INDIAN BURIAL PLACES IN CARPINTERIA. 13 



the knees brought up to the chin and the face towards the 

 east. The mortars, ollas and other objects, were always found 

 near the head. Some of the former were inverted over the 

 skulls, some were lying upon their sides, and still others 

 upright. Above the skeletons, and sometimes under them, 

 were placed broad whalebones or layers of chalky shale from 

 one to two inches in thickness, and in one instance slabs of 

 the Sequoia sempervirens, partially smeared with asphaltum, 

 were found on each side of the body. Redwood seems to have 

 been held in a sacred light by these people, as it is often met 

 in their burial places, and sometimes above ground, to mark 

 the place of sepulture. Some of the skeletons were found 

 without any of the usual domestic accompaniments, others 

 with an inferior or broken olla or mortar, and still others with 

 nothing but a Haliotis shell or bit of paint. 



The amount of articles found near each body seems to indi- 

 cate the wealth or poverty of the individual. Many of the 

 most prized objects were wrapped in the fur of the sea otter, 

 well preserved fragments of which were often met. We found 

 several quartz crystals in the ollas and mortars which appear 

 to have been valued and deposited simply for their beauty. 

 In one of the ollas were found the fragments of a shallow 

 basket, similar in form and construction to those found in the 

 possession of the Pueblo tribes of Arizona to-day. This vessel 

 contained a substance which appeared to be powdered corn or 

 acorns, with slightly crystalized particles intermixed, and 

 evidently once prepared for food. Large quantities of a small, 

 black seed were placed in or near some of the ollas or mortars, 

 nothing but the hull of which remained. This was also prob- 

 ably used as food. Balls of paint, made of burnt ochre, were 

 occasionally found. Near one skeleton were obtained numer- 

 ous flint flakes, and among them several slender pieces of the 

 same material, wrought for purposes unknown, some round 

 and others triangular in shape. These may have been used 

 as drills. In the same deposit were many cylindrical shell 

 ornaments, from two to three inches in length, and about one 

 fourth of an inch in diameter, nearly all pierced longitudinally 



