SOCIETY. 51 



They are bought as merchandise from the parent, and treated 

 as slarves after the purchase. 



Most of the wild Indians have no permanent place of resi- 

 dence. Each tribe has a territory which it considers its own, 

 and within which its members move about. Each family has 

 a hut, and a cluster of these huts is called a rancheria. The 

 rancherias are usually established on the banks of streams, in 

 the vicinity of oak-trees, horse-chestnut bushes, and patches of 

 wild clover. Such places are generally on fertile soil, with pic- 

 turesque scenery. In the Sacramento Valley the most common 

 plan for a hut was to dig a hole three or four feet deep and 

 ten feet across ; erect an upright post in the center, about six 

 feet high ; lay poles from the edge of the hole to rest on this 

 post, and cover the poles with grass and then with dirt. In 

 some districts the hut is made by taking large pieces of pine 

 bark and laying them against a frame- work of poles fastened 

 together in a conical shape. In the San Joaquin Valley it 

 was more convenient to make a frame-work of poles, and 

 cover it with rushes or tules. These huts may be deserted for 

 a time, but are considered the property of the builders, who 

 move, according to the seasons, to those places where they can 

 obtain food most conveniently. In one month they go to the 

 thickets ; in another, to the open plain ; in another, to the 

 streams. 



Their food is composed chiefly of acorns, clover, grass, grass 

 seeds, grasshoppers, horse-chestnuts, fish, game, pine-nuts, edible 

 roots and berries. The acorns of California are large, abund- 

 ant, and some of them are not unpleasant to the taste, but 

 they do not contain much nutriment as compared with an 

 equal bulk of those articles commonly used for food by the 

 Caucasian race. The acorns are gathered by the squaws, and 

 are preserved in various methods. The most common plan is 

 to build a basket with twigs and rushes in an oak tree, and 

 keep the acorns there. The acorns are prepared for eating by 

 grinding them and boiling them with water into a thick paste, 



