252 



CALIFORNIA. 



California, and of the fallen angels ! which induced the mission- 

 ' aries to believe, that they must have been visited by 

 some Christians, whose opinions they had imbibed, 

 and had incorporated them with their own absurd no- 

 tions. Each of the three nations, however, into which 

 the Californian peninsula is divided, differs from the rest 

 very materially in their religious ideas; and Father Ve- 

 negas has furnished us with a very circumstantial ac- 

 count of these distinctions; but we have neither room 

 nor inclination to follow his recital, and shall content 

 ourselves with merely observing, that the Califor- 

 nians worship three divinities, who are supposed to 

 carry on a war of extermination against each other : 

 Sumongo, or the spirit of spirits, who lives in the 

 north part of heaven, and punishes his people, by 

 sending sickness and pestilence upon the earth ; Ni- 

 paraya, the creator of the world, who delights in 

 peace ; and Wac Tiparan, the evil spirit, who re- 

 belled against Niparaya, and was cast down from 

 heaven ; each of whom have their particular wor- 

 shippers. 



The edues or priests, who are called dtcuinochos 

 by the Menquies, and those who inhabit the middle 

 part of California, and vamas or guasmas by the Co- 

 chimies, pretend that they carry on a friendly inter- 

 course with their deities ; and are possessed of know- 

 ledge and power sufficient to prevent any calamity, 

 or to give success to any enterprise. They have thus 

 acquired such an absolute ascendency over the minds 

 of this stupid and ignorant people, that they de- 

 manded as their right, the best of the fruits, and the 

 choicest of the game, which had been procured ei- 

 ther by fishing or hunting. If these were denied, or 

 sparingly bestowed, they were threatened with sick- 

 ness, disaster, and failure of harvests ; but if given 

 liberally, they were fed with magnificent hopes of 

 affluence, and the most desirable enjoyments. But 

 the authority of the Californian priests appeared 

 most conspicuous at their public feasts, celebrated 

 by a whole nation, or by a single rancheria or family. 

 They then appeared in their habits of ceremony, 

 which were only used upon extraordinary occasions, 

 and which consisted of a large cloak, entirely com- 

 posed of human hair, a high plume of hawk's fea- 

 thers upon their head, and a monstrous fan of the 

 same materials in their hand. Those of the Cochi- 

 mies had, besides, a string of deer's hoofs round 

 their neck, and another round their middle as a gir- 

 dle. Thus accoutred, they opened the entertain- 

 ment with sucking the chacuaco, till they became 

 intoxicated, and almost frantic with the smoke ; 

 they then began an oration upon their tenets, which 

 was delivered with the wildest gestures, and most 

 frightful vociferations. 



Upon such occasions they exercised the most wan- 

 ton authority. According to their private passions, 

 they celebrated some as brave and generous ; and 

 upbraided others as cowards, factious, and wicked, 

 who were commanded to make expiation, by un- 

 dergoing certain penances. Sometimes a single in- 

 dividual, sometimes a whole rancheria came under the 

 sentence. In some cases, they were prohibited for 

 a given time from tasting a certain fruit, fish, or 

 beast ; or enjined to clear ways along the tops of 

 the mountains, for the more easy descent of the visit- 



ing spirit, and to lay a heap of stones at certain dis- California, 

 tances, where it might stop and rest itself; and to 

 such a length did they carry their influence, that they 

 even sometimes ordered them to throw themselves 

 from a precipice, and such was the blindness and 

 dread of this people, that their orders, were seldom 

 disobeyed. The festival consisted chiefly in eating, 

 drinking, dancing, talking, or laughing ; and was 

 considered as a religious solemnity, merely from the 

 presence of the priests ; and after being inflamed by 

 gluttony and intemperance, the whole concluded with 

 the most lascivious abominations. To these public 

 feasts the neighbouring and friendly rancherias were 

 usually invited, to whom they likewise sent challen- 

 ges for wrestling, leaping, running, shooting with the 

 bow, and trials of strength. They were sometimes 

 held without any necessary motive ; but, in general, 

 they were made at the annual solemnity of bor- 

 ing the ears and nostrils of the children, for receiving 

 tht ornaments of pearls, which were common to both 

 sexes ; at the gathering of the pitahayas ; for a vic- 

 tory ; for the division of the capture of fish ; and for 

 distributing the deer skins to the women, which con- 

 stituted their principal clothing. In some of the 

 islands, however, particularly those on the western 

 coast called De los Dolores, both the religion and 

 customs of the inhabitants were very different from 

 those of the peninsula. Every community had its 

 civil and spiritual officer ; and according to Father 

 Torquemada, they had temples, images, altars, sa- 

 crifices, and sacred birds. 



The Californians throughout the whole of the pe- 

 ninsula were uniformly destitute of any kind of 

 clothing, and the only distinction among the natives 

 in this respect was the form and nature of their or- 

 naments. The Pericues braided their hair with 

 strings of pearls, interwoven with small feathers. 

 The Menquis wore a closely braided girdle round 

 their waste, and OH the forehead a curious fillet of net- 

 work, made of pita thread ; they also adorned their 

 arms with bracelets made of nacar t a small round 

 fruit like beads. The Cochimies, who usually kept 

 their hair short, had a kind of diadem or crown form- 

 ed of several bands of nacar, and sometimes of small 

 white round snail shells, resembling pearls. Like 

 several tribes of the Orinoco, these savages entertain 

 a great horror for clothing. " A monkey dressed 

 like an officer," says Father Venegas, " does not 

 appear so ridiculous to us, as a man in clothes does 

 to the Indians of California." They look upon it 

 as effeminate and disgraceful. They were highly 

 affronted when desired to cover themselves; and when 

 offered clothes by the missionaries, they either re- 

 fused them, or afterwards threw them away. The 

 women, however, payed more attention to decency, 

 and even the infants of the female sex were not with- 

 out a proper covering. Some had garments manu- 

 factured from the leaves of a certain species of palm 

 tree, which being beat, assumes the appearance of 

 rough flaxen threads, but which, instead of being 

 woven were merely fastened to one another at the top, 

 and hung down in very close and thick skains and 

 tufts. Of these they formed a petticoat, which reached 

 to the feet ; and also a short cloak which they threw 

 over their shoulders. Others formed their petticoats 



