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Title: The Religion of the Indians of California

Author: A. L. Kroeber

Release date: April 1, 2011 [eBook #35745]

Language: English

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Produced by Tor Martin Kristiansen, Joseph Cooper and the
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS
AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY

Vol. 4        No. 6

THE RELIGION OF THE INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA



BY

A. L. KROEBER



BERKELEY
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
SEPTEMBER, 1907


Facsimile Reprint by

Coyote Press
P.O. Box 3377
Salinas, CA 93912
http://www.CoyotePress.com




UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PUBLICATIONS
IN
AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY

VOL. 4        NO. 6




THE RELIGION OF THE INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA[1]

BY

A. L. KROEBER.


Fundamentally the religion of the Indians of California was very
similar to that of savage and uncivilized races the world over. Like
all such peoples, the California Indians were in an animistic state of
mind, in which they attributed life, intelligence, and especially
supernatural power, to virtually all living and lifeless things. They
lacked no less the ideas and practices of shamanism, the universal
accompaniment of animism: namely, the belief that certain men, through
communication with the animate supernatural world, had the power to
accomplish what was contrary to, or rather above, the events of daily
ordinary experience, which latter in so far as they were distinguished
from the happenings caused by supernatural agencies, were of natural,
meaningless, and, as it were, accidental origin. As in most parts of
the world, belief in shamanistic power was centered most strongly about
disease and death, which among most tribes were not only believed to be
dispellable but to be entirely caused by shamans. In common with the
other American Indians, those of California made dancing, and with it
always singing, a conspicuous part of nearly all their ceremonies that
were of a public or tribal nature. They differed from almost all other
tribes of North America in showing a much weaker development of the
ritualism, and symbolism shading into pictography, that constitute
perhaps the most distinctive feature of the religion of the Americans
as a whole. Practically all the approaches to a system of writing
devised in North America, whether in Mexico, Yucatan, or among the
tribes of the United States and Canada, are the direct outcome of a
desire of religious expression. The California Indians however were
remarkably free from even traces of this tendency, equally in their
religion and in the more practical aspects of their life. In many parts
of North America, and more often where the culture was considerably
developed than where it was rude, there was a considerable amount of
fetishism, not of the crass and so to speak superstitious type of
Africa, but rather as an accompaniment and result of over-symbolism.
This fetishistic tendency was very slightly developed in California,
and this in spite of--or as an Americanist could more properly say on
account of--the generally rude and primitive condition of culture. By
contrast, as the action and the visible symbol were a less important
means of religious expression, the word, both spoken and sung, was of
greater significance in California. The weakness of the ritualistic
tendency is however again marked in the circumstance that the exact
form of religious speech was frequently less regarded than its
substance. In this aspect the Indians of California differed widely
from such nations as the Egyptians and the peoples of Asia, where the
efficacy of the word and speech used for a religious purpose was
usually directly dependent upon the accuracy of their external and
audible rendering, even to their pronunciation and intonation.

      [1] This paper may be cited as Univ. Calif. Publ. Am. Arch.
      Ethn., Vol. 4, No. 6.

As an ethnographic province the greater part of California plainly
forms a unit. There are, however, two portions of the present political
state that showed much cultural distinctness in times of native life
and that must usually be kept apart in all matters of ethnological and
religious consideration. One of these divergent culture areas comprised
the extreme northwestern corner of the state, in the drainage of the
lower Klamath and about Humboldt Bay. The other consisted of what is
now usually known as Southern California, extending from the Tehachapi
pass and mountains in the interior, and from Point Conception on the
coast, southward to the Mexican boundary. The religion of the Indians
of the peninsula of Lower California is very little known from
literature, and the people themselves are almost extinct. It is
probable that it was more or less different from the forms of religion
occurring in Southern California, that is to say, the southern part of
the American state of California. Ethnographically Southern California
was considerably diversified. The tribes of the plains and mountains
near the sea must be distinguished on the one hand from those of the
desert interior and of the valley of the Colorado river, and on the
other from those of the Santa Barbara archipelago and the adjacent
coast of the mainland to the north. The latter island group of tribes
has become entirely extinct without leaving more than the merest trace
of records of its religion. The two other groups, the sea-ward and the
interior, apparently presented a much greater uniformity in religion
than in their material and social life, so much so that in the present
connection all the tribes of Southern California of whom anything is
known may be regarded as constituting a single ethnographic province.
The culture of the small Northwestern area was in every way, and that
of the larger Southern province at least in some respects, more highly
organized and complex than that of the still larger and principal
Central region, which comprised at least two-thirds of the state and
which, if such a selection is to be made, must be considered as the
most typically Californian.

The religious practices of the Indians of California fall into three
well marked divisions: (1) such observances as are followed and
executed by individuals, although their perpetuation is traditionary
and tribal; that is to say, customary observances; (2) individual
practices resting upon a direct personal communication of an individual
with the supernatural world; in other words, shamanism; (3) observances
and practices which are not only the common property of the tribe by
tradition, but in which the entire tribe or community directly or
indirectly participates; in other words, ceremonies.


CUSTOMARY OBSERVANCES BY INDIVIDUALS.

Customary observances are as strongly developed as farther north along
the Pacific slope. This entire western coast region thus forms a unit
that differs from the interior and eastern parts of the continent, in
which such observances are usually a less conspicuous feature than
public and tribal ceremonies. By far the most important of the
customary observances in California are those relating to death. Next
come those connected with birth and sexual functions. Beliefs and
practices centering about the individual's name are of importance
particularly in so far as they are connected with the customs relating
to death. There are restrictions and superstitions as to food, but
these are not more numerous than seems generally to have been the case
among the North American Indians, and certainly of much less importance
than in the Pacific island world and Australia.

Death was considered to cause defilement and almost everywhere brought
after it purification ceremonies. In the Northwestern region these were
particularly important, and among such tribes as the Hupa and Yurok the
observance of religious purification from contact with the dead, the
most essential part of which was the recitation of a certain formula,
was the most stringently exacted religious custom. The method of
disposing of the dead varied locally between burial and cremation,
cremation being practiced over at least half of the state. Air burial
and sea burial were nowhere found. Mourning, which consisted primarily
of singing and wailing, began immediately upon death and continued for
about a day, sometimes longer by the immediate relatives of the
deceased. Among some tribes this mourning commenced with full vigor
some time before impending death, often during the full consciousness
of the patient and with his approval. Mutilations on the part of the
mourners were not practiced to any great degree, except that the hair
was almost universally cut more or less, especially by the women. Among
many tribes the widow, but she only, cut or burned off all her hair.
Mourning observances were almost always carried further by the women
than men. Among some tribes of the Sierra Nevada the widow did not
speak from the time of her husband's death until the following annual
tribal mourning ceremony, except to one attendant, or, in cases of
actual necessity, to women only. In the Sierra Nevada was found also
the custom of the widow smearing her face and breast with pitch, which
was not washed or removed until this annual ceremony. Except in the
case of the Northwestern tribes, who possessed more elaborately
constructed houses of wood, the house in which a death had occurred was
not used again, but was burned. Objects that had been in personal
contact or associated with the deceased were similarly shunned and
destroyed. The name of the dead was not spoken. Even the word which
constituted his name was not used in ordinary discourse, a
circumlocution or newly coined word being employed. It is certain that
this stringently observed custom has been a factor in the marked
dialectic differentiation of the languages of California. The mention
of the name of the dead, whether intentionally or accidentally, in some
cases aroused feelings of fear connected with his spirit, but more
generally was objected to as causing grief, which appears to have been
actually and often intensely felt on such occasions. In Northwestern
California the naming of the dead could be compensated for only by the
payment of a considerable sum. Practically the only form of curse or
malediction known, other than an occasional indirect allusion to the
object of the malediction as being in the condition of a corpse, was a
reference to his dead relatives. Some property, but more rarely food,
was buried with the dead. The idea that such articles were for his use
in the world of the dead was not so strong a motive for such acts as,
on the one hand, the feeling that the objects had been defiled by
association with him, and on the other, the desire to give expression
to the sincerity of the mourning by the destruction of valuables. On
the whole, however, the immediate observances of death paled in
importance before the annual communal mourning ceremony, which was
everywhere, except in the Northwestern region, one of the most deeply
rooted and spectacular acts of worship.

Observances connected with sexual functions, including birth, are next
in importance after those relating to death. The menstruating woman was
everywhere regarded as unclean, and excluded especially from acts of
worship. Not infrequent was the conception that she contaminated food,
especially meat; in other words those varieties of food which were at
once more highly prized and at the same time, through being obtained
with less regularity and only through special and skilled exertions,
regarded as most directly under the control and influence of
supernatural powers. Among many tribes, as elsewhere in America and
other continents, she was excluded from the living-house as well as
from the ceremonial chamber, and confined to the menstrual hut. As
elsewhere in North America, the custom in this regard however varied
from tribe to tribe, the menstrual hut not having been used in some
localities even in purely aboriginal times. Not only was seclusion, as
a means of preventing contact and association, frequently required of
the woman for the protection of others, but her refraining from all but
the most necessary activity was sometimes deemed essential for her own
good.

All these observances were greatly intensified at the time of a girl's
first menstruation, a condition for which most of the languages of
California possess a distinctive and often unanalyzed word. The girl at
this period was thought to be possessed of a particular degree of
supernatural power, and this was not always regarded as entirely
defiling or malevolent. Often, however, there was a strong feeling of
the power of evil inherent in her condition. Not only was she secluded
from her family and the community, but an attempt was made to seclude
the world from her. One of the injunctions most strongly laid upon her
was not to look about her. She kept her head bowed and was forbidden to
see the world and the sun. Some tribes covered her with a blanket. Many
of the customs in this connection resembled those of the North Pacific
Coast most strongly, such as the prohibition to the girl to touch or
scratch her head with her hand, a special implement being furnished her
for the purpose. Sometimes she could eat only when fed and in other
cases fasted altogether. Some form of public ceremony, often
accompanied by a dance and sometimes by a form of ordeal for the girl,
was practiced nearly everywhere. Such ceremonies were well developed in
Southern California, where a number of actions symbolical of the girl's
maturity and subsequent life were performed. Certain tribes, however,
including at least one in the Northwestern area and certain of those in
the Sierra region, did not practice public ceremonies of this type.

Religious customs connected with birth consisted in part of observances
before the birth of the child, in part of observances relating to it
after birth, and especially of restrictions imposed on one or both of
its parents after birth. Practices affecting the child itself, or the
mother before its birth, related in great part to food. In the
Northwest the newly born child was fed for a number of days only on a
soup of vegetable substance resembling milk. The newly born child was
washed, often repeatedly, among many tribes. The mother after a birth
was regarded as more or less defiled, though this feeling usually did
not approach in intensity those connected with either death or the
woman's periodical functions. Either the mother or both father and
mother were usually enjoined from activity for some time after a birth,
the motive being not only protection of the child but of themselves.
This idea is especially developed among the Yokuts of the southern San
Joaquin valley. The couvade in its strict form, with restrictions and
observances which are imposed entirely upon the father to the exclusion
of the mother, does not seem to be found.

Observances regulating or restricting the use of food were in the main
connected with the customs relating to death, sexual functions, and
birth. That is to say it was primarily the persons affected by these
occurrences, and next to these such as were engaged in acts of intense
worship or shamanistic practices, who were prohibited from using
certain or all foods. As already stated, animal food rather than
vegetable, and meat rather than fish, and among meat that of the deer
and elk, the largest of the game animals, were particularly subjected
to restriction. In Northwestern California the idea was very deeply
rooted that the deer when killed and eaten are not destroyed, but come
to life again and report to their fellows their treatment in the hands
of the hunter. Any violation of the numerous stringent observances
regarding deer meat are therefore known to all the deer, who, as their
capture is always a voluntary act on their part, are in position to
utterly destroy his luck in the chase if not placated by certain spoken
formulae. In Southern California young people, or in some cases the
hunter himself, must not eat his game. Fasting is less frequently and
less rigorously practiced by the California tribes than by those of
most other parts of North America. This is in keeping with the
generally lower pitch of intensity of their religious feeling. Many
public ceremonies are not accompanied by any requirement of abstention
from food. In the Northwestern region it is only the principal priest,
in whom the most sacred part of the ceremony is vested, who fasts. On
the other hand there is a general feeling in this region that not only
acts of a religious nature but ordinary work cannot be well performed
after eating. Among the men of Northwestern California breakfast was
therefore habitually slight or entirely omitted. Perhaps the greatest
development of the practice of fasting in North America occurs in
connection with the acquisition of shamanistic power. Shamanism is
fully as important among the California Indians as elsewhere, but
differs in that it is more frequently regarded as an obsession,
something that of its own accord comes upon a man rather than something
that it is sought to acquire by actions. Much of the incentive for
fasting among other Indians is therefore lacking, and when the practice
is observed it is usually less rigorous. In Northwestern California,
for instance, a person engaged in almost any supernatural or religious
practice abstains from drinking water; but as to practical effect this
provision is done away with through his being allowed to drink thin
acorn soup at will.

In Northwestern California there is a special development of spoken
formulae, whose content is little else than a myth and which constitute
not only the basis and essential element of public ceremonies but are
connected with almost all customary observances. To such an extent have
these formulae, locally called "medicines," grown into the mind of
these Indians as being what is most sacred and most efficacious in all
aspects of religion, that they partly supplant shamanism, which is a
less important feature of religious life here than elsewhere in the
state, where the characteristic features of this peculiar ritual by
formula are almost absent. Not only purification from death and other
defilement, but luck in hunting and fishing, in gambling, escape from
danger, success in felling trees and making baskets, in the acquisition
of wealth, in short the proper achievement of every human wish, were
thought to be accompanied by the proper knowledge and recitation of
these traditional myth-formulae, usually accompanied by only the
smallest amount of ritualistic action.


SHAMANISM.

Shamanism, the supposed individual control of the supernatural through
a personally acquired power of communication with the spirit world,
rests upon much the same basis in California as elsewhere in North
America. In general among uncivilized tribes the simpler the stage of
culture the more important the shaman. It is as if he constituted an
element that remained nearly constant in quantity of effect, as it is
fundamentally unvarying in form, through all successive periods of
civilization to the highest; but that as increase in degree of
civilization brought with it ever more and more new elements, religious
and otherwise, and these unfolded in ever expanding complexity, he
became, relatively to the total mass of thought and action of a people,
less and less important. Certainly the difference is marked between the
Eskimo, whose religion consists of little else than shamanism, and the
much more highly organized Indians of the North Pacific Coast, where
shamanism is but one of several and by no means the most important
religious factor, even though it may be the most deep seated. The same
contrast is found between the rude simple-minded Indians of California
as compared with those of the Plains and of the Southwest, where the
supremacy of the shaman is rather obscured by that of the priest
conversant with a ceremony. Even within California the difference holds
good. In the Northwest, where the native civilization reached on the
whole its greatest complexity, the shaman is less prominent than
anywhere else in the state. In the south, where the culture is also
more developed than in the Central part of the state, the shaman is
certainly as much dreaded as there; but that his province is more
restricted is shown by the fact that in Southern California the shamans
in their capacity as such do not seem to form associations, perform
public ceremonies, or directly participate in the tribal dances.

The power of the shaman being directly dependent upon his personal
acquisition of a connection with the supernatural world, an
understanding of the method by which this acquisition takes place
generally furnishes also a pretty accurate idea of the nature of his
functions and influence. The most common way of acquiring shamanistic
power in California, as in so many other parts of the world, is by
dreaming. A spirit, be it that of an animal, a place, the sun or
another natural object, a deceased relative, or an entirely unimbodied
spirit, visits the future medicine-man in his dreams, and the
connection thus established between them is the source and basis of the
latter's power. This spirit becomes his guardian spirit or "personal."
From it he receives the song or rite or knowledge of the charm and the
understanding which enable him to cause or remove disease and to do and
endure what other men cannot. In California, with a few special
exceptions, the idea does not seem so prevalent as elsewhere that this
guardian spirit is an animal. Occasionally it is the ghost of a person
who has once lived, usually a relative. Perhaps most frequently it is
merely a spirit as such, not connected with any tangible embodiment or
form, either human, animate, or inanimate. The belief that the shaman
acquires the spirits most frequently in dreaming is prevalent through
the whole Sierra Nevada region and in many other parts of the state.

In certain regions another important method, that of the waking vision
and trance, is recognized. The person is in a wild desolate place,
perhaps hunting. Suddenly there is an appearance before him. He becomes
unconscious and while in this state receives his supernatural power. On
his return to his people he is for a time demented or physically
affected. After he again becomes normal he has control of his
supernatural influences. Such beliefs prevail in part among the Yuki
and Athabascans of the Coast Range and the Maidu of the Sacramento
valley, and no doubt occur more or less sporadically in other regions.

Finally, the shaman sometimes acquires his powers through seeking for
them rather than by having them thrust upon him during a dream or
vision. This of course is a common procedure in the Plains and in part
on the North Pacific Coast. Among the Yurok of the lower Klamath, for
instance, the person whom the spirits have visited in dreams, ascends
high peaks where he spends one or more nights until he has acquired his
powers. Among the Wiyot of Humboldt Bay there are similar beliefs. In
the same Northwestern region a man who wishes to be fierce, strong, and
invulnerable swims at night in lakes inhabited by monsters or thunders.
From these, if his courage is sufficient to await and endure their
presence, he receives the desired powers. This practice of bathing in
lonely lakes closely recalls the custom prevalent along the Pacific
slope for some distance northward, and within California it is probably
not strictly confined to the Northwestern culture area. On the whole,
however, this deliberate method of acquiring shamanistic power is not
common, nor, as has already been stated, would it be in accord with the
generally lower intensity of religious feeling among the California
Indians as compared with those of most other parts of the continent.

The Northwestern area is not only exceptional in being the principal
one within the state where this deliberate seeking of shamanistic power
is prevalent. The conception of a guardian spirit is much less clearly
defined among the Northwestern tribes, with whom the possession of
"pains," the small material objects which cause disease, rather than of
true spirits, seems to be what is generally associated with shamanistic
power. As already stated, shamanism forms a much less important part of
religion as a whole in the Northwestern area than elsewhere, and it is
in accord with this fact that the majority of the shamans, and those
supposed to be most powerful, are women.

In parts of Southern California also the idea of the guardian spirit
does not seem to be well developed. Here the method of acquiring
shamanistic power is almost exclusively by dreams; but among the Mohave
and probably other Colorado river tribes, myths, and not a personal
meeting or communion with an individual spirit, constitute the subject
of the dreams. The Mohave shamans believe that they were present at the
beginning of the world, before mankind had separated into tribes. They
were with the great leader and almost creator, Mastamho. They saw him
singing, blowing, and rubbing over the body of a sick man, if their own
power be that of curing disease, and from Mastamho they thus learned
the actions and speeches which constitute their power. Before him they
showed what they had learned from him, and by him were designated those
who had seen and learned most and those of less power. Each man saw
only the shamanistic actions relating to his particular power, whether
these had reference to the curing of disease, to love, to war, or to
some other activity. The Mohave universally speak of having dreamed
these scenes, just as each narrator affirms his knowledge of
non-shamanistic myths and of ceremonies to have been individually
derived from dreaming them. It is probable that to a certain extent
this is true. That it is not entirely true becomes evident when the
Mohave with equal unanimity state that these dreams were dreamed by
them before birth. In other words, their statement that they have
dreamed such experiences is to be interpreted mainly as a belief that
they as individuals were present in spirit form at the beginning of the
world, at the time when it took shape and everything was ordained, and
when all power, shamanistic and otherwise, was established and
allotted. It is obvious that with this conception as the basis of their
whole religion, there is but little room for any beliefs as to guardian
spirits of the usual form.

Of course there is nothing that limits the shaman to one spirit, and
among many or most tribes, such as the Maidu, a powerful medicine-man
may possess a great number.

Frequently in Central and Northwestern California there is some more or
less public ceremony at which a new shaman is, so to speak, initiated
before he practices his powers. The body of initiated shamans do not
form a definite society or association. The ceremony is rather an
occasion that marks the first public appearance of the novice, in which
he receives for his own good, and presumably for that of the community
also, the assistance of the more experienced persons of his profession.
Commonly it is thought that the novice cannot receive and exercise the
full use of his powers without this assistance. The ceremony is usually
held in the ceremonial chamber and is accompanied by dancing. The
efforts of the older shamans are directed toward giving the initiate a
firm and permanent control of the spirits which have only half attached
themselves to him and which are thought to be still more or less
rebellious. Of course exhibitions of magic and of the physical effects
of the presence of the spirits are a prominent feature of these
ceremonies. This initiation of doctors is found among the Northwestern
tribes and in the Central region among the Maidu and Wintun and
probably other groups.

A special class of shamans found to a greater or less extent among
probably all the Central tribes, though they are wanting both in the
Northwest and the South, are the so-called bear doctors, shamans who
have received power from grizzly bears, often by being taken into the
abode of these animals--which appear there in human form,--and who
after their return to mankind possess many of the qualities of the
grizzly bear, especially his apparent invulnerability to fatal attack.
The bear shamans can not only assume the form of bears, as they do in
order to inflict vengeance on their enemies, but it is believed that
they can be killed an indefinite number of times when in this form and
each time return to life. In some regions, as among the Pomo and Yuki,
the bear shaman was not thought as elsewhere to actually become a bear,
but to remain a man who clothed himself in the skin of a bear to his
complete disguisement, and by his malevolence, rapidity, fierceness,
and resistance to wounds to be capable of inflicting greater injury
than a true bear. Whether any bear shamans actually attempted to
disguise themselves in this way to accomplish their ends is doubtful.
It is certain that all the members of some tribes believed it to be in
their power.

The rattlesnake doctor, who cured or prevented the bite of the
rattlesnake, was usually distinct from other medicine-men. Among the
Yuki his power, as that of the rattlesnake, was associated with the
sun; among the Maidu with the thunder. Among the Yokuts the rattlesnake
shamans annually held a public ceremony designed to prevent rattlesnake
bites among the tribe. On this occasion they displayed their power over
the snakes by handling them in a manner analogous to that of the Hopi,
and by even allowing themselves to be bitten.

As everywhere else, the practice of shamanism in California centers
about disease and death. It is probably more narrowly limited to this
phase than in most other portions of North America. Being an
essentially unwarlike even though a revengeful people, it is natural
that the supernatural power personally acquired by the California
Indian should not often be directed toward success in battle. Success
in love is also less often the result of such personal power than for
instance on the Plains, perhaps because in the latter region the custom
which made virtually every young man seek shamanistic power, resulted
in a condition where those whose proclivities were not toward medicine
or war, desired and received their powers in this direction. Influence
over game and over nature's yield of vegetable products was sometimes
attributed to shamans in California, but on the whole their powers in
this respect were not very much insisted upon except in Southern
California, favorable or adverse conditions of this kind being
attributed rather to the tribal ceremonies, and in the Northwest
connected with the all-important formulae. The causing and prevention
of disease and death were therefore even more largely the predominant
functions of the person who had acquired personal supernatural power in
California than elsewhere in America.

That the medicine-men who could cure diseases were also the ones who
must cause it, unless it were the direct consequence of an infraction
of some religious observance or prohibition, was the almost universal
belief, which was probably adhered to with greater definiteness than in
most portions of North America. The killing of medicine-men was
therefore of frequent occurrence. Among some tribes, as the Yokuts, the
medicine-man who had lost several patients was held responsible for
their death by their relatives. Among the Mohave also murder seems to
have been the normal end of the medicine-man. In the Northwestern
region the shaman who failed to cure was forced to return the fee
received in advance. If he refused to attend a patient when summoned,
he was compelled to pay, in the event of the latter's death, an amount
of property equal that proffered him for his services. So completely
was the shaman regarded as the cause of disease and death, as well as
of their prevention, that one hears very little among the California
Indians of witchcraft, that is to say, of malevolent practices
performed by persons, often very old or very young people, who are not
believed to be endowed with the shaman's power of curing.

Disease, as among most primitive peoples the world over, was usually
held to be caused by small material objects which had in a supernatural
way been caused to enter the body. The determination and extraction of
these was the principal office of the medicine-man and, also as
elsewhere, was most frequently accomplished by sucking. In certain
regions, especially the South, the tubular pipe was brought into
requisition for this purpose, the disease-object being supposed to be
sucked into the doctor's mouth through it. Among such tribes the pipe
was also smoked by the medicine-man as part of his ritual. In other
cases the sucking was performed directly with the mouth, but, just as
the disease-causing object had by supernatural means entered the body
without causing or leaving an opening, so it was extracted by the
medicine-man without an incision or a trace of its passage. This object
might be a bit of hair, a stick, an insect or small reptile, a piece of
bone, deer sinew, or almost any other material. In the greater part of
northern California, including the Northwestern region, it was not an
ordinary physical object working mischief by its mere presence in the
body or by the supernatural properties with which the shaman or his
spirits had endowed it, but an object itself supernatural and called a
"pain." These pains are variously described, frequently as being sharp
at both ends and clear as ice. They possessed the power of moving even
after extracted, and were able to fly through the air to the intended
victim at the command of the person who had sent them. The medicine-man
after extracting the disease-object or pain almost always exhibited it.
It was then either destroyed by him or kept by him for his own use. In
Northwestern California he sometimes swallowed it, the degree of his
power being thought to be dependent upon the number of pains he kept in
his body, both those which he received upon his becoming a shaman, when
they were "cooked" before a great fire in the doctor-initiation dance,
and those which he subsequently secured in doctoring his patients. The
rattlesnake's bite was regarded as being dangerous on account of its
injection into the victim's body of a material animate object, which
the rattlesnake shaman must extract if death was not to ensue. Among
the Yuki this object was a small snake; among the Yokuts a rodent's
tooth or other object supposed to have formed part of the animals upon
which the snake subsisted. In some cases two classes of medicine-men
were distinguished, one diagnosing, the other treating the patient.
Among the Wiyot or Wishosk the former by dancing before the patient saw
in a vision the nature and location of the disease-object and
determined what had caused it to enter the body. Somewhat similar
though varying distinctions between shamans whose power consists of
knowledge, and those who have practical capacity as well, occurred
among other tribes. Sucking is not always resorted to. The Mohave
principally blow or spit over their patients and stroke or rub or knead
their bodies, which actions are supposed by them to drive out the
disease. Medicines and drugs are but little used, or if so, in a manner
that gives no opportunity for their physiological efficacy. Four or
five drops--the number varying according to the ceremonial number of
the tribe--of a weak decoction may be given to the patient or even only
applied to him externally. It is natural that where the magic effect of
the drug as used in a certain ritual is believed in, the quantity so
used is not an essential consideration. It is the supernatural
qualities connected with the plant that bring about the desired result,
and these are as inherent in a drop placed upon the forehead as in a
basketful taken internally. Perhaps the most-used medicinal plant
throughout the state is the angelica root, probably principally on
account of its fragrance. Tobacco is considerably employed by shamans,
but is of equal importance in other aspects of religion.


PUBLIC CEREMONIES.

After the exclusion of such public observances as the shaman
initiation, menstrual dance, and victory celebration, which, while
generally participated in, are performed primarily for the benefit of
individuals, the ceremonies of the California Indians which are of a
really public or communal purpose and character fall into three
classes: (1) mourning ceremonies; (2) initiation ceremonies connected
with a secret society; and (3) a more varied group of dances and other
observances which all, however, have in common the benefit either of
the community or of the world at large, in that they cause a good crop
of acorns and natural products, make the avoidance of rattlesnake bites
possible, or prevent the occurrence of disease, earthquake, flood, and
other calamities.

Of these three classes of ceremonies the mourning ceremonies are at
least as important as the others and by far the most distinctive of the
state as an ethnographic province, although neither they nor the secret
society are found in the specialized Northwestern area. The mourning
ceremonies further do not occur among the Athabascan, Yuki, and Pomo
tribes to the south of the Northwestern tribes as far as the bay of San
Francisco; but outside of this strip in the northern coast region they
are universal in the state. Among the Maidu they are usually known as
"burning," among the Miwok as "cry." Among the Yokuts they have been
called "dance of the dead," and among the Mohave and Yuma "annual."
These ceremonies are usually participated in by a number of visiting
communities or villages. They last for one or more nights, during which
crying and wailing, sometimes accompanied by singing and exhortation,
are indulged in, and find their climax in a great destruction of
property. While those who have recently lost relatives naturally take a
prominent part, the ceremony as a whole is not a personal but a tribal
one. Among the Yokuts and probably other groups it is immediately
followed by a dance of a festive nature, and usually there is a
definitely expressed idea that this general ceremony puts an end to all
individual mourning among the participants. A typical form of the
mourning ceremony is found among the Maidu, who call it östu. Each
village or political unit possesses its burning ground. Participation
in the ceremony is effected by receipt of a membership-string or
necklace, both the receipt and return of which are marked by payments
or presents. The ceremony is held in autumn in a circular brush
enclosure. Property to be destroyed is tied to poles which are erected
on the ground. After an opening exhortation by the chief or shaman in
charge of the ceremony, the wailing begins, to continue throughout the
night, many exclamations to the dead being uttered. Toward morning the
numerous articles displayed on the poles are taken down and burned.
When everything has been destroyed the assembly breaks up for gambling
and feasting. The purpose of the ceremony is to supply the ghosts of
the dead with clothing, property, and food. Although its general tenor
is communal, each family offers only to its own relatives. In some
cases elaborate images of stuffed skins ornamented with dancing apparel
are made to represent important people who have died. These are burned
with the property offered to the dead.

Initiation ceremonies which result in something analogous to a secret
society are found in the whole state except in the Northwestern region
and among the agricultural tribes at the extreme southeast in the
Colorado valley. They are apparently as well developed among the Yuki
and Pomo, who do not practice tribal mourning ceremonies, as among
their neighbors who do. In a strict sense there is no secret society,
even though the precepts taught boys at initiation are not made public.
There are usually no paraphernalia or insignia of a society, no degrees
or ranks, no membership or other organization, nor is there a definite
purpose for the society. The great majority of the males of the tribes
are made to undergo the initiation, and in many cases there is a
distinct desire to force it upon every man, whether he be willing or
unwilling. In so far as a society may therefore be said to exist at
all, its principal purpose and public function are the initiation of
new members. There is however often a special name for those who have
been initiated, such as yeponi among the Maidu and pumal among the
Luiseño, and to a certain extent the initiates are regarded as a class
or council having a more or less indefinite decision over religious
matters affecting the community. The precepts imparted to the
initiates, other than the ritualistic knowledge relating to the
initiation ceremony itself, seems to be of the most general kind and
pertains principally to daily life and the most obvious maxims of
native morality. In some ways this initiation is a puberty ceremony for
boys corresponding to the first-menstruation-ceremony of girls. The
initiates are however not limited as to age, men being sometimes
included. Among at least the Yokuts in Central California and the
Mission Indians of Southern California the initiation was accompanied
by the drinking of toloache or jimson-weed, datura meteloides, the
stupor and visions produced by which were regarded as supernatural. In
Southern California the idea of an ordeal and instruction was specially
developed. Boys were made to undergo severe tests of pain and endurance
and were given numerous injunctions regarding their adult life. Among
the Maidu of the Sacramento valley instruction both in the myths of the
tribe and in the more important ceremonies was imparted. Among certain
of the Maidu the secret society, in so far as it comprises the more
adult men, is difficult to distinguish from an association of shamans.

The public ceremonies other than mourning and initiation observances,
in other words the tribal dances of California, differ thoroughly in
the three culture regions, which must therefore be considered
separately.

In Central California these dances, like the initiation ceremonies,
have disappeared to a much greater extent than the mourning ceremonies,
and where they survive have often been more or less influenced by
modern ideas. As a rule they were held in the large assembly or
ceremonial chamber, more often at night than during the day, and either
lasted for a number of nights or consisted of a series of successive
dances extending over a considerable period. Some of the dances, though
a minority, were named after animals, and in such there was usually
some imitation of the actions of animals. Sometimes rude paraphernalia
were used to represent the animal itself, but this was not very common
and masks were never employed. At least in the Sacramento valley and
northern Coast Range region there was some impersonation of mythical
characters, as of Taikomol, creator among the Yuki, and of the mythical
being Kuksu among the Pomo and Maidu. Such impersonators usually wore
either the "big head," an enormous head-dress of feathers attached to
radiating sticks, or a large cape of feathers fastened to a network,
which concealed both body and face, or both pieces of apparel. There
seems to have been nothing corresponding to an altar. The dancers were
painted but crudely, and such symbolism as was denoted by the painting
was of the simplest. One or more of the posts that supported the roof
of the assembly chamber were usually of ceremonial importance. The
dancers frequently entered and left the house by a hole above instead
of the door at the ground. A rude drum consisting of a hollow slab
placed on the ground and stamped with the feet was often used. An
important character in most ceremonies was the clown or buffoon, part
of whose duties was to caricature the more serious performance. In some
cases shamanistic exhibitions of magic were included in the ceremony.
At times an exchange or compulsory giving of property formed part of
the ceremony. The participants were rarely if ever called upon to
undergo severe trials of endurance, pain, or courage, as among so many
other Indians. The whole ritual was comparatively simple.

The exact nature and relation of the various dances are very little
known among most of the tribes of the Central region. Probably a
typical example of these dances is furnished by the Maidu of the
Sacramento valley, who declare that their ceremonies were obtained from
their neighbors, the Wintun. This statement is borne out by indirect
evidence. Among the Maidu the ceremonies were performed in winter and
constituted a series of fifteen or more distinct dances, coming for the
most part in a definite order. So far as known they were the following:
Hesi, Luyi, Loli, Salalu-ngkasi, Duck, Bear, Coyote, Creeper, Turtle,
Aloli-ngkasi, Yokola-ngkasi, Moloko-ngkasi, Deer, Aki, Hesi. The
majority of these dances were performed by men, but some by women only.
There is no evidence that participation in these dances was dependent
upon anything like membership in an association. Each had its
characteristic paraphernalia or combinations of paraphernalia. In
several there are participants with special apparel and with a
distinctive name. At least some of these seem to represent mythical
characters. In several instances these performers enact ceremonial
operations, largely in the nature of complex approaches and departures
which take place outside the assembly chamber. The names of several of
these ceremonies occur also among neighboring Indians speaking entirely
different languages, and thus give proof of the transmission of the
ceremonies from one locality to another. The Hesi, the most important
of the Maidu series, is danced also by the Wintun. The Loli is an
important ceremony among the Maidu, Miwok, and Pomo. The performer
called Kuksu, who refers to important myths, is found among the Maidu,
Wintun, Pomo, and either the Miwok or Costanoan Indians formerly at
Mission San José. There is every reason to believe that a fuller
acquaintance with the tribes whose ceremonies are as yet least known
will reveal other instances of ceremonies held in common and known
under the same name. Farther to the south, among the Yokuts of the
Tulare basin, these ceremonies do not seem to have penetrated. Here the
majority of the public ceremonies, like the rattlesnake ceremony that
has been mentioned, were of the nature of shamanistic performances.
Throughout the Central region the dances, while they might be held only
in structures of certain kinds, were never rigorously attached to a
specific locality.

In Northwestern California the more important ceremonies can always be
held only at certain spots, and the performance of ceremonies of the
same name always varies somewhat at different places. The performers do
not represent mythological or other characters and do not imitate
animals. The more important dances last at least a number of days, not
infrequently as many as ten. The dances are held either out-doors or in
certain sacred houses, which are however not different from the
ordinary living-house of the region except through their traditionary
and ceremonial associations. The essential religious portion of the
ceremony consists of the actions gone through by a priest, with
sometimes one or two assistants. The more important part of his
procedure is the recital of one of the sacred formulae so
characteristic of the region. This formula relates specifically to the
exact locality at which the dance is held, and therefore often varies
considerably from spot to spot. The formula is regarded as it were as
private property, and its knowledge is sufficient to institute the
priest in his capacity. The public portions of the ceremony, such as
the dancing, are practically dissociated from this purely religious
element. The dancers are mostly young men without any knowledge of the
ceremony other than of the simple dance-step and songs. The
paraphernalia which they wear belong neither to them nor to the
priests, but to wealthy men of the tribe, for whom the occasion is an
all-important opportunity for the display of their wealth, which
consists in large part of the dancing regalia, and the possession of
which is the chief factor toward their social prominence. The dancers
appear in from two to five parties, representing neighboring villages,
each of which is aided by the wealthy men of other villages; and these
parties vie with each other primarily in the display of their regalia.
The most important ceremonies are the Deerskin dance and the Jumping
dance, which are held either annually or biennially, the former always
out-doors, the latter at some places out-doors, sometimes in boats, at
others in-doors. The purpose of both dances, which where both are
practiced are usually given in close succession, is the good of the
world. Earthquake and disease are prevented and a food supply insured.
Very little of the sacred formulae and accompanying ritual, and nothing
in the remainder of the dance, has however any specific reference to
this purpose. A third, minor ceremony, the Brush dance, completes the
series of public ceremonies in this region, the remaining dances being
held only on occasion of war, a girl's puberty, or the initiation of a
shaman. Even the Brush dance is not fully of a tribal character,
inasmuch as it is performed for the benefit of a single individual, a
sick child, although it is participated in by an entire village with
the assistance of visitors from others, and though there seems to be a
desire to perform the ceremony at least once a year in each of the
larger villages.

In Southern California mourning ceremonies are everywhere the most
prominent. In the coast region, among the various groups of Mission
Indians, initiation ceremonies make up most of the public rituals that
are not connected with mourning. In the interior the Mohave possess no
initiation ceremonies. In both regions such ceremonies as partake
neither of the nature of mourning nor initiation are conspicuous by the
prominence of the myth element. They consist essentially of long series
of songs, occupying one or more nights in the recital, which recount,
in part directly but more often by allusion, an important myth. At
times the myth is actually related in the intervals between the songs.
In some cases dancing by men or women accompanies the singing, but this
is never spectacular and in many cases is entirely lacking. Being only
ceremonial recitations of myths, these ceremonies are not attached in
their performance to specific localities, and when dancing regalia are
used they are of the simplest character; nor is there opportunity for
either altar or ritual. The predominance of the mourning element in the
ceremonies of this region is further shown by the fact that among some
tribes, as the Mohave, these same singing ceremonies, besides being
performed independently, are also sung for many hours at every death.
The series of songs selected for each individual on this occasion is
that with which he is acquainted. In accord with what has been said of
the dream as the basis of Mohave religious life, these singing
ceremonies are almost always believed by each person to have been
dreamed by himself.


CEREMONIAL STRUCTURES AND PARAPHERNALIA.

The ceremonial chamber is also of distinctive character in the three
culture areas. In the Central region it is a large, circular,
dome-shaped structure, partly underground and with a covering of earth.
It serves also as place of assembly and at least at times as sudatory,
whence its popular name of sweat-house. In the Northwest the
sweat-house is quite small, almost entirely underground, and its roof
consists of boards without a covering of earth. It is constantly used
for sweating and is the regular sleeping place of all adult males. It
is not used for public ceremonies except in the case of the dance
initiating shamans. In the South the ceremonial structure is not a
house, but either a mere enclosure of brush, as among the Mission
tribes, or a simple shade of brush on upright posts, as among the
Mohave. This type of ceremonial structure is also found in the southern
part of the Central region among the Yokuts.

In the matter of dancing apparel the Northwest differs fundamentally
from all the remainder of the state. Some of the most important of the
regalia, such as long obsidian knives and albino deerskins, are not
worn on the body or used ritually but merely carried for display, being
primarily objects of great value. Large forehead-bands entirely covered
with brilliant red woodpecker feathers more nearly resemble ordinary
dancing apparel, but are also articles of value, the unmounted
woodpecker feathers virtually constituting one form of currency. Other
objects used in dancing are dresses, cloaks, and head-bands of skin and
fur, head-dresses of network, and carefully ornamented plumes and head
feathers. All these, while worn on the body, and decorative, also
possess considerable commercial value. The drum is not used, the
whistle employed at times, and the rattle, which consists of deer
hoofs, but sparingly.

In the Central region objects made of feathers greatly predominate over
all others, and are mostly made to be worn actually on the body.
Head-dresses are particularly conspicuous and of many forms. In the
Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys and the adjacent region cloaks of
large feathers attached to a network are worn. In the Tulare basin
these are replaced by skirts consisting of strings of eagle-down. With
these down-skirts are worn large upright head-dresses of crow and
magpie feathers. This combination of costume was used also by the
Mission Indians in Southern California and by the Washo of Nevada, and
at least the head-dress is found as far north as the Sacramento valley.
Network caps filled with down, and forehead bands of down, are frequent
in various parts. Perhaps the most typical single object of ceremonial
apparel is a flat band, usually worn on the forehead, and consisting of
the trimmed red quills of the yellow-hammer sewed side by side. This
head-band occurs through the whole of Central California and is used
also by the tribes east of the Sierra Nevada, in the state of Nevada,
and south of Tehachapi pass in Southern California. The large foot drum
of the Central region has already been mentioned. Whistles are also
used and there are two forms of rattle, one consisting of silk cocoons
containing gravel, the other of a split stick. The cocoon rattle is
usually associated with the shaman, the clap-stick with dancing.

In the South, especially among the Mission Indians, the dancing
apparel, as is evident from the instances already mentioned, is of much
the same type as in the Central area. On the Colorado river feather
ornaments of the same general character are used, though they are of a
simpler type and head-dresses predominate. The whistle is but little
used in the South, the drum occasionally, baskets and other objects
being chiefly employed for this purpose. The rattle is the
all-important musical instrument in this region. It is made most
frequently from a gourd or a turtle-shell.


MYTHOLOGY AND BELIEFS.

In mythology a deep-going difference between the three culture areas
again appears. The Northwestern mythologies are characterized primarily
by a very deeply impressed conception of a previous, now vanished,
race, who by first living the life and performing the actions of
mankind were the producers of all human institutions and arts as well
as of some of the phenomena of nature. Second in importance in the
Northwest are myths dealing with culture-heroes more or less of the
trickster type familiar from so many other parts of North America.

In Central California there is always a true creation of the world, of
mankind, and of its institutions. The conception of the creator is
often quite lofty, and tricky exploits or defeats are usually not
connected with him. Often there is an antithesis between this
beneficent and truly divine creator and a second character, usually the
Coyote, who in part coöperates with the creator but in part thwarts
him, being responsible for the death of mankind and other imperfections
in the world-scheme. In the northern half of the Central region the
creator is generally anthropomorphic; if not, he is merged into one
personage with the more or less tricky Coyote. In the southern half of
the region the creators seem always to be animals with the dignified
and wise eagle as the chief. The myths of the Central region not
directly concerned with creation are mostly stories of adventure, of
much the same type as European folk and fairy tales. They do not
explain the origin of phenomena except in a casual, isolated way, and
but rarely are of ceremonial import.

In Southern California there is no creation. The various animate and
inanimate existences in the world are born from heaven and earth as the
first parents. Sometimes heaven and earth are regarded as the first
concrete existences, who were, however, preceded by a series of psychic
beings grouped in pairs. The bulk of the Southern origin myth consists
of a history of mankind, at first as a single tribe and later centered
in the tribe which tells the story. In the successive experiences of
this body of people, which are accompanied by more or less journeying,
the world is gradually brought to its present stage, and all the
institutions of mankind, particularly of the narrating tribe but also
of others, are developed. The people are under the leadership of one or
two great leaders, at least one of whom always dies or departs after
his beneficent directions. The thoroughly Southwestern and Pueblo
character of this long origin myth is obvious. It is usually followed
to a greater or less extent by migration legends recounting the
wandering and conflicts of different tribes or clans. The remaining
myths are in plot essentially not very different from the adventure
stories of the Central region, but both much longer and more elaborate,
and at the same time distinctively ritualistic in that they form the
basis or framework of the singing ceremonies that have been described.
As these ceremonies themselves are nothing but myths, there is neither
need nor room for traditionary accounts explaining the origin of the
ceremonies.

An identification of myth and ceremony that is in many ways similar to
that prevalent in Southern California is characteristic also of the
Northwestern region, where the formulae which constitute the essential
religious elements, as well as being the direct means, of most
supernatural accomplishment, are nothing but myths. The Northwestern
formula is a myth, rarely a direct prayer, and practically every more
serious myth is either in whole or in part a also a formula. In
purpose, however, as well as in rendering, the spoken myth-formulae of
the Northwest and the sung myth-ceremonies of the South are different,
the former having always a definite practical result in view, whereas
the latter have no aim other than their own recital.

Thus the mythology of Southern California resembles that of the
Southwest rather than that of the remainder of the state. That of the
Northwestern region shows affinities to the North Pacific Coast in its
prevalence of the culture-hero and trickster over the creator. The most
marked special characteristic of the Northwestern mythology, other than
its practical use of myths for religious purposes in the shape of
formulas, is its strong and definite, though inconsistently carried
out, idea of the previous race which is parallel to but distinct from
mankind, and which is the originator, not by any act of creation but by
merely living its life, of everything human except mankind itself, the
origin of which is never accounted for. This idea of a previous
supernatural race analogous to mankind crops out to some extent in
almost all North American mythologies, and particularly in other parts
of California: but it seems nowhere to be so deep-seated and so freely
expressed as in this region. The members of this vanished race are
almost always strictly human, in Northwestern California, and not
animals or personifications. They are nothing but men, living the life
of the Indians, transposed into a mythic supernatural age, and by the
fact of their mere existence regarded as the originators of the present
condition of the world. They therefore leave no room for a creator, and
but little for the culture hero, whose exploits, when not of purely
personal significance, consequently consist mainly of the destruction
of evil beings.

If the mythology of Northwestern California in spite of its partial
northern affinities accordingly has a dominant character all its own,
the same is also true of the larger, more representative Central
region. A true creator, and a full and consistent attempt at an account
of the creation, are found nowhere else in North America, or at least
only sporadically and carried out with an apparently much less degree
of thoroughness. The remainder of the Central Californian mythology
however scarcely presents any unique qualities, even some of the
specific myth-episodes, such as the favorite one of the bear and deer
children, being found over considerable territories outside of
California. Even the important characteristic of the presence of
creation-myths is in a measure a negative one, for from a world view
some approach to such a myth may be expected among most peoples,
whether primitive or civilized, and it is primarily only in America
that special bents of mind and of religious thought have supplanted the
idea of creation by the culture hero, the tribal history, and other
conceptions. We are therefore not far from right if we regard the
unique development of creation myths over the greater part of
California as merely a part of a general tendency of the California
Indians towards simplicity and lack of strongly marked peculiar and
American qualities in any one direction, a tendency which has already
been emphasized in other aspects of their religion, and which must be
said to characterize their whole life and culture.

Ideas as to the world and the existence of the dead vary from tribe to
tribe but present nothing specially distinctive. The world is usually
regarded as surrounded by water, sometimes as floating upon it. It is
often secured by four or five pillars, ropes, or other supports. Beyond
where earth and sky meet there is often another land. The dead
sometimes go below, sometimes above, sometimes across the ocean to the
west, and sometimes to more or less distant parts of this earth. The
entrance to the world of the dead is pointed out by some tribes. People
who have temporarily died have been there and returned to describe it.
Dances constitute the principal occupation of the dead. No ideas of
future rewards and punishments based on conduct in this life have yet
been found. If such ideas exist they must be very scantily developed.
As in other parts of the world, there are occasional ideas of
transmigration of souls into animals, but these conceptions are nowhere
systematically worked out or of any religious importance.


SPECIAL CHARACTERISTICS OF DIFFERENT TRIBES.

Such are the principal characteristics of the religion of the Indians
of California as a whole, and of the larger ethnographical areas of the
state. It is obvious that with so great a linguistic and political
diversification as existed among these Indians, there must have been
many local modifications of the scheme which has been outlined. The
most conspicuous or best known of these special modifications it is the
purpose of the remainder of this paper to consider. In this review the
groups to be taken up will, for the sake of greatest convenience of
classification, be the linguistic families. These numerous families are
territorially so restricted, and usually so small in numbers, that they
almost form the equivalent of the tribe in other regions of North
America, that is to say, of a subdivision of the family. Strictly there
are no tribes in the greater part of California. The families or stocks
are the largest linguistic units, usually subdivided into several
dialectic areas, each of which contains a number of small village
communities that are the only units of political or social
organization.

In the Northwestern region, in spite of the excessive limitation of
this territory, a distinction must be made between three tribes which
occupy the heart of the region and show the culture in its most extreme
form, and a fringe of surrounding tribes where the Northwestern culture
is either less developed or subject to greater extraneous influences.
The three more characteristic groups are the Yurok and Karok, small
independent linguistic families, and the Hupa division of the
Athabascan family. These alone practice the Deerskin dance and the "New
Year's" or world-making ceremonies. With them also the peculiar
mythological and shamanistic conceptions typical of the region are
found in the purest form. The surrounding tribes are the Wishosk or
Wiyot, perhaps the Chimariko and some of the Shasta, the Athabascan
Tolowa, and the Athabascans southwest of the Hupa.

The Yurok held the Deerskin and Jumping dances at three places along
the Klamath river, and the Jumping dance alone at three points on the
coast, to the south. At the mouth of the river an annual spring
ceremony to cause or regulate the ascent of the salmon was made. Until
this ceremony had been made salmon were not eaten. The shamans of the
Yurok were almost all women. Alone of all the tribes in the
Northwestern region the Yurok held no dance or public ceremony on the
occasion of a girl's puberty. Their traditions seem to have the
peculiar Northwestern qualities perhaps more deeply impressed upon them
than even those of their neighbors, the Karok and Hupa, especially in
regard to the underlying conception of a previous race and its
function. In accord with the development of this conception, the
mythical heroes of the Yurok show less approximation to being creators
than those of the other tribes, and animals are mentioned in the
mythology surprisingly little.

The Karok, who live immediately upstream from the Yurok on the Klamath,
held the Deerskin and Jumping dances at three places. At each of these
the dances were conducted in connection with a sacred ceremony called
"New Year's" by the whites and "making the world" by the Indians. This
ceremony was performed early in autumn, practically by one man, the
priest who knew the formula and ritual. A similar ceremony was held at
a fourth locality in spring, in connection with the coming of the
salmon. The Karok regard the Deerskin and Jumping dances of the Yurok
and Hupa as the equivalents of these ceremonies of their own, reckoning
altogether ten places in the world at which they are performed. Karok
mythology is of the Northwestern type, but shows more animal characters
than that of the Yurok.

The territory held by the Hupa was much less extended than that of
their neighbors, and this was no doubt the occasion of their making
only one Deerskin and Jumping dance in their valley. They held a New
Year's ceremony in autumn which had distinct reference to the acorn
crop. Ceremonials and restrictions connected with menstruation were
considerably developed, much more than among the neighboring Yurok. It
was thought dangerous to speak to a dog, as he might be provoked to
answer, which would be a fatal portent.

The religion of the other Athabascans in this part of the state is very
little known, but it is certain that before the southern end of
Humboldt county is reached, in other words, in the Eel river drainage,
a totally distinct set of conceptions and practices is encountered,
which are allied to those of the Central region.

The Wiyot or Wishosk, who adjoin the Yurok on the south, did not
practice the Jumping dance, other ceremonies, which are very little
known, taking its place among them. One dance was performed by women
standing up to the hips in water. Shamanism is of more prominence among
them than with their neighbors the Yurok, and men as well as women are
affected with supernatural powers. The sex of the guardian spirit is
usually the opposite of that of the shaman. It is possible that on
account of the almost complete disappearance of their tribal life and
communal religious practices, shamanism, which has been retained with
greater vigor among the Wiyot, now appears relatively more important,
as the only remnant of the religious side of their culture. An
elaborate hanging feather head-dress, a belt, a pipe for smoking, and
another for sucking, are the constant paraphernalia of the
medicine-man. Two shamans often support each other in curing disease,
one diagnosing, the other removing the pain. The mythology of the Wiyot
resembles that of the Yurok chiefly through possessing certain specific
narrative episodes in common with it. But the idea of a previous
parallel race is very little developed, and there is a true creator,
Above-Old-Man. Most of the other mythical characters are animals. The
whole mythology therefore is of the Central rather than of the
Northwestern type.

With the Yuki of Mendocino county a pure form of the Central culture
obtains. The creator is Taikomol, "he who goes alone." His companion,
who supplements his work, especially as regards the culture of man, is
Coyote. There is a Taikomol ceremony in which this character is
impersonated, and which is shamanistic at least to the degree of being
performed to cure an individual of sickness. There is no trace of the
sacred formulae of the Northwest. The shaman, who is usually a man,
receives his power either by dreaming or in a vision in a desolate
place. His power is not sought by him and he possesses definite
guardian spirits. Bear shamans are much feared. All the Yuki possess a
sacred society initiation ceremony, in which performances of magic are
prominent. Among the northern Yuki and neighboring Wailaki this is
called Flint ceremony, and the initiates display magic powers in
handling and swallowing flint points. Among the southern Yuki, as among
the neighboring Pomo and Athabascan Kato, the ceremony relates to
ghosts and is popularly known as Devil dance. The members possess power
of causing sickness and contend against each other much like the
shamans of the Maidu and Yokuts.

One of the most conspicuous features of the religion of the Pomo, who
are south of the Yuki, is their shamanistic fetishes. The medicine-man
possesses a number of objects, stones, parts of animals, and other
articles, which he treasures and with which his power is largely bound
up. Pomo mythology is characterized by the importance of Coyote, who
comes nearer than any other personage to playing the part of creator.
In certain ceremonies there are exhibitions of fire-eating and the
clown occurs.

The Wintun occupy a territory which is of much greater extent from
north to south than from east to west. The northern and southernmost
members of the family therefore differ considerably. In the north there
is a well defined conception of a creator who dwells above, and to whom
Coyote forms an antithesis. In the south, where everything shows the
Wintun and Pomo to have influenced each other considerably, he is
replaced by Coyote. In both regions a world-fire is prominent in the
mythology. In the north the shaman is inaugurated in his career in a
ceremony in which he is assisted by his older colleagues. The southern
Wintun may prove to have been the people who largely developed the
dances and ceremonies characteristic of a large part of the Sacramento
valley. They show much in common with their western neighbors the Pomo,
and with the Maidu who adjoin them on the east and who themselves
declare that they have derived the Hesi and other dances from them.

None of the groups so far discussed, with the possible exception of
part of the Wintun, practiced any distinct mourning ceremony. On the
other hand, all that follow, with the possible doubtful exception of
one or two tribes on the outskirts of the state, held mourning
ceremonies as among the most important of all their religious
practices.

The Maidu everywhere possessed a secret society. Their system of dances
becomes less and less developed as one proceeds farther from Wintun
influence. Among the mountain tribes almost all ceremonies were much
less developed than in the Sacramento valley. Shamanistic beliefs and
practices also varied, although there was everywhere a clear idea of
spirits personally acquired and controlled by the medicine-man. Among
the northeastern Maidu every shaman's son invariably became a shaman,
although only through his own acquisition of spirits, which might be
those of his father. In the Sacramento valley spirits were acquired by
involuntary dreaming without much regard to heredity. Puberty
ceremonies for girls were performed both among the northwestern and
northeastern Maidu, perhaps among those of the south also. The
mythology of the several Maidu divisions is much more uniform than
their religious practices. The creator is always opposed and his
beneficent work rendered incomplete by Coyote. It is clear that the
mythology of the Maidu is distinctive and much less under Wintun
influence than their ceremonies.

Among the Miwok the Coyote largely takes the place of the creator. As
among their northern neighbors the Maidu, the mourning ceremony was
important, and the two stocks held at least certain dances in common.
The individual mourning practices and restrictions of the widow were
elaborate and severe. Nothing is as yet known of a secret society, but
as both the southern and northern neighbors of the Miwok performed
initiation ceremonies, it is likely that they also possessed them.

Among the Yokuts, who occupied the head of the San Joaquin-Tulare
valley south of the Miwok, there are no traces of the ceremonial system
of the Sacramento valley, which is replaced by public shamanistic
ceremonies, in which contests and exhibitions of magic were
conspicuous. The annual rattlesnake ceremony which has been described
is of this type, as is the Ohowish, a ceremony in which medicine-men
from different villages or districts; directed their powers against
each other. There seem to have been also certain animal dances among
the Yokuts. Medicine-men usually acquired their power by dreaming,
sometimes by visions while alone. Bear shamans were known, but were not
so much dreaded as farther north. Rain doctors, who could control the
weather, were important. Their power was bound up with certain stone
amulets evidencing a fetishistic development. Formulae, some with
ritualistic accompaniment, were spoken, but differed from those of the
Northwest in being short direct prayers or supplications instead of
mythical narratives. The creators in Yurok mythology are several
animals, the chief of whom is the eagle and among whom Coyote always
finds a place. A favorite mythological personage is the prairie-falcon,
and a myth which has found a particular development relates the visit
of a husband to the world of the dead in pursuit of his wife.

Very little is known of the ethnology of the coast tribes west of the
Miwok and Yokuts. Among the Southern Costanoan peoples creation myths
resembling those of the Yokuts are found. Coyote is at once a trickster
and a giver of civilization and arts to man. Similar ideas probably
prevailed among the Salinan tribes. As regards the Esselen and Chumash
nothing is known.

Tribes belonging to the great Shoshonean family held almost all the
eastern border of the state as well as a large part of the southern
desert and coast region. The former inhabited the Great Basin, and are
culturally entirely distinct from those of Southern California, of whom
alone is there any considerable knowledge extant as regards religion.
Certain of the northern groups, such as the Mono, lived on the western
or California slope of the Sierra Nevada, in contact with the Yokuts
and Miwok, and partook more largely of the culture and presumably
religion of these people than of the tribes of the Basin.

Among the Shoshoneans of Southern California, such as the Gabrielino
and Luiseño, the so-called Mission Indians, mourning ceremonies were
more important than any others, and were held both on the death of a
person, sometime afterwards, and again in a still more public manner at
large gatherings. At some of these ceremonies images representing the
dead, and recalling those of the Maidu far to the north, were burned.
One form of mourning ceremony was the Eagle dance, performed with an
eagle that was slowly killed as the ceremony went on through the night.
Many of the songs of the mourning ceremonies are of mythological
content, referring to the great leader or culture-hero Wiyot. The
puberty ceremonial for girls was elaborate and contained symbolic
actions. The initiation of males was intended for boys, and therefore
also took on largely the character of a puberty ceremony. This
character was heightened by the presence of numerous ordeals. Part of
the initiation of boys consisted of the drinking of jimson-weed. Sand
paintings of a very simple type, evidently influenced by basket
patterns, but thoroughly symbolic in meaning and therefore essentially
of the same nature as those of the Pueblos and Navaho, were made in
connection with this initiation. On the whole religious symbolism was
more developed than in Central California or even among the Yuman
tribes to the east, who are geographically so much nearer the Indians
of the Southwest. The shaman acquired his power by dreaming, and the
pipe with which he sucked as well as smoked was of the utmost
importance to him. Paraphernalia were much used by the shamans,
especially boards or wooden swords, which were swallowed and worn as
head-dresses. These, however, were not purely fetishistic objects, but
of potency rather through symbolism and association. The mythology of
the Shoshonean Mission Indians was not essentially different from that
of the other Indians of Southern California.

The Yuman family, which is so much represented in Arizona and Lower
California, occupied the southernmost portion of Southern California.
The Diegueño in the coast mountains and on the coast were culturally
similar to the Shoshonean Luiseño, with whom they are generally
included as the present Mission Indians. Along the Colorado river the
physical and ethnic environment was quite different, but as has already
been said, there was much closer resemblance to the Mission Indians in
matters of religion than in almost any other phase of culture. The
principal Yuman tribes in this Colorado region are the Mohave and the
Yuma. The religion of only the former is known, but the two give every
evidence of having been very similar. The religion of the Shoshonean
Paiute or Chemehuevi in the desert adjoining the Mohave has been
largely colored by the influence of the latter. The most distinctive
feature of Mohave religion is the insistence upon dreaming as the
source of everything religious, although this dreaming must be
interpreted rather as a belief in the presence of the individual in
spirit form at the great events of mythic times. All myths that are at
all of sacred character are believed not to be handed down by
tradition, but to be dreamed by each narrator. The shaman receives his
power by dreaming ritualistic myths, which reveal to him his practices.
The lengthy series of songs which are the essence of all ceremonies,
and the mythical narratives connected with them, are also learned in
dreams. It is probably a result of this importance of the dream-world
and of the identification of myth and ceremony, of religious belief and
religious practice, that ritualism is so slightly developed among the
Mohave. Their geographical nearness and intercourse with the Hopi and
other southwestern tribes, among whom ritualism and symbolism find
perhaps their highest development on the continent north of Mexico,
would certainly justify a contrary expectation. Both ceremonial actions
and ceremonial paraphernalia and dress are developed only to a very
slight extent. There is no initiation or society. The singing
ceremonies, which with the exception of a few minor observances such as
that for a girl's puberty, constitute all the Mohave ceremonies other
than mourning ceremonies, are quite numerous, more than twenty being
known. Some of these ceremonies are acknowledged to have been borrowed
from other Yuman tribes, especially the Yuma, and these Indians no
doubt have also acquired Mohave ceremonies. Some of the ceremonies are
primarily mythical in character, others somewhat shamanistic. All are
also sung in mourning. In addition there is a distinctive mourning
ceremony held annually for important men.


BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Much of the material on which the statements in the preceding essay are
based is information collected by the University of California's
Ethnological and Archaeological Survey of California since 1901 and as
yet unpublished. Of old accounts dealing with the religion of the
Indians of California, the best is by the Franciscan missionary
Boscana, entitled Chinigchinich and published in the 1846 edition of a
volume by A. Robinson called Life in California. It deals with the
Shoshonean Indians of Mission San Juan Capistrano. An occasional
reference of value may be found in other works, such as Venegas'
History of California. The series of translations and republications of
early explorers in California and the Southwest, published in the Land
of Sunshine, later Out West, beginning in 1899, is also convenient,
though naturally it deals but incidentally with religion. Reid's
account of the Indians of Los Angeles county, published in an early Los
Angeles newspaper and republished by Alexander Taylor in the fourteenth
volume of California Farmer in 1861, is particularly good, though less
so on the side of religion than on most others. Stephen Powers' Tribes
of California, issued in 1877 as the third volume of the Contributions
to North American Ethnology, a government series, deals with the
Indians of the greater part of the state and contains many references
to their religious life. Powers is however often very inexact, and the
value of his work is in its comprehensiveness rather than in its
reliability. An important work is Creation Myths of Primitive America,
by Jeremiah Curtin, which consists of a collection of myths from the
Wintun and Yana of Northern California. The differences of form which
these myths show from most Indian myths that have been published in
translation are apparently chiefly due to the method of their
presentation by the author. Curtin's introduction is very suggestive
but exaggerated. Professor R. B. Dixon has brought out a paper on Maidu
Myths, and another, a great part of which is devoted to religion, on
the Northern Maidu, both in the seventeenth volume of the Bulletin of
the American Museum of Natural History. These two contributions are
among the most careful studies as yet made by a trained observer in any
part of the state. The same author has also published briefer articles
on Some Coyote Stories from the Maidu Indians of California, System and
Sequence in Maidu Mythology, and Some Shamans of Northern California,
in recent volumes of the Journal of American Folk-Lore, and on The
Mythology of the Shasta-Achomawi in the American Anthropologist for
1905. Professor P. E. Goddard has published Life and Culture of the
Hupa, the last portion of which refers to religion; and Hupa Texts
(with both interlinear and current translations), almost all of which
are religious in character. These two papers constitute Volume I of the
University of California Publications in American Archaeology and
Ethnology. In the Journal of American Folk-Lore for 1906 is a paper by
the same author on Lassik Tales. Miss Constance Goddard DuBois has
published a number of valuable papers on the Mission Indians, mainly
concerning the mythology of the Diegueño, in the volumes of the Journal
of American Folk-Lore for 1901, 1904, and 1906. In the American
Anthropologist for 1905 Miss DuBois has an article on the Religious
Ceremonies and Myths of the Mission Indians, while another paper on The
Mythology of the Diegueños appears in the Proceedings of the Thirteenth
International Congress of Americanists. From the present author there
have appeared, in the second and fourth volumes of the series of
American Archaeology and Ethnology, of the University of California
Publications, Types of Indian Culture in California, in part treating
of religion, and Indian Myths from South-Central California; in the
Journal of American Folk-Lore between 1904 and 1906, A Ghost Dance in
California, Wishosk Myths, and Two Myths of the Mission Indians; in the
American Anthropologist for 1902, A Preliminary Sketch of the Mohave
Indians. In the American Anthropologist for 1905 and 1906 the late
Major H. N. Rust has two brief articles on The Obsidian Blades of
California and A Puberty Ceremony of the Mission Indians. The Journal
of American Folk-Lore has contained a rather confused article on The
Cosmogony and Theogony of the Mojave Indians, by Capt. J. G. Bourke, in
1889, and others by G. W. James, on myths of the Mission Indians of
Southern California, in 1902 and 1903. In the same Journal appeared in
1902 An Indian Myth from the San Joaquin Basin by J. W. Hudson, and A
Composite Myth of the Pomo Indians by S. A. Barrett in 1906. Since 1906
the Journal has contained a series of Notes on California Folk-Lore.








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