Before dealing directly with the incidents it will be our business presently to record, it will be well to learn something about the various tribes involved, and the sections of country occupied by them. It will be observed that we can pay little attention to the line separating California and Oregon, for this line had no significance to the Indians, and that on both sides certain relations were recognized between these neighboring tribes. In fact no regular line had been established except that parallel forty-two of north latitude was the recognized boundary of Northern California, inherited from Mexico.
    The principal tribes with which we will have to deal were known as the Rogue Rivers, Klamaths and Modocs, Shastas and Umpquas. Among the first four are found strong race affinities, and they speak dialects of the same language. Their localities adjoined, their intercommunication was frequent, and in time of war they often fought side by side. For settled description Mr. Bancroft's work on Native Races of the Pacific Coast is recommended. The four tribes mentioned lived and roamed over the contiguous valleys of the Rogue, Klamath, Shasta and Umpqua rivers and their tributaries, and in the neighborhood of Klamath, Tule, Clear and Goose lakes. The country about the three latter-named lakes belonged to the Modocs, whose habitats were chiefly in California and on Lost River. The Rogue River Valley was occupied prior to the advent of the whites by the powerful and important tribe known by the name of Rogue Rivers. Branches of the tribe, more or less corrupted by intermixture with the neighboring Umpquas and others, lived on the Illinois, Applegate, Big Butte and other tributary streams, always paying to the head chief of the tribe the allegiance customary to the aboriginal headship. Along the Klamath River and about Klamath lakes dwelt a strong tribe, generally known as the Klamaths. The Shastas had their home about the base of the great mountain of that name. These four tribes, apparently equally numerous and powerful, formed with others what Bancroft has styled the Klamath family and says: "This family is in every way superior to the more southern tribes. In physique and character they approach more nearly the Indians of eastern Oregon than to the degraded and weak tribes of Central California. The Rogue River Indians were an exception to the general rule of deterioration on approaching the coast, for in their case the tendency to improve toward the north held good; so that they were in many respects superior to those in the interior.
    "The Klamaths formerly were tall, well made and muscular, with complexions varying from black to light brown, according to their proximity to large bodies of water. Their faces were large, oval and heavily molded, with slightly prominent cheekbones; nose well set and eyes keen and bright. The women were short and sometimes quite handsome, even in a Caucasian sense." Powers, in the Overland Monthly, wrote of the Klamaths: "Their stature is a trifle less than Americans; they have well-sized bodies, strong and well knit." We might continue to quote from other writers, some of whom it seems to me greatly exaggerate their physical qualities.
    Walling says: "As for clothing, the men of the Klamath family anciently wore only a belt, sometimes a breechclout, and the women an apron or skirt of deerskin or braided grass. In colder weather they threw over their shoulders a cloak or robe of marten or rabbit skins sewn together, deerskin, or among the coast tribes sea otter or sealskin. They tattooed themselves, the men on the chest and arms, the women on the faces in three blue lines extending perpendicularly from the center and corners of the mouth to the chin. In some few localities, more especially near the lakes, the men painted themselves in various colors and grotesque patterns.
    "Their houses were of designs common to many tribes. Their winter dwellings, varying with the locality, were principally of forms conical and square. Those of the former shape prevailed most widely and were thus built. A circular hole, from two to five feet deep and of variable width, was dug. Round this pit or cellar stout poles were driven into the ground, which, being drawn together at the top, formed the rafters of the building. A covering of earth several inches deep was placed over the rafters, a hole was left at the top to serve [as] both door and chimney, to which rude ladders composed of notched poles gave access. Some houses were built of heavy timbers forming a beehive-shaped structure. The temporary summer houses of these tribes were square, conical or conoidal in shape, by driving light poles perpendicularly into the ground and laying others across them, or by drawing the upper ends together at the top. Huts having the shape of an inverted bowl were built by driving both ends of the poles into the ground. These frames, however shaped, were covered with neatly woven tule matting, or with bushes and ferns. The ground beneath was sometimes scooped out and thrown up in a low embankment.
    "The men of the tribes were usually practical hunters. A portion of their food during a great part of the year was the wild game of the forest, and this they approached and caught with considerable adroitness. The elk, too large and powerful to be taken by bows and arrows, was sometimes snared, and the same fate befell the deer and antelope. The bear was beyond the power of the natives until they became possessed of the white man's guns, when they became good bear hunters, particularly black bear. The grizzly and the cinnamon bear were generally given a wide berth by the Indian."
    About the lakes and along the streams, where salmon made their annual appearance, the Indians found their most profitable and congenial sport. This was particularly true among the Umpqua, Rogue and Klamath rivers where the salmon and steelheads entered on their annual run to their spawning grounds. At such season their fishing was a regular revel. The writer has seen hundreds of Modocs and Klamath camped along the banks of Lost River catching and smoke-drying the tons and tons of mullet with which that river swarmed. Many of these fish were two feet long and wonderfully fine and palatable. They are of the species of sucker, and the banks of the river being of sediment, chiefly clay, these fish burrow into the bank sometimes until they are completely hidden. Looking over the squarely washed bank into the perfectly clear water you may sometimes see the tail of a big fish protruding from the hole he is burrowing. The Indians were always watching for such a chance. On such occasions you would see the Indian go over the bank head first, and in the next moment you'd see a huge mullet hurtling through the air and landing safely on the bank. Then the squaw would come running and laughing and soon had the game properly prepared and hung on the poles rigged for it. They had several methods for taking salmon and other large fish. Sometimes they would build a dam of twigs, grass and brush so contrived in rapids as to intercept the salmon in their annual run to the spawning grounds. They contrived pockets into which the fish would work their way in order to continue their journey, where they were speared in large numbers. On Rogue River and the other salmon streams the fish were speared by torchlight, in the manner common on the Columbia and other large streams. Bancroft says: "When preserved for winter use, the fish were split open on the back, the bones taken out, and then tried for winter use, or smoked. Both meat and fish when eaten fresh are either broiled on hot stones or boiled in watertight baskets into which hot stones are dropped to make the water boil. Bread is made of acorns ground to flour in a stone mortar with a heavy stone pestle, and baked in ashes." The writer has seen them grinding up various seeds and dried crickets and grasshoppers, making a batter of about the consistency of that for flapjacks. This they says is hyas skookum muckamuck. I have had them laugh at me when I declined to eat their cakes. They had flat stones on which when hot they placed this batter and placed another flat, specially prepared stone above the batter. It looked good, but I was not hungry.