THE CALIFORNIAN PENINSULA. 389 
they sit down, unasked; in doing which the women stretch out their lees, while 
the men cross them in the oriental fashion. The same habits they observe 
also in the church and elsewhere. They salute nobody, such a civility being 
unknown to them, and they have no word to express greeting. If something 
is communicated to them which they do not like, they spit out sideways and 
scratch the ground with their left foot to express their displeasure. 
The men carry everything on their heads; the women bear loads on their 
backs suspended by ropes that pass around their foreheads, and in order to 
protect the skin from injury, they place between the forehead and the rope a 
piece of untanned deer-hide, which reaches considerably above the head, and 
resembles, from afar, a helmet, or the high head-dress worn by ladies at the 
present time. 
The Californians have a great predilection for singing and dancing, which 
are always performed together; the first is called ambéra dite, the latter agénari. 
Their singing is nothing but an inarticulate, unmeaning whispering, murmur- 
ing, or shouting, which every one intonates according to his own inclination, in 
order to express his joy. ‘Their dances consist in a foolish, irregular gesticu- 
lating and jumping, or advancing, retreating, and walking inacircle. Yet, they 
take such delight in these amusements that they spend whole nights in their 
performance, in which respect they much resemble Europeans, of whom cer- 
tainly more have killed themselves during Shrovetide and at other times by 
dancing, than by praying and fasting. ‘These pastimes, though innocent in 
themselves, had to be rigidly interdicted, because the grossest disorders and 
vices were openly perpetrated by the natives during the performances; but it 
is hardly possible to prevent them from indulging in their sports. While 
speaking of these exercises of the natives, I will also mention that they are 
exceedingly good runners. I would gladly have yielded up to them my three 
horses for consumption if I had been as swift-footed as they ; for, whenever I 
travelled, I became sooner tired with riding than they with walking. They 
will run twenty leagues to-day, and return to-morrow to the place from whence 
they started without showing much fatigue. Being one day on the point of 
setting out on a journey, a little boy expressed a wish to accompany me, and 
when I gave him to understand that the distance was long, the business press- 
ing, and my horse, moreover, very brisk, he replied with great promptness : 
“Thy horse will become tired, but I will not.” Another time I sent a boy of 
fourteen years with a letter to the neighboring mission, situated six leagues 
from my residence. He started at seven o’¢lock in the morning, and when 
about a league and a half distant from his place of destination, he met the mis- 
sionary, to whom the letter was addressed, mounted on a good mule, and on his 
way to pay meavisit. The boy turned round and accompanied the missionary, 
with whom he arrived about noon at my mission, having walked within five 
hours a distance of more than nine leagues. 
With boys and girls who have arrived at the age of puberty, with pregnant 
women, new-born children, and women in child-bed, the Californians observed, 
and still secretly observe, certain absurd ceremonies of an unbecoming nature, 
which, for this reason, cannot be described in this book. 
There existed always among the Californians individuals of both sexes who 
played the part of sorcerers or conjurers, pretending to possess the power of 
exorcising the devil, whom they never gaw; of curing diseases, which they 
never healed; and of producing pitahayas, though they could only eat them, 
Sometimes they went into caverns, and, changing their voices, made the people 
believe that they conversed with some spiritual power. ‘They threatened also 
"with famine and diseases, or promised to drive the small-pox and similar plagues 
away and to other places. When these braggarts appeared formerly in their 
gala apparel, they wore long mantles made of human hair, of which the mis- 
sionaries burned a great number in all newly established missions. ‘The object 
