THE DIGGERS. 179 



erous and ill-disposed, making alike troublesome neighbors to the Spaniards 

 and dangerous opponents to the whites, whenever an opportunity is pre- 

 sented. 



The Pa-utahs and Lake Utahs occupy the territory lying soutli of the 

 Snakes, and upon the waters of the Colorado of the west, and south 

 of the Great Salt Lake. 



These Indians are less warlike in their nature, and more friendly in their 

 disposition, than the Taos Utahs. The persons and property of whites, vis- 

 iting thein for trade or other purposes, are seldom molested ; and ail having 

 dealings with them, so far as my information extends, unite to give them a 

 a good character. 



They rarely go to war, and seem content to enjoy the blessings of peace, 

 and follow the chase within the limits of their own hunting grounds. 



The Diggers, or rather a small portion of them, are a division of the 

 Utah nation, inhabiting a considerable extent of the barren country directly 

 southwest of the Great Salt Lake. They are represented as the most de- 

 plorably situated, perhaps, of the whole family of man, in all that pertains 

 to the means of subsistence and the ordinary comforts of life. 



The largest (and, in fact, almost the only) game found within their terri- 

 tory, is a very small species of rabbit, whose skins sewed together consti- 

 tute their entire clothing. The soil is too barren for cultivation, sparsely 

 timbered, and but illy supplied with water. The consequence of these ac- 

 cumulated disadvantages is, that its unfortunate inhabitants are left to 

 gather a miserable substitute for food from insects, roots, and the seeds of 

 grass and herbs. 



In the summer months they lay in large supplies against the approach of 

 winter, — ants furnishing an important item in the strange collection. 



These insects abound in great numbers, and are caught by spreading a 

 dampened skin, or fresh-peeled bark, over their hills, which immediately at- 

 tracts the inquisitive denizens to its surface ; when filled, the lure is care- 

 fully removed and its adherents shaken into a tight sack, where they are 

 confined till dead, — they are then thoroughly sun-dried, and laid away for 

 use. 



In this manner they are cured by the bushel. The common way of eat- 

 ing them is in an uncooked state. These degraded beings live in holes 

 dug in the sand near some watercourse, or in rudely constructed lodges of 

 absinthe, where they remain in a semi-dormant, inactive state the entire 

 winter, — leaving their lowly retreats only, now and then, at the urgent calls 

 of nature, or to warm their burrows by burning some of the few scanty 

 combustibles which chance may afTord around them. 



In the spring they creep from their holes, not like bear — fattened from a 

 long repose — but poor and emaciated, with barely flesh enough to hide their 

 bones, and so enervated, from hard fare and frequent abstinence, that they 

 can scarcely move. 



So habituated are they to this mode of life from constant inurement, they 

 appear to have no conception of a better one. 



Their ideas and aspirations are as simple as their fare. Give them an 

 occasional rabbit, with an abundance of ants, seeds, and roots, and they are 

 content to abide in their desert home and burrow like the diminutive animal 

 they hunt. _ _ 



