OCR Text |
Show INDIANS OF THE COLORADO. 435 even the Indians live distant therefrom. Seek the friendship of these nations of the river do all the others, as well for their numerousness as for their abundant harvests. The Indian men of its banks are well- formed, and the Indian women fat and healthy; the adornment of the men, as far up as the Jamajabs, is total nudity; that of the women is reduced to certain short and scanty petticoats of the bark of trees; they bathe at all seasons, and arrange the hair, which they always wear long ( suelto), in diverse figures, utilizing for this purpose a kind of gum or sticky mud. Always are they painted, some with black, others with red ( encamado), and many with all colors. In passing from the Jamajabs they are found clothed with decency, as well the men as the women. All those of the banks of the river are very generous ( liverales), and lovers of their country, in which they do not hunt game because they abound in all provisions. On the contrary, from the Jamajabs upward, they subsist upon game and forest fruits, for lack of crops. The Yumas told me that there had been drowned a Spaniard who came up from the Cajuenches and was unwilling to wait till the Indians should take him across. Among the Quabajais, near the Tulares, I had myself known to have passed a Spaniard on foot, and who struck out for the sierra; he who could proceed to the Cajuenches and be the drowned one. |