198 THE ASHOCHIMI. 
dropped a few yards inside the Wappo territory, and though the Gallino- 
mero had the powerful backing of a white man, and the lickerish sniff of 
venison in his mind’s nostril, he dreaded the possible divulgence of the 
matter, and the Wappos’ secret vengeance; so strictly are these Indian 
treaties observed, through fear. 
The Wappo presents a finer physique than the lowland Gallinomero. 
He is shaded perceptibly lighter; has a more even and well-rounded head, 
though it is large like the Yuki head; less angularity and coarseness of 
feature; a much more prominent chin; a brighter eye; less protuberance 
of belly. 
The Wappo language, like its congener, the Yuki, is clear-cut, sharp, 
and easy of expression to an American. The words are mostly short, and 
seldom is there one that cannot be neatly and accurately spelled from the 
Indian’s lips. Thus hell is “fire”; pi is “white”; poll is “earth”; and 
hell-pi-poll (literally, ‘“ fire-white-earth”) is “ashes”. The agglutinative 
feature prevails, as usual. Thus mi is “you”, md-deh is “father,” and 
mai'-ah is “your father”. The verb takes a different form for the 
past tense, but not for the future; thus chau-d-sy, chau-d-ky, chau-d-sy 
are the three forms for the present, imperfect, and future of ‘‘go”. The 
Wappo display great readiness in learning their neighbors’ tongues. Old 
Colorado was said by the whites to have spoken in his prime fourteen lan- 
guages and dialects. He is still alive, but blind, extremely shriveled and 
helpless, probably a hundred years old—a pitiable shadow of a once great 
warrior, who over and over again routed the brave Spaniards. 
In the main the social customs of the Wappo are like those of the Gal- 
linomero, but they do not commit parricide, and less frequently infanticide. 
In regard to the latter, both whites and Indians have so often asserted its 
existence that there is no room for incredulity ; but I have seen only one 
man who could afiirm that he had actually witnessed the deed. A.S. Nelson 
stated that he once saw a Wappo woman put her foot on the neck of her 
healthy, new-born babe, and throttle it. 
When a young man beholds a maiden who is beautiful in his eyes, he 
goes to her father and lays down before him in the wigwam a quantity of 
shell-money. Both of them maintain a profound silence. and the old man 
J ] : 
