APPRENTICESHIP—INFANTICIDE. We 
silence, neither does any one address him so much as a word until he has 
finished his repast. Then he is gradually drawn into conversation and is 
expected to give some account of himself. In primitive times these Indians 
frequently lay flat on their bellies in eating. = 
When a young Gallinomero loses his parents and older brothers he 
can bind himself to others by a sort of apprenticeship. That is to say, with 
a certain amount of shell-money he can purchase parents and brothers for 
himself who are bound to guarantee him the same protection that they 
would if they were blood relations. If he possesses the requisite amount of 
money to pay them for this service he does not become more beholden to 
them than before the contract ; but in default of it he becomes an appren- 
tice or slave to his adopted parents. 
In like manner a refugee or exile from another tribe can find among 
the Gallinomero a kind of Alsatia, and entitle himself to citizenship and 
protection by buying parents and brothers. Joseph Fitch related an in- 
stance of a squaw who came from some tribe in Sacramento Valley, pur- 
chased parents and brothers, and by thus becoming naturalized and owing 
allegiance to the tribe could not be taken away by her own people. From 
this one would infer that extradition treaties were unknown. 
No crime is known for which the malefactor cannot atone with money. 
It seems to be the law however, that in case of murder the avenger of 
blood has his option between money and the murderer’s life. But he does 
not seem to be allowed to wreak on him a personal and irresponsible ven- 
geance. The chief takes the criminal and ties him to a tree, and then a 
number of persons shoot arrows into him at their leisure, thus putting him 
to death by slow torture. 
According to their own confession, and the statements of the early 
settlers, they were addicted to infanticide. They do not seem to have lim- 
ited themselves to twins, or to have made any distinction of sex, but cut 
off boys and girls alike, especially if deformed. When resorted to the act 
was immediate; it was done by pressing the knees on the infant’s stomach. 
If allowed to live three days its life was thenceforth secure. They did not 
call it a “relation” until they had decided to spare its life. When remon- 
strated with for this abominable practice, they plead “not guilty”; they 
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