SOCIETY. 53 



or forks, nor do they use any utensils in preparing their food, 

 save the mortar and waterproof basket. The pine-nuts, edi- 

 ble roots, and berries, are eaten raw. Bugs, lizards, and snakes 

 are all considered good for food. In those places where the 

 tules grow, the roots of those rushes are eaten. Except one or 

 two tribes in the Colorado Desert, the wild Indians of California 

 never tilled the soil. 



They use very few tools. The bow was the only weapon 

 for killing quadrupeds. It is made of a reddish wood, said to 

 be the western yew, and on the back the bow is strengthened 

 with a covering of deer's sinews. The arrows are of reed, and 

 have a head made of obsidian, a transparent, vitreous sub- 

 stance of volcanic origin, in appearance very similar to a coarse 

 quality of glass. The arrow-heads are made two inches 

 long, half an inch wide, and an eighth of an inch thick, with 

 a very sharp point and sharp edges. The head is fastened in a 

 split of the shaft of the arrow by tying with deer's sinews. 

 Such an arrow-head can be used but once, for the obsidian is 

 as brittle as glass and breaks at the first shock. Some tribes, 

 in the northern part of the State, poison their arrows by irri- 

 tating a rattlesnake and then thrusting forward a fresh deer's 

 liver, which it will bite. After it has bitten repeatedly, and 

 thrown some of its poison at every bite into the liver, the lat- 

 ter is buried and allowed to putrefy. It is then dug up, the 

 arrow-head is dipped in it, and allowed to dry. An arrow thus 

 poisoned will kill a man, a horse, or an ox in twenty-four 

 hours, or less time ; and it is said that the meat of an animal 

 thus killed may be eaten with safety. I know that the Indi- 

 ans eat the meat of animals killed with poisoned arrows, 

 but I am not positive that the poison was prepared in this 

 manner. The poison of a rattlesnake is not injurious when 

 taken into a sound stomach : it is only when injected into the 

 blood that its injurious influences are felt. The arrows, even 

 when not poisoned, make very dangerous wounds, for the sinew 

 used to fasten the head soon softens, and allows the head 

 to remain when the shaft is pulled out. 



