DIVISION ONE — PRE-PASADNIAN. 27 



a sort of aboriginal Turkish-bath process, peculiar to the South CaHfornia 

 Indians, for the cure of rheumatism and sundry other ailments, and was un- 

 doubtedly the pioneer sanitarium of Pasadena, which has been so prolific of 

 such institutions in these later years. This native sweat-house or hot bath 

 was operated thus: A hole was dug in the ground deep and large enough 

 for a man to sit there in the squat posture and have it filled with water up 

 to his waist. Over this was built a booth or hut of tules, having a small 

 doorway that could be closed with a mat of woven rushes or some animal 

 skin. This hole w^ filled with water, and from a fire outside hot stones 

 were put into it until it was just as hot as the human body could endure, 

 then the patient sat down in it and the door was closed, but an occasional hot 

 stone was added to the water to produce steam and make him sweat freely. 

 The patient was kept there about an hour. After he had been thoroughly 

 sweated and almost par-boiled, he must rush out and dive head foremost in- 

 to a ditch filled with cold water deep enough for him to go entirely under, 

 then get out and take a lively run for a mile or two, when the blood would 

 go rushing through the system like a race horse and the patient would feel 

 as fine as a fresh-tuned piano. Sergeant Walter said he once went through 

 the process there himself with the Indians ; but once was enough for him. 

 This adventure of Walter's was probably before 1846 ; and the Indians 

 may have had a ditch or sluice there for their sweat-house business which 

 was afterward utilized by Hanewald and Pine in 1850, in their search for 

 placer gold deposits in this Arroyo sandwash. 



THE INDIANS AFTER MISSION RULE WAS BROKEN UP. 



When the Missions were broken up and their lands sold by the Mexi- 

 can government in 1835-36-37, most of these Indians were left landless and 

 helpless, notwithstanding some grants made to them. Some of them worked 

 for white people, and had some sort of a dwelling place and familyhood on 

 the ranch where they worked ; while others huddled together in fragments 

 of tribes among the canyons and mountains, gaining a scant livelihood by 

 stealing, begging, chopping wood, grubbing greasewood, etc. Even as late 

 as 1884-85 the fine body of land now known as I^inda Vista was called " In- 

 dian Flat ' ' because it had been for many years occupied by one of these 

 fragmental Indian settlements ; and there was another one in a little nook or 

 canyon up between I^a Canyada* and Crescenta Canyada ; besides single 

 families occasionally found in out-of-the-way places ; and all living in rude 

 huts made of sticks, bushes, tule stalks, rushes, and perhaps some fragments 

 of boards, old matting, bits of threadbare carpet, and other rubbish which 

 they had picked up. 



*An old Spanish Mexican at Pasadena was asked what " Canyada" meant. He put his hands to- 

 gether, then opened them a little at their thumb side, making a narrow trough shape, and said — " can- 

 yone! canyone! " Then opening the trough much wider, he said " canyada! canyada! " So canyada is 

 simply a large wide canyon. 



