598 TRIBES RELATED TO THE PAIUTI. 
the Yokuts hold that animal in mortal terror, and refuse even to partake of 
its flesh when slain. 
The black eagle is sacred to them, and they never kill one, but they 
pluck out the feathers of those that die, and wear them on their heads as 
one of their most valuable ornaments.- When they succeed in capturing a 
young one, after two weeks they have a great dance and jubilation around 
it, then sell it to another village, that they may do likewise. 
The California big tree is also in a manner sacred to them, and they 
call it woh-woh'-nau, a word formed in imitation of the hoot of the owl, 
which is the guardian spirit and deity of this great monarch of the forest. 
It is productive of bad luck to fell this tree, or to mock or shoot the owl, or 
even to shoot in his presence. Bethel states that they have often, in earlier 
years, tried to persuade him not to cut them down—pity they could not 
have succeeded !—and that when they see a teamster going along the road 
with a wagon-load of lumber made from these trees, they will ery out after 
him, and tell him the owl will visit him with evil luck. 
The hunter who penetrates into the great forests of the high Sierra 
sometimes notices a tree which looks scratched about the base. The Mono 
account for this appearance in the following manner: Once in awhile the 
erizzly bears assemble in a council, great and small together, and sit down 
in a cirele in the forest with some huge Old Ephraim occupying the post of 
honor as chairman. There they sit a long time, bolt upright on their tails, 
in a silence as profound as that of a Quaker meeting. After awhile the old 
chairman drops down on all-fours and goes to the tree, rears up and hugs 
it with his fore-paws, and dances around it. After him the next largest one 
takes his turn, then the next, and so on, down to the cubs. When a Mono 
hunter sees them in a council thus, or perceives by the indications that they 
have recently held one, he hastens home and notifies his companions of the 
circumstance. ‘They consider that the bears hold these councils for the 
purpose of making war on them, and for a certain number of days after the 
discovery is made they carefully refrain from hunting the animals, or even 
from firing off a gun where they would be likely to hear it, lest they should 
enrage them. The younger Indians laugh at this story. 
Subjoined are the numerals of some of those tribes, taken at the locali- 
