. Sane 
4“ 
%. 
THE KELTA—FOOD AND LODGES. 89 
all sides by tribes who regarded cremation as dishonorable. Probably their 
custom was somewhat varied. 
They spoke Hupa, but were distinguished as a tribe of polyglots, like 
most tribes of this region. 
THE KeL’-TA. 
The south fork of the Trinity is the home of the Kel’-ta (Khlél’-ta). I 
know not if they ever had any tribal name of their own; if they ever had 
they have allowed it to be supplanted by the one above employed, bestowed 
on them by the Hupa. 
They formerly had a distinct language, but the Hupa encroached so 
much upon it that it now amounts to nothing. They are per force poly- 
glots; and I saw a curious specimen of this class of inter-tribal interpreters, 
so peculiar to California. He was called “Old One-eye”, and had been 
facetiously dubbed ‘‘Mr. Baker”, a title which had greatly elevated him in 
his own opinion. To maintain it with suitable dignity he considered an 
ancient and badly smashed tile hat and a cast-off regulation-coat with brass 
buttons, as absolutely indispensable. He had one eye and six languages in 
his head. 
The Kelta build a conical wigwam, but without a cellar underneath. 
Their implements, baskets, ete., are about the same as those heretofore 
described. They have the same curious custom as the Karok of trimming 
up trees with a head and two outstretched arms, and using the branches for 
making assembly chamber fires. 
A veteran pioneer and ‘‘squaw-man” among them informed me that 
they eat soap-root (chlorogalum pomeridianum) when they are hard pushed 
in the spring. They extract the poisonous quality from it by roasting, 
which they do by heaping a large quantity of it on the ground, covering 
it over with green leaves, and building a fire over it. This is allowed to 
burn many hours until the poison is thoroughly roasted out, when the root 
is said to be quite sweet and palatable. They also find a root grow- 
ing in moist places, of which they make much account, and which is 
probably cammas, and is called the wild potato, which when roasted and 
peeled is sweetish and toothsome. The great amount of roots in this State 
which are sweet when roasted, and especially the cammas—the digging of 
os 
