32 CAVE BURIAL— CALIFORNIA. 



children while they are of a very tender age, retaining to themselves only 

 what is necessary to meet every-day requirements. 



" The widow 'goes into mourning' by smearing her face with a sub- 

 stance composed of pitch and charcoal. The application is made but once, 

 and is allowed to remain on until it wears off. This is the only mourning 

 observance of which I have any knowledge. 



"The ceremonies observed on the death of a female are the same as 

 those in the case of a male, except that no destruction of property takes 

 place, and of course no weapons are deposited with the corpse. Should a 

 youth die while under the superintendence of white men, the Indians will 

 not as a rule have anything to do with the interment of the body. In a 

 case of the kind which occurred at this agency some time ago, the squaws 

 prepared the body in the usual manner; the men of the tribe selected a 

 spot for the burial, and the employe's at the agency, after digging a grave 

 and depositing the corpse therein, filled it up according to the fashion of 

 civilized people, and then at the request of the Indians rolled large frag- 

 ments of rocks on top. Great anxiety was exhibited by the Indians to have 

 the employes perform the service as expeditiously as possible." 



An interesting cave in Calaveras County, California, which had been 

 used for burial purposes, is thus described by Prof. J. D. Whitney :* 



" The following is an account of the cave from which the skulls, now 

 in the Smithsonian collection, were taken: It is near the Stanislaus River, 

 in Calaveras County, on a nameless creek, about two miles from Abbey's 

 Ferry, on the road to Vallicito, at the house of Mr. Robinson. There were 

 two or three persons with me, who had been to the place before and knew 

 that the skulls in question were taken from it. Their visit was some ten 

 years ago, and since that the condition of things in the cave has greatly 

 changed. Owing to some alteration in the road, mining operations, or some 

 other cause which I could not ascertain, there has accumulated on the 

 formerly clean stalagmitic floor of the cave a thickness of some 20 feet of 

 surface earth that completely conceals the bottom, and which could not be 

 removed without considerable expense. This cave is about 27 feet deep at 

 the mouth and 40 to 50 feet at the end, and perhaps 30 feet in diameter. It is 



* Rep. Smithsonian Inst. 1867, p. 406. 



