Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1883-08-17
Laura and Reninn,Ina.

H. H. describes "The Present Condition
of the Mission Indians of Southern Califor-
mia" in the August Century, and speaks as
follows of two aged San Gabriel women
"a few rods from the old mission church of
San Gabriel, in hut made Of bundles of the
tule reeds lashed to sycamore poles, as the
San Gabriel Indians made them a hundred
years ago, live two old Indian women, Laura
and Ben iamina. Laura is 102 years old,
Benjamina III. The record of their bap-
tsms is still to be seen in the church books
so there can be no dispute as to their age. 1t
seems not at all Incredible however. II l
had been told that Benjamina was three
thousand year-old Nile mummy, resuscitated
by some mysterious process, l should not
have demurred much at the tale. The first
time saw them the two were crouching over
fire on the ground, under a sort of booth
porch, in front of their hovel. Laura was
making fent of grinding acorn meal in a
stone bowl Benjamina was raking the ashe5
with her claw-like old fingers, for hot Goals
to start the fire afresh her skin was like an
elephants, shriveled, black, hanging in folds
and welts on her neck and breast and bony
arms it was not like anything human her
shrunken eyes, bright as beads, peered out
from under thickets of coarse grizzled gray
hair. Laura wore a white cloth band around
her head tied on with strip of scarlet fan
mel; above that, q tattered black shawl,
which gave her the look of an ancient imp.
Old baskets, old pots, old pans, old stone
mortars and pestles, broken tiles and bricks,
/ rags, straw, boxes, legless chairs-in short,
all conceivable rubbish, were strewn about
or piled up in the place. making the weirdest
of backgrounds for the aged crones figures.
Inside the hut were two bedsteads and few
box g, baskets, and nets and drying grapes
hY,V,r on tha xuo A
away was another hut, only trifle better
than this four generations were living in the
| two. Beniamina's step-daughter, aged 80,
was a fine creature. With q white band
straight around her forehead close to the eye
brows and gay plaid handkerchief thrown
on above it, falling squarely each side of her
face, she looked like an old Bedouin shiek.
"Our Mexican friend remembered Laura as
she was 90 years ago. She was then, even at
| 50, celebrated as one of the swiftest runners
and best ball players in all the San Gabriel
games. She was a singer, too, in the choir.
Coaxing her up on her feet, patting her
shoulders, entreatng and caressing her as
| one would child, he succeeded in persuad-
| ing her to chant for us the Lords prayer and
part of the litanies, as she had been wont to
| do it in the old days. 1t was a grotesque and
incredible sight. The more she stirred and
sang and lifted her arms, the less alive she
| looked. We asked the step daughter II they
were happy and wished to live. Laughing,
she repeated the question to them. oh, yes,
we wish to live forever, they replied. They
were greatly terrified, the daughter said,
when the railway cars first ran through San
Gabriel. They thought it was the devil
bringing fire to burn up the world. Their
chief solace is tobacco. To beg it Benjam-
ina will creep about in the village by the hour,
bent double over her staff, tottering at every
step. They sit for the most part silent, mo-
tionless on the ground their knees drawn
up, their hands clasped over them, their
heads sunk on their breasts. In my drives
in the San Gabriel valley, 1 often saw them
sitting thus, as if they were dead. The sight
had an indescribable fascination. 1t seemed
that to be able to penetrate into the recesses
of their thoughts would be to lay hold upon
secrets as old as the earth"