HABITS AND CUSTOMS. 127 
or more bushels. The women carry them on their backs, suspended from 
their foreheads by broad straps, and with a smaller one in the left hand, and 
a willow woven fan in the right, they walk among the grasses, and sweep 
the seed into the smaller basket, which is emptied, now and then, into the 
larger, until it is full of seeds and chaff; then they winnow out the chaff 
and roast the seeds. They roast these curiously ; they put the seeds, with a 
quantity of red hot coals, into a willow tray, and, by rapidly and dexter 
ously shaking and tossing them, keep the coals aglow, and the seeds and 
tray from burning. As if by magic, so skilled are the crones in this work, 
they roll the seeds to one side of the tray, as they are roasted, and the coals 
to the other. Then they grind the seeds into a fine flour, and make it into 
cakes and mush. It is a merry sight, sometimes, to see the women grinding 
at the mill. For a mill, they use a large flat rock, lying on the ground, and 
another small cylindrical one in their hands. They sit prone on the ground, 
hold the large flat rock between the feet and legs, then fill their laps with 
seeds, making a hopper to the mill with their dusky legs, and grind by push 
ing the seeds across the larger rock, where it drops into a tray. I have seen 
a group of women grinding together, keeping time to a chant, or gossiping 
and chatting, while the younger lassies would jest and chatter, and make 
the pine woods merry with their laughter. Mothers carry their babes curi 
ously in baskets. They make a wicker board, by plaiting willows, and sew 
a buckskin cloth to either edge, and this is fulled in the middle, so as to form 
a sack, closed at the bottom. At the top, they make a wicker shade, like 
"my grandmother's sun bonnet," and, wrapping the little one in a wild cat 
robe, place it in the basket, and this they carry on their backs, strapped over 
the forehead, and the little brown midgets are ever peering over their moth 
er's shoulders. In camp, they stand the basket against the trunk of a tree, 
or hang it to a limb. 
There is little game in the country, yet they get a mountain sheep now 
and then, or a deer, with their arrows, for they are not yet supplied with 
guns. They get many rabbits, sometimes with arrows, sometimes with nets. 
They make a net of twine, made of the fibers of a native flax. Sometimes 
this is made a hundred yards in length, and is placed in a half circular posi 
tion, with wings of sage brush. They have a circle hunt, and drive great num.- 
