The bundles of hair were held together by the same tie-twining as in the matting ([fig. 2]). There is an overhand knot between each of the bundles. The twining cord itself is 2-ply, Z-twisted in a loose twist. This method served to fasten the bundles to the cord, space them, and to hold them closely. This tying consists of a basic cord and a wrapping cord. A third cord, which formed the wrapping of the individual bundles, is carried to the basic cord, wrapped around it, and in turn is wrapped by the whipping cord. This wrapping is not accomplished neatly; the garment—for all of this cord wrapping—is not a very strongly constructed article.
In the Palmer Collection there are broken hanks of human hair, undoubtedly parts of this specimen, which are catalogued separately (139538). Among these is a string of Olivella beads strung on 2-ply cord, and wrapped in with the tying cord of a hair bundle. Thus shell beads were probably part of the original garment. Other tied hanks of human hair (139550) were undoubtedly parts of the specimen.
There is no single item of native culture of Baja California so diagnostic or characteristic as mantles of human hair used by shamans. Few European chroniclers who had a chance to observe them failed to mention this article. However, none have appeared in any other reported archaeological excavations on the peninsula.
As part of the paraphernalia of the shaman, the cape or mask of human hair was indispensable from the Guaicura north to the Kiliwa and Western Diegueño. In all recorded cases the hair was obtained from relatives mourning the death of a recently deceased member of the family or from the dead themselves. Construction of the garments must have been in the hands of the shamans themselves, so secret were most aspects of the medicine-man’s lore.
Although the cultural and tribal identification of masks or capes of human hair with the shaman is general for the Peninsular Yumans (Cochimí), such capes were found as far south as the Guaicura in historic times (Baegert, 1942, p. 123). Both of the major sources for the historic ethnography of the Yuman-speaking peoples of central Baja California attest to the use of this device by native medicine-men (Venegas, 1944, I:95-96, 100; Clavigero, 1937, p. 114). For the area nearest Bahía de Los Angeles, the best description of the use of these garments is that of the 18th-century Dominican, Father Luis Sales, who speaks of the capes as follows (1794, pp. 76-77):
When all are gathered, ornamented with charcoal and yellow, the old man places himself in the center of the circle. Under his arm he has a doubled mat of rushes in which he hides the rain cape from the fiesta.[5] On another little stick he has the hair of the dead man suspended. He indicates silence, puts on the rain cape of the hair of the dead, and causes as much horror as when a bear appears. He plays a whistle and tells them that the dead man is coming; but, however much they look, they do not see him coming. Nevertheless they believe it. Then he shows them the little stick with the hair of the dead man, and tells them that he is there, that they see him—and they see nothing. However they give cries, they pull their hair, and make other ridiculous actions. Finally, relieved by crying, the old man comforts them. He puts a thousand questions to the head of hair, and he himself answers them to his liking.
This 18th-century description of Indians to the north of Bahía de Los Angeles, on the Frontera, has its exact counterpart in a 20th-century description of the ñiwey (“Talking with the Dead”) Ceremony of the Kiliwa (Meigs, 1939, pp. 50-57).
Tump Band
The tump band (139536) is made with the twining technique used so frequently in such constructions. Fragments of both ends are present, but the intervening central portion is missing so the original length of the specimen is not known. The largest section is 25 cm. long and 7.7 cm. wide ([pl. 17], d).