Oct. 1892.1 P9,Y.ihIIST IKDIASS OF CALIFORSIA. 351 
THE PANAMINT INDIANS O F  CALIFORNIA. 
BY FREDEKICK VERNON COVILLE. 
To a traveler passing by rail across our southwestern desert region 
it is a matter of great wonder how the Indians of that country con- 
trive to subsist. Those who are not familiar with the desert can 
imagine an apparently unlimited plain, devoid of trees and grass, 
without streams or springs, but provided with a vegetation of cactus 
and scattered low shrubs of greasewood and creosote bush. Nor 
does a closer inspection affecto ne more pleasantly, for all the shrub- 
bery is either woody and indigestible, or resinous and rank both in 
smell and taste. There appear to be no animals but lizards, an 
occasional rattlesnake, and sometimes an abundance of hungry-look- 
ing jack-rabbits. The very first neccessaries of life appear to be 
absolutely wanting, and this state of affairs exists not for one mile 
only, nor for ten miles, but for hundreds. 
Viewed from this point the desert Indians’ means of subsistence 
is a subject of unusual interest. As a matter of fact, in their 
domestic economy the selection of raw food-materials has reached a 
refinement of a kind quite opposite to that of civilized communities, 
The question in the case of the latter is, ‘‘ What will furnish us the 
best food ? ” of the former, What will furnish us any food ? ” The 
writer could not but notice in  the Chinese markets in San Francisco, 
with their dried cabbage, abalone meat, and duck’s feet, a similar 
result of generations of contrivance to make a scant food-supply 
suffice. So unusual is it among American Indians that a tribe can- 
not procure sufficient food with comparatively little work that Fre- 
mont says, “ These rthe Indians of the Mohave Desert region] belong 
to the people who are generally known under the name of Di&-s, 
and to these I have more particularly had reference when occasion- 
ally speaking of a people whose sole occupation is to procure food 
sufficient to support existence.” * 
The Panamint Indians of Inyo county, California, belonging to 
the widespread Shoshonean family, are representatives of this class 
of beings, and as they are now nearly exterminated and their customs 
- 
’ premont’s Second Report, p. 267. 
352 THE AMERICAX ANTHROPOLOGIST. [Vol. v. 
and language are little known, the writer desires to put on record 
the following observations, made among them while he was perforni- 
ing the duties of botanist of the Death Valley expedition in 1891. 
A few notes on the neighboring Paiutes are included, designated in 
each case as such. 
About twenty-five individuals of the Panamint tribe were seen, 
all of whom were living in the Panamint mountains, on the west 
side of Death valley. The total number probably does not greatly 
exceed this. The distance from Hot springs, in the vicinity of 
which three of the Panamint families live, to the nearest railroad 
station, Keeler, Inyo county, California, is about eighty miles. 
In winter the Indians, leaving the mountains on account of tlie 
intense cold and deep snow, descend to the valleys and remain 
there until the extreme heat of summer compels them to retrirn to 
higher altitudes. 
At the mouth of Hall cafion, near Hot springs, at the west foot 
of the Panamint mountains, and in Johnson cafion, on the eastern 
or Death valley slope of the same range, the Indians have under 
crude irrigation and cultivation two or three acres of ground. The 
crops commonly raised are corn, potatoes, squashes, and water- 
melons. Of tlie last they are especially fond, fully as much so as 
the African, and the desert climate is admirably suited to their 
growth. 
The cultivation of plants, however, furnishes them neither a sure 
nor an adequate food supply. They occasionally purchase from 
miners and prospectors bacon and flour. T!ieir animal food con- 
sists principally of jack-rabbits, cotton-tail rabbits, and quails, occa- 
sionally mouutain sheep or deer, and sometimes wood rats, kangaroo 
rats, white-footed mice, and a large lizard known as the chiickawara 
(chuK-d-w&-~d)T.~h ey are seldom able, however, to obtain any of 
these i n  abundance, and they are compelled to rely mainly on various 
indigenous food-plants. 
As in the case of most civilized co~nniunities,t he greater portion 
of their plant food consists of starchy material in the form of seeds. 
Most important is the Nevada nut pine, Pinus nroiwphylla, which 
grows abundantly in the mountains at an altitude of six to eight thou- 
sand feet. In early autumn, after the seeds have matured, but before 
the cone scales have opened, the cones are beaten from the trees, 
'The diacritic marks used in this article are those employed in the 
Century Dictionary. 
Oct. ~ S g z . ]  PAN+4BfINT INDIAXS OF CALIFORNIA. 353 
gathered in baskets, and spread out on a smooth piece of ground 
exposed to the heat of the sun. The scales soon become dry and 
crack apart, and the seeds are shaken out by blows from a stick or 
the more persistent ones rattled out by hand. The empty cones are 
then removed from the ground and the seeds gathered in baskets. 
Large quantities of pine nuts are thus collected, and most of them 
are cached in dry places among the rocks for use during the year. 
They are said to remain fresh and edible for several years if properly 
stored. 
To prepare them for food the nuts are put into a basket with some 
live coals and shaken or stirred until they are gradually roasted. In 
this state pine nuts are often sold in market in California and other 
Western States, being disposed of precisely as peanuts are in the 
East. These roasted seeds, after the removal of their thin shells, may 
be munched entire or ground in a wooden mortar with a stone pestle 
and eaten dry or made into a soup. 
The seeds of many other plants, indeed of almost all that are not 
poisonous, are also used. The methods of procuring them differ 
with the mode of growth of each plant, but the process of roasting 
is always the same. The pulverizing, however, in the case of harder 
seeds, is accomplished by grinding between two stones, the upper 
and smaller one being manipulated by hand on the lower, which is 
larger and slightly hollowed. 
Oryzopsismcmbmnacca, the common sand grass of the desert, 
produces an abundance of seed and is generally used. I n  gathering 
it the squaw carries in one hand a small basket and in the other a 
paddle made of wicker-work, resembling a tennis racket, but of only 
about two-thirds the size. With this she beats the grass panicles 
over the basket. After the process of grinding is completed, the 
chalf that remains attached to the grains is winnowed or sifted out. 
Echinoccrcfusp oZycephaZus, a large round-headed cactus known as 
devil’s pin-cushion, grows in rocky soil throughout the desert and 
fruits abundantly. The seeds are well protected among the spines 
and enclosed in white woolly capsules. These are pried out with 
sticks, broken open, and the seeds poured out. This cactus is 
especially serviceable to the Indians, as its seeds remain fresh and 
edible until spring, when most other sources of supply have failed. 
The seeds of the joint pine, Ephcdru nrvodemis, are roasted and 
ground and the flour made into a bitter bread. CEnothrra brcvr;brs 
and other species of evening primrose are also commonly used. 
45 
354 THE AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST. [Vol. v. 
Berries and similar fleshy’fruits are rare in the desert, and only 
one is known to be edible-that of Lycium andnsonii. This shrub 
has a small red berry resembling a minute tomato and in its fresh 
state is quite palatable. I t  is often dried by the Indians and made 
into a mush or soup, apparently without cooking. 
One of the prickly pears, Opunfia badan>, is used by the Indians, 
prepared in a peculiar manner. In May and early June the flat 
fleshy joints of the season’s growth as well as the buds, blossoms, 
and immature fruit are fully distended with sweet sap. They are 
broken off with sticks and collected in large baskets. Each joint, 
having been carefiilly rubbed with grass to remove the fine barbed 
prickles, is exposed to the heat of the sun. When they are thoroughly 
dry they will keep indefinitely, and are prepared for eating by boil- 
ing and adding salt. Instead of the drying process another niore 
elaborate one is sometimes adopted. -4 hole, about ten inches in 
depth and three feet in diameter, is dug in the ground and lined 
with stones. Upon this a fire is built and other stones thrown in. 
When they are all thoroughly heated, the ashes, coals, and all but 
one layer of stones are scraped away, and some fresh or nioistened 
grass spread in the hole. Next a layer of cactus joints is added, 
then more hot stones, and so on till the pile is well rounded. The 
whole is then covered with sacking (originally with a mat of sedges), 
and lastly with moist earth. After about twelve hours of steaming 
the pile is opened and the nZ’-vb, as the cooked cactus is called, is 
salted and eaten. Prepared as it is, in  larger quantities than can be 
disposed of at once, a portion is dried and preserved. I t  is then in 
texture and appearance similar to unpeeled dried peaches. 
‘here  grow in the desert several large crucifers, whose leaves and 
stems have about the taste of cabbage and are tender and probably 
easily digestible. Among these the most abundant are Stanleya 
data,  S. piknntn, and Caulanthus crassicazclis. The process of prep- 
aration for the first of these species, and undoubtedly for the others 
also, is as follows : The leaves and young stems are gathered and 
thrown into boiling water for a few minutes, then taken out, washed 
in cold water and squeezed. The operation of washing is repeated 
five or six times, and the leaves are finally dried, ready to be used 
as boiled cabbage. The operation of washing removes the bitter 
taste and certain substances that would be likely to produce nausea 
or diarrhea. I was told by Mr. Frank Kennedy, a miner who had 
06. 1892. J PANAMINT Ih’DIhNS OF CALIFORNIA. 355 
lived many years among the Panamints, that when food is extremely 
scarce almost any green herbage is eaten, after a similar preparation. 
The use of the mesquit bean, the fruit of ProsopisjuZrj4orn, is well 
known. The ripe pods, about four inches long, contain very hard 
bony seeds, but the spaces between them, morphologically the body 
and septa of the pod, are stored with a small amount of nutritious 
matter, consisting principally of sugar. Mesquit pods are exactly 
homologous in the position of their sugar.deposit with the Johannis- 
brod or St. John’s bread of the Mediterranean region. Mesquit 
pods are seldom used in the autumn, but at that time are gathered 
and cached until spring. The usual method of preparation is to 
pound the dry pods in a wooden mortar, sift out the flour, and make 
it into small cakes or loaves. 
Phragrnifes uukaris, the comnion reed, furnishes what is known 
as c‘sugar.” I n  early summer, commonly in Julie, when the plants 
have attained nearly their full size, they are cut and dried in the 
sun. When perfectly brittle the whole plant is ground and the finer 
portion separated by sifting. This moist, sticky flour is moulded by 
the hands into a thick gum-like mass. I t  is then set near a fire and 
roasted until it swells and browns slightly, and in this taffy-like state 
it is eaten. 
Although the Panamint Indians live in a region where no species 
of Agave, or mescal, grows, they use in a siinilar nianner a certain 
part of the tree yucca, Yucca brcvgoZiia. I n  April when the flower- 
buds are swelling, but still covered with young leaves, they are in 
the proper condition for food. The buds are terminal upon the 
branches, and are protected by a close rosette of serrated, stiff, 
pointed, almost dagger-like leaves. The fiber of these leaves is so 
tough and the situation of the buds on the stem such that it would 
be difficult to cut one out even with an axe or hatchet. The Indians 
substitute dexterity for instruments. The four or five uppermost 
mature leaves are drawn together over the apex of the bud and 
grasped by the hand; then, by atwist and a quick, sidewise bend, 
the head is broken off. This is rendered possible by the skill of the 
worker and by the fact that the stem, although in age exceedingly 
tough, in its young stage is quite brittle. The mature leaves and 
the green tips are discarded, leaving an egg-shaped, solid, cream- 
like, juicy mass. This is roasted on hot coals and eaten at once or 
kept until cold. The tissues of these young buds are full of sugar 
356 THE AMERICAX ANTHROYOLOQIST. [Vol. v. 
and other formative carbohydrates, and are undoubtedly very sweet 
and nutritious. 
In some parts of the Charleston mountains, Nevada, the Piutes 
use a small mescal plant, Aguve utaknsiz, which grows there in 
great abundance. Near the summit of Mountain Spring pass, north 
of Olcott peak, some of the hillsides are almost covered with the 
plant, and in suitable places near by are the holes where in previous 
years mescal has been cooked. These mescal pits, as they are called, 
are in their present condition circular depressions in the ground six 
to twenty feet in circumference, and sloping evenly to a center one 
to three feet in depth. They are deefily lined with water-worn 
stones, best described as coarse gravel, too small to be called cobble- 
stones. In the center of some of the pits were a few larger similarly 
worn stones and an occasional piece of charcoal. One of the In- 
dians, an old man living near Vegas ranch, described to me impr-  
fectly the method of cooking it. A great fire is built in a pit and 
kept up until the stones are very hot. The fire is &en raked out, 
the mescal plants put in, and covered with grass. After two days’ 
steaming the pile is opened, and the mescal is ready to be eaten. 
‘The edible portion is the short, thick axis and the bases of the young 
leaves. Mrs. Stewart, at Vegas ranch, described the cooked mescal 
as having a jelly-like appearance and texture and a delicious taste. 
Extending through the pulp of the young leaves are tough fibers that 
are not softened by the cooking. These are ejected from the mouth 
after the edible portion has been chewed out. At some forsaken 
Indian camping grounds on the banks of the Colorado river, close 
by the mouth of the Vegas wash, we found dried and weathered 
wads of this fiber of such size as to indicate that the mescal must 
have been eaten in tremendous mouthfuls. It should be stated here 
that this species of Agave closely resembles the common century 
plant, but its leaves are more numerous and more closely compacted, 
while their length rarely exceeds eight inches. When the plant is 
a few years old it sends up a flower-stem sometimes ten feet high, 
bears fruit, and dies. The spring buds of plants about to flower 
contain the accumulated reserve material necessary for this extra- 
ordinary growth, and are therefore evidently full of food-material. 
I was informed that the cooking of mescal took place late in  April, 
and that it is accompanied by certain ceremonies. 
The Panamints have retained the majority of their original culi- 
nary utensils, although a few others have been adopted from white 
Oct. 1892.l PANAMINT INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA. 357 
people. The knife, spoon, tin plate, iron kettle, and flour sieve 
are frequently used. Nowhere were clay or stone pots seen, but 
various receptacles made of wicker-work, such as pack-baskets, 
plates, pot-baskets, and water-baskets, were in everyday use. 
The pack-baskets have the form of a funnel, from one and one- 
half to two and one-half feet high and not quite so broad. A median 
vertical section is V-shaped, with a blunt base. This is the ordinary 
receptacle for carrying, or (‘p acking,” as it is called in mining re- 
gions, any kind of material. The loaded basket is held against the 
back between the shoulders, either by the hands grasping its rim or 
by leather or rope thongs passed around the forehead, the body 
meanwhile bent forward. 
The plates are small, flat, circular pieces of closely woven wicker- 
work, usually nine to twelve inches in diameter. They are flexible 
and sometimes slightly saucer-shaped, and are used not only as plates 
and pans but also as substitutes for sieves. The material to be sifted, 
composed of ground seeds, is placed upon the plate and the chaff 
winnowed out. This primitive method is probably more difficult 
and less satisfactory than that used in our kitchens, for in the pos- 
session of nearly every Indian family a common wire flour sieve 
was seen. 
The name pot-basket is used to designate wicker-work receptacles 
that have the form of a pot or bowl. The one in most common use 
has the shape of a rather deep bowl with curved sides and a flat 
bottom, and has a capacity of about three pints. The squaw uses 
it as a general measure, as a bowl for 4ry food and for soup, and 
often, when in the,sunshine, as a hat. Its texture is so close that, 
when well made, it holds water. It is probable that before the 
advent of the iron kettle the Panamints used these wicker-work pots 
for the purpose of boiling and stewing food, applying the heat by 
the ordinary process of dropping hot stones into the liquid. Most 
of their starchy food, however, is roasted dry by mixing seeds, be- 
fore they are ground, with hot coals and stirring them in a basket. 
This process is still largely used. 
The water-basket has commonly a capacity of two to three gal- 
lons. Its general outline is that of an urn with a narrow neck and 
a rounded, conical bottom. The entire inner surface and frequently 
the outside is coated with pitch. Woven into the shoulder of the 
basket on one side are two loop of horsehair or other strong ma- 
terial, to which is attached a thong. In carrying, this thong is 
358 THE AXERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST. p o l .  v. 
passed around the forehead, while the basket is rested on the back 
between the shoulders. 
Besides these articles of domestic use others of modified form are 
employed suited to individual taste and needs. Among the mixed 
Paiutes and Shoshonis at Ash Meadows, Nevada, was seen a very 
broad, shallow, flat-bottomed kind of bowl about one to one and a 
half feet across and about four inches deep. Loosely woven bird- 
cages are also used by the Panamints. 
All these wicker-work utensils are woven by the squaws at the cost 
of a great deal of time, care, and skill. The materials are very 
simple. They consist of the year-old shoots of some species of 
tough willow, commonly Sulk Zusiunrirn, the year-old shoots of the 
aromatic sumac, R h s  frilobda, the long, black, slender, flexible 
horns on the mature pods of the unicorn plant, Martyziu proboscidca, 
locally known as devil horns, and the long, red roots of the tree 
yucca, Yucca brevfotia. These materials give three types of color, 
the white of the willow and sumac, the black of the devil horns, and 
the red of the yucca roots. This last material, although it has a 
strong fiber and a pretty red color, is rarely used, for it is too thick 
to plat closely and the resulting fabric is full of interstices. 
Sumac and willow are prepared for use in the same way. The 
bark is removed from the fresh shoots by biting it loose at the end 
and tearing it off. The woody portion is scraped to remove bud 
protuberances and other inequalities of the surface, and is then 
allowed to dry. These slender pieces of wood, that they may be 
distinguished from the othc- elements of basket materials, will be 
called withes. Thesecond element is prepared from the same plants. 
A squaw selects a fresh shoot, breaks OK the too slender upper por- 
tion, and bites one end so that it starts to split into three nearly 
equal parts. Holding one of these parts in her teeth and one in 
either hand, she pulls them apart, guiding the split with her fingers 
so dexterously that the whole shoot is divided into three equal even 
Ijortions. Taking one of these, by a similar process she splits off 
the pith and the adjacent less flexible tissue from the inner face, and 
the bark from the outer, leaving a pliant, strong, flat strip of young 
willow or sumac wood. This is here designated a strand. Both 
withes and strands may be dried and kept for months and probably 
even for several years, but before being used they are always soaked 
in water. 
The pack-baskets and some, at least, of the water-baskets are made 
Oct. r8gz.l PANAMIKT INDIANS O F  CALIFORKIA. 359 
of these strands and withes. They begin at the bottom with two 
layers of withes superimposed and fastened by their middles at right 
angles. The free ends are bent upward, and in and out between 
them the strands are woven, new withes being inserted as the basket 
widens. An attempt at ornamentation is frequently made by retain- 
ing the bark on some of the strands or by staining them, and by 
slightly varying the c c  weave.” A squaw commonly occupies an 
entire month constructing one such basket. 
The plan of the pot-baskets and plates is very different from that 
of the pack-ba$kets. The materials are all carefully selected and 
prepared. They consist of willow or sumac strands like those 
described above, but narrower and of the finest quality, similar 
black strands from the devil horns, and the long-jointed, slender 
stems of a native grass, Epicampcs ngcm. The strands of devil 
horns are exceedingly tough, of a coal-black, very persistent color, 
and attain a length of from four to ten inches. The grass is par- 
ticularly adapted to this use from its firm texture and the fact that 
the portion above the uppermost joint, which alone is used, is very 
long, often eighteen inches. 
Starting from a central point a bundle of two or three grass stems 
and one very slender withe is sewed by a willow strand to the part 
already finished. The process is very similar to the crocheting of a 
circular lamp mat. At the proper point the bundle is drawn more 
tightly, so that the remainder of the spiral forms the sides of the 
basket. The wall has the thickness therefore of one of these bun- 
dles, and is composed of a continuous spiral of them. The willow 
withe furnishes a strong liold for the stitches, and the punctures are 
made by an iron awl. When such an instrument cannot be ob- 
tained an admirable equivalent is substituted in the form of a stout, 
horny cactus spine from. the devil’s pin-cushion, Elhinocactus Po&- 
ccphufus, set in a head of hard pitch. The grass stems, when the 
stitches are drawn tightly, make a perfect packing, and the basket 
when finished is water-tight. Curious patterns in black are woven 
into the basket by the occasional substitution of strands of devil 
horns for those of willow. 
Although the majority of the Panainint men use a short gun or a 
rifle in hunting, they still retain, as an accessory instrument for 
shooting small game, the bow and arrow. They shoot with reniark- 
able accuracy and force, and since time is of little value to them, 
they are able to lie in wait for their game and creep so closely to it 
360 THE AM ERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST. [Vol. v. 
that this method of hunting is very effective. I have seen an arrow- 
shaft that bore dried blood and rabbit hair five inches backward 
from the point. 
The bows are made from the desert juniper, Jun&rus calyomica 
ufahcmis. The Indian prefers a piece of wood from the trunk or a 
large limb of a tree that has died and seasoned while standing. 
One must remember thgt at low altitudes in these desert mountains 
moist rot of dead wood never occurs, but that a mature tree sub- 
jected to the intensely dry heat of the region is in perfect condition 
for this use. The bow rarely exceeds three feet in length, and is 
strengthened by glueing to its back a covering composed of strips of 
deer sinew laid lengthwise along it. The string is made of twisted 
sinew, or sometimes of cord prepared and twisted from Indian hemp. 
Arrows are made from the stems of the reed, Plrragmifcs vulgank, 
and from willow shoots. The shaft is about three and one-half feet 
long. Nearly mature but still green reeds are cut, their leaves re- 
moved, and the stems dried and straightened in the hands before a 
fire. In the straightening process use is often made of a stiiall $one 
across the face of which have been cut two grooves large enough to 
admit an arrow-shaft. This stone is heated and a portion of the 
criide arrow is laid in  one of the grooves until i t  is hot. The cane 
is then straightened by holding it crosswise in the teeth and draw- 
ing the ends downward. By repeating this process throughout the 
whole length of the shaft a marverously straight arrow is produced. 
The head of the arrow is a pin of very hard wood, taken, I believe, 
from some species of AfnjVtx or greasewood. It  is about five inches 
long and tapers evenly to a blunt point. The base is inserted 
about three-fourths of an inch into the hollow of the reed and rests 
against the uppermost joint. I t  is bound i n  place by a thin band 
ofsinew. At each joint of the arrow-shaft is burned a ring of 
diagonal lines, either for ornament or as a tribal mark. The base 
of the shaft is notched to receive the bowstring and feathered with 
three half-feathers bound on with sinew and slightly twisted to give 
the arrow a rotary motion. 
Willow arrow-shafts are made in a similar manner, one of the 
processes, corresponding to what we know as sand-papering, being 
accomplished by drawing the stick back and forth i n  the angle be- 
tween two flat stones held i n  the palm of the hand. Stone arrow- 
heads appear to have fallen into entire disuse among the Panainints 
since the days when they were employed in war. 
Oct. t892.1 PANAMINT INDIANS OF CALIFORNIA. 361 
No textile fabrics are manufactured by the tribe, for they buy 
from the whites sufficient cloth for their wants. They do, however, 
manufacture from the Indian hemp, Apocynum caannabinutn, a strong, 
fine-grained white cord, which is used instead of sinew whenever 
there is danger of moisture. Horsehair is undoubtedly sometimes 
made into rope by these Indians. At Vegas ranch, east of the 
Charleston mountains, Nevada, a Paiute was seen making a lariat of 
this material. 
Of the facial paints that are used, principally by the women, little 
could be learned, but some of them are made of colored stone 
ground to a powder ; and one kind, of a brilliant vermilion hue, is 
known, curiously enough, to have been purchased from the China- 
men at Keeler. I t  was a genuine imported article. 
For cements are used a glue made by boiling the horns of the nioun- 
tain sheep, pitch gathered from the Nevada nut pine, Pinw mono- 
phylla, and a gum found upon the creosote bush, Larrra mrxicana. 
This last product is an interesting one. In its crude form the larrea 
gum occurs in  the form of small, reddish, amber-colored masses on 
the twigs of the shrub, and is deposited there by a minute scale 
insect, Carfen; laflee. The crude gum is mixed with pulverized 
rock and thoroughly pounded. The product, heated before apply- 
ing, was once used to fasten stone arrow-heads in their shafts, and 
is at the present time eniployed for other similar purposes. At Ash 
Meadows, Nevada, I was shown a broken sugar-bowl cover that had 
been neatly and firmly mended with this cement by an Indian. 
THEF ISHI N LOCALO NobmToLoGY.-Names taken from fish and 
fish species are rather frequent in well-watered countries. The 
Algonkin term ncfmc is the generic word for “fish,” but in the 
Ojibwe language spoken around Lake Superior it has passed into 
‘‘ sturgeon,” this being the fish most sought after on that rock-bound 
lake. N&mrk: a derivative of ncimc and abbreviated into cfmck, re- 
tains the definition ‘# fish ” in the combination of afikdmrk. ‘‘ nhite- 
fish,” in Ojibwe j this is found also as a hydrographic name. On the 
Pacific coast we may expect the various names of salmon to be largely 
applied to rivers, for that fish was the staple food of the natives long 
before the advent of the whites. We have the Californian C6sumne 
river, named after KGsnrmi, the term for salmon in the Mutsun 
46 
3G2 THE ANERIC AN ANTHROPOLOGIST. [Vol. v. 
dialects spoken west of the towering range of the Sierra Nevada. 
Choupiqrie is found repeatedly in this French orthography through- 
out Louisiana as the name of rivers, bayous, and lakes in which the 
tchivik, a small fish species, is living (Cha’hta). A similar significa- 
tion belongs to the term k&yus, in the Yakima dialect of the Shahap- 
tian family, as spoken on middle Columbia river, and the Cayuse 
tribe appears to have originally dwelt on a brook or rivulet fre- 
quented by this fish. Tchbln p5pa or Trout creek, in Florida, is a 
name worded in the Seminole-Creek language, the verbatim render- 
ing of the term being tchzila, ‘‘ trout ;”  p&pa, (‘e ating place,” from 
p&pZs, ‘ I  I feed upon.” To the same language belongs and worded 
in the same manner is “Charley Ap6pka,” in De Soto county, 
near Charlotte harbor, southwestern coast of Florida. This is a cor- 
ruption of Ts&Zap&ka hcffchi, catfish eating creek,” hdfchi being 
the generic term for “ river,” 6‘ creek,” and bayou ” i n  Cha’hta, 
Creek, and Hitchiti. The catfish is also represented in the Wissa- 
hickon, a brawling tributary of the Schuylkill, near Philadelphia. 
Here for many years existed a number of restaurants with the 
ever-repeated shibboleth of “ catfish and waffles.” One of the 
Indian names of the man-eating Botocudo tribes, upon and near the 
eastern coast of Brazil, was Gaimurts or Aimorks, a Tupi term re- 
ferring to a species of the thorny rock-fish family inhabiting the 
ocean on that coast. Its roe \\*ask nown to be quite poisonous, and 
was therefore carefully avoided. Tallahatchie river, a tributary of 
the Yazoo in northern Mississippi, is named after the pearls found 
in it, and Pearl river, which empties into the Gulf of Mexico in the 
same State, once had the same Cha’hta Indian name. T&Za in the 
latter dialect means ‘(stone,” (‘r ock,” and here it stands for the 
pearl found in the shell of the bivalve. 
A. S. GATSCHET. 
ORNAMENTOSF HUMATNE ETHAN D BON$S.-~p arts of British 
New Guinea, particularly on the island of Kitava, widows wear the 
ornamented lower jaw of the deceased husband as a pendant, and 
widowers wear the seventh or first cervical vertebra of the deceased 
wife tied into the hair behind. Both sexes also wear on the neck 
the teeth of the deceased.-MacGrcgor in .%offish Grog. Mag., 
Set.. 1892, p. 497.