THE INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA. 131 
and the snows of the Sierra Nevada Range, that it had been 
but little changed since its discovery by the whites. Many 
Indian tribes were living in as perfect a state of nature as the 
elk, deer or antelope, which furnished them with food. A 
head-dress of feathers with a scanty coat of paint on his face 
was the full dress of a brave, while a fringe made of grass, 
or fine strips of bark, from the waist to the knee, was the 
costume of the girls or women. The Indians had but lit- 
tle beard naturally, and excepting in a few cases where old 
men had grown careless of appearances the hairs were pulled 
out ; sometimes a pair of muscle shells were used as tweezers, 
although I have seen a squaw dip her fingers in ashes and 
pull out her husband's beard, and draw tears at the same 
time from his eyes. Both sexes wore ornaments in the 
ears, but not rings. The children had their ears bored 
when quite young and small sticks inserted; these were ex- 
changed from time to time for larger sticks, until a bone 
ornament, made from one of the larger bones of a pelican's 
wing carved in rude style, and decorated at the end with 
crimson feathers, could be worn permanently. This bone 
was about five or six inches long and larger in size than 
my little finger. The back hair of the men was fastened 
up in a net, and this was made fast by a pin of hard wood 
pushed through both hair and net, the large end of the 
pin being ornamented with crimson feathers, obtained from 
the head of a species of woodpecker, and sometimes also 
with the tail feathers of an eagle. The women used no nets 
for their hair, nor wore feathers as ornaments, excepting in 
the end of the bones used by both sexes for the ears, which 
I have already described. The children were naturally 
frank and the girls gentle and confiding, not much more so, 
perhaps, than young grizzlies, but then I doubt whether the 
cub’s mother threatens to give it to a white man, if it proves 
disobedient, and a white man was the Bugbear used to 
frighten papooses into good behavior. They were allowed 
much freedom, however, in seeking amusement or instruc- 
