26 INTRODUCTION. - 



passed the coverings are lifted, and he who holds the pipe blows three 

 puffs of smoke upon the body." * 



In the way of musical entertainments it is evident that the Californians 

 were limited to very primitive instruments, the only kind that have been 

 found in the graves consisting of whistles made of bones of animals. Some 

 of these, however, exhibit considerable ingenuity, and it may be that they 

 were played upon with skill. 



As would be expected from the fact that the islands off the coast were 

 inhabited, boats of several kinds were constructed. In Cabrillo's Journal 

 mention is made of canoes seen on the coast, and other writers have stated 

 that the Indians had boats made of pieces of plank shaped by heating, 

 joined together and paid with asphaltum. Other canoes are said to have 

 been made out of a single log, while the tule raft or "balsa" was also in 

 use. Bancroft states that the boats were sometimes large enough to carry 

 twenty persons, and he also mentions that the paddles were long and 

 double bladed. The graves have yielded portions of wooden structures, 

 which are probably the remains of canoes formed of boards and still show- 

 ing the peculiar and ingenious method of uniting the pieces with asphaltum. 



The houses of the Southern Californians were probably of a simple con- 

 struction, though varying somewhat in different localities. Usually they 

 are described as conical in shape, and built over a hole dug to the depth of 

 a few feet. Around this hole poles were set forming the frame which was 

 covered with rashes and earth. The door was sometimes on a level with 

 the ground, while in other houses it was placed near the top, when it also 

 served for an exit to the smoke. The statement in Cabrillo's Journal that 

 he saw houses built after the manner of those in New Spain, is thought by 

 Mr. Bancroft to refer to the houses on the coast of the Santa Barbara 

 Channel, where there was an improvement in architecture, and this prob- 

 ably indicates that the square-framed lodges existed here as in other jxlaces 

 farther to the north. Dr. Yarrow, however, informs me that "no remains 

 of houses or dwellings of any description, nor any particular indications on 

 the surface of the earth showing where habitations had been (with the 

 exception of kitchen and shell heaps), were noticed either at La Patera or 



* Bancroft, Native Races of the Pacific States, vol. i, p. 421. 



