The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1897-12-14

THE IGNEOIANS, OR FIRE
WORSHIPER.

away so suddenly that itlooks as
if they were completely exter-
minated by the Igneoians. They
seem to have been enjoying their
usual good times, with peace
and plenty on every side, when
suddenly they disappear and
leave nothing for us to judge
wherefore they have gone. And
just as suddenly do the Igneo-
ians appear and all over the
country their weapons are scat
tered, as if they came from the
West, and drove the less power
full Fishers eastward.
The new people were evidently
pretty well organized under trib-
al government. They built q
rough kind of pen, or wall of
bsulders, at the base of cliffs,
and rim-rocks, and covered the
same with brush and skins and
cooked their food.
They did not as yet understand
the use of the bow, but they used
the spear, though their best
weapon was cleft-stlck, with a
large piece of sharp flint bound
in it, which they used club-like,
and could deliver a terrible blow
with it.
There were, at that time, many
animals in existence which are
now extinct, two kinds of Buff
alo, the Mammoth, Cave Bear,
and the Great Ground Sloth,
(Megatheriatna), one of the fercest
animals that ever existed. He
would have made two or three of
our modern Grizzlies. Yet the
bones of all these animals are to
be found in quantities, around
their old camps and dwelling
places, which would lead one to
believe that they were very
brave and skillful in hunting,
and would attack anything that
came within striking distance.
They evidently understood that
the head was most vital spot,
for nearly all the skulls of the
animals mentioned, and a great
many Others, show traces of
having been crushed, and there
are marks of blows on and about
the juncture of the spinal column
with the skull. | have found
many skulls of the smaller ami
mails with the back bone cut out,
in the form of a cup, probably
used for that purpose, though as
to that [ could never be satisfied.
They may have had some religi-
GUS significance, for some of
them have marks and signs cut
on them, such as two cross
marks, a circle, ETC., but that
may have been the brands of the
owners. They made and used a
pot of sundried clay to cook their
food in, many fragments of
which I have found, with even
the impressions of the fingers of
the moulder, plainly visible upon
them.
From these impressions, the
size of their dwellings, and the
size of the boulders in the walls
of their pens and their homes, I
have come to the conclusion that,
though no doubt they were very
powerful physically, yet they
were under the average size. AS
to clothing, they may havo used
some clothing, for have found
between layers of fiberous mould
which looked like decayed grass
in exceptionally dry pens
traces of skins, that had been
covered up, and had lain undis-
turbed, that may have been a
dress of some pattern or other.
Along in the mould there large
sharp fish bones, and small, slen-
der flakes of flint, which may
have been used for needles, and
| think it quite possible that
they were. In religion, they
were fire. orshipers-hence their
name Qgneous-fre) and they
built affairs, of boulders laid up
four or five feet high, on which
they built their fire and made
sacrifices. There were two kinds
of altars-made the same-but
for different seasons and festiv-
ais, and from these affairs think
there must have been two seas
ons of religious activity-one in
the Spring, and one in the Fall.
or early Winter. My reasons are:
In the first place, around and
about one kind of altar, there
can be found, by digging, vast
quantities of fish bones, and an
occasional spear head, but no
other kind OF remains. I gath
cred number of these fish bones
and showed them to a friend of
mine who had made Ichthyology
a lifelong study. and he easily