THE INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA. 143 
continued their solemn dancing, singing a low monotonous 
chant. 
Running of races was confined, after childhood, to the men, 
and endurance rather than speed sought for. A race was 
for three or five miles at least, and a good runner would 
follow à runaway horse or mule that had started off with 
greater speed, but in a few hours would return with the 
animal in his possession. 
The Indians were inveterate gamblers, and parties from 
one tribe would visit another for several days at a time and 
play day and night. The game was a sort of an **odd and 
even," as played by white children, the parties guessing 
as to the number and position of the sticks used in the game. 
The playing was accompanied by singing, and beads were 
principally used for stakes. 
In the treatment of diseases the Indians succeeded in a 
certain class of them, but failed altogether in others. The 
pain from a sprain or rheumatism would be drawn to the sur- 
face by burning the skin with fire. I can testify to a cure 
from this remedy. A severe sprain of an ankle, followed by 
two months use of crutches, resulted six months later in 
rheumatism in one of my feet. The assertion of a chief 
that fire would eure it in an Indian, but for a white man— 
and here he shrugged his shoulders as if words were unnec- 
essary —induced me to try the experiment, and show him 
that white men could bear pain. I placed a live coal on the 
top of my instep, and before the burn was healed my rheu- 
matism was gone. For headaches they pressed their hands 
on the head of the sufferer and sometimes cured it by gentle 
pressure. For other diseases they tried steam baths, especi- 
ally for colds. When any internal disorder defied their 
treatment, they immediately begged medicine from the 
whites. 
In burying the dead a circular hole was dug and the body 
placed in it, in a sitting posture, with the head resting on 
the knees. Ifa man his nets were rolled about him and his 
