[10] They were making a bīcē gō; i.e., setting snares in the brush without making a brush fence. The fence with snares is called bīcē warī.
[11] This pond, which is said to furnish the only water on this great mountain, was called ka kapa, and is said to be one of a very few ponds apparently without a spring, and called ka dabō, which are supposed to have been made in prehistoric times by bears as resting places for themselves. This pond is nowadays almost never visited by any one except hunters who have lost their way.
[12] This loss of magic power and their consequent capture was explained as a supernatural penalty for their attempt to kill more than four victims in any one year.
[13] One informant ascribed the source of Pomo bear doctor knowledge to the Lake Miwok, to the south. This opinion, of course, conflicts with the preceding origin tale.
[14] The bear doctor was known to the Pomo as gauk būrakal, “human bear.” Būrakal specifically denotes the grizzly bear. The brown or cinnamon bear is līma, but black individuals, which we reckon as of the same species, were called cīyō būrakal, “black grizzly bears,” by the Pomo.
[15] It would appear that restriction depended rather upon co-residence than blood kinship. The extent to which the taboo might accordingly affect a bear doctor’s activities will be realized when we reflect that it was customary for several related families to reside in one house, each family having its own door and each two families a separate fire. In the center of the house was the common baking pit.
[16] Usually, however, a person caught in this way was used as a “head rest” and servant, it is said, and received no instruction whatever.
[17] Another informant gave as these chief spirits sun-man, mountain-man, wind-man, night-man, water-man, and valley-man, though not stating that they were considered in this order.
[18] So far as could be ascertained, they formed no organized society, and never met as a body.
[19] Kroeber, loc. cit.