MISSIONS AND MISSION INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA. 479 



as in harvest-time, and that the tasks laid upon both women and 

 men were too heavy, the fathers asserted that the working hours 

 were only from four to six hours, and that tasks were light, since 

 not more than one half the neophytes worked at any one time, 

 being excused on one pretext or another ; and that even when 

 they did work they never worked hard. Those familiar with the 

 Indians will be likely to accept the statements of the mission- 

 aries, since to induce the average Indian, half or wholly wild, 

 to overwork himself in steady toil would require a much more 

 severe regime than there is any evidence was ever employed at 

 the missions. 



Perouse has left us an account of a day^s routine at one of the 

 missions, and, as the methods varied but little at the several estab- 

 lishments, it will probably answer for all : " The Indians, as well 

 as the missionaries, rise with the sun and go to mass, which lasts 

 about an hour. While this is in progress the breakfast is pre- 

 pared, the favorite atole or pottage, which consists of barley-flour, 

 the grain being roasted previously to grinding. It is cooked in 

 large kettles, and is seasoned with neither salt nor butter. Every 

 cottage or hut sends for the allowance for all its inmates, which 

 is carried home in one of their large baskets. Any overplus that 

 remains is distributed among the children as a reward for good 

 behavior, particularly for good lessons in the catechism. After 

 breakfast, which lasts about three quarters of an hour, they pro- 







Fig. 8. — Mission Indian Graveyard in Coahuila Valley, Sam Dieuo County. 



ceed to their labors, either out of doors or within. At noon the 

 dinner is announced by a bell, and the Indians quitting their work 

 go and receive their rations as at breakfast-time. The mess now 

 served is somewhat of the same kind as the former, onlv varied 

 by the addition of maize, peas, and beans ; it is named pozzoli. 

 After dinner they return to their work, from two to four or five ; 

 afterward they attend evening mass, which lasts nearly an hour, 

 and the day is finished by another supply of atole, as at breakfast. 



