[The Old Franciscan Missions Of California by George Wharton James]@TWC D-Link bookThe Old Franciscan Missions Of California CHAPTER VI 6/15
They made the baskets, all other utensils being made by the men. The dress of the men, when they dressed at all, consisted of the skins of animals thrown over the shoulders, leaving the rest of the body exposed, but the women wore a cloak and dress of twisted rabbit-skins.
I have found these same rabbit-skin dresses in use by Mohave and Yumas within the past three or four years. The youths were required to keep away from the fire, in order that they might learn to suffer with bravery and courage.
They were forbidden also to eat certain kinds of foods, to teach them to bear deprivation and to learn to control their appetites.
In addition to these there were certain ceremonies, which included fasting, abstinence from drinking, and the production of hallucinations by means of a vegetable drug, called pivat (still used, by the way, by some of the Indians of Southern California), and the final branding of the neophyte, which Boscana describes as follows: "A kind of herb was pounded until it became sponge-like; this they placed, according to the figure required, upon the spot intended to be burnt, which was generally upon the right arm, and sometimes upon the thick part of the leg also.
They then set fire to it, and let it remain until all that was combustible was consumed. Consequently, a large blister immediately formed, and although painful, they used no remedy to cure it, but left it to heal itself; and thus, a large and perpetual scar remained.
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