Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-03-11
The Cahuilla legend in its most im-

The Cahuilla legend in its most inn
portant feature indicates the belief by
them that the American Indians are
descendants of one primeval pair, born
of and from the water. If credence be
given to this legendary genesis OF the
American Indians, all the hitherto
unsolved problems respecting their
origin and the diversity of their laL-
g1ages, can be satisfactorily solved
without any violation of the laws of
nature or OF reason. The slight di~-
ference of color and fea-
lures to be found in differ
ent families of them can be
reasonably accounted for by their
having lived for many successive gen.
erations under different climates and
surroundings. While, as before stat
ed, the physical differences between
the Yuma and the Cahuilla families
are too slight to be noticed by a
stranger, the radical difference in
their language proves that they must
have been widely separated before
and during the time in which their
respective languages were evolved;
and yet they subsequently came to-
gether and have lived together in
close proximity, one to the other, for
a length of time running back beyond
their oldest historic traditions.
ORIGIN OF THE SKIN COLOR.
The pristine cells or germs from
which the ancestral pair of Indians
were evolved, commencing life ex-
istence and passing through all the
changes and transformations to man
hood in red water, their outer cover
ing or skin would naturally be of a
redish color. In many stages OF this
transformation period and until the
kands and feet were evolved if not
still later, tail instead of being an
incumbrance, would have been a
useful member.
A careful dissection and close iu-
spection of the foot of a horse dis
closes the existance of rudimentary
bones OF toes, from which the COL
clusion is reached that in some of the
evolutionary stages through which the
horse has passed in reaching his pre-
sent structure and condition, the foot,
instead of a hoof, was provided with
toes. The bony structure of the hu-
man hand and foot is such that by
severing the skin and cartilages which
bind and hold those bones, they could
without dislocation be spread out so as
to form the ribs of large expanded
web foot or hand.
After this fully developed ancestral
pair of American Indians were burned
out of and brought forth from the
mother waters of the earth in man.
ner not dissimilar to that in which
their descendants have ever been
brought forth out of the mother wa
ters of their natural parent, with pow
er to breathe the air and to procure
food, they would remain along the
shore OF the waters and obtain their
food chiefly from that element which
had sustained them during the long
period of their development. Pater-
nal and filial affection between this
primitive pair and their offspring for
generations must have been merely
animal, and would not have contin-
ued beyond the time when their off-
spring reached the age of puberty, at
which time the offspring would have
left their parents and found new
families. Food being abundant and
easily obtained, there would have
been no mutual dependence between
them. The founders of new family
would have selected a somewhat iso-
lated but favorable spot, upon which
to locate themselves. AS the fami-
lies increased and spread along the
shores of the water, and the supply
of food, both from the water, and the
land became of greater importance,
rivalry, jealousies and ami
mosities would ensue, from
which habits of gregarious.
ness would result, and communities
would be formed for both offensive
and defensive purposes. A large if
not a major part of the food OF these
communities must have been taken
from the water, consisting 10 a great
extent OF shell fish, which having been
brought to the places inhabited by
them, their flesh would have been
consumed and the shells cast aside
into heaps, now found in great
abundance as fossils. The changes in
the line of the shore along which
these families lived, and the convul-
sions of the earth which placed the
gold producing beds of rivers along
which large sire ANS once flowed in
the foundations of broad and lofty
mountains, disposed them into differ
ent and distant lands, and conse-
quently, with diverse surroundings, a
diversity of languages would naturally
be the result. j. J. WARNER.
Los ANGELES, CAL, 1885.