22 HISTORY OF PASADENA. 



ceremonial antics ; yet withal they did have some practical and efficient 

 knowledge of the use of sweating or steam baths, of numerous herb decoc- 

 tions, of lobelia emetics, of counter-irritation by nettle blisters and by burn- 

 ing or "moxa," and of blood-letting, etc. Among the herbs which they 

 used medicinally were Nicotiana or wild tobacco, thornapple [jimson weed], 

 marshmallow, tansy, mustard, southernwood ["old man," as it is sometimes 

 called], wild sage, nettles, and some others. They also had knowledge and 

 skill to prepare poisons for making their arrow points more deadly. In re- 

 gard to civil regulations among them I quote this brief extract from Hugo 

 Reid's work : 



"The government of the people was in the hands of the chiefs, each 

 captain commanding his own lodge. The command was hereditary in a 

 family, descending from father to son, and from brother to brother. If the 

 right line of descent ran out, they immediately elected one of the same kin 

 nearest in blood. Laws in general were made as they were required, with 

 the exception of some few standing ones. Robbery and thieving were un- 

 known among them ; and murder, which was of rare occurence, was pun- 

 ished by shooting the delinquent with arrows until dead. Incest was held 

 in great abhorrence and punished with death ; even marriages between kins- 

 folk were not allowed. The manner of death was by shooting with arrows. 

 All prisoners of war were invariably put to death, after being tormented in a 

 most cruel manner." 



Those occupying the San Gabriel valley he designates by the general 

 name " Gabrielenos, " and the mountain Indians he calls " Serranos." Of 

 their native articles of food he says : 



' ' The animal food used by the Gabrielenos consisted of deer meat, 

 young coyotes, squirrels, badgers, rats, gophers, skunks, raccoons, rabbits, 

 wild cats, small crow, blackbirds, hawks, and snakes, with the exception of 

 the rattlesnake.* A few ate of the bear, but in general it was rejected, on 

 superstitious grounds. A large locust or a grasshopper was a favorite 

 morsel, roasted on a stick at the fire. Fish, quails, seals, sea-otter, and shell- 

 fish formed the principal subsistance of the immediate coast range lodges 

 and Islanders. Acorns, after being divested of the shell, were dried and 

 pounded in stone mortars, put into filterers of willow twigs, worked into a 

 conical form and raised on little sand mounds, which were lined inside with 

 two inches of sand ; water added and mixed up, filled up again and again 

 with more water, at first hot and then cold, until all the bitter principle was 

 extracted ; the residue was then collected and washed free of any sand par- 

 ticles it might contain ; on settling, the water was poured oflf ; on being 

 boiled it became a sort of mush, and was eaten when cold.f The next 



*Davis, "Sixty Years in Cal." p. 526, tells of a notable trip which he and others made in 1850-51, when 

 Don Ramon Arguello (uncle to Arturo Bandiui, of Pasadena,) officiated as guide. Rattlesnakes were 

 very abundant and Don Ramon was wonderlully expert in killing them ; and Davis says : " He would 

 eat a portion of their bodies after it was broiled over a hot fire, and often remarked to me that it was 

 more nutritious than the meat of a fat chicken.'' 



fFremont speaks of the Indians bringing him " bread made of acorns to trade," and adds that they 

 " live principally on acorns and the roots of the tule, of which also their huts are made." — Memoirs, page 

 ^60. The " tule " is Scirpus lactistris, variety occidenialis. 



Another writer who has lived among these Indians, says : "Pine-nuts, acorns and roots are all 

 pounded up together in a mortar. The flour is then made into a paste and thrown into a hole scooped 

 out amongst the ashes of a hot fire," etc. * * * In case of birds, rabbits, fish, etc., " without remov- 

 ing feathers, hair or scales, they are plastered over with mud, then buried in the fire. When the cook 

 thinks the meat done it is raked out, the baked mud easily dropping off and taking the feathers or hair 

 and skin with '\\.:'— Tourists' Guide to S. Cat., p. i<)2. By G. Wharton James. 



