IMMORALITY—IGNORANCE OF A SUPREME BEING. 413 
children, is as foul as the lowest white men indulge in when alone together. 
It is a marvel that their children grow up with any virtue whatever. Yet 
they far less often make shipwreck of body and soul than do the offspring 
of the civilized, because when the great mystery of maturity confronts 
them they know what it means and how to meet it. 
Marriage frequently takes place at the age of twelve or fourteen. 
Parents desire to marry their children young, to remove them from tempta- 
tion, and they willingly provide them with food for a year or two, so as to 
lighten the matrimonial yoke. Since the advent of the Americans the 
husband often traffics in his wife’s honor for gain, and even forces her to 
infamy when unwilling; though in early days he would have slain her 
without pity and without remorse for the same offense. 
In making the following assertion, I do it not unaware that it may be 
stoutly challenged. With the exception, perhaps, of a few tribes in the 
northern part of the State, J am thoroughly convinced that a great majority of 
the California Indians had no conception whatever of a Supreme Being. ‘True, 
nearly all of them now speak of a Great Man, the Old Man Above, the 
Great One Above, and the like; but they have the word and nothing more. 
Vox, et preterea nihil. This is manifestly a modern graft upon their ideas, 
because this being takes no part or lot in their affairs; is never mentioned 
in the real and genuine aboriginal mythology or cosmogony; creates 
nothing, upholds nothing. They have heard of the white man’s God, and 
some of them have taken enough interest to translate the word into their 
own language, as Po-koh’, Liish, Sha, Ko-miis’, Kem’-mi Sal’-to, and the 
like; but with that their interest ceases. It is an idea not assimilated, and 
to become assimilated the whole of their ancient system of legends and 
theogony (if the word can be used where there are no gods) would have 
to be overthrown. By long acquaintance one may become so familiar with 
even a California Indian as to be able to penetrate his most secret ideas; 
yet when you ask him to give some account of this being he can tell 
nothing, because he knows nothing. ‘He is the Big Man Above”; that is 
the extent of his knowledge. But ask him to tell you about the creation 
of the world, of man, of fire, and of familiar objects, and his interest is 
aroused; instantly this fabulous being disappears, and the coyote comes 
