Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-09-14


declaring it to be a contraction of the
Latin words calida tornir = hot oven.
Though representing the peninsula rs hot,
sterile and almost without rain, he admits
that whenever water is turned on, the soil
exhibits surprising fertility. He writes:
"One may plant what he chooses, it will
thrive, the earth yielding one hundred
fold. In the same year field will WELD
double and sometimes three-fold harvest
of corn, that grows to prodigious height,
bearing twelve ears on the stalk. 1t is
only to be regretted that such humid
places are of rare occurrence, and that
often one cannot find water for irrigating
a certain piece of ground within from forty
to ninety miles" But it should be re-
membered that Father Bargert lived near
the Tropic of Cancer, where excessive
heats are expected, and that most OF the
missionary efforts in California were con-
fined to the dryest and hottest coasts
Washington Irving states, but do not
know upon what authority, that when the
missions were first established in Lower
California the aboIigines numbered about
10000. Bargert says: "In a country so
sterile as this, the inhabitants cannot be
great, for most of them would die of hun
ger were it densely populated. Conse-
quently there are few Californians in pro-
portion to the great extent of territory
almost as few as if there were none at ALL
| One may travel in ten different parts,
four days or more, without seeing single
human being"
A pecu liarity of the country to-day is
that one may travel scores of miles with
out finding the slightest trace of human
occupancy; or if, at rare intervals, he sees
an Indian family, they will be squatted
silently on bare hillside, with no shelter
but the sky.
THE MISSIONARIES
Were never able to induce the natives to
abandon "all outdoors" for an abiding
place. They built themselves houses,
churches and barracks of adobe, or stone,
but the Indians continued to spend their
days in the srn and their nights with the
| sky for Counterpart. Only during the
season of cold winds could they be per-
suaded to erect any sort of shelter, and
that merely rude break-weather of sage
brush-about three feet high, in the shape
of half-moon-behind which they hud
died. Baegert excuses their shiftlessness
in this wise: "If they had houses, they
would be compelled to carry them about
| like snails or turtles, for the necessity of
collecting food urges them to wander con-
stantly. They cannot start every morn
ing from the same place and return thither
in the evening, since single tract of land
cannot provide for the smallest tribe. To-
day the water will fail; tomorrow they
have to go long distance to gather a
certain fruit or seed then fit for food. |
am not mistaken In saying that most OF
them change their night quarters at least
a hundred times IN year, hardly ever
sleeping three successive times in the same
part of the country"
As the blue sky rooted their only habi-
tation, so, in the days of the missionaries,
their own brown skins were all the cloth
ing they cared for. The males and chill
dren perambulated the earth, from birth to
death, in state of perfect nudity, and so did
most of the women-except few young
bellies, among whom the fashion existed OF
wearing on festive occasions sort OF
| apron, which the monk describes as "about
a span wide, of different length, generally
reaching to the knee leaving naked both
sides of the thighs" This regalia must
resemble japanese portieres in workman
ship, being merely strings of cactus fiber
on which are strung short sections of
water-reed, like beads on a rosary. A
number of these strings, hitched close
together on girdle of rawhide, hang
down before and behind. The men, like
the women, allow their hair to grow long,
and when it becomes too tangled and
thickly populated to be longer endured
| (such thing as comb or brush being
unheard of, it is chopped off with sharp
flint and allowed to grow again. Formerly
the ears of all male children were pierced
with pointed stick, and into the aperture
bones and bits of wood were inserted, often
enlarging the lobes to such degree that
they actually hung down upon the shout
ders when the person was grown to mans
estate. On gala days they further en-
HANGED their natural beauty by daubing
different parts of the body with streaks Of
red and yellow, the colors being obtained
from berries, or by burning certain min
erals. Though the native Californian diff
fers totally from his brother Mexican in
language and habits, he has the same
cloye-colored hide, varying in shade from
tan to copper.
THE NEWBORN BABIES
Are white as Anglo-Saxons, but soon the
darker blood begins to show ITSELF The
straight, coare hair is black as pitch, and
seldom grows gray, even in extreme old
age. All are beardless, eyebrows but
! slightly defined, and the teeth whittier than
| pearls, though never cleaned. As a rule
they are taller than the other Indians of
Mexico, and remarkably supple, one of
their favorite amusements being to stand
upright on one leg, and with the toes of
| the other foot to lift stones, bones and sticks
from the ground to their mouths.
Before the coming of the Spaniards the
Californians believed that their country
comprised the whole world, and that they,
themselves, were its sole inhabitants.
Though small numerically, they were d.
vided into great many tribes, each tribe
speaking different tongue. The mission
aries complained that in the space of $50
leagues they had to learn nineteen differ
ent dialects. In reality, there were but
three distinct languages among the PENN
sula tribes, the Mogui, Pericu and Cachi-
mi. Father Baegert says that though a
mission contained but thousand souls it
might embrace as many little nations
among its parishioners as Switzerland
counts cantons and allies. His own mission
barely enumerated 500, yet consisted of
eleven distinct tribes, each speaking a
separate language. In order that you may
imagine how easy those dialects were to
learn, | will mention the names of some of