The San Francisco call., 1899-08-27

THERE can be no doubt that the
three Oldest sisters in the United
States-possiby in the whole world
are some Indian women in San Diego
Il County, in Southern California
Many a circus and dime museum
man has been after them in the past few
years and has offered large sums for the
old women to leave their families and as
sociates and go out for exhibition pur-
poses. But one might as well try to coax
a bear with diamonds and champagne as
to try to induce these aged Indians with
offers Of gold and a living in the best
hotels. Those out here, who know the
Indians ways, always smile when an
agent for a circus or a dime museum
comes to make offers to these three old
savages.
The women are Se-mul-lah (meaning
PEACEFUL, NiEg-lio (meaning black-eyedJ
and Temescal Cmeaning sharp at bar
gain. Their combined ages are 296 years.
Se-mul-lah is the eldest; she was 1O3 years
old last June. Ning-lio is 100 and Temes-
cal is the juvenile of the trio. She was
96 some time last summer. They are rem
nants Of the Saboba tribe, who We're a
part of the thousands of friendly savages
known in California as the Mission In
dians, from the fact that they voluntarily
went under the fostering care of the
Franciscan missionaries in the latter part
of the eighteenth century and gave their
children to the missionaries for instruc-
ton. These old women are able to speak
a few words in English. but their talk is
a jargon of Spanish and Indian. Each Of
them has several score of descendants. A
few years ago a friendly priest in San
Diego took the trouble to hunt up among
the half-breed Indians as many descend
ants as possible Of Madame Ning-lio. He
found that they were scattered among
the reservations in Sonora, Mex, in Low
er California and in four counties in
Southern California, and that they num-
bered over seventy. There were about
forty great-grandchildren alone, and some
of them were big boys and girls, and never
knew that Ning-lio was any relative Of
theirs.
There is not the least doubt among the
people in Southern California who have
given any attention to these uncommonly
old sisters as to their ages That is a
matter of record in the musty old regis
ters in the archives of the mission al San
Gabriel, in Los Angeles County; also in
the mission of Guadalupe, at the City of
Mexico, where nearly all the records of the
California missions were taken upon
Observation-Disclosures Of the. Roman Catholic
missions in 1892. There is a record of the
baptism Of Ramon Aguilan, a Saboba In
diam under the charge of the mission at
Sdn OleBO. ne record SHOWS tndt Ramon
was the father Of fourteen children. The
first was born in May, 1889. Se-mul-lah
was born in 1894, and Ning-lio was the
seventh child, and born in 1899, while little
Temescal came in 1901. There is no record
of deaths in the Indian family, but the
daughters used to say, and It is a mat
ter of tradition among the Indians in San
Diego County, that Ramon died when he
was over a century old. One of his sons
died in 1887 at the age of 80 years, as the
result Of fall from a cliff. The three sis
ters have never been forty miles away
from home, and have never been out Of
what IS now San Diego County, and until