28 ENTEODUCTIOK 



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the level of the village gradually, and increasing the depth of the subter- 

 ranean part of the hut until the latter was deserted, or built over with a new 

 structure. * * * The size of a town-site varies from about 100 metres 

 in length and width, to 1,200 metres or three-quarters of a mile in length, 

 and from 100 to 300 metres in width, the extent of Os-bi a rancheria in 

 Santa Barbara County, about five miles from Point Sal, which is the largest 

 shellmound derived from permanent habitations thus far explored on the 

 coast." 



From the numerous subdivisions of the people, and the many villages 

 of small size governed by chiefs who apparently had but limited power, it is 

 evident that warfare was not conducted on an extensive scale by the South- 

 ern Californians, though petty quarrels were undoubtedly of common 

 occurrence. In their weapons the Southern Californians were probably 

 inferior to their northern neighbors, and, although bows and arrows are 

 mentioned as having been in use, fragments of bows have not been found 

 in the graves about Santa Barbara, and as comparatively few small points 

 of stone such as would be classed as arrow-heads have been discovered, it 

 is probable that their arrows were principally provided with wooden points. 

 Swords or large knives of bone, stone, and even of wood, and probably 

 clubs, seem to have been the most important weapons. The perforated 

 stones, which have been considered by some as weights to digging-sticks, 

 would also have formed efficient clubs, and many of them may have been 

 so used, on the principle of adapting the one article to all the uses possi- 

 ble. Mr. Powers casually mentions the sling when writing- of the Porno, 

 and again in his list of weapons of the Californians. It can hardly be 

 doubted that the sling was one of the earliest weapons, but it seems to have 

 been superseded by the bow and arrow, and has only survived as a weapon 

 in a few limited areas, as, for instance, among the Peruvian tribes, which 

 have so many things in common with the tribes of the west coast of North 

 America. It is stated that in battle no quarter was given to men, and that 

 the killed were decapitated and scalped ; still, scalping after the method of the 

 eastern tribes does not seem to have prevailed to any great extent. Women 

 and children are said to have been taken prisoners and retained as slaves. 



The office of chief is stated by Bancroft to have been "hereditary, 



