The Native Races (Vol. 1-5). Hubert Howe Bancroft

on the ground behind the heel of the wearer; the side seams were fringed, and for this purpose the scalps of fallen enemies were frequently used.

The moccasins were also of dressed hide, without the hair, except in winter, when buffalo-hide, with the hair inside, answered the purpose. They were made with a single seam on the outside edge, and were embellished with quills; sometimes they were covered with the skin of a polecat, the tail of which dragged behind on the ground. Ear-ornaments of beads, necklaces of shells, twisted-grass, elk-tushes, round bones, like joints of a fish's back-bone, and the claws of the brown bear, were all worn. Eagles' feathers stuck in the hair, or a strip of otter-skin tied round the head, seem to have been the only head-dresses in use.614 This, or something similar, was the dress only of the wealthy and prosperous tribes. Like the Utahs, the Snakes paint extensively, especially when intent upon war.615

      DWELLINGS AND FOOD OF THE SHOSHONES.

The Snakes also build better dwellings than the Utahs. Long poles are leaned against each other in a circle, and are then covered with skins, thus forming a conical tent. A hole in the top, which can be closed in bad weather, serves as chimney, and an opening at the bottom three or four feet high, admits the occupants on pushing aside a piece of hide stretched on a stick, which hangs over the aperture as a door. These skin tents, as is necessary to a nomadic people, are struck and pitched with very little labor. When being moved from one place to another, the skins are folded and packed on the ponies, and the poles are hitched to each side of the animal by one end, while the other drags. The habitations of the people of Nevada and the greater part of Utah are very primitive and consist of heaps of brush, under which they crawl, or even of a mere shelter of bushes, semi-circular in shape, roofless, and three or four feet high, which serves only to break the force of the wind. Some of them build absolutely no dwellings, but live in caves and among the rocks, while others burrow like reptiles in the ground. Farnham gives us a very doleful picture of their condition; he says: "When the lizard, and snail, and wild roots are buried in the snows of winter, they are said to retire to the vicinity of timber, dig holes in the form of ovens in the steep sides of the sand-hills, and, having heated them to a certain degree, deposit themselves in them, and sleep and fast till the weather permits them to go abroad again for food. Persons who have visited their haunts after a severe winter, have found the ground around these family ovens strewn with the unburied bodies of the dead, and others crawling among them, who had various degrees of strength, from a bare sufficiency to gasp in death, to those that crawled upon their hands and feet, eating grass like cattle."616 Naturally pusillanimous, weak in development, sunk below the common baser passions of the savage, more improvident than birds, more beastly than beasts, it may be possible to conceive of a lower phase of humanity, but I confess my inability to do so.

Pine-nuts, roots, berries, reptiles, insects, rats, mice, and occasionally rabbits are the only food of the poorer Shoshone tribes. Those living in the vicinity of streams or lakes depend more or less for their subsistence upon fish. The Snakes of Idaho and Oregon, and the tribes occupying the more fertile parts of Utah, having abundance of fish and game, live well the year round, but the miserable root-eating people, partly owing to their inherent improvidence, partly to the scantiness of their food-supply, never store sufficient provision for the winter, and consequently before the arrival of spring they are invariably reduced to extreme destitution. To avoid starvation they will eat dead bodies, and even kill their children for food.617 A rat or a rabbit is prepared for eating by singeing the hair, pressing the offal from the entrails and cooking body and intestines together. Lizards, snakes, grasshoppers, and ants are thrown alive into a dish containing hot embers, and are tossed about until roasted; they are then eaten dry or used to thicken soup. Grasshoppers, seeds, and roots, are also gathered and cooked in the same manner as by the nations already described. The Gosh Utes take rabbits in nets made of flax-twine, about three feet wide and of considerable length. A fence of sage-brush is erected across the rabbit-paths, and on this the net is hung. The rabbits in running quickly along the trail become entangled in the meshes and are taken before they can escape. Lizards are dragged from their holes by means of a hooked stick. To catch ants a piece of fresh hide or bark is placed upon the ant-hill; this is soon covered by vast swarms of the insects, which are then brushed off into a bag and kept there until dead, when they are dried for future use. Among the hunting tribes antelope are gradually closed in upon by a circle of horsemen and beaten to death with clubs. They are also stalked after the fashion of the Californians proper, the hunter placing the head and horns of an antelope or deer upon his own head and thus disguised approaching within shooting distance.

      NATIVE FISH-WEIR.

      Fish are killed with spears having movable heads, which become detached when the game is struck, and are also taken in nets made of rushes or twigs. In the latter case a place is chosen where the river is crossed by a bar, the net is then floated down the stream and on reaching the bar both ends are drawn together. The fish thus enclosed are taken from the circle by hand, and the Shoshone as he takes each one, puts its head in his mouth and kills it with his teeth. Captain Clarke describes an ingeniously constructed weir on Snake River, where it was divided into four channels by three small islands. Three of these channels were narrow "and stopped by means of trees which were stretched across, and supported by willow stakes, sufficiently near to prevent the passage of the fish. About the centre of each was placed a basket formed of willows, eighteen or twenty feet in length, of a cylindrical form, and terminating in a conic shape at its lower extremity; this was situated with its mouth upwards, opposite to an aperture in the weir. The main channel of the water was then conducted to this weir, and as the fish entered it they were so entangled with each other, that they could not move, and were taken out by emptying the small end of the willow basket. The weir in the main channel was formed in a manner somewhat different; there were, in fact two distinct weirs formed of poles and willow sticks quite across the river, approaching each other obliquely with an aperture in each side of the angle. This is made by tying a number of poles together at the top, in parcels of three, which were then set up in a triangular form at the base, two of the poles being in the range desired for the weir, and the third down the stream. To these poles two ranges of other poles are next lashed horizontally, with willow bark and withes, and willow sticks joined in with these crosswise, so as to form a kind of wicker-work from the bottom of the river to the height of three or four feet above the surface of the water. This is so thick as to prevent the fish from passing, and even in some parts with the help of a little gravel and some stone enables them to give any direction which they wish to the water. These two weirs being placed near to each other, one for the purpose of catching the fish as they ascend, the other as they go down the river, are provided with two baskets made in the form already described, and which are placed at the apertures of the weir."

For present consumption the fish are boiled in water-tight baskets by means of red-hot stones, or are broiled on the embers; sometimes the bones are removed before the fish is cooked; great quantities are also dried for winter. Some few of the Utahs cultivate a little maize, vegetables, and tobacco, and raise stock, but efforts at agriculture are not general. The Snakes sometimes accompany the more northern tribes into the country of the Blackfeet, for the purpose of killing buffalo.618

In their persons, dwellings and habits, the Utahs are filthy beyond description. Their bodies swarm with vermin which they catch and eat with relish. Some of the Snakes are of a more cleanly disposition, but, generally speaking, the whole Shoshone family is a remarkably dirty one.619

      WEAPONS OF THE SHOSHONES.

The bow and arrow are universally used by the Shoshones, excepting only some of the most degraded root-eaters, who are said to have no weapon, offensive or defensive, save the club. The bow is made of cedar, pine, or other wood, backed with sinew after the manner already described, or, more rarely, of a piece of elk-horn. The string is of sinew. The length of the bow varies.