Among the Diggers of Thirty Years Ago [pp. 146-155]

1893.3 A;;~on~ t/ie DiKers of Tiii~y Years Ajo. 153
and round the fire so closely that it was of little beads, each bead holding firmly
necessary to pour water on his head a little lock of 8 or lo hairs. They vaevery few minutes, in order that he ried in size from that of a pin head to
might proceed with the funeral service. that of a grain of wheat. A band of
The wife of Chapo and Anita his sis- these gray beads, an inch and one half
ter sat with their backs so close to the wid~ reaching from ear to ear across
fire that the flesh was badly burned. the forehead, constitutes their mournThey screamed incessantly, tearing ing. tt must interfere considerably
their hair and flesh, pleading and call- with hair dressing, as it remains about
in g to the "Good Hombre." the usual period for wearing mourning.
The native words were not intelligi Hoping to learn something of their
ble to us, but their grief to a sympa- religious belief, I have asked niany
thetic heart needed no interpretation. questions, but the only information
A score of others with downcast eyes elicited was that there is a "Good
assisted in the "cry. " The scene was Hombre" above, and a "I3ad Hombre"
most affecting and blood~curdling. down in the earth;- that good Indians
When next I saw the chief mourners go up, and bad ones go down; and then
their hands were burned in a horrible they invariably confessed their ignomanner. This was their mode of doing rance of the whole matter in the simple
penance for any displeasure they had sentence, "No hay sabe me."
caused the departed. They were at- Thirty years have wrought a wondertired in deep mourning, which con- ful change. Where once the grizzly was
sisted of the ashes of the dead, mixed wont to come and feed on clover, now
with pitch into a thick paste; this was stands the comfortable farmhouse and
put upon short cut bangs, in the Thrm orchard. The home of the deer and
jack-rabbit is converted into vineyards,
and where once stood the native village
of eight hundred or a thousand souls,
not one casa remains. Legs, the terp sichorean artist, the high jumper and
pride of the fandango, has long since
I gone to abide with his fathers; while
Colorado, his rival, trudges on, with an
appetite for bad whisky that causes him
still to devote much time to his steps.
Captain John's visits are now at long
intervals; his back is much bowed with
_ age, his step has lost its elasticity, and
his almost sightless eyes make it diffi cult for him to leave home unattended.
-~ -) Home, did I say? This poor, ignorant,
- ~~~~ improvident child of nature does not
know the meaning of the word. The
wolf has always been at his doon
If he had eyer possessed as much as
QY fifty dollars at any one time in his life,
~~~;Yffi it would have been more wealth than he
could have managed. And now that
youth and strength are gone, he and his
VOL. Xxi- 12.