Thus pleasantly passed the evening until eleven o'clock, when giving my friendly entertainers a cordial shake of the hands, I bade them á Dios, and wended my way back again over the mountains to my lodgings. The company continued dancing till morning.
I have been thus particular in giving the details of this party, believing that whatever is peculiar in the manners and customs of any people may be interesting, and perhaps, not wholly useless to know. And having been myself much interested in the amusements of the evening, I cannot but hope that the reader will find something to please him in this account of them.
September 23, 1856. There was a company of Indians encamped in the vicinity of Oroville, for the purpose of gathering their harvest of acorns, which grew in great abundance there. They passed my temporary home every morning, men, boys, and women, furnished with sacks made of netting, earned by the men, and conical baskets for the women, and with a pole eight or ten feet long, with which to beat off the acorns. The pole had a short stick fastened to the butt end with strings, by means of which they suspended it to the limb of a tree when they ascended the trunk. The acorn is one of their most valuable articles of food, and they gather large quantities of them.
These Indians were more scantily clad than any I had ever seen, many of them having only a shirt, sometimes but a very ragged one; and in one instance I saw a tall brawny Indian, who was entirely destitute of even this scanty covering.
One day a woman with pretty good features, the wife of the chief, came to our house in company with other Indians. A large portion of her face was besmeared with pitch, and the locks over her forehead were matted with the same substance. I enquired the reason of this disfigurement, and was told that it was the Indian's badge of mourning, and that she had probably lost a relative. A few days after this call, she came again accompanied by her husband, the chief, who was superior in intelligence, as well as in rank, to his companions. He spoke a little English. The squaw had renewed the coat of pitch, and looked more hideously than before. I could see, however, in spite of the pitch, that she was a pretty woman, and in spite of the scantiness of her covering, that she was modest. Some remarks were made by one of the company present, in allusion to her besmeared face. Her husband understood them, and explained the custom in a word or two. "Indian's way," said he. "Lost little boy," pointing to his wife. We all understood him, and the eyes of the poor squaw moistened as she comprehended the subject of our conversation. The Indians are not destitute of natural affection.
Few hearts can witness unmoved the tears of a woman, though she be a wild and filthy Indian; and the feelings of this poor untutored savage were respected by our company, who refrained from any further allusion to the subject that brought painful recollections to her mind.
March 3, 1857. During a long walk to-day, I stopped to sketch some singular hills, consisting of two, and sometimes of three, plateaus or terraces, each terrace being supported by a layer of rock, resting on a stratum of clay, or soft sandstone, which, in many places was worn out a foot or two beneath the rock, and making a distinct dark line in the landscape.