MOUNTAINEERS—ONCE VIRTUOUS AND BRAVE. 397 
rather an undersized race, they by no means justify the appellation, either 
in appearance or in character, for they are a manly, warlike people, and 
were anciently a great terror to the Yokuts. They are several shades 
lighter than the latter; and with their raven-black hair worn quite down to 
the shoulders, their smallish features, and their quick, suspicious eyes glanc- 
ing out from under their great Spanish sombreros, they present a rather sin- 
gular appearance. They still retain many of the simple virtues of a race of 
hardy, honest mountaineers, and are mostly free from those brutish prac- 
tices which disgrace the lowlanders. For years they resisted the inroads of 
whisky, the great leveler which laid low their valley neighbors. ‘They are 
a healthy people, and are said to be increasing ‘even now. ‘They do not 
bathe the entire person daily, like the lowland tribes, but they sometimes 
take sweat-baths, then run and plunge into cold water. Probably owing 
largely to their isolated position they are exclusive, and refuse to intermarry 
with other tribes. 
The Mono are an offshoot of the Nevada Indians, and should be prop- 
erly classified with them, but they have been so long on the western slope 
of the Sierra, and acquired so many California habits and usages, that they 
may be included here. Many years ago—it is impossible to ascertain how 
long ago—they came over from Owen’s River Valley, and conquered for 
themselves a territory on the upper reaches of the San Joaquin and King’s 
River, the lower boundaries of which were indicated in the previous chapter. 
They are not such a joyous race as the Californians, and have no 
annual merry-makings, though they sometimes celebrate a good harvest of 
acorns; and they think that a certain great being in the east, who is 
nameless to them, must be propitiated at times with a grand hunt and a 
feast following it, else there will be disease and bad luck in their camps. 
Their business is with war, and fighting, and hunting; hence they have 
more taciturnity, more stern immobility of feature, than the Californians. 
It was they who introduced among the Yokuts, in recent years, the red 
paint, the terrible emblem of war and bloodshed, which appears to have 
been unused by the latter before that. They pursue and slay the grizzly 
bear in single-handed combat, or in companies, with bows and arrows, but 
