Los Angeles County, CA History Transcribed by Kathy Sedler This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for non-commercial purposes, MUST obtain the written consent of the contributor, OR the legal representative of the submitter. All persons donating to this site retain the rights to their own work. An Illustrated History of Southern California - The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago - 1890 THE ABORIGINES. THE valleys of California, on the arrival of the Spaniards, were found to be densely populated with Indians, the tribal characteristics varying in relation to the different sections, yet with strong general similarities. Some of the dialects were commonly understood by various tribes, while others were completely isolated by lack of a common medium of communication. They had many liquid sounds, and even the gutturals were so softened as to be agreeable to the ear. The government was in the hands of the chiefs, each captain commanding his own lodge; this command was hereditary. Laws in general were made as required, with the exception of some few standing ones. Robbery and thieving were unknown among them, and murder, which was of rare occurrence, was punished by shooting to death with arrows. This form of execution was practiced as a penalty for certain offenses against morality, which they held in as deep abhorrence as does our civilization. Intermarriage between kindred was forbidden; a husband had the right to put to death his wife, if adulterous; party quarrels were decided by the chieftains, on the testimony produced; and there was no appeal from their decision. Whipping was never resorted to for a punishment; restitution for damages sustained was made in money, food, and skins. Their money was shell-beads, flat, and about one-third of an inch in diameter. Chiefs had one to three wives, at inclination; their subjects, only one. The men wore no clothing; the women of the interior wore a short waist-skirt of deerskin, while those of the coast wore otter-skin. Rabbit-skin coverlets were used for bedding. The women wore earrings, the men passing a piece of reed or cane through the earlobe. The earrings of the women were made of four long pieces of whale's tooth, ground smooth and round, about eight inches in length, hung with hawk's feathers, swung from a ring of abalone shell. Their necklaces were very large and heavy, and consisted of their money beads, or other beads made of a dark greenish-black serpentine, and of pieces of whale's tooth, ground round and pierced. They used bracelets of very small shell beads, worn on both wrists. The shell beads were usually made of Haliotis and Trivialola. Most of the shells required for use were obtained at Santa Catalina, which, as well as the islands opposite Santa Barbara, abound in these shells at the present time. The serpentine used in making beads, ollas, and large rings was also obtained at Santa Catalina. After the birth of a child, it and the mother were subjected to processes of purification, comprising steaming, fasting, etc. Funeral observances were marked by howlings and wailings of dirge-like character. The body was kept until signs of decay appeared. Its disposal was by inhumation. If the deceased was the head of a family, or a favorite son, his hut, and all his goods and chattels were burned, save only, perhaps, some article with which to make a feast at the end of twelve months. In some instances, gravestones were erected. They had "shamans" or medicine men, rain-makers, etc. Nearly all the tribes between the Pacific ocean and the Rocky mountains had more or less knowledge of plants, insects, or other material substances, which enabled them to produce septicaemia in persons or animals wounded by them. That the shamans prepared arrow poison, there is no doubt. The medicine men were esteemed as wizards or seers; for they not only cured disease, but also caused or created illness, poisoned people, brought rain at need, consulted the Great Spirit, and received his answers, changed themselves into the forms of diverse animals, and foretold coming events. They pretended to know not only poisons which destroyed life if taken, but also others whose contact alone was fatal; again some that were instantaneous and others which took effect only after weeks or months subsequent to their administration. Rheumatism was the principal ailment; syphilis was unknown until introduced by the Spaniards. Toothache seldom troubled them. Rheumatism was treated by the application of rows of small blisters to the affected parts; the blisters were made from the fur off the dry stalks of nettles, rolled up, compressed, applied with saliva, and fired, it burning like punk upon the skin. They employed sweatings, and bedding in hot ashes, for lumbago; fever was treated by the administration of wild tobacco, mixed with lime of shells, as bolus, to produce vomiting, besides the administration of other herbs, and manipulation somewhat like massage. Local inflammation was scarified with pieces of sharp flint, to draw as much blood as possible from the part. Paralysis, stagnation of the blood, etc., was treated by whipping for a long time the affected part with bunches of nettles, and by producing drunkenness with the juice of thornapple. Shell lime was well known, but none made from limestone. For an emetic, lime was given as a bolus, mixed with wild tobacco. Snake-bites were cured by the application to the wound of ashes and herbs, with the internal remedy of the fine dust found at the bottom of ants' nests. To prevent the hair from splitting, red clay was applied, covering it all over for twenty-four hours. For baldness, chilicotes (a small wild bean, of a bright scarlet color) were burnt to charcoal, and applied morning and evening. They had few games, and these were of a gambling order; football was played by children, or by the swift of foot, and the spectators bet on the result. They had many legends and traditions on various subjects, some of which were very ingenious, and even poetical. Many of these Indians developed, under the instructions of the padres and other contact with the Spaniards, faculties of a surprising order.