INTRODUCTORY. 
There is some difficulty in drawing a line sharp between the California 
Indians and their neighbors. With some exceptions they shade away from 
tribe to tribe, from valley to valley, so that one can seldom put his finger 
on a river or a mountain-range and say that here one nation ends and 
another begins. 
There are certain general customs which mark the California Indians, as, 
for instance the use of the assembly chamber, the non-use of torture on pris- 
oners of war, cremation, and the prevalence of a kind of plutocracy, or if 
the word is allowable, dorocracy, that is, the rule of the gift-givers. But cre- 
mation and the assembly chamber are also used, toa certain extent, by some 
vicinal tribes that cannot be classed with these; and, on the other hand, 
cremation is not universal in California. 
The term “Digger”, vulgarly applied to the race, is opprobious and 
unjust, equally as much as it would be to designate Chinamen as ‘“Rat- 
eaters”. There are tribes, notably the Apaches, who subsist much more on 
roots than do the California Indians 
Aside from language, the most radical difference between the Califor- 
nians and the Paiuti or Nevada Indiaiss is, that the latter build their lodges 
more or less on hill-tops, while the former build theirs near water-courses. 
As to the Californians and the Siwash, or Oregon Indians, probably the 
most notable difference is, that the latter have no large assembly chamber 
proper. Both these points of difference show that the Californians are a 
more peaceful, effeminate, and sensuous race than their neighbors. They 
are also more devoted to joyous, social dances and merry-makings. 
But the crucial test is that of language. Not only are the California 
languages distinguished for that affluence of vowel sounds which is more 
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