200 THE ASHOCHIMI. 
long strings of shell-beads are stretched from the ground up to its feet. 
Then, decorated with mantles and head-dresses of hawks’ feathers, they 
dance around the pole in a cirele, with chanting and various gestures, and 
afterward solemnly commit the money to the flames. 
In case of death the body is immediately incinerated, and the ashes 
flung into the air. They believe that the spirit is thus borne aloft and flies 
away to a grotto hard. by the sea at Punta de los Reyes. In this grotto is 
a fire which burns without ceasing, and which no living being may behold 
without being instantly stricken blind The disembodied spirit enters, 
hovers over and around this fire for a season, then flutters forth again and 
wings its flight over the ocean to the Happy Western Land. 
They have a legend of the Deluge which runs as follows: Long ago 
there was a mighty flood which prevailed over all the land and drowned 
all living creatures save the coyote alone. He set himself to restore the 
population of the world in the following manner: He collected together a 
great quantity of owls,’ hawks’, eagles’, and buzzards’ tail-feathers, and with 
these ina bundle he journeyed over the face of the earth and carefully 
sought out all the sites of the Indians’ villages. Wherever a wigwam had 
stood before the flood, there he planted a feather in the ground anid scraped 
up muck around the same. In due time the feathers sprouted, took root, 
grew up, branched and flourished greatly, finally turnmg into men and 
women; and thus was the wor!d repeopled. 
Like all mountaineers, they are much braver in pursuit of game than 
the lowlanders. They snare even grizzly bears, and then boldly assault 
and kili them with no weapons but sharp, fire-hardened sticks, with which 
they pierce them. These snares are made of a species of wild flax (I saw 
no samples of it), from which they twist out ropes, small, but very strong. 
The following legend relating how the Geysers were discovered by 
Indians pursuing a grizzly bear is taken from the San Francisco Bulletin: 
A LEGEND OF THE GEYSERS. 
In passing up the gorge in which are situated the Pluton Geysers you 
will notice a human head carved in stone. It bears so striking a resem- 
blance to a half-finished piece of statuary that the most casual observer 
