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

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СКАЧАТЬ of this division are the Cahuillas and the Diegueños, the former living around the San Bernardino and San Jacinto mountains, and the latter in the southern extremity of California. Around each mission were scores of small bands, whose rancherías were recorded in the mission books, the natives as a whole being known only by the name of the mission. When first discovered by Cabrillo in 1542, the islands off the coast were inhabited by a superior people, but these they were induced by the padres to abandon, following which event the people rapidly faded away. The natives called the island of Santa Cruz Liniooh, Santa Rosa Hurmal, San Miguel Twocan, and San Nicolas Ghalashat.

As we approach the southern boundary of California a slight improvement is manifest in the aborigines. The men are here well made, of a stature quite up to the average, comparatively fair-complexioned and pleasant-featured. The children of the islanders are described by the early voyagers as being white, with light hair and ruddy cheeks, and the women as having fine forms, beautiful eyes, and a modest demeanor.566 The beard is plucked out with a bivalve shell, which answers the purpose of pincers.

      DRESS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.

A short cloak of deer-skin or rabbit-skins sewed together, suffices the men for clothing; and sometimes even this is dispensed with, for they think it no shame to be naked.567 The women and female children wear a petticoat of skin, with a heavy fringe reaching down to the knees; in some districts they also wear short capes covering the breasts.568 On the coast and, formerly, on the islands, seals furnished the material.569 The more industrious and wealthy embroider their garments profusely with small shells. Around Santa Barbara rings of bone or shell were worn in the nose; at Los Angeles nasal ornaments were not the fashion. The women had cylinder-shaped pieces of ivory, sometimes as much as eight inches, in length, attached to the ears by a shell ring. Bracelets and necklaces were made of pieces of ivory ground round and perforated, small pebbles, and shells.

Paint of various colors was used by warriors and dancers. Mr. Hugo Reid, who has contributed valuable information concerning the natives of Los Angeles County, states that girls in love paint the cheeks sparingly with red ochre, and all the women, before they grow old, protect their complexion from the effects of the sun by a plentiful application of the same cosmetic.570 Vizcaino saw natives on the southern coast painted blue and silvered over with some kind of mineral substance. On his asking where they obtained the silver-like material they showed him a kind of mineral ore, which they said they used for purposes of ornamentation.571

They take much pride in their hair, which they wear long. It is braided, and either wound round the head turban-like,572 or twisted into a top-knot; some tie it in a queue behind. According to Father Boscana the girls are tattooed in infancy on the face, breast, and arms. The most usual method was to prick the flesh with a thorn of the cactus-plant; charcoal produced from the maguey was then rubbed into the wounds, and an ineffaceable blue was the result.573

      DWELLINGS AND FOOD.

Dwellings, in the greater part of this region, differ but little from those of the Central Californians. In shape they are conical or semi-globular, and usually consist of a frame, formed by driving long poles into the ground, covered with rushes and earth.574 On the coast of the Santa Barbara Channel there seems to have been some improvement in their style of architecture. It was probably here that Cabrillo saw houses built after the manner of those in New Spain.575 It is possible that the influences of the southern civilization may have extended as far as this point. Father Boscana's description of the temples or vanquechs erected by the natives in the vicinity of San Juan Capistrano, in honor of their god, Chinigchinich, is thus translated: "They formed an enclosure of about four or five yards in circumference, not exactly round, but inclining to an oval. This they divided by drawing a line through the centre, and built another, consisting of the branches of trees, and mats to the height of about six feet, outside of which, in the other division, they formed another of small stakes of wood driven into the ground. This was called the gate, or entrance, to the vanquech. Inside of this, and close to the larger stakes, was placed a figure of their god Chinigchinich, elevated upon a kind of hurdle. This is the edifice of the vanquech."576

Almost every living thing that they can lay their hands on serves as food. Coyotes, skunks, wild cats, rats, mice, crows, hawks, owls, lizards, frogs, snakes, excepting him of the rattle, grasshoppers and other insects, all are devoured by the inland tribes. Stranded whales, animals of the seal genus, fish, and shell-fish, form the main support of those inhabiting the coast. Venison they are of course glad to eat when they can get it, but as they are poor hunters, it is a rare luxury. When they did hunt the deer they resorted to the same artifice as their northern neighbors, placing a deer's head and horns on their own head, and thus disguised approaching within bow-shot. Bear-meat the majority refuse to eat from superstitious motives.577 Grasshoppers are eaten roasted. Acorns are shelled, dried, and pounded in stone mortars into flour, which is washed and rewashed in hot and cold water until the bitterness is removed, when it is made into gruel with cold water, or baked into bread. Various kinds of grass-seeds, herbs, berries, and roots, are also eaten, both roasted and raw. Wild fowl are caught in nets made of tules, spread over channels cut through the rushes in places frequented by the fowl, at a sufficient height above the water to allow the birds to swim easily beneath them. The game is gently driven or decoyed under the nets, when at a given signal, a great noise is made, and the terrified fowl, rising suddenly, become hopelessly entangled in the meshes, and fall an easy prey. Or selecting a spot containing clear water about two feet deep, they fasten a net midway between the surface and the bottom, and strewing the place with berries, which sink to the bottom under the net, they retire. The fowl approach and dive for the berries. The meshes of the net readily admit the head, but hold the prisoner tight upon attempting to withdraw it. And what is more, their position prevents them from making a noise, and they serve also as a decoy for others. Fish are taken in seines made from the tough bark of the tioñe-tree. They are also killed with spears having a movable bone head, attached to a long line, so that when a fish is struck the barb becomes loosened; line is then paid out until the fish is exhausted with running, when it is drawn in. Many of the inland tribes come down to the coast in the fishing season, and remain there until the shoals leave, when they return to the interior. Food is either boiled by dropping hot stones into water-baskets, or, more frequently, in vessels made of soap-stone.578

      In their cooking, as in other respects, they are excessively unclean. They bathe frequently, it is true, but when not in the water they are wallowing in filth. Their dwellings are full of offal and other impurities, and vermin abound on their persons.

      WEAPONS AND WAR.

Bows and arrows, and clubs, are as usual the weapons most in use. Sabres of hard wood, with edges that cut like steel, are mentioned by Father Junípero Serra.579 War is a mere pretext for plunder; the slightest wrong, real or imaginary, being sufficient cause for a strong tribe to attack a weaker one. The smaller bands form temporary alliances; the women and children accompanying the men on a raid, carrying provisions for the march, and during an engagement they pick up the fallen arrows of the enemy and so keep their own warriors supplied. Boscana says that no male prisoners СКАЧАТЬ