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Collection: Books and Periodicals
Three Years in California by John D. Borthwick (1857)(LoC) (423 pages)
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Page: of 423
130 INDIANS’ DOGS.
mangy, starved-looking curs, of a dirty brindled
colour, something the shape of a greyhound, but only
about half his size. A strong mutual attachment
exists between the dogs and their masters ; but the
affection of the latter does not move them to bestow
much food on their canine friends, who live in a state
of chronic starvation ; every bone seems ready to
break through the confinement of the skin, and their
whole life is merely a slow death from inanition.
They have none of the life or spirit of other dogs,
but crawl along as if every step was to be their last,
with a look of most humble resignation, and so conscious of their degradation that they never presume
to hold any communion with their civilised fellowereatures. It is very likely that canine nature cannot stand such food as the Indians are content to live
upon, and of which acorns and grasshoppers are the
staple articles. There are plenty of small animals on
which one would think that a dog could live very
well, if he would only take the trouble to catch them ;
but it would seem that a dog, as long as he remains
a companion of man, is an animal quite incapable of
providing for himself. }
A failure of the acorn crop is to the Indians a
national calamity, as they depend on it in a great
measure for their subsistence during the winter. In
the fall of the year the squaws are all busily employed
in gathering acorns, to be afterwards stored in small
conical stacks, and covered with a sort of wickerwork. They are prepared for food by being made
i