Part 37 (2/2)
[Sidenote: WAR AND WEAPONS.]
The Northern Californians are not of a very warlike disposition, hence their weapons are few, being confined chiefly to the bow and arrow.[462]
The bow is about three feet in length, made of yew, cedar, or some other tough or elastic wood, and generally painted. The back is flat, from an inch and a half to two inches wide, and covered with elk-sinews, which greatly add both to its strength and elasticity; the string is also of sinew. The bow is held horizontally when discharged, instead of perpendicularly as in most countries. The arrows are from two to three feet long, and are made sometimes of reed, sometimes of light wood. The points, which are of flint, obsidian, bone, iron, or copper, are ground to a very fine point, fastened firmly into a short piece of wood, and fitted into a socket in the main shaft, so that on withdrawing the arrow the head will be left in the wound. The feathered part, which is from five to eight inches long, is also sometimes a separate piece bound on with sinews. The quiver is made of the skin of a fox, wild-cat, or some other small animal, in the same shape as when the animal wore it, except at the tail end, where room is left for the feathered ends of arrows to project. It is usually carried on the arm.[463]
Mr Powers says: ”doubtless many persons who have seen the flint arrow-heads made by the Indians, have wondered how they succeeded with their rude implements, in tr.i.m.m.i.n.g them down to such sharp, thin points, without breaking them to pieces. The Veeards--and probably other tribes do likewise--employ for this purpose a pair of buck-horn pincers, tied together at the point with a thong. They first hammer out the arrow-head in the rough, and then with these pincers carefully nip off one tiny fragment after another, using that infinite patience which is characteristic of the Indian, spending days, perhaps weeks, on one piece. There are Indians who make arrows as a specialty, just as there are others who concoct herbs and roots for the healing of men.”[464] The Shastas especially excelled in making obsidian arrow-heads; Mr Wilkes of the Exploring Expedition notices them as being ”beautifully wrought,”
and Lyon, in a letter to the American Ethnological Society, communicated through Dr E. H. Davis, describes the very remarkable ingenuity and skill which they display in this particular. The arrow-point maker, who is one of a regular guild, places the obsidian pebble upon an anvil of talcose slate and splits it with an agate chisel to the required size; then holding the piece with his finger and thumb against the anvil, he finishes it off with repeated slight blows, administered with marvelous adroitness and judgment. One of these artists made an arrow-point for Mr Lyon out of a piece of a broken porter-bottle. Owing to his not being acquainted with the grain of the gla.s.s, he failed twice, but the third time produced a perfect specimen.[465] The Wallies poison their arrows with rattlesnake-virus, but poisoned weapons seem to be the exception.[466] The bow is skilfully used; war-clubs are not common.[467]
[Sidenote: WAR AND ITS MOTIVES.]
Wars, though of frequent occurrence, were not particularly b.l.o.o.d.y. The casus belli was usually that which brought the Spartan King before the walls of Ilion, and t.i.tus Tatius to incipient Rome--woman. It is true, the Northern Californians are less cla.s.sic abductors than the spoilers of the Sabine women, but their wars ended in the same manner--the ravished fair cleaving to her warrior-lover. Religion also, that ever-fruitful source of war, is not without its conflicts in savagedom; thus more than once the Shastas and the Umpquas have taken up arms because of wicked sorceries, which caused the death of the people.[468]
So when one people obstructed the river with their weir, thereby preventing the ascent of salmon, there was nothing left for those above but to fight or starve.
Along Pitt River, pits from ten to fifteen feet deep were formerly dug, in which the natives caught man and beast. These man-traps, for such was their primary use, were small at the mouth, widening toward the bottom, so that exit was impossible, even were the victim to escape impalement upon sharpened elk and deer horns, which were favorably placed for his reception. The opening was craftily concealed by means of light sticks, over which earth was scattered, and the better to deceive the unwary traveler, footprints were frequently stamped with a moccasin in the loose soil. Certain landmarks and stones or branches, placed in a peculiar manner, warned the initiated, but otherwise there was no sign of impending danger.[469]
Some few nations maintain the predominancy and force the weaker to pay tribute.[470] When two of these dominant nations war with each other, the conflict is more sanguinary. No scalps are taken, but in some cases the head, hands, or feet of the conquered slain are severed as trophies.
The Cahrocs sometimes fight hand to hand with ragged stones, which they use with deadly effect. The Rogue River Indians kill all their male prisoners, but spare the women and children.[471] The elk-horn knives and hatchets are the result of much labor and patience.[472]
The women are very ingenious in plaiting gra.s.s, or fine willow-roots, into mats, baskets, hats, and strips of parti-colored braid for binding up the hair. On these, angular patterns are worked by using different shades of material, or by means of dyes of vegetable extraction. The baskets are of various sizes, from the flat, basin-shaped, water-tight, rush bowl for boiling food, to the large pointed cone which the women carry on their backs when root-digging or berry-picking.[473] They are also expert tanners, and, by a comparatively simple process, will render skins as soft and pliable as cloth. The hide is first soaked in water till the hair loosens, then stretched between trees or upright posts till half dry, when it is sc.r.a.ped thoroughly on both sides, well beaten with sticks, and the brains of some animal, heated at a fire, are rubbed on the inner side to soften it. Finally it is buried in moist ground for some weeks.
[Sidenote: MANUFACTURES AND BOATS.]
The interior tribes manifest no great skill in boat-making, but along the coast and near the mouth of the Klamath and Rogue rivers, very good canoes are found. They are still, however, inferior to those used on the Columbia and its tributaries. The lashed-up-hammock-shaped bundle of rushes, which is so frequently met in the more southern parts of California, has been seen on the Klamath,[474] but I have reason to think that it is only used as a matter of convenience, and not because no better boat is known. It is certain that dug-out canoes were in use on the same river, and within a few miles of the spot where tule buoys obtain. The fact is, this bundle of rushes is the best craft that could be invented for salmon-spearing. Seated astride, the weight of the fisherman sinks it below the surface; he can move it noiselessly with his feet so that there is no splas.h.i.+ng of paddles in the sun to frighten the fish; it cannot capsize, and striking a rock does it no injury.
Canoes are hollowed from the trunk of a single redwood, pine, fir, sycamore, or cottonwood tree. They are blunt at both ends and on Rogue River many of them are flat-bottomed. It is a curious fact that some of these canoes are made from first to last without being touched with a sharp-edged tool of any sort. The native finds the tree ready felled by the wind, burns it off to the required length, and hollows it out by fire. Pitch is spread on the parts to be burned away, and a piece of fresh bark prevents the flames from extending too far in the wrong direction. A small shelf, projecting inward from the stern, serves as a seat. Much trouble is sometimes taken with the finis.h.i.+ng up of these canoes, in the way of sc.r.a.ping and polis.h.i.+ng, but in shape they lack symmetry. On the coast they are frequently large; Mr Powers mentions having seen one at Smith River forty-two feet long, eight feet four inches wide, and capable of carrying twenty-four men and five tons of merchandise. The natives take great care of their canoes, and always cover them when out of the water to protect them from the sun. Should a crack appear they do not caulk it, but st.i.tch the sides of the split tightly together with withes. They are propelled with a piece of wood, half pole, half paddle.[475]
[Sidenote: WEALTH IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA.]
Wealth, which is quite as important here as in any civilized communities, and of much more importance than is customary among savage nations, consists in sh.e.l.l-money, called _allicochick_, white deer-skins, canoes, and, indirectly, in women. The sh.e.l.l which is the regular circulating medium is white, hollow, about a quarter of an inch through, and from one to two inches in length. On its length depends its value. A gentleman, who writes from personal observation, says: ”all of the older Indians have tattooed on their arms their standard of value. A piece of sh.e.l.l corresponding in length to one of the marks being worth five dollars, 'Boston money,' the scale gradually increases until the highest mark is reached. For five perfect sh.e.l.ls corresponding in length to this mark they will readily give one hundred dollars in gold or silver.”[476] White deer-skins are rare and considered very valuable, one const.i.tuting quite an estate in itself.[477] A scalp of the red-headed woodp.e.c.k.e.r is equivalent to about five dollars, and is extensively used as currency on the Klamath. Canoes are valued according to their size and finish. Wives, as they must be bought, are a sign of wealth, and the owner of many is respected accordingly.[478]
Among the Northern Californians, hereditary chieftains.h.i.+p is almost unknown. If the son succeed the father it is because the son has inherited the father's wealth, and if a richer than he arise the ancient ruler is deposed and the new chief reigns in his stead. But to be chief means to have position, not power. He can advise, but not command; at least, if his subjects do not choose to obey him, he cannot compel obedience.
There is most frequently a head man to each village, and sometimes a chief of the whole tribe, but in reality each head of a family governs his own domestic circle as he thinks best. As in certain republics, when powerful applicants become multiplied--new offices are created, as salmon-chief, elk-chief, and the like. In one or two coast tribes the office is hereditary, as with the Patawats on Mad River, and that mysterious tribe at Trinidad Bay, mentioned by Mr Meyer, the Allequas.[479]
Their penal code is far from Draconian. A fine of a few strings of allicochick appeases the wrath of a murdered man's relatives and satisfies the requirements of custom. A woman may be slaughtered for half the sum it costs to kill a man. Occasionally banishment from the tribe is the penalty for murder, but capital punishment is never resorted to. The fine, whatever it is, must be promptly paid, or neither city of refuge nor sacred altar-horns will s.h.i.+eld the murderer from the vengeance of his victim's friends.[480]
[Sidenote: WOMEN AND DOMESTIC AFFAIRS.]
In vain do we look for traces of that Arcadian simplicity and disregard for worldly advantages generally accorded to children of nature.
Although I find no description of an actual system of slavery existing among them, yet there is no doubt that they have slaves. We shall see that illegitimate children are considered and treated as such, and that women, ent.i.tled by courtesy wives, are bought and sold. Mr Drew a.s.serts that the Klamath children of slave parents, who, it may be, prevent the profitable prost.i.tution or sale of the mother, are killed without compunction.[481]
Marriage, with the Northern Californians, is essentially a matter of business. The young brave must not hope to win his bride by feats of arms or softer wooing, but must buy her of her father, like any other chattel, and pay the price at once, or resign in favor of a richer man.
The inclinations of the girl are in nowise consulted; no matter where her affections are placed, she goes to the highest bidder, and ”Mammon wins his way where seraphs might despair.” Neither is it a trifling matter to be bought as a wife; the social position of the bride herself, as well as that of her father's family thereafter, depends greatly upon the price she brings; her value is voted by society at the price her husband pays for her, and the father whose daughter commands the greatest number of strings of allicochick, is greatly to be honored. The purchase effected, the successful suitor leads his blus.h.i.+ng property to his hut and she becomes his wife without further ceremony. Wherever this system of wife-purchase obtains, the rich old men almost absorb the female youth and beauty of the tribe, while the younger and poorer men must content themselves with old and ugly wives. Hence their eagerness for that wealth which will enable them to throw away their old wives and buy new ones. When a marriage takes place among the Modocs, a feast is given at the house of the bride's father, in which, however, neither she nor the bridegroom partake. The girl is escorted by the women to a lodge, previously furnished by public contributions, where she is subsequently joined by the man, who is conducted by his male friends.
All the company bear torches, which are piled up as a fire in the lodge of the wedded pair, who are then left alone. In some tribes this wife-traffic is done on credit, or at least partially so; but the credit system is never so advantageous to the buyer as the ready-money system, for until the full price is paid, the man is only 'half-married,' and besides he must live with his wife's family and be their slave until he shall have paid in full.[482] The children of a wife who has cost her husband nothing are considered no better than b.a.s.t.a.r.ds, and are treated by society with contumely; n.o.body a.s.sociates with them, and they become essentially ostracized. In all this there is one redeeming feature for the wife-buyer; should he happen to make a bad bargain he can, in most instances, send his wife home and get his money back. Mr Gibbs a.s.serts that they shoot their wives when tired of them, but this appears inconsistent with custom.
[Sidenote: ADULTERY AND CHASt.i.tY.]
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