THE CALIFOKNIAN PENINSULA. 361 



as a protection against the inclemency of the weather,* showing thus that not- 

 withstanding their simplicity, they understand pretty well "how to turn the 

 mantle towards the wuKl."t It cannot be otherwise with them; for, if they 

 had houses, they would be compelled to carry their dwellings always with 

 them, like snails or turtles, the necessity of collecting food urging them to wan- 

 der constantly about. Thus they cannot start every morning from the same 

 place and return thither in the evening, since, notwithstanding the small num- 

 ber of each little people, a small tract of land could not provide them with 

 provisions during a whole year. To-day the water will fail them ; to-morrow 

 they have to go to some locality for gathering a certain kind of seed that serves 

 them as food, and so they fulfil to the letter what is written of all of us, namely, 

 that wc shall have no fixed abode in this world. I am certainly not much mis- 

 taken in saying that many of tliem change their night-quarters more than a 

 hundred times in a year, and hardly sleep three times successively in the same 

 place and the same part of the country, always excepting those who are con- 

 nected with the missions. Wherever the night surprises them they will lie 

 down to sleep, not minding in the least the uncleanliness of the ground, or ap- 

 prehending any inconvenience from reptiles and other vermin, of which there 

 is an abundance in this country. They do not live under the shade of trees, as 

 some authors have said, because there are hardly any trees in California that 

 afford shade, nor do they dwell in earth-holes of" their own making, as others 

 have said, but sometimes, and only when it rains, they resort to the clefts and 

 cavities of rocks, if they can find such sheltering places, which do not occur 

 as frequently as their wants require. 



Whenever they undertake to construct shelters for protecting their sick from 

 heat or cold, the entrance is usually so low that a person has to creep on hands 

 and feet in order to get in, and the whole structure is of such small dimensions 

 as to render it impossible to stand erect within, or to find room to sit down on 

 the ground for the purpose of confessing or comforting the patient. Of no better 

 condition are the huts of those Indians Avho live near the missions, the same 

 being often so small and miserable that man and wife hardly can sit or lie down 

 in them. Even the old and infirm are utterly indifferent as to their being under 

 shelter or not, and it happened often that I found old sick persons lying in the 

 open air, for whose accommodation I had caused huts to be built on the pre- 

 ceding day. So much for habit. 



As the blue sky forms the only habitation of the Californian Indians, so they 

 wear no other covering than the brown skin with which nature has clothed them. 

 This applies to the male sex in the full sense of the word, and even women have 

 been found in the northern parts of California in a perfect state of nudity, while 

 among most nations the females always covered themselves to a small extent. 

 They did. and still continue to do, as follows : They understand how to pre- 

 pare from the fibres of the aloe plant a white thread, which serves them for 

 making cords. | On these they string hundreds of small sections of Avater-reed, 

 like beads of a rosary; and a good number of these strings, attached by their 

 ends to a girdle, and placed very close and thick together, form two aprons, 

 one of Avhich hangs down below the abdomen, while the other covers the hind 

 part. These aprons are about a span wide, and of different length. Among 



* Captain Bonneville gives a cheerless account of a village of the Root Diggers, which lio 

 saw in crossing the plain below Powder river. "They livt!," says lie, " without any Curther 



[)rotection from the inclemency of the season than u sort of break-wouther, about tlirce feet 

 ligh, composed of sage, (or wormwood, ) and erected around them in the shape of a half 

 moon.'"— H'a^lii)igton Irving : Adventures of Caj)tain Bvnncville, p. 5i59. 

 t German proverb. 



t It may not be out of place to mention here that in Mexico the dried fibres of the aloe or 

 maguey plant (Agave Americana) are a universal substitute for hemp in the manufacture of 

 cordage and packing-cloth. 



