Odd People Part 17

Between the Digger and his wife, or "squaw," there is not much difference either in costume or character. The latter may be distinguished, by being of less stature, rather than by any feminine graces in her physical or intellectual conformation. She might be recognised, too, by watching the employment of the family; for it is she who does nearly all the work, st.i.tches the rabbit-skin shirt, digs the "yampa" and "kamas" roots, gathers the "mezquite" pods, and gets together the larder of "prairie crickets." Though lowest of all American Indians in the scale of civilisation, the Digger resembles them all in this,--he regards himself as lord and master, and the woman as his slave.

As already observed, there is no such thing as a tribe of Diggers,-- nothing of the nature of a political organisation; and the chief of their miserable little community--for sometimes there is a head man--is only he who is most regarded for his strength. Indeed, the nature of their country would not admit of a large number of them living together.

The little valleys or "oases"--that occur at intervals along the banks of some lone desert stream,--would not, any one of them, furnish subsistence to more than a few individuals,--especially to savages ignorant of agriculture,--that is, not knowing how to _plant_ or _sow_.

The Diggers, however, if they know not how to _sow_, may be said to understand something about how to _reap_, since _root-digging_ is one of their most essential employments,--that occupation from which they have obtained their distinctive appellation, in the language of the trappers.

Not being agriculturists, you will naturally conclude that they are either a pastoral people, or else a nation of hunters. But in truth they are neither one nor the other. They have no domestic animal,--many of them not even the universal dog; and as to hunting, there is no large game in their country. The buffalo does not range so far west; and if he did, it is not likely they could either kill or capture so formidable a creature; while the p.r.o.ng-horned antelope, which does inhabit their plains, is altogether too swift a creature, to be taken by any wiles a Digger might invent. The "big-horn," and the black and white-tailed species of deer, are also too shy and too fleet for their puny weapons; and as to the grizzly bear, the very sight of one is enough to give a Digger Indian the "chills."

If, then, they do not cultivate the ground, nor rear some kind of animals, nor yet live by the chase, how do these people manage to obtain subsistence? The answer to this question appears a dilemma,--since it has been already stated, that their country produces little else than the wild and worthless sage plant.

Were we speaking of an Indian of tropical America, or a native of the lovely islands of the great South Sea, there would be no difficulty whatever in accounting for his subsistence,--even though he neither planted nor sowed, tended cattle, nor yet followed the chase. In these regions of luxuriant vegetation, nature has been bountiful to her children; and, it may be almost literally alleged that the loaf of bread grows spontaneously on the tree. But the very reverse is the case in the country of the Digger Indian. Even the hand of cultivation could scarce wring a crop from the sterile soil; and Nature has provided hardly one article that deserves the name of food.

Perhaps you may fancy that the Digger is a fisherman; and obtains his living from the stream, by the side of which he makes his dwelling. Not even this is permitted to him. It is true that his supposed kindred, the Shoshonees, occasionally follow the occupation of fishermen upon the banks of the Great Snake River,--which at certain seasons of the year swarms with the finest salmon; but the poor Digger has no share in the finny spoil. The streams, that traverse his desert home, empty their waters into the briny bosom of the Great Salt Lake,--a true _Dead Sea_, where neither salmon, nor any other fish could live for an instant.

How then does the Digger obtain his food? Is he a manufacturer,--and perforce a merchant,--who exchanges with some other tribe his manufactured goods for provisions and "raw material?" Nothing of the sort. Least of all is he a manufacturer. The hare-skin shirt is his highest effort in the line of textile fabrics; and his poor weak bow, and flint-tipped arrows, are the only tools he is capable of making.

Sometimes he is even without these weapons; and may be seen with another,--a long stick, with a hook at one end,--the hook itself being the stump of a lopped branch, with its natural inclination to that which forms the stick. The object and purpose of this simple weapon we shall presently describe.

The Digger's wife may be seen with a weapon equally simple in its construction. This is also a stick--but a much shorter one--pointed at one end, and bearing some resemblance to a gardener's "dibble."

Sometimes it is tipped with horn,--when this can be procured,--but otherwise the hard point is produced by calcining it in the fire. This tool is essentially an implement of husbandry,--as will presently appear.

Let us now clear up the mystery, and explain how the Digger maintains himself. There is not much mystery after all. Although, as already stated, his country produces nothing that could fairly be termed _food_, yet there are a few articles within his reach upon which a human being _might_ subsist,--that is, might just keep body and soul together. One of these articles is the bean, or legume of the "mezquite" tree, of which there are many kinds throughout the desert region. They are known to Spanish Americans as _algarobia_ trees; and, in the southern parts of the desert, grow to a considerable size,--often attaining the dimension of twenty to twenty-five feet in height.

They produce a large legume, filled with seeds and a pulp of sweetish-acid taste,--similar to that of the "honey-locust." These beans are collected in large quant.i.ties, by the squaw of the Digger, stowed away in gra.s.s-woven baskets, or sometimes only in heaps in a corner of his cave, or hovel, if he chance to have one. If so, it is a mere wattle of artemisia, thatched and "c.h.i.n.ked" with gra.s.s.

The mezquite seeds, then, are the _bread_ of the Digger; but, bad as is the quality, the supply is often far behind the demands of his hungry stomach. For vegetables, he has the "yampa" root, an umbelliferous plant, which grows along the banks of the streams. This, with another kind, known as "kamas" or "quamash" (_Cama.s.sia esculenta_), is a spontaneous production; and the digging for these roots forms, at a certain season of the year, the princ.i.p.al occupation of the women. The "dibble-like" instrument already described is the _root-digger_. The roots here mentioned, before being eaten, have to undergo a process of cooking. The yampa is boiled in a very ingenious manner; but this piece of ingenuity is not native to the Shoshokees, and has been obtained from their more clever kindred, the Snakes. The pot is a _wooden one_; and yet they can boil meat in it, or make soup if they wish! Moreover, it is only a basket, a mere vessel of wicker-work! How, then, can water be boiled in it? If you had not been already told how it is done, it would no doubt puzzle you to find out.

But most likely you have read of a somewhat similar vessel among the Chippewa Indians,--especially the tribe known as the "a.s.sineboins," or stone boilers--who cook their fish or flesh in pots made of birch-bark.

The phrase _stone boilers_ will suggest to you how the difficulty is got over. The birch-bark pot is not set over fire; but stones are heated and thrown into it,--of course already filled with water. The hot stones soon cause the water to simmer, and fresh ones are added until it boils, and the meat is sufficiently cooked. By just such a process the "Snakes" cook their salmon and deer's flesh,--their wicker pots being woven of so close a texture that not even water can pa.s.s through the interstices.

It is not often, however, that, the Digger is rich enough to have one of these wicker pots,--and when he has, he is often without anything to put into it.

The _kamas_ roots are usually baked in a hole dug in the earth, and heated by stones taken from the fire. It requires nearly two days to bake them properly; and then, when taken out of the "oven," the ma.s.s bears a strong resemblance to soft glue or size, and has a sweet and rather agreeable taste,--likened to that of baked pears or quinces.

I have not yet specified the whole of the Digger's larder. Were he to depend altogether on the roots and seeds already mentioned, he would often have to starve,--and in reality he often _does_ starve,--for, even with the additional supplies which his sterile soil scantily furnishes him, he is frequently the victim of famine.

There may be a bad season of the mezquite-crop, and the bears--who are as cunning "diggers" as he--sometimes destroy his "plantations" of yampa and kamas. He finds a resource, however, in the prairie cricket, an insect--or reptile, you may call it--of the _gryllus_ tribe, of a dark-brown colour, and more like a bug than any other crawler. These, at certain seasons of the year, make their appearance upon the desert plains, and in such numbers that the ground appears to be alive with them. An allied species has of late years become celebrated: on account of a visit paid by vast numbers of them to the Mormon plantations; where, as may be remembered, they devastated the crops,--just as the locusts do in Africa,--causing a very severe season of famine among these isolated people. It may be remembered also, that flocks of white birds followed the movements of these American locusts,--preying upon them, and thinning their mult.i.tudinous hosts.

These birds were of the gull genus (_Larus_), and one of the most beautiful of the species. They frequent the sh.o.r.es and islands of the rivers of _Prairie-land_, living chiefly upon such insects as are found in the neighbourhood of their waters. It was but natural, therefore, they should follow the locusts, or "gra.s.shoppers," as the Mormons termed them; but the _pseudo-prophet_ of these deluded people could not suffer to pa.s.s such a fine opportunity of proving his divine inspiration: which he did by audaciously declaring that the birds were "heaven-born," and had been sent by the Almighty (in obedience to a prayer from him, the prophet) to rid the country of the pest of the gra.s.shoppers!

These prairie crickets are of a dark-brown colour,--not unlike the _gryllus migratorius_ of Africa, and with very similar habits. When settled thickly upon the ground, the whole surface a.s.sumes a darkish hue, as if covered with c.r.a.pe; and when they are all in motion,-- creeping to and fro in search of their food,--a very singular effect is produced. At this time they do not take to wing; though they attempt to get out of the way, by making short hops from place to place, and crawling with great rapidity. Notwithstanding their efforts to escape, hundreds of them are "squashed" beneath the foot of the pedestrian, or hoofs of the traveller's horse.

These crickets, with several bug-like insects of different species, furnish the Digger with an important article of food. It may appear a strange provender for a human stomach; but there is nothing unnatural about it,--any more than about the eating of shrimps or prawns; and it will be remembered that the Bushmen, and many other tribes of South Africa eat the _gryllus migratorius_; while, in the northern part of that same continent, many nations regard them as a proper article of food. Though some writers have a.s.serted, that it was the legume of the locust-tree (an acacia) which was eaten by Saint John the Baptist in the wilderness, it is easily proved that such was not the case. That his food was the locust (_gryllus migratorius_) and wild honey, is strictly and literally true; and at the present day, were you to visit the "wilderness" mentioned by the Apostle, you might see people living upon "locusts and wild honey," just as they did eighteen hundred years ago.

The Diggers _cook_ their crickets sometimes by boiling them in the pots aforementioned, and sometimes by "roasting." They also mix them with the mezquite seeds and pulp,--the whole forming a kind of plum-pudding, or "cricket-pasty,"--or, as it is jocosely termed by the trappers, "cricket-cake."

Their mode of collecting the gra.s.shoppers is not without some display of ingenuity. When the insects are in abundance, there is not much difficulty in obtaining a sufficient supply; but this is not always the case. Sometimes they appear very spa.r.s.ely upon the plains; and, being nimble in their movements, are not easily laid hold of. Only one could be taken at a time; and, by gleaning in this way, a very limited supply would be obtained. To remedy this, the Diggers have invented a somewhat ingenious contrivance for capturing them wholesale,--which is effected in the following manner:--When the whereabouts of the gra.s.shoppers has been discovered, a round hole--of three or four feet in diameter, and of about equal depth--is scooped out in the centre of the plain. It is shaped somewhat after the fashion of a kiln; and the earth, that has been taken out, is carried out of the way.

The Digger community then all turn out--men, women, and children--and deploy themselves into a wide circle, enclosing as large a tract as their numbers will permit. Each individual is armed with a stick, with which he beats the sage-bushes, and makes other violent demonstrations: the object being to frighten the gra.s.shoppers, and cause them to move inward towards the pit that has been dug. The insects, thus beset, move as directed,--gradually approaching the centre,--while the "beaters"

follow in a circle constantly lessening in circ.u.mference. After a time the crickets, before only thinly scattered over the plain,--grow more crowded as the s.p.a.ce becomes contracted; until at length the surface is covered with a black moving swarm; and the beaters, still pressing upon them, and driving them onward, force the whole body pellmell over the edges of the pit.

Bunches of gra.s.s, already provided are now flung over them, and upon that a few shovelfuls of earth or sand; and then--horrible to relate!--a large pile of artemisia stalks is heaped upon the top and set on fire!

The result is that, in a few minutes, the poor gra.s.shoppers are smoked to death, and parched at the same time--so as to be ready for eating, whenever the _debris_ of the fire has been removed.

The prairie cricket is not the only article of the _flesh-meat_ kind, found in the larder of the Digger. Another animal furnishes him with an occasional meal. This is the "sage-hare," known to hunters as the "sage-rabbit," but to naturalists as the _lepus artemisia_. It is a very small animal,--less in size than the common rabbit,--though it is in reality a true hare. It is of a silvery, or whitish-grey colour-- which adapts it to the hue of the _artemisia_ bushes on the stalks and berries of which it feeds.

It is from the skins of this animal, that the Digger women manufacture the rabbit-skin shirts, already described. Its flesh would not be very agreeable to a European palate,--even with the addition of an onion,-- for it has the sage flavour to such a degree, as to be as bitter as wormwood itself. An onion with it would not be tasted! But tastes differ, and by the Digger the flesh of the sage-hare is esteemed one of the nicest delicacies. He hunts it, therefore, with the greatest a.s.siduity; and the chase of this insignificant animal is to the Digger, what the hunt of the stag, the elephant, or the wild boar, is to hunters of a more pretentious ambition.

With his bow and arrows he frequently succeeds in killing a single hare; but this is not always so easy,--since the sage-hare, like all of its kind, is shy, swift, and cunning. Its colour, closely resembling the hue of the artemisia foliage, is a considerable protection to it; and it can hide among these bushes, where they grow thickly--as they generally do--over the surface of the ground.

But the Digger is not satisfied with the scanty and uncertain supply, which his weak bow and arrows would enable him to obtain. As in the case of the gra.s.shoppers, he has contrived a plan for capturing the sage-hares by wholesale.

This he accomplishes by making a "surround," and driving the animals, not into a _pit_, but into a _pound_. The pound is constructed something after the same fashion as that used by the Chippewas, and other northern Indians, for capturing the herds of reindeer; in other words, it is an enclosure, entered by a narrow mouth--from the _jaws_ of which mouth, two fences are carried far out into the plain, in a gradually diverging direction. For the deer and other large animals, the fences of the pound--as also those of the funnel that conducts to it, require to be made of strong stakes, stockaded side by side; but this work, as well as the timber with which to construct it, is far beyond the reach of the Digger. His enclosure consists of a mere wattle of artemisia stalks and branches, woven into a row of those already standing--with here and there a patching of rude nets, made of roots and gra.s.s. The height is not over three feet; and the sage-hare might easily spring over it; but the stupid creature, when once "in the pound," never thinks of looking upward; but continues to dash its little skull against the wattle, until it is either "clubbed" by the Digger, or impaled upon one of his obsidian arrows.

Other quadrupeds, const.i.tuting a portion of the Digger's food, are several species of "gophers," or sand-rats, ground-squirrels, and marmots. In many parts of the Great Basin, the small rodents abound: dwelling between the crevices of rocks, or honeycombing the dry plains with their countless burrows. The Digger captures them by various wiles. One method is by shooting them with blunt arrows; but the more successful plan is, by setting a trap at the entrance to their earthen caves. It is the "figure of 4 trap," which the Digger employs for this purpose, and which he constructs with ingenuity,--placing a great many around a "warren," and often taking as many as fifty or sixty "rats" in a single day!

In weather too cold for the gophers to come out of their caves, the Digger then "digs" for them: thus further ent.i.tling him to his special appellation.

That magnificent bird, the "c.o.c.k of the plains," sometimes furnishes the Digger with "fowl" for his dinner. This is a bird of the grouse family (_tetrao urophasia.n.u.s_), and the largest species that is known,-- exceeding in size the famed "c.o.c.k of the woods" of northern Europe. A full-fledged c.o.c.k of the plains is as large as an eagle; and, unlike most of the grouse kind, has a long, narrow body. His plumage is of a silvery grey colour--produced by a mottle of black and white,--no doubt, given him by a nature to a.s.similate him to the hue of the artemisia,-- amidst which he habitually dwells, and the berries of which furnish him with most of his food.

He is remarkable for two large _goitre-like_ swellings on the breast, covered with a sort of hair instead of feathers; but, though a fine-looking large bird, and a grouse too, his flesh is bitter and unpalatable--even more so than that of the sage-hare. For all that, it is a delicacy to the Digger, and a rare one; for the c.o.c.k of the plains is neither plentiful, nor easily captured when seen.

There are several other small animals--both quadrupeds and birds-- inhabiting Digger-land, upon which an occasional meal is made. Indeed, the food of the Digger is sufficiently varied. It is not in the quality but the quant.i.ty he finds most cause of complaint: for with all his energies he never gets enough. In the summer season, however, he is less stinted. Then the berries of the buffalo-bush are ripe; and these, resembling currants, he collects in large quant.i.ties,--placing his rabbit-skin wrapper under the bush, and shaking down the ripe fruit in showers. A _melange_ of prairie crickets and buffalo-berries is esteemed by the Digger, as much as would be the best specimen of a "currant-cake" in any nursery in Christendom!

The Digger finds a very curious species of edible bug, which builds its nest on the ledges of the cliffs,--especially those that overhang a stream. These nests are of a conical or pine-apple shape, and about the size of this fruit.

This bug,--not yet cla.s.sified or described by entomologists,--is of a dark-brown colour, about the size of the ordinary c.o.c.kroach; and when boiled is considered a proper article of food,--not only by the unfastidious Diggers, but by Indians of a more epicurean _gout_.

Besides the yampa and kamas, there are several other edible roots found in the Digger country. Among others may be mentioned a species of thistle (_circium virginiarum_),--the root of which grows to the size of an ordinary carrot, and is almost as well flavoured. It requires a great deal of roasting, or boiling, before it is sufficiently cooked to be eaten.

The _kooyah_ is another article of food still more popular among Digger gourmands. This is the root of the _Valeriana edulis_. It is of a bright-yellow colour, and grows to a considerable size. It has the characteristic odour of the well-known plant; but not so strong as in the prepared substance of _valerian_. The plant itself does not grow in the arid soil of the desert, but rather in the rich fertile bottoms of the streams, or along the sh.o.r.es of marshy lakes,--in company with the kamas and yampa. It is when these roots are in season, that the Shoshokees most frequent such localities; and, indeed, this same season is the time when all other articles of Digger food are plenteous enough,--the summer. The winter months are to him the "tight times."

In some parts of the desert country, as already observed, grow species of pines, with edible cones,--or rather edible seeds which the cones contain. These seeds resemble nuts, and are about the size of the common filberts.

More than one species of pine produces this sort of food; but in the language of the Spanish Californians and New Mexicans, they are all indifferently termed _pinon_, and the seeds simply _pinones_, or "pinons." Where these are within the reach of the Digger,--as they are in some districts,--he is then well provided for; since the pinons, when roasted, not only form an agreeable and nutritious article of food, but can be stored up as a winter stock,--that will keep for a considerable time, without danger of spoiling, or growing too stale.

Such is the _commissariat_ of the Digger Indian; and, poor in quality though it be, there are times when he cannot obtain a sufficient supply of it. At such times he has recourse to food of a still meaner kind,-- to roots, scarce eatable, and even to the seeds of several species of gra.s.s! Worms, grubs, the _agama comuta_, or "horned-frog of the prairies," with other species of lizards, become his sole resource; and in the search and capture of these he occupies himself from morning to night.

It is in this employment that he finds use for the long sapling, with the hooked end upon it,--the hook being used for dragging the lizards out of clefts in the rocks, within which they have sought shelter. In the accomplishment of this, the Digger displays an adroitness that astonishes the traveller: often "jerking" the reptile out of some dark crevice within which it might be supposed to have found a retreat secure from all intruders.

Many other curious habits might be related of this abject and miserable race of human beings; but perhaps enough has been detailed, to secure them a place in the list of our "odd people."

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

THE GUARAONS, OR PALM-DWELLERS.

Young reader, I may take it for granted that you have heard of the great river Orinoco,--one of the largest rivers not only of South America, but in the world. By entering at its mouth, and ascending to its source, you would have to make a journey of about one thousand five hundred miles; but this journey, so far from being direct, or in a straight line, would carry you in a kind of spiral curve,--very much like the figure 6, the apex of the figure representing the mouth of the river.

In other words, the Orinoco, rising in the unexplored mountains of Spanish Guiana, first runs eastward; and then, having turned gradually to every point of the compa.s.s, resumes its easterly course, continuing in this direction till it empties its mighty flood into the Atlantic Ocean.