WAR AND WEAPONS—COLLECTING DEBTS. 321 
In war, upon coming into close quarters, the Nishinam sought to stab 
the enemy under the arm, aiming at the heart. They took no scalps. When 
going into battle they frequently waxed and twisted out the fore-hair of 
their heads into two devilish-looking horns, topped their heads with feathers, 
and painted their breasts black. I once heard an aged Indian describe 
with wonderful vividness a fight which his nation had by appoitment with 
the Maidu, many a long year ago, when they were yet so numerous that 
their hosts darkened all the plains beside the beautiful Yuba. ‘They fought 
a great part of a summer-day, and, according to his account, there was a 
mighty deal of thwacking, prodding, and hustling, though it was not a very 
bloody affair at all. He killed a Maidu; then presently he turned his back 
and ran away himself, and got a spear jabbed into his heel. He described 
both circumstances with the same simple honesty and remarkable vivacity, 
which showed he was telling the truth, and which contrasted so strongly 
with the boastful arrogance of the Algonkin, that never acknowledges 
defeat. Their male captives they tied to trees and shot to death without 
lingering tortures, and the women they sometimes whipped and then mar- 
ried, and sometimes put to death. A chief named Sis’-ko told me that 
when California tribes had a battle they occasionally exchanged prisoners 
afterward, but did not do so with the Paiuti. This may have been done 
since the whites have had an influence among them, but I doubt if it was 
before. 
Their war-spear was quite a rude affair, consisting simply of a rough 
shaft of wood, eight or ten feet long, a little split at the end to receive a 
flint-head similar to the arrow-head, which was fastened to the shaft with 
sinew wrapped around it in a crease cut for the purpose. 
They have a curious way of collecting debts) When an Indian owes 
another, it is held to be in bad taste, if not positively insulting, for the cred- 
itor to dun the debtor, as the brutal Saxon does; so he devises a more sub- 
tle method. He prepares a certain number of little sticks, according to the 
amount of the debt, and paints a rig around the end of each. These he 
carries and tosses into the delinquent’s wigwam without a word and goes 
his way; whereupon the other generally takes the hint, pays the debt, and 
destroys the sticks. It is a reproach to any Indian to have these dunning 
ZIT G 
