A Burial Cave in Baja California Part 3

One of the pieces (139544) is sewed, or threaded, rush matting (pl. 16, _d_). The lengths of rush (_Juncus_ _acutus_ var. _phaerocarpus_), which form the warp are pierced at intervals of about 10 cm. by the sewing thread which is a continuous length of cord, probably of _agave_. This sewing element, which serves as the weft, consists of 2-ply Z-twist cord with a medium-to-hard twist. Each single ply is Z-twisted in medium degree. Total size of this well-preserved fragment is about 50 cm. by 21 cm. The one selvage which has been preserved would indicate that the width of the mat at least was set when the worker began the sewing process.

Apparently threaded or sewed matting was not widely used in neighboring areas to the north. Such matting with a decorative selvage was found by Cosgrove in a cave in the Upper Gila region (Cosgrove, 1947, p. 114).

Distributions which he gives are confined to early Pueblo period cultures in the Southwest.[4] The trait was specifically denied for Humboldt Cave (Heizer and Krieger, 1956, p. 58).

[4] He lists Tularosa Cave (Hough, 1914, p. 87, fig. 178) and Segi Canyon (Guernsey, 1931, pl. 58a).

The second fragment of matting (139540) consists of bundles of unspun fibers secured by cord with a simple overhand knot which holds the fiber warp closely together (fig. 2). In this tie-twined matting the wefts are s.p.a.ced at intervals of 3.2 cm., and they consist of 2-ply _agave_ (?) cord with a loose to medium Z-twist, with each single strand S-twisted.

The warp bundles, identified as gra.s.s, are not twisted.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 2. Tie-twined matting technique.]

Although none of the Spanish accounts lists the use of matting by the natives of Baja California, archaeological specimens of both the sewed and tie-twined types have been recovered from caves in the central region of the peninsula from Mulege to Comondu (Ma.s.sey and Tuohy, MS; Ma.s.sey, MS 2). The tie-twined matting also occurs in the extreme south of the peninsula (Ma.s.sey, MS 1). Mats are recorded as part of the household furnis.h.i.+ngs of most southern Californians. Mats of _Juncus_ sp. are noted for the Mountain and Desert Diegueno. The Yuma do not use mats (Drucker, 1937, p. 21).

The use of tie-twined matting appears to be an old trait in the Desert Area and its cultures. It is known throughout the peninsula, where old traits were retained, and also in archaeological collections from various parts of the Great Basin and Southwest. A sampling of the literature reveals the following occurrences: Lovelock Cave (Loud and Harrington, 1929, pp. 56-60); Humboldt Cave (Heizer and Krieger, 1956, p. 57); Danger Cave (Jennings _et_ _al._, 1957, pp. 242-243); Promontory Point (Steward, 1937, p. 29); Hueco Area (Cosgrove, 1947, p. 113; see also p. 114 for various other Southwestern locations); the Guadalupe Mountain area (Ferdon, 1946, pp. 15-16); and portions of Texas (Jackson, 1937, p. 157).

_Netting_

_Hairnets._--Two complete hairnets (139534a and b) and one fragment (139534c) were found on crania in the cave (pl. 16, _a_, _c_). All of these were tied with a single-element square-knot technique (fig. 3).

Cordage is of the 2-ply Z-twist type with each single S-twisted. The cord is probably of agave fiber.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 3. Square-knot technique.]

The two complete hairnets are begun with a center circle of discrete tied yarn. Ten large loops are cast onto this. In the next round, each of the large loops has three loops tied onto it with the continuous cord, making a total of 30 loops for the circ.u.mference of the net (fig. 4). The gauge of the succeeding 15 rows of knots is approximately 2.5 cm.

In order to gather the lower edge of the net for fitting purposes, the cord was doubled and two loops were gathered together and tied with the same square-knot technique (fig. 5).

The third net (c) has eleven loops cast onto the original circle; the technique of tying is the same, but the mesh gauge of 1 to 1.5 cm. is finer.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 4. Method of beginning hairnets and carrying nets.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 5. Detail of lower, fitted edge of hairnet.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 6. Detail of lower, gathered edge of carrying net.]

Among the historic tribes the wearing of hairnets, both plain and decorated, was universal among the women of Baja California. Such usage among southern Californians was denied by all of Drucker's informants (Drucker, 1937, p. 45). There appears to be no mention of them from the adjacent west coast of Mexico, but they are known archaeologically from the Great Basin. Loud and Harrington picture several from Lovelock Cave, but give no description of the knotting technique (1929, pl. 41).

However, in their discussion of knots they mention that the "mesh knot"

(weaver's knot) was the most common, and the square knot was little used (ibid., pp. 83-87). Actually the nets, as they appear in Loud and Harrington's plate, are very similar to the Baja California specimens in being knotted rather than being made by the more frequently found coil-without-foundation technique.

Hairnets were also worn in ancient Peru. Some hairnets described by Singer from Pachacamac were constructed with square knots, but most of the 29 specimens she describes were made with the sheet-bend (fisherman's) knot (Singer, 1936).

Hairnets of the square-knot construction from Bahia de Los Angeles pose, at the present time, an unanswerable question of origin and extrapeninsular distribution.

_Carrying net._--One fragmentary net (139535a), the original size of which cannot be determined, is similar to the hairnets in construction, but probably was used for carrying. The bag is tied with the same element square knot; the mesh size is approximately 2.4 cm. Both ends of this net, however, are gathered together. The net beginning is a small circular piece of cord. Four loops are cast onto this; the number of working loops is increased to 16 in the next course by the method ill.u.s.trated in figure 4. The square-knot tying begins with the next course.

At the lower end, the meshes are gathered together with a hitch (fig.

6). This may have been put through the loops at what would have been the top of the bag to hold it shut. This would serve as a supplementary tying cord rather than being part of the structure of the net.

This fragmentary net has one notably unique feature. Feathers, presumably decorative, were caught, not in the knots themselves, but between them (fig. 7). The knot used is identical to the "marline spike hitch" described by Graumont and Hensel (1946, p. 69; fig. 101; pl. 29).

This type of knot--more properly called a hitch--has not been reported elsewhere among the methods of attaching feathers. As can be seen in the reconstruction, the feather serves to hold the hitch, yet if the cord were to be pulled tightly around it, the feather could be removed only with difficulty. It remains puzzling that the carrying net, rather than the hairnets, should be so decorated.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 7. Detail showing insertion of feathers in hitches of carrying net.]

Turning to other archaeological examples of nets from the peninsula, we learn that specimens of square-knot netting have been found to the south in the central region from Mulege to Comondu. Caves to the west of Mulege have yielded two fragments of square-knot netting (Ma.s.sey, MS 2). Other examples derive from Caguama and Metate caves between Comondu and Loreto. In Metate Cave there was a single complete carrying net (Ma.s.sey and Tuohy, MS). Elsewhere on the peninsula little is known of them except for the southern Cape Region, where netting was in the distinct technique of lark's-head knotting (Ma.s.sey, MS 1).

On the ethnographic level, carrying nets were widely used by Indians of western North America from Canada to Mexico, and again in Central America. As part of this general distribution they were used throughout the peninsula (Driver and Ma.s.sey, 1957, pp. 274, 276, map 78).

Among the Lower Californians nets were used for carrying suitable gathered products, and also, in the central part of the peninsula at least, for carrying infants. For the latter purpose two portage methods were in vogue: the net was suspended over the shoulders from a tump band across the forehead; or from the end of a pole held by one hand across the shoulder, as a "bindle."

_Feathered "Ap.r.o.n" or "Cape"_

Even though this piece (139535b; pl. 17, _a_) is extremely fragmentary, it is one of the more interesting of the perishable artifacts. At present it measures about 25 cm. by 17.5 cm. Many of the tying cords and feathers have disappeared or are incomplete. The original bundles of bast fiber actually were probably little longer than in this fragment.

The method of making the article has been reconstructed as follows. The heavy "waist belt" cord is a bundle of unspun fibers and spun cord, 1.5 cm. in diameter. The origin of the spun cord is lost in the ma.s.s of material; it is probable that the cord itself was held by the wrapping cords from the bark units. The hanging bundles of shredded bark were doubled over this "waist belt" and wrapped with unspun fibers to make a rigid, tightly closed bundle. These fibers hold the feathers, which may once have covered the bundles completely for, on some, the wrapping covers the entire length. The length of these bundles varies from 13 to 17.5 cm. These bundles are held in place on the heavy cord by a wrapping cord of 2-ply Z-twisted agave, which frequently appears to cross the bundles and the heavy cord in a haphazard manner; feathers are wrapped onto the heavy cord by this means. Although now there is considerable rigidity introduced into the fibers by dirt, the ma.s.s of ties always prevented this from being a softly hanging piece.

To date no like specimens are known from the archaeology of the peninsula. We know of no similar articles in historic times in Baja California, nor to the north in southern California.

_Human Hair "Cape"_

The human hair "cape" from the Palmer Collection (139539; also 139538, 139550) is fragmentary, but sufficiently intact to provide complete information on the technique of its construction and manufacture (pl.

17, _b_).

The hanks of human hair forming this garment are from 12.7 cm. to 27.5 cm. long with the majority falling in midrange. The hanks are about 6 mm. in diameter. Primarily, each bundle of hanks was held together by a light wrapping of single agave (?) fibers and some such adhesive material as pitch. In addition, these bundles are secondarily secured with fine 2-ply cord, which is 1 mm. in diameter, with a hard Z-twist.

This fine cord also serves to tie each bundle to the main cord of suspension.

The bundles of hair were held together by the same tie-twining as in the matting (fig. 2). There is an overhand knot between each of the bundles.

The twining cord itself is 2-ply, Z-twisted in a loose twist. This method served to fasten the bundles to the cord, s.p.a.ce them, and to hold them closely. This tying consists of a basic cord and a wrapping cord. A third cord, which formed the wrapping of the individual bundles, is carried to the basic cord, wrapped around it, and in turn is wrapped by the whipping cord. This wrapping is not accomplished neatly; the garment--for all of this cord wrapping--is not a very strongly constructed article.

In the Palmer Collection there are broken hanks of human hair, undoubtedly parts of this specimen, which are catalogued separately (139538). Among these is a string of _Olivella_ beads strung on 2-ply cord, and wrapped in with the tying cord of a hair bundle. Thus sh.e.l.l beads were probably part of the original garment. Other tied hanks of human hair (139550) were undoubtedly parts of the specimen.

There is no single item of native culture of Baja California so diagnostic or characteristic as mantles of human hair used by shamans.

Few European chroniclers who had a chance to observe them failed to mention this article. However, none have appeared in any other reported archaeological excavations on the peninsula.

As part of the paraphernalia of the shaman, the cape or mask of human hair was indispensable from the Guaicura north to the Kiliwa and Western Diegueno. In all recorded cases the hair was obtained from relatives mourning the death of a recently deceased member of the family or from the dead themselves. Construction of the garments must have been in the hands of the shamans themselves, so secret were most aspects of the medicine-man's lore.

Although the cultural and tribal identification of masks or capes of human hair with the shaman is general for the Peninsular Yumans (Cochimi), such capes were found as far south as the Guaicura in historic times (Baegert, 1942, p. 123). Both of the major sources for the historic ethnography of the Yuman-speaking peoples of central Baja California attest to the use of this device by native medicine-men (Venegas, 1944, I:95-96, 100; Clavigero, 1937, p. 114). For the area nearest Bahia de Los Angeles, the best description of the use of these garments is that of the 18th-century Dominican, Father Luis Sales, who speaks of the capes as follows (1794, pp. 76-77):

When all are gathered, ornamented with charcoal and yellow, the old man places himself in the center of the circle. Under his arm he has a doubled mat of rushes in which he hides the rain cape from the _fiesta_.[5] On another little stick he has the hair of the dead man suspended. He indicates silence, puts on the rain cape of the hair of the dead, and causes as much horror as when a bear appears. He plays a whistle and tells them that the dead man is coming; but, however much they look, they do not see him coming. Nevertheless they believe it. Then he shows them the little stick with the hair of the dead man, and tells them that he is there, that they see him--and they see nothing. However they give cries, they pull their hair, and make other ridiculous actions. Finally, relieved by crying, the old man comforts them. He puts a thousand questions to the head of hair, and he himself answers them to his liking.

[5] Sales, 1794. p. 69. In this, his first reference to the cape of human hair in use at another ceremony, Sales says, "The old man makes something like a rain cape from the hair of the dead."

This 18th-century description of Indians to the north of Bahia de Los Angeles, on the Frontera, has its exact counterpart in a 20th-century description of the niwey ("Talking with the Dead") Ceremony of the Kiliwa (Meigs, 1939, pp. 50-57).

_Tump Band_