THE LASSIK—A ROBBER TRIBE. 121 
THE LAS -SIK. 
The Las’-sik formerly dwelt in Mad River Valley, from the head- 
waters down to Low Gap, or thereabout, where they bordered on the 
Whilkut. They took their name from their last famous chief. As above 
narrated, a little before the whites arrived they were driven out of this region 
by the ineursion of the Wailakki, whence they removed to Van Dusen’s 
Fork and Dobbins and Larrabie Creeks. They were of Wintiin affinities, 
so here again they jostled against the original occupants, the Saiaz and 
others, and in hard-fought battles were routed again. Thus ousted from 
every place where they tried to establish homes—crowded, elbowed, super- 
numerary in a crystallized population, beaten about from pillar to post, with 
their hearts full of rancorous bitterness and despair—they became a band of 
‘gypsies, or rather of thugs, houseless and homeless nomads, whose calling 
was assassination, and whose subsistence was pillage. Their hand was 
against every man, and every man’s hand against them. All the world was 
their natural enemy. They roamed over the face of the earth, robbing and 
murdering. It is said they took no scalps, but cut off a slain enemy’s feet 
and hands. They even penetrated into the distant valley of the Sacra- 
mento, where they came in conflict with the newly-arrived white man, and 
by bloody defeat and fierce pursuit they were hurled back over the mountains 
whence they came. 
After much tough and bitter experience in this adoptive method of life, 
the Lassik gradually ceased to murder in robbing, but continued to prose- 
cute the latter occupation with undiminished vigor and brilliant success. 
They would blacken their faces and bodies with charcoal, then go into the 
forest near some sequestered house, or by the wayside, and squat there for 
hours together motionless as a stump. So closely would they resemble the 
latter object that the lynx-eyed backwoodsman and hero of fifty fights 
would pass them by unaware. When some one came along at last 
who was seemingly weak, and promised good picking, they would sally 
forth quickly—strange how these stumps will-get up and run!—catch 
the horse by the bit, and proceed to pluck the rider clean. Day after 
day, week after week, they would come and squat in this fashion near 
some lonely house, with that infinite persistence of the Indian, watching 
