MOJAVE COSTUMES. 205 



affects to regard with contempt, contending that they are 

 not languages, but only "crooked talk." 



The country they inhabit being almost destitute of 

 game, these aborigines live principally on maize, frijoles 

 or Mexican beans, and fish ; of which latter there is an 

 abundance in the Colorado, principally sturgeon, and a fish 

 locally known as white-fish. In their season, pumpkins 

 and other indigenous vegetables, which they cultivate in 

 little garden-patches, furnish them also with food. 



They are a very intelligent people, and had their lot 

 been cast in a country where clothes were a necessity, 

 where tillage was beset with difficulties, and, above all, 

 where the inclemency of the seasons had compelled them 

 to make the first steps in architecture that science which 

 has been the mother of geometry, mathematics, mechanics, 

 and the arts they might possibly have developed from 

 being naked savages to a high state of civilisation. 



That they are nearly naked savages, a description of 

 the national lack of costume will amply demonstrate ; ex- 

 cepting the breech-clout, they are, from the ground under 

 their feet upwards, entirely unclothed ; neither do the men 

 affect paint, feathers, or ornaments ; this, however, cannot 

 be charged to want of appreciation of the beautiful, since 

 their weapons and implements are carved in the usual 

 Indian fashion, and with more than usual Indian taste. 



They wear their hair which, like that of the Apache, 

 is very long, and of the usual colour and texture of 

 American aborigines exactly as the Tangierean Jews do, 

 and have done since the time of David. It is combed 



