FIELD-WORK AMONG THE MISSION INDIANS OF 



CALIFORNIA 



By J. P. HARRINGTON 



Ethnologist, Bureau of American Ethnology 



Just as the holy of holies at the center of the Mission Indian temple 

 was surrounded by an enclosure and outside this by a still larger en- 

 closure to keep the Indian throngs of the fiesta from penetrating too 

 closely to the sacred secrets of religion, so the dwindling core of 

 language, custom, and ceremony of these Indians has become hidden 

 by a double barricade of acquired American and Spanish culture, 

 making access to it difficult. But our recent field-work has succeeded in 

 penetrating to the very core, resulting in one success after another 

 in the obtaining of rare information. This information was obtained 

 using the native languages as the vehicle of record, thus securing 

 ethnological and linguistic material at the same time. 



At Rincon Indian Reservation an Indian temple similar to that de- 

 scribed by Fr. Antonio de la Ascension as having been discovered by 

 the men of the Viscaino expedition on Santa Catalina Island was 

 visited and studied. This temple ground, just northeast of the house 

 of Chief Juan Sotelo Calac (see fig. 87), measures 38 feet from north 

 to south, and 5.8 feet from east to west. The fire pit, 4 feet in diameter, 

 has three stone potrests and is at the exact center of the ground. 

 When mantled for ceremony a brush fence is built about the northern 

 half of this temple only, a steep rise in the ground forming the south- 

 ern boundary. The temple was always elliptical, with its long axis 

 extending east and west. Photographs of this temple, taken in dis- 

 mantled condition, and again when a fiesta was in progress, are re- 

 produced as Figures 87 and 88. 



The last old Indian house still standing in all the coast region of 

 southern California was found above the rancheria of Kuuki in a 

 little-known part of Palomar Mountain. It is of the type built of 

 poles and slabs of the bark of tovot, Liboccdnts decurrens Torr., in- 

 cense cedar, and according to the informants presents the same ap- 

 pearance that it did some 30 years ago. The house is shown in Fig- 

 ure 90. 



Rare information was obtained as to how these Indians used to 

 brand themselves with various designs and also cauterize sores by 



85 



