The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft Part 58

The Lower Californians are well formed, robust and of good stature, with limbs supple and muscular; they are not inclined to corpulence; their features are somewhat heavy, the forehead low and narrow, the nose well set on, but thick and fleshy; the inner corners of the eyes round instead of pointed; teeth very white and regular, hair very black, coa.r.s.e, straight, and glossy, with but little on the face, and none upon the body or limbs. The color of the skin varies from light to dark brown, the former color being characteristic of the dwellers in the interior, and the latter of those on the sea-coast.[852]

[Sidenote: COCHIMi AND PERICuI DRESS.]

Adam without the fig-leaves was not more naked than were the Cochimis before the missionaries first taught them the rudiments of shame. They ignored even the usual breech-cloth, the only semblance of clothing being a head-dress of rushes or strips of skin interwoven with mother-of-pearl sh.e.l.ls, berries, and pieces of reed. The Guaicuris and Pericuis indulge in a still more fantastic head-dress, white feathers entering largely into its composition. The women display more modesty, for, although scantily clad, they at least essay to cover their nakedness. The Pericui women are the best dressed of all, having a petticoat reaching from the waist to the ankles, made from the fibre of certain palm-leaves, and rendered soft and flexible by beating between two stones. Over the shoulders they throw a mantle of similar material, or of plaited rushes, or of skins. The Cochimi women make ap.r.o.ns of short reeds, strung upon cords of aloe-plant fibres fastened to a girdle. The ap.r.o.n is open at the sides, one part hanging in front, the other behind. As they are not more than six or eight inches wide, but little of the body is in truth covered. When traveling they wear sandals of hide, which they fasten with strings pa.s.sed between the toes.[853]

Both s.e.xes are fond of ornaments; to gratify this pa.s.sion, they string together pearls, sh.e.l.ls, fruit-stones and seeds in the forms of necklaces and bracelets. In addition to the head-dress the Pericuis are distinguished by a girdle highly ornamented with pearls and mother-of-pearl sh.e.l.ls. They perforate ears, lips, and nose, inserting in the openings, sh.e.l.ls, bones, or hard sticks. Paint in many colors and devices is freely used on war and gala occasions; tattooing obtains, but does not appear to be universal among them. Mothers, to protect them against the weather, cover the entire bodies of their children with a varnish of coal and urine. Cochimi women cut the hair short, but the men allow a long tuft to grow on the crown of the head. Both s.e.xes among the Guaicuris and Pericuis wear the hair long and flowing loosely over the shoulders.[854]

Equally Adamitic are their habitations. They appear to hold a superst.i.tious dread of suffocation if they live or sleep in covered huts; hence in their rare and meagre attempts to protect themselves from the inclemencies of the weather, they never put any roof over their heads. Roving beast-like in the vicinity of springs during the heat of the day, seeking shade in the ravines and overhanging rocks; at night, should they desire shelter, they resort to caverns and holes in the ground. During winter they raise a semi-circular pile of stones or brushwood, about two feet in height, behind which, with the sky for a roof and the bare ground for a bed, they camp at night. Over the sick they sometimes throw a wretched hut, by sticking a few poles in the ground, tying them at the top and covering the whole with gra.s.s and reeds, and into this nest visitors crawl on hands and knees.[855]

[Sidenote: LOWER CALIFORNIAN FOOD.]

Reed-roots, wild fruit, pine-nuts, cabbage-palms, small seeds roasted, and also roasted aloe and mescal roots const.i.tute their food. During eight weeks of the year they live wholly on the redundant fat-producing _pitahaya_, after which they wander about in search of other native vegetable products, and when these fail they resort to hunting and fis.h.i.+ng. Of animal food they will eat anything--beasts, birds, and fishes, or reptiles, worms, and insects; and all parts: flesh, hide, and entrails. Men and monkeys, however, as articles of food are an abomination; the latter because they so much resemble the former. The gluttony and improvidence of these people exceed, if possible, those of any other nation; alternate feasting and fasting is their custom. When so fortunate as to have plenty they consume large quant.i.ties, preserving none. An abominable habit is related of them, that they pick up the undigested seeds of the pitahaya discharged from their bowels, and after parching and grinding them, eat the meal with much relish. Clavigero, Baegert, and other authors, mention another rather uncommon feature in the domestic economy of the Cochimis; it is that of swallowing their meat several times, thereby multiplying their gluttonous pleasures.

Tying to a string a piece of well-dried meat, one of their number masticates it a little, and swallows it, leaving the end of the string hanging out of the mouth; after retaining it for about two or three minutes in his stomach, it is pulled out, and the operation repeated several times, either by the same individual or by others, until the meat becomes consumed. Here is Father Baegert's summary of their edibles: "They live now-a-days on dogs and cats; horses, a.s.ses and mules; item: on owls, mice and rats; lizards and snakes; bats, gra.s.shoppers and crickets; a kind of green caterpillar without hair, about a finger long, and an abominable white worm of the length and thickness of the thumb."[856]

Their weapon is the bow and arrow, but they use stratagem to procure the game. The deer-hunter deceives his prey by placing a deer's head upon his own; hares are trapped; the Cochimis throw a kind of boomerang or flat curved stick, which skims the ground and breaks the animal's legs.

Fish are taken from pools left by the tide and from the sea, sometimes several miles out, in nets and with the aid of long lances. It is said that at San Roche Island they catch fish with birds. They also gather oysters, which they eat roasted, but use no salt. They have no cooking utensils, but roast their meat by throwing it into the fire and after a time raking it out. Insects and caterpillars are parched over the hot coals in sh.e.l.ls. Fish is commonly eaten raw; they drink only water.[857] It is said that they never wash, and it is useless to add that in their filthiness they surpa.s.s the brutes.[858]

Besides bows and arrows they use javelins, clubs, and slings of cords, from which they throw stones. Their bows are six feet long, very broad and thick in the middle and tapering toward the ends, with strings made from the intestines of animals. The arrows are reeds about thirty inches in length, into the lower end of which a piece of hard wood is cemented with resin obtained from trees, and pointed with flint sharpened to a triangular shape and serrated at the edges. Javelins are sharpened by first hardening in the fire and then grinding to a point; they are sometimes indented like a saw. Clubs are of different forms, either mallet-head or axe shape; they also crook and sharpen at the edge a piece of wood in the form of a scimeter.[859]

Their wars, which spring from disputed boundaries, are frequent and deadly, and generally occur about fruit and seed time. The battle is commenced amidst yells and brandis.h.i.+ng of weapons, though without any preconcerted plan, and a tumultuous onslaught is made without regularity or discipline, excepting that a certain number are held in reserve to relieve those who have expended their arrows or become exhausted. While yet at a distance they discharge their arrows, but soon rush forward and fight at close quarters with their clubs and spears; nor do they cease till many on both sides have fallen.[860]

[Sidenote: IMPLEMENTS IN LOWER CALIFORNIA.]

Their implements and household utensils are both rude and few. Sharp flints serve them instead of knives; a bone ground to a point answers the purpose of a needle or an awl; and with a sharp-pointed stick roots are dug. Fire is obtained in the usual way from two pieces of wood. When traveling, water is carried in a large bladder. The sh.e.l.l of the turtle is applied to various uses, such as a receptacle for food and a cradle for infants.

The Lower Californians have little ingenuity, and their display of mechanical skill is confined to the manufacture of the aforesaid implements, weapons of war, and of the chase; they make some flat baskets of wicker work, which are used in the collection of seeds and fruits; also nets from the fibre of the aloe, one in which to carry provisions, and another fastened to a forked stick and hung upon the back, in which to carry children.[861]

For boats the inhabitants of the peninsula construct rafts of reeds made into bundles and bound tightly together; they are propelled with short paddles, and seldom are capable of carrying more than one person. In those parts where trees grow a more serviceable canoe is made from bark, and sometimes of three or more logs, not hollowed out, but laid together side by side and made fast with withes or pita-fibre cords. These floats are buoyant, the water was.h.i.+ng over them as over a catamaran. On them two or more men will proceed fearlessly to sea, to a distance of several miles from the coast. To transport their chattels across rivers, they use wicker-work baskets, which are so closely woven as to be quite impermeable to water; these, when loaded, are pushed across by the owner, who swims behind.[862]

Besides their household utensils and boats, and the feathers or ornaments on their persons, I find no other property. They who dwell on the sea-coast occasionally travel inland, carrying with them sea-sh.e.l.ls and feathers to barter with their neighbors for the productions of the interior.[863]

They are unable to count more than five, and this number is expressed by one hand; some few among them are able to understand that two hands signify ten, but beyond this they know nothing of enumeration, and can only say much or many, or show that the number is beyond computation, by throwing sand into the air and such like antics. The year is divided into six seasons; the first is called Mejibo, which is midsummer, and the time of ripe pitahayas; the second season Amaddappi, a time of further ripening of fruits and seeds; the third Amadaappigalla, the end of autumn and beginning of winter; the fourth, which is the coldest season, is called Majibel; the fifth, when spring commences, is Majiben; the sixth, before any fruits or seeds have ripened, consequently the time of greatest scarcity, is called Majiibenmaaji.[864]

Neither government nor law is found in this region; every man is his own master, and administers justice in the form of vengeance as best he is able. As Father Baegert remarks: 'The different tribes represented by no means communities of rational beings, who submit to laws and regulations and obey their superiors, but resembled far more herds of wild swine, which run about according to their own liking, being together to-day and scattered to-morrow, till they meet again by accident at some future time. In one word, the Californians lived, _salva venia_, as though they had been free-thinkers and materialists.'

In hunting and war they have one or more chiefs to lead them, who are selected only for the occasion, and by reason of superior strength or cunning.[865]

[Sidenote: MARRIAGE.]

Furthermore, they have no marriage ceremony, nor any word in their language to express marriage. Like birds or beasts they pair off according to fancy. The Pericui takes as many women as he pleases, makes them work for him as slaves, and when tired of any one of them turns her away, in which case she may not be taken by another. Some form of courts.h.i.+p appears to have obtained among the Guaicuris; for example, when a young man saw a girl who pleased him, he presented her with a small bowl or basket made of the pita-fibre; if she accepted the gift, it was an evidence that his suit was agreeable to her, and in return she gave him an ornamented head-dress, the work of her own hand; then they lived together without further ceremony. Although among the Guaicuris and Cochimis some hold a plurality of wives, it is not so common as with the Pericuis, for in the two first-mentioned tribes there are more men than women. A breach of female chast.i.ty is sometimes followed by an attempt of the holder of the woman to kill the offender; yet morality never attained any great height, as it is a practice with them for different tribes to meet occasionally for the purpose of holding indiscriminate s.e.xual intercourse. Childbirth is easy; the Pericuis and Guaicuris wash the body of the newly born, then cover it with ashes; as the child grows it is placed on a frame-work of sticks, and if a male, on its chest they fix a bag of sand to prevent its b.r.e.a.s.t.s growing like a woman's, which they consider a deformity. For a cradle the Cochimis take a forked stick or bend one end of a long pole in the form of a hoop, and fix thereto a net, in which the infant is placed and covered with a second net. It can thus be carried over the shoulder, or when the mother wishes to be relieved, the end of the pole is stuck in the ground, and nourishment given the child through the meshes of the net.

When old enough the child is carried astride on its mother's shoulders.

As soon as children are able to get food for themselves, they are left to their own devices, and it sometimes happens that when food is scarce the child is abandoned, or killed by its parents.[866]

[Sidenote: LOWER CALIFORNIAN FEAST.]

Nevertheless, these miserables delight in feasts, and in the gross debauchery there openly perpetrated. Unacquainted with intoxicating liquors, they yet find drunkenness in the fumes of a certain herb smoked through a stone tube, and used chiefly during their festivals. Their dances consist of a series of gesticulations and jumpings, accompanied by inarticulate murmurings and yells. One of their great holidays is the pitahaya season, when, with plenty to eat, they spend days and nights in amus.e.m.e.nts; at such times feats of strength and trials of speed take place. The most noted festival among the Cochimis occurs upon the occasion of their annual distribution of skins. To the women especially it was an important and enjoyable event. Upon an appointed day all the people collected at a designated place. In an arbor constructed with branches, the road to which was carpeted with the skins of wild animals that had been killed during the year, their most skillful hunters a.s.sembled; they alone were privileged to enter the arbor, and in their honor was already prepared a banquet and pipes of wild tobacco. The viands went round as also the pipe, and, in good time, the partakers became partially intoxicated by the smoke; then one of the priests or sorcerers, arrayed in his robe of ceremony, appeared at the entrance to the arbor, and made a speech to the people, in which he recounted the deeds of the hunters. Then the occupants of the arbor came out and made a repart.i.tion of the skins among the women; this finished, dancing and singing commenced and continued throughout the night. It sometimes happened that their festivals ended in fighting and bloodshed, as they were seldom conducted without debauchery, especially among the Guaicuris and Pericuis.[867]

When they have eaten their fill they pa.s.s their time in silly or obscene conversation, or in wrestling, in which sports the women often take a part. They are very adroit in tracking wild beasts to their lairs and taming them. At certain festivals their sorcerers, who were called by some _quamas_, by others _cusiyaes_, wore long robes of skins, ornamented with human hair; these sages filled the offices of priests and medicine-men, and threatened their credulous brothers with innumerable ills and death, unless they supplied them with provisions.

These favored of heaven professed to hold communication with oracles, and would enter caverns and wooded ravines, sending thence doleful sounds, to frighten the people, who were by such tricks easily imposed upon and led to believe in their deceits and juggleries.[868]

As to ailments, Lower Californians are subject to consumption, burning fevers, indigestion, and cutaneous diseases. Small pox, measles, and syphilis, the last imported by troops, have destroyed numberless lives.

Wounds inflicted by the bites of venomous reptiles may be added to the list of troubles. Loss of appet.i.te is with them, generally, a symptom of approaching death. They submit resignedly to the treatment prescribed by their medicine-men, however severe or cruel it may be. They neglect their aged invalids, refusing them attendance if their last sickness proves too long, and recovery appears improbable. In several instances they have put an end to the patient by suffocation or otherwise.[869]

Diseases are treated externally by the application of ointments, plasters, and fomentations of medicinal herbs, particularly the wild tobacco. Smoke is also a great panacea, and is administered through a stone tube placed on the suffering part. The usual juggleries attend the practice of medicine. In extreme cases they attempt to draw with their fingers the disease from the patient's mouth. If the sick person has a child or sister, they cut its or her little finger of the right hand, and let the blood drop on the diseased part. Bleeding with a sharp stone and whipping the affected part with nettles, or applying ants to it, are among the remedies used. For the cure of tumors, the medicine-men burst and suck them with their lips until blood is drawn. Internal diseases are treated with cold-water baths. The means employed by the medicine-man are repeated by the members of the patient's family and by his friends. In danger even the imitation of death startles them. If an invalid is p.r.o.nounced beyond recovery, and he happens to slumber, they immediately arouse him with blows on the head and body, for the purpose of preserving life.[870]

[Sidenote: DEATH AND BURIAL IN LOWER CALIFORNIA.]

Death is followed by a plaintive, mournful chant, attended with howling by friends and relatives, who beat their heads with sharp stones until blood flows freely. Without further ceremony they either inter or burn the body immediately, according to the custom of the locality: in the latter case they leave the head intact. Oftentimes they bury or burn the body before life has actually left it, never taking pains to ascertain the fact.[871]

Weapons and other personal effects are buried or burned with the owner; and in some localities, where burying is customary, shoes are put to the feet, so that the spiritualized body may be prepared for its journey. In Colecha and Guajamina mourning ceremonies are practiced certain days after death--juggleries--in which the priest pretends to hold converse with the departed spirit through the scalp of the deceased, commending the qualities of the departed, and concluding by asking on the spirit's behalf that all shall cut off their hair as a sign of sorrow. After a short dance, more howling, hair-pulling, and other ridiculous acts, the priest demands provisions for the spirit's journey, which his hearers readily contribute, and which the priest appropriates to his own use, telling them it has already started. Occasionally they honor the memory of their dead by placing a rough image of the departed on a high pole, and a _quama_ or priest sings his praises.[872]

The early missionaries found the people of the peninsula kind-hearted and tractable, although dull of comprehension and brutal in their instincts, rude, narrow-minded, and inconstant. A marked difference of character is observable between the Cochimis and the Pericuis. The former are more courteous in their manners and better behaved; although cunning and thievish, they exhibit attachment and grat.i.tude to their superiors; naturally indolent and addicted to childish pursuits and amus.e.m.e.nts, they lived among themselves in amity, directing their savage and revengeful nature against neighboring tribes with whom they were at variance. The Pericuis, before they became extinct, were a fierce and barbarous nation, unruly and brutal in their pa.s.sions, cowardly, treacherous, false, petulant, and boastful, with an intensely cruel and heartless disposition, often shown in relentless persecutions and murders. In their character and disposition the Guaicuris did not differ essentially from the Pericuis. In the midst of so much darkness there was still one bright spot visible, inasmuch as they were of a cheerful and happy nature, lovers of kind and lovers of country. Isolated, occupying an ill-favored country, it was circ.u.mstances, rather than any inherent incapacity for improvement, that held these poor people in their low state; for, as we shall see at some future time, in their intercourse with civilized foreigners, they were not lacking in cunning, diplomacy, selfishness, and other aids to intellectual progress.[873]

[Sidenote: NORTHERN MEXICANS.]

The NORTHERN MEXICANS, the fourth and last division of this group, spread over the territory lying between parallels 31 and 23 of north lat.i.tude. Their lands have an average breadth of about five hundred miles, with an area of some 250,000 square miles, comprising the states of Sonora, Sinaloa, Chihuahua, Durango, Nuevo Leon, and the northern portions of Zacatecas, San Luis Potosi and Tamaulipas.

Nearly parallel with the Pacific seaboard, and dividing the states of Sonora and Sinaloa from Chihuahua and Durango, runs the great central Cordillera; further to the eastward, pa.s.sing through Coahuila, Nuevo Leon, and San Luis Potosi, and following the sh.o.r.e line of the Mexican Gulf, the Sierra Madre continues in a southerly direction, until it unites with the first-named range at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. All of these mountains abound in mineral wealth. The table-land between them is intersected by three ridges; one, the Sierra Mimbres, issuing from the inner flank of the Western Cordillera north of Arispe, extending in a northerly direction and following the line of the Rio Grande. The middle mountainous divide crosses from Durango to Coahuila, while the third rises in the state of Jalisco and taking an easterly and afterward northerly direction, traverses the table-land and merges into the Sierra Madre in the state of San Luis Potosi. On these broad table-lands are numerous lakes fed by the streams which have their rise in the mountains adjacent; in but few spots is the land available for tillage, but it is admirably adapted to pastoral purposes. The climate can hardly be surpa.s.sed in its tonic and exhilarating properties; the atmosphere is ever clear, with suns.h.i.+ne by day, and a galaxy of brilliant stars by night; the absence of rain, fogs, and dews, with a delicious and even temperature, renders habitations almost unnecessary. All this vast region is occupied by numerous tribes speaking different languages and claiming distinct origins. Upon the northern seaboard of Sonora and Tiburon Island are the _Ceris_, _Tiburones_, and _Tepocas_; south of them the _Cahitas_, or _Sinaloas_, which are general names for the _Yaquis_ and _Mayos_, tribes so called from the rivers on whose banks they live. In the state of Sinaloa there are also the _Cochitas_, _Tuvares_, _Sabaibos_, _Zuaques_, and _Ahomes_, besides many other small tribes. Scattered through the states of the interior are the _opatas_, _Eudeves_, _Jovas_, _Tarahumares_, _Tubares_, and _Tepehuanes_, who inhabit the mountainous districts of Chihuahua and Durango. East of the Tarahumares, in the northern part of the first-named state, dwell the _Conchos_. In Durango, living in the hills round Topia, are the _Acaxees_; south of whom dwell the _Xiximes_. On the table-lands of Mapimi and on the sh.o.r.es of its numerous lakes, the _Irritilas_ and many other tribes are settled; while south of these again, in Zacatecas and San Luis Potosi, are the _Guachichiles_, _Huamares_, and _Cazcanes_, and further to the east, and bordering on the gulf sh.o.r.es we find the country occupied by scattered tribes, distinguished by a great variety of names, prominent among which are the _Carrizas_ or _Garzas_, _Xanambres_, and _Pintos_.[874]

[Sidenote: PHYSICAL PECULIARITIES IN NORTH MEXICO.]

Most of these nations are composed of men of large stature; robust, and well formed, with an erect carriage; the finest specimens are to be found on the sea-coast, exceptions being the opatas and Chicoratas, the former inclining to corpulency, the latter being short, although active and swift runners. The women are well limbed and have good figures, but soon become corpulent. The features of these people are quite regular, the head round and well shaped, with black and straight hair; they have high cheek-bones and handsome mouths, with a generally mild and pleasing expression of countenance. They have piercing black eyes, and can distinguish objects at great distances. The Ceris see best toward the close of the day, owing to the strong reflection from the white sands of the coast during the earlier part of the day. The Carrizas are remarkable for their long upper lip. The men of this region have little beard; their complexion varies from a light brown to a copper shade.

Many of them attain to a great age.[875]

For raiment the Cahitas and Ceris wear only a small rag in front of their persons, secured to a cord tied round the waist; the Tarahumares, Acaxees, and other nations of the interior use for the same purpose a square piece of tanned deer-skin painted, except in cold weather, when they wrap a large blue cotton mantle round the shoulders. The women have petticoats reaching to their ankles, made of soft chamois or of cotton or agave-fibre, and a _tilma_ or mantle during the winter. Some wear a long sleeveless chemise, which reaches from the shoulders to the feet.

The Ceri women have petticoats made from the skins of the albatross or pelican, the feathers inside. The opata men, soon after the conquest, were found well clad in blouse and drawers of cotton, with wooden shoes, while their neighbors wore sandals of raw hide, cut to the shape of the foot.[876]

The Cahitas, Acaxees and most other tribes, pierce the ears and nose, from which they hang small green stones, attached to a piece of blue cord; on the head, neck, and wrists, a great variety of ornaments are worn, made from mother-of-pearl and white snails' sh.e.l.ls, also fruit-stones, pearls, and copper and silver hoops; round the ankles some wear circlets of deer's hoofs, others decorate their heads and necks with necklaces of red beans and strings of paroquets and small birds; pearls and feathers are much used to ornament the hair. The practice of painting the face and body is common to all, the colors most in use being red and black. A favorite style with the Ceris is to paint the face in alternate perpendicular stripes of blue, red, and white. The Pintos paint the face, breast, and arms; the Tarahumares tattoo the forehead, lips, and cheeks in various patterns; the Yaquis the chin and arms; while other tribes tattoo the face or body in styles peculiar to themselves. Both s.e.xes are proud of their hair, which they wear long and take much care of; the women permit it to flow, in loose tresses, while the men gather it into one or more tufts on the crown of the head, and when hunting protect it by a chamois cap, to prevent its being disarranged by trees or bushes.[877]

[Sidenote: NORTHERN MEXICAN DWELLINGS.]

Their houses are of light construction, usually built of sticks and reeds, and are covered with coa.r.s.e reed matting. The Chinipas, Yaquis, opatas and Conchos build somewhat more substantial dwellings of timber and adobes, or of plaited twigs well plastered with mud; all are only one story high and have flat roofs. Although none of these people are without their houses or huts, they spend most of their time, especially during summer, under the trees. The Tarahumares find shelter in the deep caverns of rocky mountains, the Tepehuanes and Acaxees place their habitations on the top of almost inaccessible crags, while the Humes and Batucas build their villages in squares, with few and very small entrances, the better to defend themselves against their enemies--detached buildings for kitchen and store-room purposes being placed contiguous.[878]

The Northern Mexicans live chiefly on wild fruits such as the pitahaya, honey, grain, roots, fish, and larvae; they capture game both large and small, and some of them eat rats, mice, frogs, snakes, worms, and vermin. The Ahomamas along the sh.o.r.es of Lake Parras, the Yaquis, Batucas, Ceris, Tarahumares, and the opatas since the conquest have become agriculturists and cattle-breeders, besides availing themselves of fis.h.i.+ng and hunting as means of subsistence. On the coast of Sonora, there being no maize, the natives live on pulverized rush and straw, with fish caught at sea or in artificial enclosures. The dwellers on the coast of Sinaloa consume a large quant.i.ty of salt, which they gather on the land during the dry season, and in the rainy reason from the bottom of marshes and pools. It is said that the Salineros sometimes eat their own excrement. According to the reports of the older historians, the Tobosos, Bauzarigames, Cabezas, Contotores, and Acaxees, as well as other tribes of Durango and Sinaloa, formerly fed on human flesh,--hunted human beings for food as they hunted deer or other game.

The flesh of their brave foes they ate, thinking thereby to augment their own bravery.[879]

[Sidenote: METHODS OF HUNTING.]

The Ceris of Tiburon Island depend for food entirely on fish and game.

They catch turtle by approaching the animal and suddenly driving the point of their spear into its back, a cord being attached to the weapon by which they drag the prize on to the raft as soon as its strength has become exhausted. According to Gomara, the natives of Sonora in 1537 were caught poisoning the deer-pools, probably for the skins, or it may have been only a stupefying drink that the pools were made to supply.

The Sinaloans are great hunters; at times they pursue the game singly, then again the whole town turns out and, surrounding the thickest part of the forest, the people set fire to the underbrush and bring down the game as it attempts to escape the flames. A feast of reptiles is likewise thus secured. Iguanas are caught with the hands, their legs broken, and thus they are kept until required for food. For procuring wild honey, a bee is followed until it reaches its tree, the sweet-containing part of which is cut off and carried away. The Tarahumares hunt deer by driving them through narrow pa.s.ses, where men are stationed to shoot them. Others make use of a deer's head as a decoy. For fis.h.i.+ng they have various contrivances; some fish between the rocks with a pointed stick; others, when fis.h.i.+ng in a pool, throw into the water a species of cabbage or leaves of certain trees, that stupefy the fish, when they are easily taken with the hands; they also use wicker baskets, and near the Pacific Ocean they inclose the rivers, and catch enormous quant.i.ties of smelt and other fish, which have come up from the sea to sp.a.w.n. The Laguneros of Coahuila catch ducks by placing a calabash on their heads, with holes through which to breathe and see; thus equipped, they swim softly among the ducks, and draw them under water without flutter or noise. Tatema is the name of a dish cooked in the ground by the Tarahumares. The Laguneros make tortillas of flour obtained from an aquatic plant. The Zacatecs make the same kind of bread from the pulp of the maguey, which is first boiled with lime, then washed and boiled again in pure water, after which it is squeezed dry and made into cakes. Most of the people use _pozole_, or _pinolatl_, both being a kind of gruel made of pinole, of parched corn or seeds ground, the one of greater thickness than the other; also _tamales_, boiled beans, and pumpkins. The Ceris of Tiburon eat fish and meat uncooked, or but slightly boiled. The Salineros frequently devour uncooked hares and rabbits, having only removed their furs.[880]

[Sidenote: HOW ARROWS WERE MADE AND POISONED.]

The weapons universally used by these nations were bows and arrows and short clubs, in addition to which the chiefs and most important warriors carried a short lance and a buckler. The arrows were carried in a quiver made of lion or other skins. The Tarahumares and some others wore a leathern guard round the left wrist, to protect it from the blow of the bow-string. Flint knives were employed for cutting up their slain enemies. The Ceris, Jovas, and other tribes smeared the points of their arrows with a very deadly poison, but how it was applied to the point, or whence obtained, it is difficult to determine; some travelers say that this poison was taken from rattlesnakes and other venomous reptiles, which, by teasing, were incited to strike their fangs into the liver of a cow or deer which was presented to them, after which it was left to putrefy, and the arrows being dipped into the poisonous ma.s.s, were placed in the sun to dry; but other writers, again, a.s.sert that the poison was produced from a vegetable preparation. The wound inflicted by the point, however slight, is said to have caused certain death. The arrows were pointed with flint, or some other stone, or with bone, fastened to a piece of hard wood, which is tied by sinews to a reed or cane, notched, and winged with three feathers; when not required for immediate use, the tying was loosed, and the point reversed in the cane, to protect it from being broken. The Ceris and Chicoratos cut a notch a few inches above the point, so that in striking it should break off and remain in the wound. Their clubs were made of a hard wood called _guayacan_, with a k.n.o.b at the end, and when not in use were carried slung to the arm by a leather thong. Their lances were of Brazil wood, bucklers of alligator-skin, and s.h.i.+elds of bull's hide, sufficiently large to protect the whole body, with a hole in the top to look through.

Another kind of s.h.i.+eld was made of small lathes closely interwoven with cords, in such a manner that, when not required for use, it could be shut up like a fan, and was carried under the arm.[881]

Living in a state of constant war, arising out of family quarrels or aggressions made into each other's territories, they were not unskilled in military tactics. Previous to admission as a warrior, a young man had to pa.s.s through certain ordeals; having first qualified himself by some dangerous exploit, or having faithfully performed the duty of a scout in an enemy's country. The preliminaries being settled, a day was appointed for his initiation, when one of the braves, acting as his G.o.dfather, introduced him to the chief, who, for the occasion, had first placed himself in the midst of a large circle of warriors. The chief then addressed him, instructing him in the several duties required of him, and drawing from a pouch an eagle's talon, with it proceeded to score his body on the shoulders, arms, breast, and thighs, till the blood ran freely; the candidate was expected to suffer without showing the slightest signs of pain. The chief then handed to him a bow and a quiver of arrows; each of the braves also presented him with two arrows.

In the campaigns that followed, the novitiate must take the hardest duty, be ever at the post of danger, and endure without a murmur or complaint the severest privations, until a new candidate appeared to take his place.[882]