EREMONIES A

ervances, and easily wrought upon by the priests or medicine men of their tribes. Elaborate ceremonies were carried out, in which all of the details were highly symbolical

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great deal of stamping upon the ground with their bare feet, and the women performing a curious sideways, swaying motion. Some of the dancers carried wands or arrows, and indulged in wild gesticulations. They usually circled slow

etails, and of recent years the Indians have sometimes given public exhibitions of what purported to be war dances, but these performances, like everything else which they

TIV

es and other ceremonials, and also a grand feast, for which extensive preparations are made. Another feature of the occasion is the presentation of gifts to the visiting tribes, consisting of money, blankets, clothing, baskets, bead-work, or other

ground and sits on it, and the other Indians throw money, clothing, or other contributions, into the blanket, to pay him and his assistants for their se

RIA

and sometimes more, wives. Some of the chiefs and head men would have wives from several of

e payment of the price constituted the main part of the marriage ceremony. The wife was then the personal property of the husband, which he might sell or gamble away if he wished; but

arriage, if she consented to become a man's wife, recei

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NG YO

askets to make them straight,

o be guilty of unfaithfulness to her husband, the penalty was death. Such a thing as a man whipping or beating his wife

treated in such a kind, patient, loving manner, that disobedience was a fault rarely known. The pre-natal maternal influence, a

in what is called civilized life, Indian husbands have been k

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AND V

i and the Royal Arches, from their resemblance to

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eople. They claimed to be spiritual mediums, and to have communication with the departed spirits of some of their old and most revered chieftains and dear friends, now in a much more happy condition than when here in earthly life. They were thought to be endowed with supernatural powers

variety of epidemic and other diseases. When a doctor failed to cure these diseases, and several deaths occurred

subdued and broken-hearted, sickened and died very fast, and most of the men doctors wer

w but very few Indians, there is not so much sickness, and very few deaths in a year, so that

a piece of obsidian, and suck out the blood with the mouth. In cases of headache, the forehead was operated on; in

ort time, ostensibly to get under the influence of the divine healing spirit, but in reality to fill his mouth with several small articles, such as bits of wood or stone; he was then ready to commence treatment. After sucking and spitting pure blood a few times, he began to spit

have great faith in charms made of the pungent roots of some rare plants from the high mountain ranges,

would excavate a place in the ground and put the patient in it, either in a sitting or recumbent position, as the nature of the case re

d the patient died, he was obliged to refund to the re

NG OF T

e the universal custom of the Indians along the foothills of the

. The chief mourners of the occasion seemed to take but little active part in the ceremonies. When all was ready, one of the assistants would light the fire, and the terrible, wailing, mournful cry would commence, and the professional chanters, with peculiar sidling movements and frantic gestures, would circle round and round ab

d be sent to distant relatives, and the others pounded to a fine powder, then mixed with pine pitch and plastered on the faces of the nearest female relatives as a

the body, that he may get it to take to his own world of darkness and misery. By burning the perishable body they thought that the immortal soul would be more quick

nal beauty, and they seldom have it cut before marriage. But upon the death of a husband the wife has her hair all cut off and bur

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KALA

in the Valley. The short h

benefit, will be received and made use of in the spirit world. In recent years the Yosemites and other remnants of tribes closely associated with them, have adopted the custom of the white people, and bury their dead. The fine, expensive blankets, and most beautifull

r being released from the reservations they kept themselves in abject poverty for many sacrificing their best blankets, baskets and clothin

OUS BE

They hold them too sacred to be exposed to possible ridicule, and it is t

y some misfortune or great calamity they were separated from that nappy land, and became wanderers in this part of the world. They also believe that the spirits of all good Indians will be permitted, after death, to go back to that h

ives or friends has been murdered, he will not receive them on terms of friendship in the spirit world unless they revenge his death, by

m and defeat their undertakings. They also have a fairly distinct idea of a Diety or Great Spirit

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TE BAS

collection of bas