A bow and two or three arrows will frequently be found in a Cahuilla house. They are used for small game. As Dr. Barrows has said, the bow is apt to be shown with an apology and an explanation of the superior qualities of those made by the forefathers. Both bow and arrow are of the same type as those of the Mohave. The bow is usually of willow. The University collections however contain one made of harder wood, perhaps mesquite, and another made from the stem of a palm leaf. According to Dr. Barrows the bows of former days, at any rate the better
The arrows are of two types, being made either of a straight shaft of wood sharpened at the end, or of cane with a wooden foreshaft. The wooden arrow is typical of the Mohave, while the cane arrow is attributed by them to the neighboring Chemehuevi and Paiute of Shoshonean stock. At the present day the wooden arrow seems more frequent among the Cahuilla. Being used only for small game, neither form has a stone or metal point. It is not unlikely that such may have been the custom also in old days, even in the case of arrows intended for war. The Mohave state that stone arrow-points were not regularly used by them, and that their ordinary war arrow was the simple sharpened shaft of wood. They appear to regard the stone arrow-point as typical of their Shoshonean neighbors.
The Cahuilla wooden arrow is said by Dr. Barrows to be made from wormwood, Artemisia ludoviciana. This is similar to the plant used by the Mohave, Pluchea sericea. The arrow is about three feet long. One end is sharpened, the other notched and feathered. All the arrows seen had only two feathers. This may be due to their-being intended only for small game. The Mohave used a two-feather arrow for similar inferior purposes, but a three-feathered one for war. The feathering on the Cahuilla arrows is applied as follows: a feather is split down the quill; each half is then laid against opposite sides of the shaft
The carrying net (Pl. 11) is an important Cahuilla implement, still employed occasionally, and making it possible for the Cahuilla to dispense with the deep conical burden basket found in most other parts of California, as in the carrying net a shallower basket can be conveniently transported. The net is made of string with meshes four to five inches square. Among the Diegueño and Luiseño the carrying net is smaller, the string slenderer, and the meshes finer. The general shape of the net is that of a small broad hammock. At the two ends the net is gathered on a ring or loop of heavier cord or rope. These loops are six or eight inches in diameter. One of these rope rings has a loose end several feet long. This is passed through the other loop to join the net, much like a saddle cinch between its two rings. In this way the size of the net can be increased or diminished. The wide portion of the net, which is behind the back, contains the basket or object carried. The rope passes over the basketry cap worn by the carrier. In the desert the net seems all to be made of mescal-leaf fibre. In San Gorgonio pass a softer glossy material is employed, a string made from "wish," given by Dr. Barrows as the common reed, Phragmites communis. 20
Sandals of mescal fibre are still used, especially on the desert. (Pl. 10.) They are said to be worn principally by men when out-doors at night. These sandals consist of a half-inch pad of mescal fibres held to the foot with strips of the same fibre, or by thongs. They serve as an efficient protection against
Pl. 12), there is none resembling this Cahuilla form. All these cliff-dweller sandals are made by some method of basketry or cord weaving. The strings which hold the Cahuilla sandal to the foot are not tied each time the sandal is worn, but are so arranged that the foot can be slipped into them. The strings in front pass on the two sides of the second toe, or of the second and third toes. The general arrangement is shown in the illustration.
A similar sandal, but of rawhide instead of mescal fibre, was obtained from the Chemehuevi at Cabezon. A loop of string at the back of this sandal serves as a heel strap. At the front there are two cords. These are passed on the two sides of the second toe. They are then crossed, brought backward, and passed under the heel strap, brought forward again, and tied over the instep.
A third form of footwear consists of a high moccasin of soft skin without ornament. A pair of such moccasins was secured from the Cahuilla at Cabezon.
The familiar California soaproot-fibre brush used for cleaning baskets of meal, and also as a comb, is not a Cahuilla implement. Dr. Barrows mentions brushes of mescal. fibre. 21 The Serrano at San Manuel use the soaproot brush, but the Luiseño, Diegueño, and Mohave agree with the Cahuilla in making their brushes of other materials than this. 22 The only other tribes in California known not to use a form of soaproot brush, are the Porno and southern Wintun, who employ anise-root fibres for this purpose. 23
58:18 Barrows, 49.
60:19 Barrows, 50.
60:20 Barrows, 47. According to the late Mr. Sparkman, the Luiseño called Indian hemp, Apocynum cannabinum, by the dialectically equivalent name wicha.
61:21 Barrows, 47, 54.
61:22 According to specimens in the University museum.
61:23 According to specimens in the University museum.