XXXVIU ETHNOGRAPHIC SKETCH. 



tall, and wiry, while the women are short and often incline to embon- 

 point. Nevertheless obesity is not more frequent there than it is with ns. 

 No better illustration of their bodily characteristics can be had than a col- 

 lection of their personal names. These sketch tlie Indian in a striliing and 

 often an unenviable light, l^ecause they generally depict the extremes ob- 

 served on certain individuals. Tiie sex. can not, or in a few instances only, 

 be inferred from the name of a ])ei-son. We frequently meet with designa- 

 tions like "Large Stomach," "Big Belly," "Round Belly," "Sharp Nose," 

 "Grizzly's Nose," "Spare-Built," "Grease," "Crooked Neck," "Conical 

 Head," "Wide-Mouth," "Small-Eyes," "Squinter," "Large Eyes," "Half- 

 blind," or with names referring to gait, to the carriage of the body, to 

 habitual acts performed witli hands or feet, to dress, and other accidental 

 matters. 



With all tliese deformities, and many others more difficult to detect, 

 these Lidians have bodies as well formed as those of the Anglo-American 

 race, and in spite of their j)rivations and exposure they live about as long 

 as we do, tliough no Indian knows his or her age with any degree of accu- 

 racy. A very common defect is the blindness of one eye, produced by the 

 smudge of the lodge-fire, around which they pass the long winter evenings. 

 With the majority of the Indians the septum of the nose liangs down at 

 adult age, for the nose of every Indian is pierced in early years, whether 

 they afterwards wear tlie dentalium-shell in it or not. 



Stephen Powers, who had good opportunities for comparing tlie Modocs 



with the tribes of Northern California, says of them: 



They present a finer physique than the lowland tribes of the Sacramento, taller 

 and less pudgy, partly, no doubt, because they engage in the chase more than the 

 latter. There is more rugged and stolid strength of leatnre than in the Sha.stika 

 now living; cheek bones pioiniiient; lips generally thick and sen.snai; noses straight 

 as the Grecian, but depressed at the root and thick walled; a dullish, heavy cast of 

 feature; eyes frequently yellow where they should be white. They are true Indians 

 in their stern immobility of countenance.* 



Passing over to the psychic and mental qualities of these Oregonian 

 natives, only a few characteristics can be pointed out by which they differ 

 from the other Indians of North America. The Indian is more dependent 



•Contributions to North Amer. Ethnology, m, 252, 253. By Shastika he means 

 the Shasti Indians of middle Klamath River, California. 



