paved with stones and swept clean, serves as gossiping СКАЧАТЬ