314 THE NISHINAM, 
3. South of Bear River, the tribes are designated almost entirely by 
the points of the compass, while north of it they have fixed names. 
4, The customs of the Nishinam are different from those of the Maidu 
in important respects, and especially in that very few of the former observe 
the great annual dance for the dead. 
As to language, the Maidu shades away so gradually into the Nishinam 
that it is extremely difficult to draw the line anywhere. But it must be 
drawn somewhere, because a vocabulary taken down on Feather River will 
lose three-fourths of its words before it reaches the Cosumnes. Even a 
vocabulary taken on Bear River will lose half or more of its words in 
going to the Cosumnes, which denotes, as is the case, that the Nishinam 
language varies greatly within itself. It is probably less homogeneous and 
more thronged with dialects than any other tongue in California. Let an 
Indian go even from Georgetown to American Flat, or from Bear River to 
Auburn, and, with the exception of the numerals, he may not at first under- 
stand above one word in four or five or six. But with this small stock in 
common, a great many others nearly the same and recognizable after being 
spoken a few times, and the same laws of grammar to guide them, they 
pick up each others’ dialects with amazing rapidity. It is these wide varia- 
tions which have caused some pioneers to believe that there is one tongue 
spoken on the plains around Sacramento and another in the mountains; 
whereas they are as nearly identical as the mountain dialects are. 
So long as the numerals remain the same, or nearly the same, I count 
it one language, and so'long as this is the case the Indians generally learn 
each others’ languages; but when the numerals change utterly they often 
find it easier to speak English together than to acquire another tongue. 
As to the southern boundary of the Nishinam there is no doubt, for 
at the Cosumnes the language changes abruptly and totally. As to the 
northern, the Yuba Miver villages could be classed indifferently with the 
Nishinam or the Maidu. 
Like all others, the Nishinam name every camp, spring, flat, prominent 
hill, river, ete., but they very seldom use the name of a camp or village, as 
others do, to denote the inhabitants of it. Whatever Indians live east of 
them they call easterners, and if there is a rancheria a little farther east, 
