HOW A BRIDE IS WON.
Slavery in any form is rare, and hereditary bondage unknown.[541] Polygamy obtains in most of the tribes, although there are exceptions.[542] It is common for a man to marry a whole family of sisters, and sometimes the mother also, if she happen to be free.[543] Husband and wife are united with very little ceremony. The inclinations of the bride seem to be consulted here more than among the Northern Californians. It is true she is sometimes bought from her parents, but if she violently opposes the match she is seldom compelled to marry or to be sold. Among some tribes the wooer, after speaking with her parents, retires with the girl; if they agree, she thenceforth belongs to him; if not, the match is broken off.[544] The Neeshenam buys his wife indirectly by making presents of game to her family. He leaves the gifts at the door of the lodge without a word, and, if they are accepted, he shortly after claims and takes his bride without further ceremony. In this tribe the girl has no voice whatever in the matter, and resistance on her part merely occasions brute force to be used by her purchaser.[545]
CHILD-BIRTH AND THE COUVADE.
When an Oleepa lover wishes to marry, he first obtains permission from the parents. The damsel then flies and conceals herself; the lover searches for her, and should he succeed in finding her twice out of three times she belongs to him. Should he be unsuccessful he waits a few weeks and then repeats the performance. If she again elude his search, the matter is decided against him.[546] The bonds of matrimony can be thrown aside as easily as they are assumed. The husband has only to say to his spouse, I cast you off, and the thing is done.[547] The Gallinomeros acquire their wives by purchase, and are at liberty to sell them again when tired of them.[548] As usual the women are treated with great contempt by the men, and forced to do all the hard and menial labor; they are not even allowed to sit at the same fire or eat at the same repast with their lords. Both sexes treat children with comparative kindness;[549] boys are, however, held in much higher estimation than girls, and from early childhood are taught their superiority over the weaker sex. It is even stated that many female children are killed as soon as born,[550] but I am inclined to doubt the correctness of this statement as applied to a country where polygamy is practiced as extensively as in California. Old people are treated with contumely, both men and women, aged warriors being obliged to do menial work under the supervision of the women. The Gallinomeros kill their aged parents in a most cold-blooded manner. The doomed creature is led into the woods, thrown on his back, and firmly fastened in that position to the ground. A stout pole is then placed across the throat, upon either end of which a person sits until life is extinct.[551] A husband takes revenge for his wife's infidelities upon the person of her seducer, whom he is justified in killing. Sometimes the male offender is compelled to buy the object of his unholy passions. In consequence of their strictness in this particular, adultery is not common among themselves, although a husband is generally willing to prostitute his dearest wife to a white man for a consideration. The Central Californian women are inclined to rebel against the tyranny of their masters, more than is usual in other tribes. A refractory Tahtoo wife is sometimes frightened into submission. The women have a great dread of evil spirits, and upon this weakness the husband plays. He paints himself in black and white stripes to personate an ogre, and suddenly jumping in among his terrified wives, brings them speedily to penitence. Child-bearing falls lightly on the Californian mother. When the time for delivery arrives she betakes herself to a quiet place by the side of a stream; sometimes accompanied by a female friend, but more frequently alone. As soon as the child is born the mother washes herself and the infant in the stream. The child is then swaddled from head to foot in strips of soft skin, and strapped to a board, which is carried on the mother's back. When the infant is suckled, it is drawn round in front and allowed to hang there, the mother meanwhile pursuing her usual avocations. So little does child-bearing affect these women, that, on a journey, they will frequently stop by the way-side for half an hour to be delivered, and then overtake the party, who have traveled on at the usual pace. Painful parturition, though so rare, usually results fatally to both mother and child when it does occur. This comparative exemption from the curse, "in sorrow shalt thou bring forth," is doubtless owing partly to the fact that the sexes have their regular season for copulation, just as animals have theirs, the women bringing forth each year with great regularity. A curious custom prevails, which is, however, by no means peculiar to California. When child-birth overtakes the wife, the husband puts himself to bed, and there grunting and groaning he affects to suffer all the agonies of a woman in labor. Lying there, he is nursed and tended for some days by the women as carefully as though he were the actual sufferer. Ridiculous as this custom is, it is asserted by Mr Tylor to have been practiced in western China, in the country of the Basques, by the Tibareni at the south of the Black Sea, and in modified forms by the Dyaks of Borneo, the Arawaks of Surinam, and the inhabitants of Kamchatka and Greenland.[552] The females arrive early at the age of puberty,[553] and grow old rapidly.[554]
CALIFORNIAN DIVERSIONS.
Most important events, such as the seasons of hunting, fishing, acorn-gathering, and the like, are celebrated with feasts and dances which differ in no essential respect from those practiced by the Northern Californians. They usually dance naked, having their heads adorned with feather ornaments, and their bodies and faces painted with glaring colors in grotesque patterns. Broad stripes, drawn up and down, across, or spirally round the body, form the favorite device; sometimes one half of the body is colored red and the other blue, or the whole person is painted jet black and serves as a ground for the representation of a skeleton, done in white, which gives the wearer a most ghastly appearance.[555] The dancing is accompanied by chantings, clapping of hands, blowing on pipes of two or three reeds and played with the nose or mouth, beating of skin drums, and rattling of tortoise-shells filled with small pebbles. This horrible discord is, however, more for the purpose of marking time than for pleasing the ear.[556] The women are seldom allowed to join in the dance with the men, and when they are so far honored, take a very unimportant part in the proceedings, merely swaying their bodies to and fro in silence.
Plays, representing scenes of war, hunting, and private life, serve to while away the time, and are performed with considerable skill. Though naturally the very incarnation of sloth, at least as far as useful labor is concerned, they have one or two games which require some exertion. One of these, in vogue among the Meewocs, is played with bats and an oak-knot ball. The former are made of a pliant stick, having the end bent round and lashed to the main part so as to form a loop, which is filled with a network of strings. They do not strike but push the ball along with these bats. The players take sides, and each party endeavors to drive the ball past the boundaries of the other. Another game, which was formerly much played at the missions on the coast, requires more skill and scarcely less activity. It consists in throwing a stick through a hoop which is rapidly rolled along the ground. If the player succeeds in this, he gains two points; if the stick merely passes partially through, so that the hoop remains resting upon it, one point is scored.
But, as usual, games of chance are much preferred to games of skill. The chief of these is the same as that already described in the last chapter as being played by the natives all along the coasts of Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia, and which bears so close a resemblance to the odd-and-even of our school-days. They are as infatuated on this subject as their neighbors, and quite as willing to stake the whole of their possessions on an issue of chance. They smoke a species of strong tobacco in the straight pipes before mentioned;[557] but they have no native intoxicating drink.[558]
MEDICINE AND SWEAT-HOUSES.
The principal diseases are small-pox, various forms of fever, and syphilis. Owing to their extreme filthiness they are also very subject to disgusting eruptions of the skin. Women are not allowed to practice the healing art, as among the Northern Californians, the privileges of quackery being here reserved exclusively to the men. Chanting incantations, waving of hands, and the sucking powers obtain. Doctors are supposed to have power over life and death, hence if they fail to effect a cure, they are frequently killed.[559] They demand the most extortionate fees in return for their services, and often refuse to officiate unless the object they desire is promised them. Sweat-houses similar to those already described are in like manner used as a means of cure for every kind of complaint.[560] They have another kind of sudatory. A hole is dug in the sand of a size sufficient to contain a person lying at full length; over this a fire is kept burning until the sand is thoroughly heated, when the fire is removed and the sand stirred with a stick until it is reduced to the required temperature. The patient is then placed in the hole and covered, with the exception of his head, with sand. Here he remains until in a state of profuse perspiration, when he is unearthed and plunged into cold water. They are said to practice phlebotomy, using the right arm when the body is affected and the left when the complaint is in the limbs. A few simple decoctions are made from herbs, but these are seldom very efficient medicines, especially when administered for the more complicated diseases which the whites have brought among them. Owing to the insufficient or erroneous treatment they receive, many disorders which would be easily cured by us, degenerate with them into chronic maladies, and are transmitted to their children.[561]