210^ THE f>ERl INDIANS 1eth.ann.17 



the Seri at least, as the sole method of storiug or i»reserviug food- 

 supplies, and hence as the germ of industrial economy out of which a 



familiar to me, who visited me after liariDj; fed for three or four weeks on these pitabayas. They do 

 not, however, preserve them, acd when the season is over they are put apainou short rations. Among 

 the roots eaten by the Califoruians may be mentioned tlie yuka, which roustitutes au important article 

 of food iu many parts of America, as. for insiance, in the ishind <if Cuba, but is not very abundant in 

 California. In some provinces it is made into a kind of bread ur cake, while the Californians, who 

 would find this process too tudious. simply roast the yukas in a tire like potatoes. Another root eaten 

 by the natives is that of the aloe plant, of which there are many kinds in this country. Those species 

 of this vegetable, howevei', which afl'ord nourishment — for nut all of them are edible — do not grow as 

 plentifully as the Californians mij:ht wish, and very seldom in the neighborhood of water; the prepa- 

 rations, moreover, which are necessary to render this plant eatable, require much time and labor. 

 . . . I saw the natives also frequently eat the roots of the eoiimion reed, just a.s they were taken 

 out of the water. Certain seeds, some of them not larger tlian those of the mustard, and ditlerent sorts 

 iu pods that grow on shrubs and little trees, and of wliich there aie, according to Father Piccolo, more 

 than sixteen kinds, are likewise diligently sought; yet they furnish only a small quantity of grain, 

 and all that a person can collect with much toil during a whole year may scarcely amount to 12 

 bushels. 



"It can be said that the Californians eat, without exception, all animals they can obtain. Besides 

 thediflereut kinds of larger indigenous quadrupeds and birds, they live nowadays on dogs and cats; 

 horses, asi^es, and mules; itoti, on owls, mice, and rats; lizards and snakes; bats, grasahtqipers, and 

 crickets ; a kind of green caterpillar without hair, about a tinger long, and an abominable white worm 

 of the length and thickness of the thumb, which they find occasionally iu old rotten wood, and con- 

 aider as a particular delicacy. The chase of game, such as deer and rabbits, furnishes only a small 

 portion of a Californian's provisions. Supposing that for luO families 300 deer are killed in the course 

 of a year, which is a very favorable estimate, they would supply eacli family only witli three meals in 

 three hundred and sixty-live days, and thus relieve but in a very small degree the hunger and the pov- 

 erty of these people. The hunting for snakes, lizards, mice, and field-rats, which they practice with 

 great diligence, is hy far more profitable and 8ui)plies them with a much greater quantity of articles 

 for consumption. Snakes, especially, are a favorite sort of small game, and thousands of them find 

 annually their way into the stomachs of the Califoiniaus. 



"In catching fish, particularly in the Pacific, wliich is much richer in that respect than the Gulf of 

 Calitbrnia, the natives use neither nets nor hcoks, but a kind of lance — that is, a long, slender, pointed 

 piece of hard wood — which they handle very dexterously in spearing and killing their prey. Sea -turtles 

 are caught in the same manuer. 



"I have now mentioned the ditterent articles forming the ordinary food of the Calitbrnians: but, 

 besides these, they reject nothing that their teeth can chew or their stomachs are capable of digesting, 

 however tasteless or unclean and disgusting it may be. Thus they will eat the lea\es of the Indian 

 fig-tree, the tender shoots of certain shrubs, tanned or untanned leather, old straps of rawhide, with 

 whi<'h a fence was tied together for years ; itein, the bones of poultry, sheep, goats, and calvt^s; putrid 

 meat or tish swarming with worms, damaged wheat or Indian corn, aud many other things of that sort 

 which may serve to appease the hunger they are almost constantly suffering. Anything that is thrown 

 to the bogs will be also accepted by a Californian, and he takes it without feeling offended, or thinking 

 for a moment that he is treated below his dignity. For this reason no one took the trouble to clean 

 the wheat or maize, which was cooked for them in a large kettle, of the black worms and little bugs, 

 even if the numbers of these vermin had been equal to that of the grains, liy a daily distribution of 

 about loO bushels of bran (which they are in the habit of eating without auy ]>reparation) I could hare 

 induced all my parishioners to remain permanently in the mission, excepting during the time when 

 the pitabayas are gathered. 



"I saw one day a blind man, 70 years of age, who was busily engaged in pounding between two 

 stones an old shoe made of raw deerskin, and whenever he had detached a piece he transferred it 

 promptly to his mouth and swallowed it; and yet this man had a daughter and grown grandchildren. 

 As soon as any of the cattle are killed and the hide is sjtread out on the ground to dry, half a dozen 

 boys or men will instantly rush upon it and commence to work with knives, tlints, and their teeth, 

 tearing and scratching oflf pieces, which they eat immediately, till the hide is lull of holes or scattered 

 in all directions. In the mission of St. Ignatius and in others further toward the north there are 

 persons who will attach a piece of meat to a string and swallow it and pull it out again a dozen times 

 in succession, for the sake of protracting the enjoyment of its taste. 



"I must here ask permission of the kind reader to mention something of an exceedingly disgusting 

 and almost inhuman nature, the like of which probalily never has been recorded of any people in the 

 world, but which demonstrates better than anything else the whole extent of the poverty, unclean- 

 ness. and voracity of these wretchetl beings. In describing the pitabayas I have already stated that 

 they contain a great many small seeds resembling grains of powder. For some reason unknown to 

 me these seeds are not consumed in the stomach, but jiass off in an undigested state, and in order to 

 save them the natives collect during the season of the pitabayas that which is discharged from the 



