410 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1897. 



As late as 1766 tbe uatives of California were said to be "entirely 

 ignorant of the effects of strong drink, and even if tliey do become 

 drnnk during the feast it is only done Avith the smoke of wild tobacco," 

 which the author calls "Cimmaron,"' which plant, under the name of 

 "Cimeron" {Nicotimia attennota), De Paw asserts was used not only 

 by the Californians, but by all the Western Indians,' 



Venegas observes that they "use no intoxicating liquors among 

 them, and it is only on their festivals that they intoxicate themselves 

 with the smoke of wild tobacco '" 



The Californians are also said never to have thought of making use 

 of potters' clay for making cups, pots, bowls, etc., by hardening in the 

 sun or by fire until taught by the whites.* 



In this respect they would appear to differ from the natives of the 

 greater part of the continent, but that it is a fact appears to be demon- 

 strated by the excavations of Yarrow and Schumacher made in 1874; 

 though it should be remembered that the Californians possessed a good 

 sujjply of steatite from which they made "ollas" (bowls) and dishes. 

 The veins of steatite or soapstone appear to have been worked in many 

 parts of the continent, where suitable material was available for mak- 

 ing bowls and dishes from a very ancient period; and in those sections 

 of the country abounding in soapstone pottery is less abundant, 

 though its scarcity, especially in the Atlantic States, extends but few 

 miles from the quarries. 



The Californians are also said to have burned the abalone shell for 

 the lime to mix with tobacco to make them drunk.' 



The writer is informed by Maj. J. W. Powell that the Piemas, Mari- 

 copas, Mqjave, and Southern Utes smoke. the leaves of the manzanita 

 (Arctostaphylos glauca) and the Jamestown weed {Datura stramonium), 

 the latter for the purpose of inducing a form of intoxication ; at times 

 they also chewed it for the same purpose. The Assiniboines smoke 

 the leaves of the bear berry {Arctostaphylos m^a-'ursi) mixed with tobacco. 

 In Alaska " the economical Indian usually cuts up a little birch wood 

 or the inner bark of the poplar and mixes it with his tobacco.'"^ 



Alvar Nunez Cabeca de Vaca, who was, as he informs us, treasurer] 

 and alguazil major of the expedition of Pamphilo Narvaez in 1527, | 

 whose expedition was to conquer and govern the provinces toward thej 

 river of palms, was, with Castillo, Dorantes, and a negro, Estavanico, i 

 the only survivors who returned to civilization. These four men were 

 for years prisoners among the natives, but finally escaped, and after 



'Historie de la Californie, I, p. 90, 1766, translated from English. 



^(.'oruelius De Paw, Recherches Philosophique siir lea Americains, I, p. 205, Paris, 

 1771. 



3A Natural and Civil History of California, I, p. 68, translated from Spanish, 1758. 



"•Historj' of California, I, p. 78, London, 1759. 



"^Tylor, California Farmer, April 27, 1860; H. H. Bancroft, Native Races of Pacific 

 States of North America. 



6 W. H. Dall, Alaska and its Resources, p. 81, Boston, 1870. 



