ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDIES IN CALIFORNIA. 169 



she lived and carried on her share of the family drudgery. She ground 

 acorns on a flat stone disk set in the jrround near the middle of her 

 shelter, and by the side of this was a slight depression in the hard 

 earth used as a hearth. She boiled the porridge outside hy heating 

 small stones in an open fire and lifting them into the cooking baskets 

 with a pair of neatly trimmed and pointed pine sticks about 5 feet in 

 length. Wiien the water was boiled the stones were removed with 

 other sticks, and when the porridge became somewhat firm it was 

 dip})cd out with a cup into another ])asket and was ready for use. This 

 food was not at all unpalata))le, as it had been deprived of the liitter 

 taste of the acorn by leaching. This process consists in scooping out 

 a depression in a bed of sand, into which the meal is poured and soaked 

 with water until the bitterness is absorbed by the sand. The gruel is 

 then taken up and is ready for cooking. The baskets used were of 

 exceHent make and tastefully ornamented. By dint of long l)aro-5iin- 

 ing and insisting we were able to secure half a dozen examples of the 

 good woman's handiwork. Some of these are shown in Plates 5, 6, and 

 7. They are typical specimens of the basketry of this portion of Cali- 

 fornia, and seem to combine some of the characteristics of the basket 

 work of the surrounding tribes. They are new, and we were quite un- 

 al)le t()])uy the baskets in present use. We were shown one feather- 

 decorated piece, said to have been made b}" an aunt of the young 

 woman of the household at some distant point. It was valued ver}" 

 highly, having been a gift, and we could not secure it. It was stated 

 that the use of feathers was not common among the American River 

 tribes. Some of their carrying baskets and the gleaning paddles and 

 meal-fanning trays, they informed us. Avere of Paiute make. 



A very interesting mealing outfit was encountered on the hillside 

 a])()ve the dwelling and near the margin of the mine. It had been 

 deserted for some time, but the poles of the shelter were still in place. 

 There were four or five shallow mortars worked on the surface of a 

 rock even with the surrounding ground, and sixteen hand stones, com- 

 prising numerous shapes ranging from a flat ovoid ru])bing stone to 

 a well-formed and symmetric pestle. We were also shown an acorn- 

 cracking outfit, consisting of a small round stone with a shallow pit on 

 the upper surface for resting the acorn and a globular stone for 

 striking. The acorn is set on end to receive the blow. Stones of 

 various shapes are used, according to the supph' on hand, and in the 

 a])seni-e of suital)le stones the cracking is done with the teeth. Detiiils 

 of the grinding and other operations are given a little farther on. 



On the bottom of the mine, 200 feet beneath the spot occupied by 

 the mealing place just described, we found a large stone having a deep 

 conical mortar on one side. It had evidently fallen in from a])ove, and 

 had probably escaped the attention of seekers after evidence of Ter- 

 tiarv man. 



