204 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



it gray to any extent. A bald-headed Indian would have been 

 looked upon as a phenomenon. 



I saw two Indians last summer whose ages were given by their 

 people as one hundred and twenty and one hundred and thirty 

 years. Old settlers who have known of them for fifty years do 

 not think the figures are much exaggerated. The wrinkles in 

 their faces were so deep that the skin fell in folds, and their bodies 

 seemed to have shrunken to one half their former size. They 

 were deaf, dumb, blind, bent, and helpless, yet their hair was 



barely streaked with gray, and 

 j so thick that a comb of ordi- 

 nary size could not be passed 

 through it. 



The manners and customs of 

 these Indians differed but little 

 from village to village. During 

 the summer months they needed 

 only a shade to protect them 

 from the hot sun. The wild, free 

 life in which they reveled at this 

 time of the year needed only 

 food, but as winter drew near 

 they had to build something 

 which would protect them from 

 the severe storms. An excava- 

 tion several feet deep, and vary- 

 ing in diameter, was made first. 

 Around the edge of this, willow 

 poles or small trees were placed 

 upright in the ground and drawn 

 together at the top until a cone- 

 shaped structure was formed. 

 Bushes and strips of bark were 

 then woven closely about this; 

 lastly, dirt was thrown on and 

 packed solid to the depth of six 

 or eight inches. Only two open- 

 ings were left a round one at 

 the top for the escape of smoke, 

 and a square one close to the 

 ground on the side most shel- 

 tered from the wind, which was used for a door ; this opening was 

 made just large enough for the occupants to crawl through. Furs 

 and strips of matting woven from tule grass were used to sleep 

 on. A fire was kept burning day and night in the middle of the 

 "campoodie" [Kahm-Poo-Dij), the Indian name for these houses. 



A "Digger" Maiiala from Feather 

 River, Full-bloodei), and of Finer 

 Physique than the Average. 



