222 ETHNOGRAPHY. 



lumbia to San Francisco. This was about sixty miles south of the 

 Shasty country. Mr. Dana, to whom I owe the vocabulary which is 

 given of this language, observes, in his note to me : " The natives 

 seen on reaching the Sacramento plains, resemble the Shasty Indians 

 in their regular features. They have thick black hair descending low 

 on the forehead, and hanging down to the shoulders. The faces of 

 the men were colored with black and red paint, fancifully laid on in 

 triangles and zigzag lines. The women were tattooed below the 

 mouth. They were a mirthful race, always disposed to jest and 

 laugh. They appeared to have had but little intercourse with fo- 

 reigners. Their only arms were bows and arrows, and in trading 

 they preferred mere trinkets, such as beads and buttons, to the blan- 

 kets, knives, and similar articles which were in request among the 

 northern Indians." 



Still farther south, about one hundred miles above the mouth of the 

 Sacramento, Mr. Dana obtained vocabularies of the dialects of four 

 tribes, the Puzhune, Sekamne, Tsamak, and Talatui. He says of 

 them : " These Indians have the usual broad face and flattened nose 

 of the coast tribes. The mouth is very large, and the nose broad and 

 depressed. They are filthy in their habits and stupid in look, like 

 the Chinooks. Throughout the Sacramento plains the Indians live 

 mostly on a kind of bread or cake made of acorns. The acorns, after 

 the shell is removed, are spread out and dried in the sun, then 

 pounded with a stone pestle to a fine powder, and afterwards kneaded . 

 into a loaf about two inches thick, and baked. It has a black color, 

 and a consistency like that of cheese, but a little softer; the taste, 

 though not very pleasing, is not positively disagreeable." 



Five vocabularies are given of idioms spoken by the natives of 

 California, who were formerly under the control of the Spanish mis- 

 sions. The first of these was taken at San Rafael, on the north side 

 of the bay of San Francisco, in about latitude 38 10'. The second 

 is of La Soledad, near the coast, in latitude 36. The third of San 

 Miguel, about fifty miles to the southeast of the last-mentioned. The 

 fourth of San Gabriel (the Kij), in latitude 34; and the fifth of San 

 Juan Capestrano, (the Netela,) twenty miles further down the coast. 

 The " missions" are large square enclosures, surrounded by high 

 walls of adobes or unburnt bricks. Around the inside are cells, which 

 served as dormitories to the natives. The latter were collected at 

 first, partly by persuasion and partly by force, into these missions, 

 and employed there in agriculture and various simple arts, in which 



