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SMITirSOMAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 78 



RESEARCHES ON THE ARCHEOLOGY OF SOUTHERN 



CALIFORNL\ 



At the close of June, 1925, Mr. J. P. Harrington, ethnologist of 

 the Bureau of American Ethnology, proceeded to Santa Barbara, 

 California, to continue his researches on the Mission Indians. Many 

 Indian rancheria sites of this region were visited in the course of his 

 work. In the Santa Ynez valley alone, more than 40 ruined villages 

 were inspected, and in the Otay and Simi valleys some 30 more, at 

 several of which extensive excavations were made. 



Pictographs were discovered and photographed ; also many rocks 

 which represent mythological personages or form the crucial land- 



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Fig. 106. — Medicine rock surrounded witli cacti. 



mark of ancient legends. Spirit footprints on the rocks, of gigantic 

 size, were said to have been made by the " first people " when the 

 earth was still soft and muddy. 



At San Marcos the boulders on a hillside represent the warriors of 

 a mythic battle ; some are standing with the blood from wounds 

 running down their sides, seen as stains on the rock. A site was also 

 visited where two boulders are situated six feet apart. Indian l)oys 

 used to attempt to jump from one to the other, and if they succeeded 

 it was a sign that they would be able to jump around the mountains 

 in later years without skinning their legs. A medicine rock (fig. 106) 

 was also visited, a symmetrical pinnacle of stone surrounded with a 



