SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I927 1/5 



Men frequently wore the hair in a pug on the front of the head, 

 standing up in Goddess of Liberty fashion, and the women wore bangs. 

 A wig of Chinese hair was found very useful by the writer in studying 

 hair dressing. All the effect of a kaiser moustache was given by a 

 bar of shell inserted through the nose of the men. Face and body hairs 

 were plucked out. using clam shells as tweezers. 



The Indian family would rise at daylight and take a plunge in the 

 nearest water. After a light breakfast they were off for the adven- 

 tures of the day. The men would go hunting or fishing or visiting 

 around on business that seemed as important to them as ours does 

 to us, the women in quest of seeds, roots, greens, basketry materials. 

 There was much lunching or munching all day long. The meal of 

 the day was when the people had returned to camp in the evening. 

 The staple food was acorn mush, along with a great variety of other 

 natural products, many of them delicious, prepared by peculiar proc- 

 esses. Sometimes a midnight lunch was eaten, especially in the long 

 winter nights. 



The principle of the Turkish bath was known to these Indians. In 

 a lodge that could be shut U]^ tightly, either dug into a cliff' or built 

 semi-subterranean fashion with entrance at the top, a hot fire was 

 kindled with light wood. After the bathers had become very warm in 

 these lodges, they suddenly emerged and ran, often with shouts, to 

 near-by water and plunged in, and after splashing about for a time, 

 reentered the bath lodge to become dry and warm again. 



The Indians were a proud people, alert and shrewd, and carried an 

 age of eighty or ninety years much more lightly than white people do. 

 There are authentic records of extreme age among these Indians. 

 Even when lounging about camp, they were taught to be alert, and to 

 maintain such positions that they could spring to their feet in an 

 instant. 



The houses were shaped like a half orange, and were constructed 

 of a framework of willow or sycamore poles, thatched with tule, car- 

 rizo, brakes, or other material at hand. There was a low door, and 

 some huts had holes for windows. With a sharp stick one could 

 poke through the wall of the hut, and mischievous boys sometimes 

 tried this trick on the unsuspecting inmates. A rancheria or village 

 consisted of a group of a few of these houses, usually arranged in 

 chance rows. Each rancheria had a captain, distinguished in no way, 

 as far as dress or appearance went, from an ordinary Indian. He 

 arranged fiestas with other chiefs, gave advice in many matters, but 

 the whole social organization was most simple and democratic. There 

 were no slaves. 



