260 TATTOOING AND PAINTING. 



inches in length, while the hole is no larger in diameter than an ordinary 

 pencil-lead. From the shorter pieces of this character, the passage is easy 

 to the small cylinders of shell, and to the beads. 



Mr. Bancroft, in his volume on the " Wild Tribes of the Pacific Coast," 

 has mentioned many instances of tattooing and painting the face and various 

 parts of the body by the different tribes of California, as noticed by the 

 early writers; and Mr. Powers, in his "Tribes of California," has shown 

 that the custom is still followed ; particular designs, principally tattooed 

 on the chin and cheeks, being characteristic of each tribe. From the 

 prevalence of the custom in modern times, and resemblances in other 

 respects, we have every reason to believe that the former tribes of the 

 islands and coast of Southern California followed the same method of 

 adornment of the person ; and that red and black paints were used to a 

 very great extent by the earlier tribes is conclusively demonstrated by their 

 abundance in the graves which have been explored. 



Mr. Bancroft quotes from Mr. Hugo Reid that red ochre was used by 

 the Indian women of Los Angeles County to protect their complexion from 

 the effects of the sun. Dr. Yarrow also informs me that at the present 

 day, in New Mexico, Arizona, and Southern Colorado, the Mexican women 

 and Pueblo squaws smear the face with the juice of red berries and some- 

 times with a paste of white clay. This procedure is said to protect the 

 complexion from the sun, and also to greatly improve the appearance of the 

 skin. Mr. Bancroft also quotes a passage from Viscaino, who saw natives 

 on the southern coast painted blue and silvered over with some kind of min- 

 eral substance. From the graves of every locality thus far explored on the 

 southern coast and adjacent islands, masses of red ochre* have been ob- 

 tained. These masses are sometimes loose and crumbling, but more often 

 they are cut into various shapes. Many are in the form of square, oblong, 

 round, and conical pieces of about 1 inch to 3, or 4, or more inches in length 

 or diameter. Sometimes several of these cakes have been found carefully 

 placed in a small stone pot, made of serpentine or steatite, or in one of the 

 small stone mortars. In several instances large Haliotis shells have served 



*This lias often been mistaken for cinnabar. I submitted specimens from Dos Pueblos to Dr. M. 

 E. Wadsworth, of Cambridge, and he has kindly given me the following note, in reply: " The specimens 

 of the so-called cinnabar are red ochre (Hematite, ferric oxide)." 



