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

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СКАЧАТЬ ground for the women.449

The temporary summer houses of the Northern Californians are square, conical, and inverted-bowl-shaped huts; built, when square, by driving light poles into the ground and laying others horizontally across them; when conical, the poles are drawn together at the top into a point; when bowl-shaped, both ends of the poles are driven into the ground, making a semi-circular hut. These frames, however shaped, are covered with neatly woven tule matting,450 or with bushes or ferns.451

      HUNTING AND FISHING.

The Californians are but poor hunters; they prefer the snare to the bow and arrow. Yet some of the mountain tribes display considerable dexterity in the chase. To hunt the prong-buck, the Klamath fastens to each heel a strip of ermine-skin, and keeping the herd to the windward, he approaches craftily through the tall grass as near as possible, then throwing himself on his back, or standing on his head, he executes a pantomime in the air with his legs. Naturally the antelope wonder, and being cursed with curiosity, the simple animals gradually approach. As soon as they arrive within easy shooting-distance, down go the hunter's legs and up comes the body. Too late the antelope learn their mistake; swift as they are, the arrow is swifter; and the fattest buck pays the penalty of his inquisitiveness with his life. The Veeards, at Humboldt Bay, construct a slight fence from tree to tree, into which inclosure elk are driven, the only exit being by a narrow opening at one end, where a pole is placed in such a manner as to force the animal to stoop in passing under it, when its head is caught in a noose suspended from the pole. This pole is dragged down by the entangled elk, but soon he is caught fast in the thick undergrowth, and firmly held until the hunter comes up.452 Pitfalls are also extensively used in trapping game. A narrow pass, through which an elk or deer trail leads, is selected for the pit, which is ten or twelve feet deep. The animals are then suddenly stampeded from their feeding-grounds, and, in their wild terror, rush blindly along the trail to destruction.453 The bear they seldom hunt, and if one is taken, it is usually by accident, in one of their strong elk-traps. Many of the tribes refuse to eat bear-meat, alleging that the flesh of a man-eating animal is unclean; but no doubt Bruin owes his immunity as much to his teeth and claws as to his uncleanness.

      FISHING BY NIGHT ON THE KLAMATH.

Fishing is more congenial to the lazy taste of these people than the nobler but more arduous craft of hunting; consequently fish, being abundant, are generally more plentiful in the aboriginal larder than venison. Several methods are adopted in taking them. Sometimes a dam of interwoven willows is constructed across a rapid at the time when salmon are ascending the river; niches four or five feet square are made at intervals across the dam, in which the fish, pressed on by those behind, collect in great numbers and are there speared or netted without mercy. Much ingenuity and labor are required to build some of the larger of these dams. Mr. Gibbs describes one thrown across the Klamath, where the river was about seventy-five yards wide, elbowing up the stream in its deepest part. It was built by first driving stout posts into the bed of the river, at a distance of some two feet apart, having a moderate slope, and supported from below, at intervals of ten or twelve feet, by two braces; the one coming to the surface of the water, the other reaching to the string-pieces. These last were heavy spars, about thirty feet in length, and secured to each post by withes. The whole dam was faced with twigs, carefully peeled, and placed so close together as to prevent the fish from passing up. The top, at this stage of the water, was two or three feet above the surface. The labor of constructing this work must, with the few and insufficient tools of the natives, have been immense. Slight scaffolds were built out below it, from which the fish were taken in scoop-nets; they also employ drag-nets and spears, the latter having a movable barb, which is fastened to the shaft with a string in order to afford the salmon play.454 On Rogue River, spearing by torch-light—a most picturesque sight—is resorted to. Twenty canoes sometimes start out together, each carrying three persons—two women, one to row and the other to hold the torch, and a spearman. Sometimes the canoes move in concert, sometimes independently of each other; one moment the lights are seen in line, like an army of fire-flies, then they are scattered over the dark surface of the water like ignes fatui. The fish, attracted by the glare, rise to the surface, where they are transfixed by the unerring aim of the spearmen. Torchlight spearing is also done by driving the fish down stream in the day-time by dint of much wading, yelling, and howling, and many splashes, until they are stopped by a dam previously erected lower down; another dam is then built above, so that the fish cannot escape. At night fires are built round the edge of the enclosed space, and the finny game speared from the bank.455 Some tribes on the Klamath erect platforms over the stream on upright poles, on which they sleep and fish at the same time. A string leads from the net either to the fisherman himself or to some kind of alarm; and as soon as a salmon is caught, its floundering immediately awakens the slumberer. On the sea-shore smelts are taken in a triangular net stretched on two slender poles; the fisherman wades into the water up to his waist, turns his face to the shore, and his back to the incoming waves, against whose force he braces himself with a stout stick, then as the smelts are washed back from the beach by the returning waves, he receives them in his net. The net is deep, and a narrow neck connects it with a long network bag behind; into this bag the fish drop when the net is raised, but they cannot return. In this manner the fisherman can remain for some time at his post, without unloading.

      Eels are caught in traps having a funnel-shaped entrance, into which the eels can easily go, but which closes on them as soon as they are in. These traps are fastened to stakes and kept down by weights. Similar traps are used to take salmon.

      When preserved for winter use, the fish are split open at the back, the bone taken out, then dried or smoked. Both fish and meat, when eaten fresh, are either broiled on hot stones or boiled in water-tight baskets, hot stones being thrown in to make the water boil. Bread is made of acorns ground to flour in a rough stone mortar with a heavy stone pestle, and baked in the ashes. Acorn-flour is the principal ingredient, but berries of various kinds are usually mixed in, and frequently it is seasoned with some high-flavored herb. A sort of pudding is also made in the same manner, but is boiled instead of baked.

They gather a great variety of roots, berries, and seeds. The principal root is the camas,456 great quantities of which are dried every summer, and stored away for winter provision. Another root, called kice, or kace,457 is much sought after. Of seeds they have the wocus,458 and several varieties of grass-seeds. Among berries the huckleberry and the manzanita berry are the most plentiful.459 The women do the cooking, root and berry gathering, and all the drudgery.

The winter stock of smoked fish hangs in the family room, sending forth an ancient and fish-like smell. Roots and seeds are, among some of the more northerly tribes, stored in large wicker boxes, built in the lower branches of strong, wide-spreading trees. The trunk of the tree below the granary is smeared with pitch to keep away vermin.459 The Modocs are sometimes obliged to cache their winter hoard under rocks and bushes; the great number of their enemies and bad character of their ostensibly friendly neighbors, rendering it unsafe for them to store it in their villages. So cunningly do they conceal their treasure that one winter, after an unusually heavy fall of snow, they themselves could not find it, and numbers starved in consequence.460

Although the Northern СКАЧАТЬ