180 THE GALLINOMERO. 
placed in the center, squatting on the ground. Then some Indian intones 
a chant, which he sings alone, and the sport, such as it is, begins. At the 
bidding of the prompter the coward makes a furious sally in one direction, 
and with his spear stabs the empty air. Then he dashes back in the oppo- 
’ site direction and slashes into the air again. Next he runs some other way 
and stabs again. Now perhaps he makes a feint to pierce the woman. 
Thus the prompter keeps him chasing backward and forward, spearing 
the thin air toward every point of the compass, or making passes at the 
woman, until nearly tired out, and the patience of the American spec- 
tators is exhausted, and they begin to think the whole affair will ter- 
minate in ‘mere dumb show”. But finally at a°word from the prompter, 
the spearman makes a tremendous run at the woman, and stabs her in the 
umbilicus. She falls over on the ground quivering in every limb and the 
blood jets forth in a purple stream. The Indians all rush around her 
quickly and hustle her away to another place where they commence lay- 
ing her out for the funeral pyre, but huddle around her so thickly all the 
while that the Americans cannot approach to see what is done. Thus they 
mystify matters, and hold some powwow over her for a considerable space 
of time, when she somehow mysteriously revives, recovers her feet, goes 
away to her wigwam, encircled by a bevy of her companions, dons her 
robe, and reappears in the circle as well as ever, despite that terrible spear- 
thrust. , 
Men who have witnessed this performance tell me the first time they 
saw it they would have taken their oaths that the woman was stabbed unto 
death, so perfect was the illusion. Although this travesty of gladiatorial 
combat is intended merely for amusement, yet all the Indians, these stoics 
of the woods, gaze upon it with profound and passionless gravity. If they 
laugh at all it is only after it is all over, and at the mystification of the 
Americans. 
As an evidence of their peaceful disposition, it may be mentioned that 
Joaquin Carrillo, a cousin of the celebrated Pio Pico, established himself on 
the Santa Rosa Plains as early as-1838, and lived alone far from any gar- 
rison in perfect security. He was surrounded by hundreds of them, and 
he gathered around him a baronial following, as the custom of the early 
