[V-17] Powers' Pomo, MS.
[V-18] Joaquin Miller's Life amongst the Modocs, pp. 21, 116, 259-60, 360.
[V-19] Powers' Pomo, MS.
[V-20] Beechey's Voy., vol. ii., p. 78.
[V-21] Fages, in Nouvelles Annales des Voy., vol. ci., pp. 316, 335.
[V-22] Father Boscana, one of the earliest missionaries to Upper California, left behind him the short manuscript history from which the tradition following in the text has been taken—through the medium of a now rare translation by Mr Robinson. Filled with the prejudices of its age and of the profession of its author, it is yet marvelously truthlike; though a painstaking care has evidently been used with regard to its most apparently insignificant details, there are none of those too visible wrenchings after consistency, and fillings up of lacunae which so surely betray the hand of the sophisticator in so many monkish manuscripts on like and kindred subjects. There are found on the other hand frank confessions of ignorance on doubtful points, and many naïve and puzzled comments on the whole. It is apparently the longest and the most valuable notice in existence on the religion of a nation of the native Californians, as existing at the time of the Spanish conquest, and more worthy of confidence than the general run of such documents of any date whatever. The father procured his information as follows. He says: 'God assigned to me three aged Indians, the youngest of whom was over seventy years of age. They knew all the secrets, for two of them were capitanes, and the other a pul, who were well instructed in the mysteries. By gifts, endearments, and kindness, I elicited from them their secrets, with their explanations; and by witnessing the ceremonies which they performed, I learned by degrees, their mysteries. Thus, by devoting a portion of the nights to profound meditation, and comparing their actions with their disclosures, I was enabled after a long time, to acquire a knowledge of their religion.' Boscana, in Robinson's Life in Cal., p. 236.
[V-23] See [p. 113], of this volume, for a custom among the Mexicans not without analogies to this.
[V-24] See [p. 134], of this volume.
[V-25] Boscana, in Robinson's Life in Cal., pp. 242-301.
[V-26] The Christian leaven, whose workings are evident through this narrative, ferments here too violently to need pointing out.