The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-01-10
INDIAN GHOSTS.
"DEVIL PLACES" OF SOUTHERN
CALIFORNIA.
Some Folklore Gathered by the
Bureau Of Ethnology in a Publ
ucation Soon to BE Issued.

Fifty miles to the southwest of Tue
Son, Ariz., is dreary region Of desert
a rugged butte of roughly conical shape
rises abruptly from the plain and points
like a finger toward the sky. Here and
there it's sides are pitted with caverns,
and altogether it's appearance is SO
weird that it is no wonder the Papaso
Indians of the region regard 1t with
superStitious awe. It Is called Ratue-
snake Rock, because the ancient OF al
the Rattlesnakes makes his home INSIDE
of it.. This fact is known positively, pc
cause he has been seem many times. Inc
butte is a sacred place, and nobody ven
lures near 1t under ordinary clrculn
stances; but candidates for aboriginal
diplomas as medicine men sleep by IL
over night, after fasting for a long
time, and the big serpent comes OUT
and leads them into the rock, where, IN
an immense hollow chamber, all sorts OF
potent things, such as snakes SKINS,
birds claws. etc, are hung up. The
uses of these for magical and curative
purposes he teaches to the novice, who
is thereafter regarded by his people as
graduated in the arts Of healing and
eorcery.
THE FEAR OF SHADOWS.
On the field of the fight of Wounded
Knee there was picked up an Indian
baby not more than three months old
little girl. She was found strapped to
the back of her dead mother, who was
shot in the massacre. General Colby
adopted the child, to whom the name
Zintka Lanuni Gost Bird was given,
and reared her as his daughter. AL
though the little girl neither knows nor
remembers any conditions other than
those of civilization, she has evinced
one very notable inherited trait-name-
ly, a fear of shadows. She is greatly
afraid even of her own shadow, and this
would seem very surprising were it not
known that Indians, like most other
savages, regard a shadow as the ghost
of the person or other object by which
it is thrown.
The rules of conduct by which saw
age must govern his life are vastly
more complex than those which control
a. civilized man. This is because of the
multitude of ghosts which surround him
on every side. The civilized man con-
siders that he is doing what is required
of him if he does not disturb the COM
fort of his neighbors, but the Indian
is obliged to behave himself in a salts
factory way in respect to rocks, in re-
spect to deer, in respect to the sun
and moon, and so on ad infinitum. He
has an infinite number of neighbors, all
of whom are none the less real to him
because they are phantoms to us. For
example, a certain line of conduct must
be fulfilled by him in respect to rab-
bits; otherwise he would not be able to
catch any rabbits. The Great Ancient
of Rabbits permits some of his repre-
sentatives to be captured only on the
condition that certain forms shall be
carefully observed by the captors.
HAUNTED PLACES.
Every tribe of Indians has its ghost
places or devil places, which are haunt
ed localities. In the country Of the Tu-
lare Indians, in Southern California, is
an enormous granite bowlder which is
believed to be inhabited by witches. 1t
is known as Witch Rock. and nobody,
least of all children, ventures to ap-
proach it. In the lower part of it is a
curious opening, which has the shape
of a cavern, and here the witches are
supposed to dwell. Not far distant is
q pUCl WHICH SuppOSSO ~ NC oSNupANA
by the devil The waters of the pool
are dark, being stained with some veg
etable matter, and close by is mineral
spring, which lends additional mystery.
That the devil does actually live in the
pool is indisputable, because practically
every member of the tribe has seen him.
They go, a number of them together,
and hold each others hands while they
watch for him, and they never fail 10
see him in the water. He Is always
along to be gobbled up.
There does not seem to be any evil
dence to show that any monkey ever
saw a ghost That is because the
monkey possesses no imagination.
Without imagination there can be no
ghost. The man and the ghost must
have begun to exist in the world to-
gether, practically. To the primeval
savage, as to the Indian of to-day,
everything had its phantasmal essence,
so to speak, and the essence was more
important than the external properties
of the object. From this point of view
a thing has a tangible shell, but within
it is contained a potency of spirit. This
latter Is the ghost, which is at liberty
to leave the object when 1t wishes. OF
course, the savage has a ghost OF his
own, of which he is vaguely conscious.
Among the most appalling spooks
that haunt the Iroquois is carnivorous
ghost in the shape of skeleton. Echo,
in their belief, is a species of phantom,
which repeats their words mockingly
among the hills. Particularly malevo-
lent spirits are certain huge heads.
without bodies, that go flying about.
their long hair serving them in lieu of
wings. The Indians generally believe
In supernatural beings corresponding to
our fairies and COLLINS. which have local
abiding places well recognized as such.
They call them the Little People,
Near the junction Of the illinois, and
Mississippi Rivers is a great rock. on
which is carved a representation of a
panther. Up to very recent period,
and until the Indians were driven out
of that part of the country, they made
sacrifices regularly to. this sculptured
animal, believing that the rock was the
home of the ancient of all the panthers.
This custom of theirs was evidently
very old, inasmuch as 1t Is referred to
by Marquette.
THE ORIGIN OF NIAGARA FALLS.
Formerly there dwelt under Niagara
Falls a gigantic snake, which now and
then would make its way to an Indian
village in the neighborhood and coil
itself around the town. 1t swallowed
the people who tried to escape, and
rendered itself further obnoxious by
poisoning the wells with its Spite.
Finally the serpent was destroyed by a
stratagem. It was so huge that when
the people laid its body out in death 1t