896 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 
spear-heads of flint, or pipes and battle-axes of stone, as are 
found in the state of Ohio. There is nothing to indicate that 
any of the inhabitants of the country, previous to the arrival 
of the Spaniards, were above a very low degree of savagism. 
They have no domestic animals save the dog, and that of a 
very low kind. They have so little skill in the preservation 
of food, that, like wild beasts, they grow grossly fat in the 
spring and poor in the winter. The Mojave Indians in the 
Colorado Desert, depend for their subsistence chiefly on culti- 
vated food. They plant wheat, grass, pumpkins, and musk- 
melons. After the annual overflow of the bottom land, a small 
patch of ground is cleared off with the help of knives and fire; 
then small holes are made, the seeds are deposited, and the 
field is left to grow up as well as it may. The musk-melons 
are eaten fresh; the pumpkins are eaten fresh, or sliced and 
dried ; the wheat and grass-seeds are ground, made into a paste 
with water and dried in cakes. The mezquit bean, next to 
the cultivated grains, pumpkins, and squashes, is the most 
important article of food with the Indians in the Colorado 
Desert. These beans are prepared for eating in the same 
manner with the wheat and grass-seed. 
The preceding remarks relate to the wild Indians only, and 
are intended to illustrate the natural habits, character, and 
capacity of the race. During the last fifteen years, however, 
they have all been influenced so much by intercourse with the 
whites, that they have lost many of their wild habits and ac- 
quired new ones. In some districts they have firearms; in 
others they obtain much of their food and clothing from their 
Caucasian neighbors. In the counties-along the southern coast, 
there are many civilized Indians, who live in adobe-houses, 
and support themselves by herding cattle, breaking horses, 
and working in the grain-fields, orchards and vineyards. They 
have lost much of the savage expression of countenance, and 
some of them have become very industrious and trustworthy 
laborers; but the majority are idle and dissipated in their 
habits. They have all learned a vulgar dialect of the Spanish, 
° 
