THE CALIFORNIAN PENINSULA. 391 
thus spent, a pause was made. They sat or lay down in the shade, if they 
happened to find any, without, however, allowing their tongues to come to a 
stand-still, or they played or wrestled with each other, to find out who was the 
strongest among them and could throw his adversaries to the ground, in which 
sport the women likewise participated. Now they either returned to the camp- 
ing-place of the preceding night, or went a few leagues further, until they came 
to some spot supplied with water, where they commenced singeing, burning, 
roasting, and pounding the captures they had made during the day. They ate 
as long as they had anything before them and as there was room in their sto- 
machs, and after a long, childish or indecent talk, they betook themselves to 
rest.again. In this manner they lived throughout the whole year, and their 
conversation, if.it did not turn on eating, had always some childish trick or 
knavery for its subject. Those of the natives who cannot be put to some use- 
ful labor, while living at the mission, spend their time pretty much in the same 
way. 
Who would expect, under these circumstances, to find a spark of reli- 
gion among the Californians? It is true, they spoke of the course taken by a 
deer that had escaped them at nightfall with an arrow in his side, and which 
they intended to pursue the next morning, but they never speculated on the 
course of the sun and the other heavenly bodies; they talked about their pita- 
hayas, even long before they were ripe, yet it never occurred to them to think 
of the Creator of the pitahayas and,other productions around them. 
I am not unacquainted with the statement of a certain author, according to 
which one Californian tribe at least was found to possess some knowledge of 
the incarnation of the Son of God and the Holy Trinity; but this is certainly 
an error, considering that such a knowledge could only have been imparted by the 
preachers of the Gospel. The whole matter doubtless originated in a deception 
on the part of the natives, who are very mendacious and inclined to invent 
stories calculated to please the missionary; while, on the other hand, every one 
may be easily deceived by them who has not yet found out their tricks. It is, 
‘moreover, a very difficult task to learn anything from them by inquiry; for, 
besides their shameless lies and unnecessarily evasive answers, they entangle, 
from inborn awkwardness, the subject in question in such a pitiable manner, and 
contradict themselves so frequently, that the inquirer is very apt to lose his 
patience. A missionary once requested me to find out whether a certain N. 
had been married before his baptism, which he received when a grown man, 
with the sister of M. A simple “yes” or “no’’ would have answered the 
question and decided the matter at once. But the examination lasted about 
three-quarters of an hour, at the end of which I knew just as little as before. 
I wrote down the questions and answers, and sent the protocol to the missionary, 
who was no more successful than myself in arriving at the final result, whether 
N. had been the husband of the sister of M. or not. So confused are the minds 
of these Californian Hottentots. 
Of baptized Indians, there resided in each mission as many as the missionary 
could support and occupy with field-labor, knitting, weaving, and other work. 
Where it was possible to keep a good number of sheep, spinning-wheels and 
looms were in operation, and the people received more frequently new clothing 
than at other stations. In each mission there were also a number of natives 
appointed for special service, namely, a sacristan, a goat-herd, a tender of the 
sick, a catechist, a superintendent, a fiscal, and two dirty cooks, one for the 
missionary and the other for the Californians. Of the fifteen missions, how- 
ever, there were only four, and these but thinly populated, which could support 
and clothe all their parishioners, and afford them a home during the whole 
year. Inthe other missionary stations, the whole people were divided into 
three or four bands which appeared alternately once in a month at the mission 
and encamped there for a week. ~ 
