Chapter V: Gods, Supernatural Beings, and Worship (2)

Many years having elapsed since the death of Ouiot, there appeared in the same place one called Ouiamot, reputed son of Tacu and Auzar--people unknown, but natives; it is thought by Boscana, of "some distant land." This Ouiamot is better known by his great name Chinigchinich, which means Almighty. He first manifested his powers to the people on a day when they had met in congregation for some purpose or other; he appeared dancing before them crowned with a kind of high crown made of tall feathers stuck into a circlet of some kind, girt with a kind of petticoat of feathers, and having his flesh painted black and red. Thus decorated he was called the _tobet_. Having danced some time, Chinigchinich called out the medicine-men, or _puplems_ as they were called, among whom it would appear the chiefs are always numbered, and confirmed their power; telling them that he had come from the stars to instruct them in dancing and all other things, and commanding that in all their necessities they should array themselves in the tobet, and so dance as he had danced, supplicating him by his great name, that thus they might receive of their petitions. He taught them how to worship him, how to build _vanquechs_, or places of worship, and how to direct their conduct in various affairs of life. Then he prepared to die, and the people asked him if they should bury him; but he warned them against attempting such a thing: If ye buried me, he said, ye would tread upon my grave, and for that my hand would be heavy upon you; look to it, and to all your ways, for lo, I go up where the high stars are, where mine eyes shall see all the ways of men; and whosoever will not keep my commandments nor observe the things I have taught, behold disease shall plague all his body, and no food shall come near his lips, the bear shall rend his flesh, and the crooked tooth of the serpent shall sting him.

[Sidenote: SANCTUARIES OF REFUGE.]

The vanquech, or place of worship, seems to have been an unroofed inclosure of stakes, within which, on a hurdle, was placed the image of the god Chinigchinich. This image was the skin of a coyote or that of a mountain-cat stuffed with the feathers of certain birds, and with various other things, so that it looked like a live animal; a bow and some arrows were attached to it on the outside, and other arrows were thrust down its throat so that the feathers of them appeared at the mouth as out of a quiver. The whole place of the inclosure was sacred, and not to be approached without reverence; it does not seem that sacrifices formed any part of the worship there offered, but only prayer, and sometimes a kind of pantomime connected with the undertaking desired to be furthered--thus, desiring success in hunting one mimicked the actions of the chase, leaping and twanging one's bow. Each vanquech was a city of refuge, with rights of sanctuary exceeding any ever granted in Jewish or Christian countries. Not only was every criminal safe there whatever his crime, but the crime was as it were blotted out from that moment, and the offender was at liberty to leave the sanctuary and walk about as before; it was not lawful even to mention his crime; all that the avenger could do was to point at him and deride him, saying: Lo, a coward, who has been forced to flee to Chinigchinich! This flight was rendered so much a meaner thing in that it only turned the punishment from the head of him that fled upon that of some of his relatives; life went for life, eye for eye, and tooth for tooth, even to the third and fourth generation, for justice' sake.

Besides Chinigchinich they worshiped, or at any rate feared, a god called Touch; who inhabited the mountains and the bowels of the earth, appearing, however, from time to time in the form of various animals of a terrifying kind. Every child at the age of six or seven received, sent to him from this god, some animal as a protector. To find out what this animal or spirit in the shape of animal was, narcotic drinks were swallowed, or the subject fasted and watched in the vanquech for a given time, generally three days. He whose rank entitled him to wait for his guardian apparition in the sacred inclosure, was set there by the side of the god's image, and on the ground before him was sketched by one of the wise men an uncouth figure of some animal. The child was then left to complete his vigil, being warned at the same time to endure its hardships with patience, in that any attempt to infringe upon its rules, by eating or drinking or otherwise, would be reported to the god by the sprawling figure the enchanter had drawn in the clay, and that in such a case the punishment of Chinigchinich would be terrible. After all this was over, a scar was made on the child's right arm, and sometimes on the thick part of the leg also, by covering the part, "according to the figure required," with a peculiar herb dried and powdered, and setting fire to it. This was a brand or seal required by Chinigchinich, and was besides supposed to strengthen the nerves and give "a better pulse for the management of the bow."[V-23]

The Acagchemems, like many other Californian tribes,[V-24] regard the great buzzard with sentiments of veneration, while they seem to have had connected with it several rites and ideas peculiar to themselves. They called this bird the _panes_, and once every year they had a festival of the same name, in which the principal ceremony was the killing of a buzzard without losing a drop of its blood. It was next skinned, all possible care being taken to preserve the feathers entire, as these were used in making the feathered petticoat and diadem, already described as part of the tobet. Last of all the body was buried within the sacred inclosure amid great apparent grief from the old women, they mourning as over the loss of relative or friend. Tradition explained this: the panes had indeed been once a woman, whom, wandering in the mountain ways, the great god Chinigchinich had come suddenly upon and changed into a bird. How this was connected with the killing of her anew every year by the people, and with certain extraordinary ideas held relative to that killing is, however, by no means clear; for it was believed that as often as the bird was killed it was made alive again, and more, and faith to move mountains--that the birds killed in one same yearly feast in many separate villages were one and the same bird. How these things were or why, none knew, it was enough that they were a commandment and ordinance of Chinigchinich, whose ways were not as the ways of men.[V-25]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: AND THERE WAS WAR IN HEAVEN.]

The Pericues of Lower California were divided into two sects, worshiping two hostile divinities who made a war of extermination upon each other. The tradition explains that there was a great lord in heaven, called Niparaya, who made earth and sea, and was almighty and invisible. His wife was Anayicoyondi, a goddess who, though possessing no body, bore him in a divinely mysterious manner three children; one of whom, Quaayayp, was a real man and born on earth, on the Acaragui mountains. Very powerful this young god was, and a long time he lived with the ancestors of the Pericues, whom it is almost to be inferred that he created; at any rate we are told that he was able to make men, drawing them up out of the earth. The men at last killed this their great hero and teacher, and put a crown of thorns upon his head.[V-26] Somewhere or other he remains lying dead to this day, and he remains constantly beautiful, neither does his body know corruption. Blood drips constantly from his wounds, and he can speak no more, being dead; yet there is an owl that speaks to him. And besides the before-spoken-of god Niparaya in heaven, there was another and hostile god called Wac or Tuparan. According to the Niparaya sect, this Wac had made war on their favorite god, and been by him defeated and cast forth of heaven into a cave under the earth, of which cave the whales of the sea were the guardians. With a perverse, though not unnatural obstinacy, the sect that held Wac or Tuparan to be their great god persisted in holding ideas peculiar to themselves with regard to the truth of the foregoing story; and their account of the great war in heaven and its results differed from the other, as differ the creeds of heterodox and orthodox everywhere; they ascribe, for example, part of the creation to other gods besides Niparaya.[V-27] The Cochimis and remaining natives of the Californian peninsula seem to have held in the main much the same ideas with regard to the gods and powers above them as the Pericues held, and the sorcerers of all had the common blowings, leapings, fastings, and other mummeries that make these professors of the sinister art so much alike everywhere in our territory.[V-28]

* * * * *

The natives of Nevada have ideas respecting a great kind Spirit of some kind, as well as a myth concerning an evil one; but they have no special class set apart as medicine-men.[V-29] The Utah belief seems to be as nearly as possible identical with that of Nevada.[V-30]

The Comanches acknowledge more or less vaguely a Supreme Spirit, but seem to use the Sun and the Earth as mediators with and, in some sort, as embodiments of him. They have a recognized body of sorcerers called _puyacantes_, and various religious ceremonies and chants; for the most part of a simple kind, and directed to the Sun as the great source of life, and to the Earth as the producer and receptacle of all that sustains life. According to the Abbé Domenech, every Comanche wears a little figure of the sun attached to his neck, or has a picture of it painted on his shield; from the ears of each hang also two crescents, which may possibly represent the moon.[V-31]

The Apaches recognize a supreme power in heaven under the name Yaxtaxitaxitanne, the creator and master of all things; but they render him no open service nor worship. To any taciturn cunning man they are accustomed to credit intercourse with a preternatural power of some kind, and to look to him as a sort of oracle in various emergencies. This is, in fact, their medicine-man, and in cases of illness he pretends to perform cures by the aid of herbs and ceremonies of various kinds.[V-32]

The Navajos, having the usual class of sorcerers, call their good deity Whaillahay, and their evil one Chinday; the principal use of their good god seems to be to protect them from their evil one. In smoking they sometimes puff their tobacco-smoke toward heaven with great formality; this is said to bring rain; to the same end certain long round stones, thought to be cast down by the clouds in a thunderstorm, are used with various ceremonies.

The sun, moon, and stars are thought to be powers connected with rain and fine weather; while the god Montezuma of their Pueblo neighbors is unknown among them.[V-33]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: MONTEZUMA OF THE PUEBLOS.]

All the Pueblo cities, though speaking different languages hold substantially the same faith. They seem to assent to the statement of the existence of a great and good spirit whose name is too sacred to be mentioned; but most say that Montezuma is his equal; and some, again, that the Sun is the same as or equal to Montezuma. There are, besides, the lesser divinities of water--Montezuma being considered in one aspect as the great rain-god, and as such often mentioned as being aided by or being in connection with a serpent. Over and above all these, the existence of a general class or body of evil spirits is taken for granted.

Many places in New Mexico claim to be the birthplace of the great leader, teacher, and god Montezuma. At any rate he is traditionally supposed to have appeared among the Pueblos before they had arrived at or built their present towns. Some traditions would make him either the ancestor or the creator of the same people; but the most regard him as a kind of semi or wholly divine priest, prophet, leader, and legislator. Under restrictions pointed out in a former note,[V-34] we may fairly regard him as at once the Melchizedek, the Moses, and the Messiah of these Pueblo desert wanderers from an Egypt that history is ignorant of, and whose name even tradition whispers not. He taught his people to build cities with tall houses, to construct estufas, or semi-sacred sweat-houses, and to kindle and guard the sacred fire.

At Acoma, it is said by some, was established the first Pueblo, and thence the people marched southward, forming others. Acoma was one, and Pecos another. At this last, Montezuma planted a tree upside down, and said that, on his leaving them, a strange nation should oppress them for many years, years also in which there should be no rain, but that they were to persist in watching the sacred fire until the tree fell, when he would return, with a white race which should destroy their enemies; and then rain should fall again and the earth be fertile. It is said that this tree fell from its abnormal position, as the American army entered Santa Fé.

[Sidenote: HE IS NOT DEAD BUT SLEEPETH.]

The watching of the fire, kept up in subterranean estufas, under a covering of ashes generally, and in the basin of a small altar, was no light task. The warriors took the post by turns, some said, for two successive days and nights, sans food, sans drink, sans sleep, sans everything. Others affirm that this watching was kept up till exhaustion and even death relieved the guard--the last not to be wondered at, seeing the insufferable closeness of the place and the accumulation of carbonic acid. The remains of the dead were, it was sometimes supposed, carried off by a monstrous serpent. This holy fire was believed to be the palladium of the city, and the watchers by it could well dream of that day, when, coming with the sun, Montezuma should descend by the column of smoke whose roots they fed, and should fill the shabby little estufa with a glory like that in a wilderness tabernacle they knew not of, where a more awful pillar of smoke shadowed the mystic cherubim. Hope dies hard, and the dim memories of a great past never quite fade away from among any people. No true-born British bard ever doubted of Arthur's return from his kingly rest in Avalon, nor that the flash of Excalibar should be one day again as the lightning of death in the eyes of the hated Saxon. The herders on the shore of Lucerne know that were Switzerland in peril, the Tell would spring from his sleep as at the crack of doom. "When Germany is at her lowest then is her greatness nearest" say the weird old ballads of that land; for then shall the Great Kaiser rise from the vault in the Kyffhäuser--Barbarossa shall rise, though his beard be grown through the long stone table. Neither is the Frank without his savior: Sing, O troubadours, sing and strike the chords proudly! Who shall prevail while Charlemagne but sleeps in the shadow of the Untersberg?--And so our Pueblo sentinel climbing the housetop at Pecos, looking ever eastward from Santo Domingo on the Rio Grande; he too waits for the beautiful feet upon the mountains and the plumes of him--

Who dwelt up in the yellow sun,
And sorrowing for man's despair,
Slid by his trailing yellow hair
To earth, to rule with love and bring
The blessedness of peace.[V-35]

The Pueblo chiefs seem to be at the same time priests; they perform the various simple rites by which the power of the sun and of Montezuma is recognized as well as the power--according to some accounts--of "the Great Snake, to whom by order of Montezuma they are to look for life;" they also officiate in certain ceremonies with which they pray for rain. There are painted representations of the Great Snake, together with that of a misshapen red-haired man declared to stand for Montezuma. Of this last there was also in 1845, in the pueblo of Laguna, a rude effigy or idol, intended, apparently, to represent only the head of the deity; it was made of tanned skin in the form of a brimless hat or cylinder open at the bottom. Half-way round, it was painted red; the other half was green. The green side was rudely marked to suggest a face: two triangles were cut for eyes; there was no nose; a circular leather patch served for a mouth, and two other patches in an appropriate situation suggested ears. Crowning the head was a small tuft of leather, said to be supplemented by feathers on festal occasions. A sorry image one would say, yet one looked upon by its exhibitors with apparently the greatest veneration; they kneeling in a most devoted manner, going through a form of prayer, and sprinkling it with a white powder. One of the worshipers said it was God and the brother of God; and the people bring it out in dry seasons, and, with dancing and other rites, invoke it for rain.

Christianity has now effaced the memory of most of the rites of the Pueblo religion, but Dr Ten Broeck noticed that many of the worshipers at the Christian church in Laguna carried little baskets in their hands containing images of domestic animals, or of beasts of the chase, molded in mud or dough; it being the custom, as it had been there from time immemorial, for those that had been successful in the chase, or in accumulating cattle, to bring such simulachres of their prosperity before the altar of God--probably, a modification produced by the poverty of the people of a rite as old as the altar of Abel, to wit, the offering of the firstlings and first-fruits to that Deity whose blessing had given the increase.

It has been affirmed, without much foundation or probability of truth, that the Pueblos worshiped fire and water.[V-36]

The Moquis know nothing of Montezuma; they believe in a Great Father, living where the sun rises, and in a great Mother, whose home is where the sun goes down. This Father is the father of evil, war, pestilence, and famine; but from the mother are all their joy, peace, plenty, and health.[V-37]

[Sidenote: MOJAVE DEITIES.]

The Mojaves tell of a certain Matevil, creator of heaven and earth, who was wont in time past to remain among them in a certain grand _casa_. This habitation was, however, by some untoward event broken down; the nations were destroyed; and Matevil departed eastward. Whence, in the latter days, he will again return to consolidate, prosper, and live with his people forever. This Matevil, or Mathowelia, has a son called Mastamho, who made the water and planted trees. There is also an Evil Spirit Newathie.[V-38]

* * * * *

From a letter just received from Judge Roseborough, I am enabled to close this chapter with some new and valuable facts regarding the religious ideas of certain tribes--not accurately specified--of the north-west portion of Upper California. The learned judge has given unusual attention to the subject of which he writes, and his opportunities for procuring information must have been frequent during ten years of travel and residence in the districts of the northern counties of California:--

Among the tribes in the neighborhood of Trinity river is found a legend relating to a certain Wappeckquemow, who was a giant, and apparently the father and leader of a pre-human race like himself. He was expelled from the country that he inhabited--near the mouth of the Klamath--for disobeying or offending some great god, and a curse was pronounced against him, so that not even his descendants should ever return to that land. On the expulsion of these Anakim, the ancestors of the people to whom this legend belongs came down from the north-west, a direction of migration, according to Judge Roseborough, uniformly adhered to in the legends of all the tribes of north-west California. These new settlers, however, like their predecessors of the giant race, quarreled with the great god and were abandoned by him to their own devices, being given over into the hands of certain evil powers or devils. Of these the first is Omahá, who, possessing the shape of a grizzly bear, is invisible and goes about everywhere bringing sickness and misfortune on mankind. Next there is Makalay, a fiend with a horn like a unicorn; he is swift as the wind and moves by great leaps like a kangaroo. The sight of him is usually death to mortals. There is, thirdly, a dreadful being called Kalicknateck, who seems a faithful reproduction of the great thunder-bird of the north: thus Kalicknateck "is a huge bird that sits on the mountain-peak, and broods in silence over his thoughts until hungry; when he will sweep down over the ocean, snatch up a large whale, and carry it to his mountain-throne, for a single meal."

Besides the before-mentioned powers of evil, these Trinity people have legends connected with other personages of the same nature, among whom are Wanuswegock, Surgelp, Napousney, and Nequiteh.

When white miners first came to work on the Trinity River, their advent caused, as may be imagined, much unsatisfactory speculation among the aborigines; some saying one thing of the whites and some another. At last an old seer of the Hoopah Valley settled the question by declaring that the new-comers were descendants of that banished Wappeckquemow, from whose heads the already-mentioned curse, forbidding their return, had been by some means lifted.

[Sidenote: THE KITCHEN-MIDDEN OF THE HOHGATES.]

The coast people in northern California have a story about a mysterious people called Hohgates, to whom is ascribed an immense bed of mussel-shells and bones of animals still existing on the table-land of Point St George, near Crescent City. These Hohgates, seven in number, are said to have come to the place in a boat, to have built themselves "houses above-ground, after the style of white men"--all this about the time that the first natives came down the coast from the north. These Hohgates, living at the point mentioned, killed many elk on land, and many seals and sea-lions in fishing excursions from their boats; using for the latter purpose a kind of harpoon made of a knife attached to a stick, and the whole fastened to the boat with a long line. They also sailed frequently to certain rocks, and loaded their little vessels with mussels. By all this they secured plenty of food, and the refuse of it, the bones and shells and so on, rapidly accumulated into the great _kjökken mödding_ still to be seen. One day, however, all the Hohgates being out at sea in their boat, they struck a huge sea-lion with their rude harpoon, and, unable or unwilling to cut or throw off their line, were dragged with fearful speed toward a great whirlpool, called Chareckquin, that lay far toward the north-west. It is the place where souls go, where in darkness and cold the spirits shiver for ever; living men suffer even from its winds--from the north-west wind, the bleak and bitter Charreck-rawek. And just as the boat reached the edge of this fearful place, behold, a marvelous thing: the rope broke and the sea-monster was swept down alone into the whirl of wind and water, while the Hohgates were caught up into the air; swinging round and round, their boat floated steadily up into the vast of heaven. Nevermore on earth were the Hohgates seen; but there are seven stars in heaven that all men know of, and these stars are the seven Hohgates that once lived where the great shell-bed near Crescent City now is.

FOOTNOTES:

[V-1] _Armstrong's Nar._, pp. 102, 193; _Richardson's Pol. Reg._, pp. 319-20, 325; _Richardson's Jour._, vol. i., pp. 358, 385; _Dall's Alaska_, pp. 144-5.

[V-2] _Hardisty_, in _Smithsonian Rept._, 1866, pp. 318-19; _Jarvis' Religion, Ind. N. Am._, p. 91; _Kennicott_, in _Whymper's Alaska_, p. 345; _Mackenzie's Voy._, p. cxxviii.; _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v., p. 178; _Ross_, in _Smithsonian Rept._, 1866, pp. 306-7; _Franklin's Nar._, vol. i., pp. 246-7; _Harmon's Jour._, p. 300; _Hooper's Tuski_, p. 317; _Richardson's Jour._, vol. i., pp. 385-6; _Dall's Alaska_, pp. 83-90; _Whymper's Alaska_, pp. 231-2.

[V-3] _Holmberg_, _Ethn. Skiz._, pp. 140-1; _Sauer_, _Billings' Ex._, p. 174.

[V-4] _D'Orbigny_, _Voy._, pp. 579-80; _Coxe's Russ. Dis._, p. 217; _Dall's Alaska_, pp. 335, 389; See _Bancroft's Nat. Races_, vol. i., p. 93.

[V-5] In Holmberg's account of these Thlinkeet supernatural powers, nothing is said of the sun or moon as indicating the possession of life by them or of any qualities not material. But Dunn, _The Oregon Territory_, p. 284, and Dixon, _Voyage Round the World_, pp. 189-90, describe at least some tribe or tribes of the Thlinkeets and many tribes of the Haidahs, that consider the sun to be a great spirit moving over the earth once every day, animating and keeping alive all creatures, and, apparently, as being the origin of all; the moon is a subordinate and night watcher.

[V-6] _Holmberg_, _Ethn. Skiz._, pp. 52-73; _Dall's Alaska_, pp. 421-3; _Kotzebue's New Voyage_, vol. ii., p. 58; _Dunn's Oregon_, p. 280; _Bendel's Alex. Arch._, pp. 31-3. This last traveler gives us a variation of the history of Yehl and Khanukh, which is best presented in his own words:--'The Klinkits do not believe in one Supreme Being, but in a host of good and evil spirits, above whom are towering two lofty beings of godlike magnitude, who are the principal objects of Indian reverence. These are Yethl and Kanugh--two brothers; the former the benefactor and well-wisher of mankind, but of a very whimsical and unreliable nature; the latter the stern God of War, terrible in his wrath, but a true patron of every fearless brave. It is he who sends epidemics, bloodshed and war to those who have displeased him, while it seems to be the principal function of Yethl to cross the sinister purposes of his dark-minded brother. Yethl and Kanugh lived formerly on earth, and were born of a woman of a supernatural race now passed away, about the origin and nature of which many conflicting legends are told, hard to comprehend. When Yethl walked on earth and was quite young he acquired great skill in the use of the bow and arrow. He used to kill large birds, assume their shape and fly about. His favorite bird was the raven; hence its name, "Yethl," which signifies "raven" in the Klinkit language. He had also the fogs and clouds at his command, and he would often draw them around him to escape his enemies. His brother's name, Kanugh, signifies "wolf," consequently "raven" and "wolf" are the names of the two gods of the Klinkits, who are supposed to be the founders of the Indian race.'

[V-7] _Dunn's Oregon_, pp. 253-9; _Scouler_, in _Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol. xi., p. 223; _Bancroft's Nat. Races_, vol. i., pp. 170-71.

[V-8] _Jewitt's Nar._, p. 83; _Scouler_, in _Lond. Geog. Soc., Jour._, vol. xi., pp. 223-4; _Mofras_, _Explor._, tom. i., p. 345; _Sutil y Mexicana_, _Viage_, p. 136; _Meares' Voy._, p. 270; _Hutchings' Cal. Mag._, vol. v., pp. 222-4; _Macfie's Vanc. Isl._, pp. 433-441, 455; _Barrett-Lennard's Trav._, pp. 51-3; _Sproat's Scenes_, pp. 40, 156-8, 167-75, 205-11; _Cook's Voy. to Pac._, vol. ii., p. 317. As illustrating strongly the Nootka ideas with regard to the sanctity of the moon and sun, as well as the connection of the sun with the fire, it may be well to call attention to the two following customs:--'El Tays [chief] no puede hacer uso de sus mugeres sin ver enteramente iluminado el disco de la luna.' _Sutil y Mexicana_, _Viage_, p. 145. 'Girls at puberty ... are kept particularly from the sun or fire.' _Bancroft's Nat. Races_, vol. i., p. 197. In this connection it may be mentioned that Mr Lord, _Naturalist_, vol. ii., p. 257, saw among the Nootkas while at Fort Rupert, a very peculiar Indian "medicine," a solid piece of native copper, hammered flat, oval it would appear from the description, and painted with curious devices, eyes of all sizes being especially conspicuous. The Hudson-Bay traders call it an "Indian copper," and said it was only exhibited on extraordinary occasions, and that its value to the tribe was estimated at fifteen slaves or two hundred blankets. This "medicine" was preserved in an elaborately ornamented wooden case, and belonging to the tribe, not to the chief, was guarded by the medicine-men. Similar sheets of copper are described by Schoolcraft as in use among certain of the Vesperic aborigines: May they all be intended for symbols of the sun, such as that reverenced by the Peruvians?

[V-9] _Ross' Adven._, pp. 287-9.

[V-10] 'The bravest woman of the tribe, one used to carrying ammunition to the warrior when engaged in fight, bared her breast to the person who for courage and conduct was deemed fit successor to the departed. From the breast he cut a small portion, which he threw into the fire. She then cut a small piece from the shoulder of the warrior, which was also thrown into the fire. A piece of bitter root, with a piece of meat, were next thrown into the fire, all these being intended as offerings to the Sun, the deity of the Flatheads.' _Tolmie_, in _Lord's Nat._, vol. ii., pp. 237-8. For references to the remaining matter of the paragraph see _Id._, vol. ii., pp. 237-43, 260.

[V-11] _Kane's Wand._, pp. 218-9; _Gibbs' Clallam and Lummi Vocab._, p. 15.

[V-12] This vol., pp. 95-6.

[V-13] _Wilkes' Nar._ in _U. S. Ex. Ex._, vol. v., pp. 124-5; _Cox's Adven._, vol. i., p. 317; _Dunn's Oregon_, pp. 125-6; _Franchère's Nar._, p. 258; _Mofras_, _Explor._, tom. ii., p. 354; _Ross' Adven._, p. 96; _Parker's Explor. Tour_, pp. 139, 246, 254; _Tolmie_, in _Lord's Nat._, vol. ii., p. 248; _Gibbs' Chinook Vocab._, pp. 11, 13; _Gibbs' Clallam and Lummi Vocab._, pp. 15, 29; _Irving's Astoria_, pp. 339-40; _Tylor's Prim. Cult._, vol. ii., p. 253.

[V-14] _Parker's Explor. Tour_, p. 254: 'The chiefs say, that they and their sons are too great to die of themselves, and although they may be sick, and decline, and die, as others do, yet some person, or some evil spirit instigated by some one, is the invisible cause of their death; and therefore when a chief, or chief's son dies, the supposed author of the deed must be killed.'

[V-15] _Alvord_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v., p. 652.

[V-16] _Stuart's Montana_, pp. 64-6.

[V-17] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.

[V-18] _Joaquin Miller's Life amongst the Modocs_, pp. 21, 116, 259-60, 360.

[V-19] _Powers' Pomo_, MS.

[V-20] _Beechey's Voy._, vol. ii., p. 78.

[V-21] _Fages_, in _Nouvelles Annales des Voy._, vol. ci., pp. 316, 335.

[V-22] Father Boscana, one of the earliest missionaries to Upper California, left behind him the short manuscript history from which the tradition following in the text has been taken--through the medium of a now rare translation by Mr Robinson. Filled with the prejudices of its age and of the profession of its author, it is yet marvelously truthlike; though a painstaking care has evidently been used with regard to its most apparently insignificant details, there are none of those too visible wrenchings after consistency, and fillings up of lacunae which so surely betray the hand of the sophisticator in so many monkish manuscripts on like and kindred subjects. There are found on the other hand frank confessions of ignorance on doubtful points, and many naïve and puzzled comments on the whole. It is apparently the longest and the most valuable notice in existence on the religion of a nation of the native Californians, as existing at the time of the Spanish conquest, and more worthy of confidence than the general run of such documents of any date whatever. The father procured his information as follows. He says: 'God assigned to me three aged Indians, the youngest of whom was over seventy years of age. They knew all the secrets, for two of them were _capitanes_, and the other a _pul_, who were well instructed in the mysteries. By gifts, endearments, and kindness, I elicited from them their secrets, with their explanations; and by witnessing the ceremonies which they performed, I learned by degrees, their mysteries. Thus, by devoting a portion of the nights to profound meditation, and comparing their actions with their disclosures, I was enabled after a long time, to acquire a knowledge of their religion.' _Boscana_, in _Robinson's Life in Cal._, p. 236.

[V-23] See p. 113, of this volume, for a custom among the Mexicans not without analogies to this.

[V-24] See p. 134, of this volume.

[V-25] _Boscana_, in _Robinson's Life in Cal._, pp. 242-301.

[V-26] The Christian leaven, whose workings are evident through this narrative, ferments here too violently to need pointing out.

[V-27] See pp. 83-4, this volume.

[V-28] _Venegas_, _Noticia de la Cal._, tom. i., pp. 102-124; _Clavigero_, _Storia della Cal._, tom. i., pp. 135-141; _Humboldt_, _Essai Pol._, tom. i., p. 314.

[V-29] _Virginia City Chronicle_, quoted in _S. F. Daily Ev'g Post_, of Oct. 12th, 1872; _Browne's Lower Cal._, p. 188.

[V-30] _De Smet's Letters_, p. 41.

[V-31] _Parker_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v., p. 684; _Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner's Rept._, pp. 35-6, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. iii.; _Barreiro_, _Ojeada sobre N. Mex._, ap. p. 8; _Filley's Life and Adven._, p. 82; _Marcy's Army Life_, pp. 58, 64; _Domenech_, _Jour. d'un Miss._, pp. 13, 131, 469.

[V-32] _Barreiro_, _Ojeada sobre N. Mex._, ap. pp. 2-3; _Henry_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. v., p. 212.

[V-33] _Crofutt's Western World_, Aug. 1872, p. 27; _Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner's Rept._, p. 42, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. iii.; _Ten Broeck_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iv., p. 91; _Bristol_, in _Ind. Aff. Rept., Special Com._, 1867, p. 358; _Brinton's Myths_, p. 158; _Domenech's Deserts_, vol. ii., p. 402.

[V-34] See pp. 77-8, note 36, this volume.

[V-35] _Joaquin Miller's Californian._

[V-36] _Gregg's Com. Prairies_, vol. i., pp. 271-3; _Davis' El Gringo_, pp. 142, 396; _Simpson's Overland Journ._, pp. 21-3; _Domenech's Deserts_, vol. i., pp. 164-5, 418, vol. ii., pp. 62-3, 401; _Möllhausen_, _Tagebuch_, pp. 170, 219, 284; _Meline's Two Thousand Miles on Horseback_, pp. 202, 226; _Ruxton's Adven. in Mex._, p. 193; _Ten Broeck_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iv., p. 73; _Ward_, in _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1864, pp. 192-3; _Emory's Reconnoissance_, p. 30; _Tylor's Prim. Cult._, vol. ii., p. 384; _Brinton's Myths_, p. 190; _Coronado_, in _Hakluyt's Voy._, vol. iii., p. 379. Fremont gives an account of the birth of Montezuma. His mother was, it is said, a woman of exquisite beauty, admired and sought after by all men, they making her presents of corn and skins and all that they had; but the fastidious beauty would accept nothing of them but their gifts. In process of time a season of drought brought on a famine and much distress; then it was that the rich lady showed her charity to be as great in one direction as it had been wanting in another. She opened her granaries and the gifts of the lovers she had not loved went to relieve the hungry she pitied. At last with rain, fertility returned to the earth; and on the chaste Artemis of the Pueblos its touch fell too. She bore a son to the thick summer shower and that son was Montezuma.

[V-37] _Ten Broeck_, in _Schoolcraft's Arch._, vol. iv., pp. 85-6.

[V-38] _Whipple, Ewbank, and Turner's Rept._, pp. 42-3, in _Pac. R. R. Rept._, vol. iii.; _Dodt_, in _Ind. Aff. Rept._, 1870, p. 129.