154 THE POMO. . , 
satisfactory description of this forest or this plain to a white man in English, 
or even to a brother Indian in his vernacular. He prefers to go and lead 
you to the spot, and if he once can be persuaded to attempt this he will not 
fail, he will conduct you to the desired place with the absolute infallibility 
of the sun’s rays in finding out the hidden corners of the earth. 
There is occasionally a Pomo who is named for some animal, snake, 
or bird, in accordance with some whim, or fancied resemblance in the 
child’s actions or babyish pipings, as chi-kok’-a-we (quail), mi-sal’-la 
(snake), ete. 
The Kato Pomo believe in a terrible and fearful ogre called Shil’-la-ba 
Shil’-toats. He is described as being of gigantic stature, wearing a high, 
sugar-loaf head-dress, clothed in hideous tatters, striding over a mountain 
or valley at a step, and like the Scandinavian Trolls, a cannibal, having an 
appreciative appetite for small boys. He is very useful to the Indian in the 
regulation and administration of his household affairs, and especially in the 
“taming of a shrew”, as he has only to rush®into the wigwam with his 
eyes judiciously dilated, and his hair somewhat toused, and vociferate, 
“Shillaba Shiltoats! Shillaba Shiltoats!” when his squaw will scream with 
terror, fall flat upon.the ground, cover her face with her hands—for that 
squaw dies who ever looks upon this ogre—and she will remain very tract- 
able for several days thereafter. The children will also be profoundly 
impressed. 
_ This and the other branches of the Pomo living nearest the ocean have 
a conception of a sort of Hedonic heaven, which is quite characteristic. 
They believe that in some far, sunny island of the Pacifie—an island of fade- 
less verdure ; of cool and shining trees, looped with clinging vines; of bub- 
bling fountains; of flowery and fragrant savannas, rimmed with lilae shad- 
ows, where the purple and wine-stained waves shiver in a spume of gold 
across the reefs, shot through and through by the level sunbeams of the 
morning—they will dwell forever in an atmosphere like that around the 
Castle of Indolence ; for the deer and the antelope will joyously come and 
offer themselves for food, and the red-fleshed salmon will affectionately rub 
their sides against them, and softly wriggle into their reluctant hands. It 
is not by any means a place like the Happy Hunting Grounds of the lordly 
