Yana reddish porous lava (dacite?) pipe, broken half, both sides shown. Note funnel-shaped depression in the bottom of the outside (lower half)
Pipes were used at social gatherings, after sweating, and at bed time. The pipes of the local tribes did not have any bends or curves. These straight tubular pipes were therefore most conveniently smoked when the Indians were reclining on their backs thus keeping the tobacco from falling out. Pipes were normally passed around, and used only by the men. However, women shamans of the mountain Maidu also smoked them. Shamans regularly used pipe smoking in ceremonies, especially when healing the sick.
Tobacco grew wild and burning of brush was performed in certain localities to promote the growth of Nicotiana plants. Tobacco was not cultivated, but mountain Maidu did collect and scatter seeds in favorable areas. Tobacco was prepared merely by collecting the leaves when fully developed but still green, then drying, preferably in the shade, and finally crumbling the cured leaf in the hand. Tobacco was carried in buckskin pouches usually. Atsugewi often added manzanita and deer grease to their smoking tobacco. Indians of this region did not chew tobacco nor did they eat it with lime as was the custom elsewhere in California. Native tobacco is quite strong.
Chapter XX
MUSIC AND ART
Music of local tribes was limited indeed. It was usually made by men. Only Atsugewi among the Lassen tribes possessed the drum, and this is believed to have been of recent introduction. It was a tambourine type: flat, cylindrical, a foot or so across, and with buckskin shrunken over one end.
The shamans of all tribes used cocoon rattles. These were made of large cocoons from which the moth pupae had been removed through a small hole. Pebbles or seeds were then inserted and usually five or six cocoons—among Atsugewi as many as thirty—were tied onto the end of a wooden handle and dried. Cocoon rattles were considered dangerous and were usually kept hidden out of doors, being used by shamans only when doctoring.
A single split stick clapper was employed generally for all types of singing and dancing, not being reserved for any special type of person or ceremony.
Deer-hoof rattles were made from the small hard “dew-claws” from the backs of deer legs. About twenty dew-claws were tied loosely with thongs to a strip of buckskin which was then wrapped about a stick with a plain handle. The deer-hoof rattle was operated by vigorously jerking it lengthwise, in and out. It was used exclusively in the important puberty rites when girls attained womanhood.
Deer-hoof rattle, length about ten inches (after Dixon)