4 INTRODUCTION. 



Mr. Stephen Powers has taken the most pains of late authorities to 

 correctly understand the character, customs, and languages of the rem- 

 nants of the numerous tribes, especially those of the northern and central 

 portions of the State, and, in his several interesting articles,* has called 

 repeated attention to the great diversity of language and customs which 

 exists among many of the tribes. As the result of his personal observa- 

 tions, Mr. Powers is inclined to consider the tribes located north of Mount 

 Shasta as coming originally from a different stock from those south of that 

 line, which latter he considers as probably of the Chinese stock. He further 

 considers the race as one that has greatly deteriorated. The following 

 quotations from his paper read before the California Academy of Sciences 

 express his reasons: 



"The simple fact of the almost total lack of ceramic remains, and the character of 

 the relics found in the Alameda and other shell-mounds, show that the present race 

 must either have supplanted or descended from one which was little more advanced 

 than themselves. The few and simple stone implements used by the California Indians 

 resemble, in their main purpose and design, those of the extinct races exhumed in the 

 shell-mounds, only they are conspicuously ruder and simpler. Take the stone mortars, 

 for instance. The pre-aboriginal mortar is carefully dressed on the outside, and has 

 three general shapes, either flattish and round, or shaped Mke a duck's egg with the 

 bowl in the large end, and the small end inserted into the ground. But the Indian 

 takes a small bowlder of trap or greenstone and beats out a hollow in it, leaving the 

 outside rough. Whenever one is seen in possession of a mortar dressed on the outside, 

 he will acknowledge he did not make it, but found it ; in other words, it is pre-aboriginal. 

 The pre-aboriginals used handsomely dressed pestles, evenly tapered to the upper end, 

 or else a uniform cylinder for about three-fourths of the length, with the remaining 

 fourth, also uniform, but smaller, for a hand-hold; but the squaw nowadays picks up 

 a long slender cobble from the brook. The pre-aborigines fought" with heavy kuives, 

 or swords, carved out of jasper or obsidian, which were, probably, used as daggers 

 rather than as swords ; that is, the combatants sought to pierce each other with the 

 point instead of dealing blows with the edge. The Iudians of to-day fight with rough 

 stones, such as they pick up, choosing those which are long and sharp pointed; and 

 their constant aim is to strike each other in the face with the points, just as their 

 predecessors or ancestors probably did with their carved knives. The pre-aborigines 

 made, out of sandstone or other soft stones, a small and almost perfect sphere as an 

 acorn-sheller; but the squaw nowadays simply selects a. smooth cobble from the brook 

 for this purpose. In the collection of A. W. Chase, Esq., of the IT. S. Coast Survey, 

 there are spindle whorls of stone, some of them found in mounds made by extinct tribes, 

 and others found among the Klamath River Indians and the Nome Lackees, all of 

 which bear a close resemblance; and, in this instance, there is no perceptible deteriora- 

 * Overland Monthly for April, 1872, and following numbers. 



