OLD WIVES vs. YOUNG ONES—A SUICIDE. 259 
they are scarcely known at all; that one man is so much greater than a 
woman that he can take care of several female spirits; that in this life he 
requires one to keep house, another to do hunting, another to dig roots. 
Then the women themselves are opposed to any change, and are opposed 
to the idea of marrying unless they are bought.” 
Of the California tribes, this assertion that the old men all have young 
wives, and the young men old wives, is untrue. It may be true of the 
tribes in Oregon, but of the Modok I doubt if it is even partially true. 
Horses were not so numerous among the Modok that it required fifty to 
purchase a woman; farther up in Oregon they may have been. 
Of their religion, he states that a new one had been introduced within 
a few years past. 
The substance of the new religion is, that wherever a man is born 
there he ought to die. If he changes his habitation, his body will not go’ 
back to where it originated, and both body and soul will wander around. 
The central idea of this “religion” is by no means new; it has always 
been one of the most passionate desires among the Modok, as well as their 
neighbors, the Shastika, to live, die, and be buried where they were born. 
Some of their usages in regard to the dead and their burial may be gath- 
ered from an incident that occurred while the captives of 1873 were on their 
way trom the Lava Beds to Fort Klamath, as it was described by an eye- 
witness. Curly-headed Jack, a prominent warrior, committed suicide with 
a pistol. His mother and female friends gathered about him and set up a 
dismal wailing; they besmeared themselves with his blood, and endeavored 
by other Indian customs to restore his life. The mother took his head in 
her lap, and scooped the blood from his ear; another old woman placed her 
hand upon his heart, and a third blew in his face. The sight of the group, 
these poor old women whose grief was unfeigned, and the dying man, was 
terrible in its sadness. Outside the tent stood Bogus Charley, Huka Jim, 
Shacknasty Jim, Steamboat Frank, Curly-headed Doctor, and others who 
had been the dying man’s companions from childhood, all affected to tears. 
When he was lowered into the grave, before the soldiers began to cover 
the body, Huka Jim was seen running eagerly about the camp, trying to 
exchange a two-dollar bill of currency for silver. Ie owed the dead war- 
