248 



NATURE 



[Jan. 15, 1880 



facts are slowly accumulated upon which general anthro- 

 pology is founded, there comes the conviction in many 

 cases thnt we are dealing with customs and beliefs that 

 have already reached the twilight of their existence. The 

 qrania ia our museums will soon be the only physical 

 relics of many races that can just be said to still exist. 

 The desire has therefore long been expressed for the im- 

 mediate production of faithful and exhaustive mono- 

 graphs, by competent observers, of many of these fast- 

 fading anthropological shadows. To this demand America 

 is now contributing largely ; the present volume relates 

 to the habits, customs, legends, religious beliefs, and 

 geographical distribution of the Californian Indians, 

 information collected by Mr. Powers during three years' 

 residence and travel among those tribes. 



This work being the result of personal experiences, and 

 as such of the greatest value, other authorities are neces- 

 sarily not much quoted, but the reader who would desire 

 a more exhaustive treatment of the subject, can supple- 

 ment his perusal of this volume by that of the fourth 

 chapter of the first volume of Bancroft's " Native Races of 

 the Pacific States," and it is possible that little more in the 

 way of general Californian ethnological information can 

 id. In the introduction it is acknowledged that 

 there is a difficulty in drawing a fine distinction between 

 the Californian Indians and their neighbours, and although 

 there are some customs which appear to differentiate 

 them, these alone are not sufficient, and Mr. Powers con- 

 siders the "crucial test is that of language." Twenty- 

 eight principal tribes and some smaller ones related 

 thereto are recognised and receive separate treatment. 



La Perouse compared these Californians from their dark 

 colour to the negroes in the West Indies, and Prichard, 

 generalising from the accounts of Rollin and Kotzebue, 

 boldly compared the shape of their heads and features 

 to those of the " Negroes of Guinea, New Guinea, and 

 the New Hebrides." Without however ourselves attach- 

 ing importance to these assumed or superficial resem- 

 blances, the above writers might have adduced another 

 fact for the supposed negroid type from Mr. Powers, who 

 tells us that " all Californian Indians emit an odour 

 peculiar to themselves." 



The women of the Ka-rok tribes are described as 

 having, apart from tattooed chins, " a piquant and 

 splendid beauty," which has resulted in much inter- 

 marriage with the whites, many pioneers, "including 

 four county officers and the only editor in Klamath 

 County, having taken them to wives." This is another 

 illustration of the pregnant fact, pointed out by many 

 writers during the last few years, that with the Indian 

 tribes in North America there has in many cases been 

 much assimilation, and not only extermination. It is 

 stated, however, that among " half-breed " children a 

 decided majority are girls. " Often I have seen whole 

 families of half-breed girls, but never one composed 

 entirely of boys, and seldom one where they were more 

 numerous." It would be interesting to know the propor- 

 tion of male to female births among the Californians 

 themselves. Franz Mayer has stated that there are more 

 boys than girls in Upper California. Among the Nozi 

 hose stature is short, the children " often remain 

 mere dwarfs until they are ten or fifteen years old, when 

 they start and shoot up suddenly eighteen inches or so." 



These Californian Indians have a considerable power 

 of botanical discrimination. Of the Patawat tribe it is 

 stated, " there is not the smallest -moss or lichen, not a 

 blossoming shrub, or tree, or root, not a flower or vine, 

 no forest parasite, bulrush, or unsightly weed, growing in 

 the water or out, or any sea-weed or kelp, for which they 

 have not a specific name ; " and Mr. Powers asserts with- 

 out hesitation that an average intelligent Indian, even if 

 not a' shaman, has at command a much greater catalogue 

 of names than is possessed by nine-tenths of Americans. 

 It is, however, incorrect to say, at p. 419, that savages 

 have no systematic classification of botanical knowledge 

 — " there are no genera, no species." The same remark 

 has been made by Dr. Peschel in his "Races of Man." 

 Dr. Hector, on the contrary, has informed us that the 

 Maoris of New Zealand have not only distinct names for 

 nearly all their plants, but generic names, by which they 

 group plants according to their affinities, in a way 

 impossible to most people who were not educated 

 botanists. These Californians sometimes exhibit morbid 

 anticipations of death. Amongst the Porno, the authority 

 of Robt. White is given for the fact that aged men and 

 women in early expectation of their demise, frequently 

 dig their own burial-place, and then repair thither daily 

 for months together, eating their repast at the mouth of 

 the grave ; whilst amongst the Wintun, Mr. Powers 

 relates that sometimes an aged woman will wear around 

 her for months, the rope wherewith she is to be wrapped 

 when a corpse. 



Mr. Powers also contributes a most valuable addition 

 to Californian folk-lore in the numerous legends that 

 have been exhaustively collected and excellently narrated. 

 It becomes a question, however, whether some of these 

 are truly aboriginal, and uninfluenced by the teachings of 

 the early Spanish missionaries ; the " Legend of Gard," 

 p. 80, seems to have had a very possible inspiration from 

 Eastern sources. 



This work is more intended for the careful study of the 

 ethnologist than to afford extracts for a reviewer ; and 

 though naturally a great part of the information has been 

 previously collated, there is not only much that is de- 

 cidedly new to science, but the whole forms an excel- 

 lent example of what can be observed and collected by 

 an ethnologist for ethnology. It is likewise another token 

 of "American Progress ;" published by the " Department 

 of the Interior,'' it is distributed to European students, 

 without barter and without price. It is well illustrated, 

 many patterns of facial tattoo marks being shown. A 

 good map also accompanies the volume, the value of 

 which is farther enhanced by an appendix on Linguistics, 

 edited by J. W. Powell, in which a number of vocabularies 

 are given. W. L. DISTANT 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake to return, or 

 to correspond with the writers of, rejected manuscripts. No 

 notice is taken of anonymous communications . 



[ The Editor urgently requests correspondents to keep their letters as 

 short as possible. The pressure on his space is so great that it 

 is impossible otherwise to ensure the appearance even 0/ com- 

 munications containing interesting and novel facts.] 

 Sunshine Cycles 

 In Nature, vol. xxi. p. 81, your correspondent, Mr. B. G. 



Jenkins, with the best intentions, yet does me too much honour 



