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ABORIGINAL ART IN OBSIDIAN. 255
with no little the advantage of it in value. They are hardy,
and less susceptible to diseases and parasites than sheep.
The success of goat farming lies chiefly in feeding the kids
up to the second month. After that, they shift for themselves.
The flesh of the kids is a delicacy worthy of place on the
most epicurean bill of fare ; and the milk of the ewes is par-
ticularly rich and nutritious; and as a cosmetic is unsurpassed.
All in all, there is much to be learned and much to be enjoyed
on a California goat-ranch.
lin . CAl.
ABORIGINAL ART IN OBSIDIAN.
BY H . C Meredith.
in the Indian woman of certain California tribes
the art impulse found expression in the ornate
basket which has made her famous, so in the In-
dian man it found outlet in some equally extraor-
dinary artifects of obsidian. This is particularly
, true of the aborigines who once peopled the lower
San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys. Their ideals
found more perfect expression in form, line and
color, in textiles and in stone, than did those of the Coast Range and
Sierra tribes. They were less given to the warpath and the bunting
trail. They had more leisure and more comfort ; and the art instinct
had among them a better chance of development. Theirs were the un_
dying streams, the abundance of fish; the countless water-fowl with eggs
and young; the swarms of crickets; the vast bands of elk and deer that
our American pioneers still found in these valleys ; the acorns on
thous nds of burdened oaks. What the mountain Indian gained by
the loag journey, the swift chase, the armed raid, indulgent Nature
dropped in the lap of the valley Indian. He was neither invader nor
invaded. Hunting was so tame that it took little of his vitality. He
had time and content to think. And he did think-and feel. The
women wove baskets that it is no absurdity to call poems-the most ex-
quisite baskets known to man. The men chipped tone as I b lie e it
was never chipped elsewhere in America.
The resultant workmanship in these lines was art, ev n b the bite
man's canons. His artifects not only ministered to hi utilitie ; they
fulfilled his esthetic tastes. As compared with other anci nt illage-
sites in central California, those of this locality show a far maller pro-
portion of broken or ill-made specimens, chips
and the single finds which indicate the loss of an
arrow, in hunting or otherwise.
In 150 arrows taken from a local site, only 10
were ordinary and but three crude. Among 100
carved obsidian objects from the same site, none
were crude. though a few were doubtless unfinished. 1 ·. Barr Collection ; actual size.