482. oo. ` General Notes. [July, 
t 
(with a generosity as rare as it is refreshing, quoted in full in the 
opening address to the Secretary of the Interior) remarks charac- 
‘teristically, “If any critic, sitting in his comfortable parlor in New 
ork, and reading about the sparse aboriginal populations of the 
cold forests of the Atlantic “tates, can overthrow my conclusions 
with a dash of his pen, what is the use of the book at all ? 
Upon the next point, the physical characters of the California 
Indians, the work of Mr. Powers will be unsatisfactory. s to 
external characteristics, stature, color, &c., he is sufficiently ex- 
_ plicit, and frequently quite original in his method of description ; 
but the comparative anthropologist demands more than this now. 
The volumes of instructions issued by the Société d’Anthropologie, 
by the Anthropological Institute, by the German government to 
the merchant marine, by the Austrian government, and by other an- ` 
thropological societies, attest the anxiety of leading savants to 
reduce every investigation to absolute measurement. ith 
reference to the psychological characteristics of the various tribes, 
r. Powers is more explicit; indeed the author is again at home 
and leaves nothing to be desired as he lays bare, in order, the 
good and the bad that are in the Indians whom he is describing. 
This discriminating power is be illustrated by a remark of Mr. 
Powers concerning the Wintun, p. 229. “With that toughness 
and tenacity of life ori some of the lower order of be- 
ings, they have lived on and possess their homes while better 
and braver races have gone to oblivion. 
In the culture-historical portion of the work, the author is 
decidedly in his proper element. Nothing has escaped his eye. 
As he proceeds from tribe to tribe, we have recorded for us every 
article of diet and drink throughout the year, and all the herbs 
that enter into their pharmacopeeia; the size and shape, the 
material, and the mode of construction of their dwellings, together 
with their furniture, vessels, and appurtenances; the style of dress 
of both sexes, and of all a ages, classes, and occasions ; their im- 
plements of every craft with the manner of using them; their 
games and pastimes, especially their gambling, of which they are 
besiege nici fond; their music, over which the author grows, 
nce at least, quite sentimental, p. 212; their domestic life in the 
marriage relation and ia the management of children, including 
the discussion of prostitution and adultery, and the curse, of in- 
fanticide; their social system and customs, together with their 
governmental organization and administration ; last of all their 
religion, which has no “idea of the ‘Great Spirit,’ forthese people are 
realistic and seek to personify everything,” nor of “happy hunting ` 
grounds,” for the indolent Californian, reared in his balmy clime 
knows nothing of the fierce joy of the Dakota hunter, but believes 
in a heaven of “hedonic ease and luxury.” A valuable addition 
to the work is the collection of vocabularies made principally by 
Mr. Powers and Mr. George Gibbs and collated in the appendix. 
