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Show 1050 THE GHOST- DANCE RELIGION [ KTH. ASH. 14 but they may be safely estimated at from 7,000 to 8,000 and are thought to be increasing. Iu 1893 those on reservations, all in Nevada, were reported to number, at Walker River, 563; at Pyramid Lake, 494; at Duck Valley ( Western Shoshone agency, in connection with the Shoshoni), 209. Nevada Iudians off reservation were estimated to number 6,815, nearly all of whom were Paiute. As a people the Paiute are peaceable, moral, and industrious, and are highly commended for their good qualities by those who have had the best opportunities for judging. While apparently not as bright in intellect as the prairie tribes, they appear to possess more solidity of character. By their willingness and efficiency as workers, they have made themselves necessary to the white farmers and have been enabled to supply themselves with good clothing and many of the comforts of life, while on the other hand they have steadily resisted the vices of civilization, so that they are spoken of by one agent as presenting the " singular anomaly" of improvement by contact with the whites. Another authority says: " To these habits and excellence of character may be attributed the fact that they are annually increasing in numbers, and that they are strong, healthy, active people. Many of them are employed as laborers on the farms of white men in all seasons, but they are especially serviceable during the time of harvesting and haymaking." ( Comr., 46.) They would be the last Indians in the world to preach a crusade of extermination against the whites, such as the mes-siah religion has been represented to be. Aside from their' earnings among the whites, they derive their subsistence from the fish of the lakes, jack rabbits and small game of the sage plains and mountains, and from pinon nuts and other seeds which they grind into flour for bread. Their ordinary dwelling is the wikiup or small rounded hut of tul£ rushes over a framework of poles, with the ground for a floor and the fire in the center and almost entirely open at the top. Strangely enough, although appreciating the advantages of civilization so far as relates to good clothing and such food as they can buy at the stores, they manifest no desire to live in permanent houses or to procure the furniture of civilization, and their wikiups are almost bare of everything excepting a few wicker or grass baskets of their own weaving. The Paiute ghost songs have a monotonous, halting movement that renders them displeasing to the ear of a white man, and are inferior in expression to those of the Arapaho and the Sioux. A number of words consisting only of unmeaning syllables are inserted merely to fill in the meter. Like the cognate Shoshoni and Comanche, the language has a strong rolling r. GENESIS MYTH At first the world was all water, and remained so a long time. Then the water began to go down and at last Kura'ngwa ( Mount Grant) emerged from the water, near the southwest end of Walker lake. There was fire on its top ( it may have been a volcano), and when the wind blew hard the water dashed over the fire and would have extinguished |