ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDIES IN CALIFORNIA. l79 



Portions of this rock are now covered with soil, so that a number of 

 the mortars are probably hidden. Possibly some of the depressions 

 may orio-inally have been pot holes, worn by the descending waters of 

 the cascade, but all are now manifestly artificial in contour. The 

 present inhabitants do not appear to use these particular mills, but 

 employ mortars, both fixed and portable, in the immediate vicinit}^ of 

 their dwellings. This ma}" be the group of mortars referred to by 

 Powers, who says that ''in remote times they were accustomed to rub 

 their acorns to flour, on a stone slightly hollowed, like the Mexican 

 metate, which was a suggestion of the Mouse, l>ut nowada3's they 

 pound them in holes on top of huge bowlders, which was a suggestion 

 of the wiser Co3"ote. On a bowlder in Coarse Gold Gulch I counted 

 86 of these acorn holes, which shows that they nmst have been used 

 many centuries." ^ 



M}^ own feeling about this matter is that the metate is a late rather 

 than an early form of the millstone, since these great groups of mor- 

 tar pits must be very old, and the mortars dug up at considerable 

 depths in this valley as well as elsewhere are generally globular. I 

 was especially interested in observing that the process of shaping stone 

 by pecking with hammers is known to the Tulares. Some specimens 

 show recent work, and inquiry of Mr. flames Alto elicited the state- 

 ment that the women shaped mortars and pestles in this way, employ- 

 ing " daj's pecking and pecking.'^ 



At one of the dwellings, which had the appearance of an ordinary, 

 comfortable farmhouse, the entire family was engaged in thrashing 

 and cleaning up the recently harvested crop of beans. Plate 30 shows 

 the man threshing with a flail, while the women are seen separating 

 the beans from the hulls ])X fanning in shallow basket trap's. From 

 the old woman of the household — the grandmother — who seemed to be 

 owner of all domestic articles, we secured baskets, stone boiling sticks, 

 mortars, and pestles. The large, roundish mortar shown in Plate 31 

 was in use by one of the women, but we were told that this piece had 

 been found at a depth of several feet in digging an irrigating trench; 

 that it was very old, and belonged, thev believed, to peoples that had 

 preceded the Tulares. However, such mortars, as well as others of 

 varying form, were seen in use on the reservation. 



The manner of using snares in capturing pigeons is shown in Plate 

 32. Roundish earthen platforms from 5 to 8 feet in diain(^ter are con- 

 structed among the great bowlders in favorable locations, on which are 

 set willow-twig loops for securing decoy l)irds. At oiuMuargin of the 

 platform a brush or reed shelter is built, in which the man with the 

 snares hides himself. The loops of the snares lie extended upon 

 the platform, and when the birds, alighting to feed with the decoys, 



^Tribes of California, Contributions to 2sorth American Etlinology, III, p. 376. 



