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Show 323 • of age, very weak, and suffering from a painful eye- disease. Among other statements he said that he had made a treaty with General Fremont in 1843. Many words I propounded to him he could not recall in his native language, and ezoused himself by saying, " we are now so far civilized that we have forgotten our own language," ( somos tan civilisados que nemos olvidado nuestra lengua.) Still the collection of words obtained comprises about 300. Another language nearly extinct is that of the Indians of Santa Barbara, on the coast. After much inquiry, an intelligent Indian * about three miles north of the town was found, who owned a large farm, and spoke, besides his own language, tolerably well Spanish and English. He called the original tribe Kasu£. The ruins of the old mission church are about three miles east ot the town. THB UNCONVERTED TRIBES. One of the most numerous tribes iu North America is thai of the Payutes. t Indeed, this tribe, the main stock of the Shoshone family, has ramifications that reach very far. From the Mohave River t in Southern California to Central Utah, from the Moqai towns to the northern boundary of Nevada, they are distributed in larger or smaller bands across valleys and mountains, and have many dialectical differences of language. While the party was encamped in the Colorado River Valley at Cottonwood Island, a great number of Pay utea came daily into camp, and occasion was taken to collect over 350 words and many sentences; an easy matter if one meets an Indian speaking well Spanish or English. The vocabulary was again compared at £ 1 Dorado CaBon and Stone's Ferry. The Chemehuevis live farther south, near the mouth of Bill Williams Fork, in the valley of the Colorado River. Their language is nearly identical with that of the Pay-utes of Sonthern Nevada. However, the language of the Payutes of Inyo aud Mono Counties, California, shows very considerable differences: again, the dialect of Aurora, Nev., is differing considerably. The distinction is therefore made between the Southern Payutes, living in Southern Nevada and in the Colorado River Valley below the mouth of the Grand Cafion, and the Western Payutes, living in Mono and Inyo Counties, California. The Payutes are but little devoted to agriculture, some families raising watermelous, being exceptional cases. Their principal food consists of menquite, beans, pine- nuts, lizards, vermin, grasshoppers, occasionally rats and rabbits, still rarer-a deer or a mountain- sheep forms means of subsistence. Fish are not eaten because of a superstition. The Southern Payutes, who have, like the Mohaves, four blue tattooed vertical stripes on the chin, used to be a dangerous tribe. Camp Cady, on the Mohave River, was established on their account, and in a most desolate uninviting region; but the post was abandoned several years ago, the Indians having gone to the Colorado River. In 1864, over two hundred Payutes were surrounded at Owen's Lake by a party of whites and all drowned. A tribe much superior to the Payutes is represented by the Mohaves. devoted to agriculture and but little to hunting. Lieut. A. W. Whipple, 1854, was the first who published details of the customs and language of this interesting tribe. This officer also selected the spot for the establishment of a military post in that region, and Fort Mohave was soon afterward built there. The Mohaves have seldom been troublesome to the whites, and the latter have in such cases been the cause of difficulty. In 1859, they killed some emigrants who bad stolen corn and watermelons from their fields, which caused a fight between a company of soldiers under Captain Armistead and a band of Mohaves, whereby the former were repulsed and would have suffered heavy loss had not succor arrived front the fort at the critical moment. This tribe numbers about 3,000 souls, and is one of the tallest on the continent, surpassing in height the hunting tribes of the Payutes and Hualapais, . the latter speaking a tongue closely related to Mohave and inhabiting the cool mountain regions of Northwestern Arizona. The Colorado River Valley, from Fort Mohave about 200 miles to the southward, with a very hot climate in summer- time, was the home of the Mohaves for many generations past. They live principally as vegetarians, using meat but very rarely. The Mongolian features are more marked with the Payutes than with them. The color of the skin is light- brown, their countenance is rather pleasant and even intelligent, and the physiognomies differ as much an among the white race. The front teeth are worn down to one- half the usual size, and flattened, showing that they are much used in masticating food. Bad teeth appear to be unknown there. In summer- time they live in open huts, in winter in holes dug in the ground and covered with branches. They have names for constellations, for some even the names of animals, a singular coincidence with the idea ot the old oriental nations. Thus the Orion is called am6, ( mountain- sheep;) Ursus Major, hatchd; Milky way, hatohil- kutta- avunyj, ( trail of heaven ;) Venus, hamate * Uis Spanish name was Vinceute Garcia. t Spelled in various ways: Pa- utes, Pi- utes, Pai- utes, Pah- utas. t They left the Mohave River but three years ago. |