1050 THE GHOST-DANCE RELIGION [sth.ass.u 



but they may be safely estimated at from 7,000 to 8,000 and are thought 

 to be increasing. In 1893 those on reservations, all in Nevada, were 

 reported to number, at Walker River, 563; at Pyramid Lake, 494; at 

 Duck Valley (Western Shoshone agency, in connection with the Sho- 

 shoni), 209. Nevada Indians off reservation were estimated to number 

 G,S15, nearly all of whom were Paiute. 



As a people the Paiute are peaceable, moral, and industrious, and 

 are highly commended for their good qualities by those who have had 

 the best opportunities for judging. While apparently not as bright in 

 intellect as the prairie tribes, they appear to possess more solidity of 

 character. By their willingness and efficiency as workers, they have 

 made themselves necessary to the white farmers and have been enabled 

 to supply themselves with good clothing and many of the comforts of 

 life, while on the other hand they have steadily resisted the vices of civ- 

 ilization, so that they are spoken of by one agent as presenting the 

 ''singular anomaly" of improvement by contact with the whites. 

 Another authority says: "To these habits and excellence of character 

 may be attributed the fact that they are annually increasing in num- 

 bers, and that they are strong, healthy, active people. Many of them 

 are employed as laborers on the farms of white men in all seasons, but 

 they are especially serviceable during the time of harvesting and hay- 

 making." (Gomr., 46.\ They would be the last Indians in the world to 

 preach a crusade of extermination against the whites, such as the mes- 

 siah religion has been represented to be. Aside from their earnings 

 among the whites, they derive their subsistence from the fish of the 

 lakes, jack rabbits and small game of the sage plains and mountains, 

 and from pinon nuts and other seeds which they grind into flour for 

 bread. Their ordinary dwelling is the wikiup or small rounded hut of 

 tule rushes over a framework of poles, with the ground for a floor and 

 the fire in the center and almost entirely open at the top. Strangely 

 enough, although appreciating the advantages of civilization so far as 

 relates to good clothing and such food as they can buy at the stores, 

 they manifest no desire to live in permanent houses or to procure the 

 furniture of civilization, and their wikiups are almost bare of every- 

 thing excepting a few wicker or grass baskets of their own weaving. 



The Paiute. ghost songs have a monotonous, halting movement that 

 renders them displeasing to the ear of a white man, and are inferior in 

 expression to those of the Arapaho and the Sionx. A number of words 

 consisting only of unmeaning syllables are inserted merely to fill in the 

 meter. Like the cognate Shoshoni and Comanche, the language has a 

 strong rolling r. 



GENESIS MYTH 



At first the world was all water, and remained so a long time. Then 

 the water began to go down and at last Kura'ngwa (Mount Grant) 

 emerged from the water, near the southwest end of Walker lake. There 

 was lire on its top (it may have been a volcano), and when the wind 

 blew Lard the water dashed over the fire and would have extinguished 



