ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDIES IN CALIFORNIA. 175 



collections. He has gathered only choice pieces, and among these are 

 many feather-decorated specimens of exceptional ])eaiity. Arrange- 

 ments were made for securing this collection for the Smithsonian 

 Institution, and before the end of the year it was forwarded to Wash- 

 ington. I will not attempt to describe it. leaving that pleasant task 

 to Professor Mason, who has made minute studies of that branch of 

 native art, and, with the help of the carefully prepared notes of Doctor 

 Hudson, a valuable contribution may be expected. In Plates 18, 19, 

 and '20 a few notable specimens are shown. They serve for com- 

 parison with the Sierra Indian and Tulare work, illustrated in other 

 portions of this paper. 



I was interested in watching the women making baskets, Plate 21 «, 

 and the men grinding and drilling clam-shell wampun, Plate 21 b. 

 These people rely very largely on the acorn for their food, and the 

 carrying basket, Plate 22 ^r, and the mortar and pestle, Plate 22 b, are 

 constantly in evidence. The drawings represent the people in their 

 native costumes, which have, however, been superseded in recent years 

 by trousers and calico gowns. 



The following interesting notes, furnished Professor Mason ]\v Doc- 

 tor Hudson, relate to Pomo bread making, dress, and forms of the 

 drill: 



Indian corn, or maize, is not indigenous west of the Sierra Mountains^, and is not 

 and never was used by our "Diggers." Acorns, buckeyes, and weed seed (about 

 twenty-tive varieties), notably the tar weed {Madaria sp. ), also berries of a num- 

 l>er (pf plants, especially manzanita {AniosUtphylos (omeiitosa), madrona, wild rose, 

 and mountain laurel, are their staples, important in the order mentioned. Teuni 

 l)read is made of any of the eight varieties of acorns — Nuci, from Qiiercus agri- 

 folin, and Tsupa, from Querent densifiora, being valued as the sweetest. The nuts are 

 sun dried, then hulled, then reduced to flour by the stone pestle and basket mortar, 

 and cleaned by frequent siftings. A shallow \)\t is made in fine sand and pressed 

 smooth with the hands; the meal is poured in and covered with leaves of iris {Iris 

 mncro»iphon). Fresh water is then poured on in quantities and the meal is stirred 

 until it is thoroughly leached. Within an hour it can be gently lifted out in large 

 pieces. Another pit is prepared for the oven, in which a fierce fire is started; stones 

 the size of a smoothing iron are thrown in and, when very hot, half of them are 

 taken out. The remainder form a griddle in the coals and are covered with wet 

 leaves, oak and iris, on which the dough, which is the acorn meal mixed with 5 per 

 cent of Masil, or red earth in solution; also sometimes the same amount of tar weed 

 meal, Mako, is-evenly spread. Wet leaves are placed over this; then the hot stones; 

 then about 6 inches of earth. In six or eight hours the oven is opened, disclosing a 

 large, flat cake incrusted in leaves, and smelling somewhat like bread. The Masil, 

 or red ceremonial yeast, has given a dark-red cast, while the Mako turns it almost 

 black. The taste is not unpleasant. It is flavored with an impure salt gathered 

 either on the coast or at a spring on Eel River. 



Buckeye Disa: The nuts are roasted in hot rocks, hulled and peeled with a deer- 

 rib knife, then mashed in a basket with a heavy billet, like a giant potato masher, 

 I )isai)awohai, then leached as above, and in the form of paste eaten hot or cold. 



I'inole (Spanish) or To-o is a mush of acorn meal, leached of course, mixed with 

 a percentage of other seed meals, boiled in a Tee or Bamtoosh basket by dropping hot 

 NAT MUS 1900 12 



