SOCIETY. 55 



made of wire-grass, a grass with a round jointless stem, about 

 a sixteenth of an inch thick and a foot long. The basket- 

 work made with this wire-grass resembles the texture of a 

 coarse Panama hat, and is waterproof. All the basket-work 

 of the Californian Indians is made of this material. The most 

 common shape for the basket is a perpendicular half of a cone, 

 three feet long and eighteen inches wide, open at the top. 

 The basket, carried on the backs of the squaws, is used for 

 carrying food, miscellaneous articles, and children. Neither 

 the Californian Indians of the present, nor of any preceding 

 century, made such mounds, circumvallations, arrow-heads, or 

 spear-heads of .flint, or pipes and battle-axes of stone, as are 

 found in the State of Ohio. There is nothing to indicate that 

 any of the inhabitants of the country, previous to the arrival 

 of the Spaniards, were above a very low degree of savagism. 

 They have no domestic animals save the dog, and that of 

 a small kind. They have so little skill in the preservation of 

 food, that, like wild beasts, they grow grossly fat in the spring 

 and poor in the winter. The Mojave Indians, in the Colorado 

 Desert, depend for their subsistence chiefly on cultivated food. 

 They plant wheat, grass, pumpkins, and muskmelons. After 

 the annual overflow of the bottom land, a small patch of 

 ground is cleared off with the help of knives and fire ; then 

 small holes are made, the seeds are deposited, and the field is 

 left to grow up as well as it may. The muskmelons are eaten 

 fresh ; the pumpkins are eaten fresh, or sliced and dried ; the 

 wheat and grass-seeds are ground, made into a paste with 

 water, and dried in cakes. The mezquit bean, next to the cul- 

 tivated grains, pumpkins, and squashes, is the most important 

 article of food with the Indians of the Colorado Desert. These 

 beans are prepared for eating in the same manner with the 

 wheat and grass-seed. 



The preceding remarks relate to the wild Indians only, and 

 are intended to illustrate the natural habits, character, and 

 capacity of the race. During the last fifteen years, however, 



