Chapter Six—
Of Marriage and the Education of Children in California

As soon as a young Indian finds a companion, he marries without delay. Yes, sometimes young natives impetuously demand a partner from the missionary. This is particularly true of the girls, even before they have reached the legal age of twelve. I purposely said when they find a partner, for there was common complaint that in all but one mission the number of males was considerably greater than that of the females.

Few questions are asked about the mate, and hardly any attention is paid to the morals and qualities of a person about to be married. To tell the truth, there are few differences among the natives concerning their intellectual and spiritual gifts. I do not know if anyone was ever married in California, be it bride or groom, who would have revealed something of the first, second, fourth, or fifth of the five qualities of the wellknown Latin verse sit pia , etc. Contemplated marriages very frequently become impossible because of the impedimentum affinitatis unless a dispensation can be secured. Aside from this they may marry whomever they like. They are always sure to marry their equals as far as wit, virtue, mores, and riches are concerned, following thus the old rule: "Si vis nubere, nube pari."

Not many of them enter the state of matrimony as God intended it. They simply want to have a partner. Besides, the husband wants a servant whom he can command, although his authority does not reach far; the women are not particularly anxious to obey.

They know nothing of solemn promises and engagements, even less of parental arrangements or marriage contracts. Without further ado, that is, without a public announcement, they want to be married as soon

as they have informed the missionary of their intention. Frankly, such public announcement would be wholly superfluous, for nobody would raise any objections. Of course they are joined in matrimony according to the rites of the Catholic Church, but on their part they add nothing to the ceremony. Neither parents nor friends are present; no evidences of joy, like a wedding feast, are shown unless the missionary presents the newly-wedded pair with a piece of meat or some Indian corn instead of receiving himself the jura stolae .

Whenever I joined a couple in matrimony, it took considerable time before the bridegroom understood how to put the wedding ring on the correct finger of his wife, and much more time till he actually succeeded. As soon as the ceremony is over, the husband will go in one direction, the wife in another, each for himself, in search of something to eat. They act as though one was of no more importance to the other today than he or she was yesterday; they will not see each other again that day. The reasons for this behavior are easy to guess for one who knows the Indian!

Just as they acted on their wedding day, so they will act on the following and every day in the future. Husband and wife will wander wherever it pleases the one or the other. For many weeks they will not live together without previous understanding or mutual permission. As far as food for their support is concerned, the husband does not provide for his wife, nor the wife for her husband, nor either for their children beyond infancy. Both parents eat whatever they have or find, each one for himself, without being concerned about the other or about their offspring.

Before they were baptized, each man took as many wives as he liked and wished. They paid little attention to friendship or affinity in marriage. A few years ago there was one man who counted his own daughter among his wives, at least so he believed. At that time they joined without ceremony. They did not even have a word for "to marry," which now is expressed quite ingeniously in their language by the words tikére undiri , that is, to touch each other's arms or hands.

The word "husband," which they had and still use, is, according to its meaning and etymology, applicable to any man abusing a woman. Nobody lived at that time who did not daily commit adultery without fear or shame; thus their living together resembled anything but a true

matrimonial state. Basically, it was a common affair of all with all, although jealousy remained an unknown beast to them. This went so far that different neighboring tribes visited one another with the sole intent of spending some days in common debauchery, and on such occasions general prostitution prevailed. Would to God that such abuses (after having baptized and wedded two people according to divine law and Christian custom) could have been weeded out by sermons and Christian instruction, by admonitions and persuasion, thus suppressing such raw practices. Yet it is better to have pity for them than to feel incensed, for temptations are many and ever present, and it is very difficult, if not impossible, for the natives to escape them or for us to eliminate them.

In the first chapter of this part, I mentioned some essential facts about the small number of natives in California. Should the reader like to know whether this small number is the result of the natives' sterility or is due to their disorderly way of life, he may consult M. Pluche's Spectacle de la Nature .^[22] It is certain that many native women never bear any children; others, and not a few, bear only one; and only a few out of a hundred or two hundred will bring forth eight or ten. Should the latter ever happen, rarely more than one or two of the children will reach maturity. I baptized seven children for one woman, recently married. One by one I buried all seven of them before they were three years old. When I was about to leave the country, I advised her to dig a grave for the eighth, which she was expecting. The number of unmarried natives, adults and children of both sexes, is generally much smaller than that of the married and widowed ones.

The Indian women bear their children very easily, without assistance. Should the child be born as far away as two or more hours from the mission, they will carry it there themselves on the same day in order to have it baptized. It is not astonishing that many of their infants die; it would be a wonder if many survived, for (in addition to M. Pluche's remarks in his book just cited concerning this matter) as soon as the infant first sees the light of day, there is no other cradle for it but the hard soil or still harder shell of a turtle, in which the mother drags the poorly wrapped infant with her wherever she goes. Sometimes, in order to have a chance to wander about unburdened, she will leave her child in charge of some old woman, thus imposing upon it a fast lasting ten or

more hours. As soon as the child is a few months old, the mother carries it, quite naked, astride her shoulders, its legs hanging down in front over her chest; consequently it has to learn how to ride before it can stand on its feet. The mother roves about all day in such fashion, in heat or frost, in the burning sun or chilly winds. The food of the child, till it cuts its teeth, is only the mother's milk. If that is lacking or insufficient, there is hardly another woman to be found who would want to do the charitable work of feeding the starving child. Also, many women would not be able to help under these circumstances. Thus these women care rather little for the lives of their children. Indeed, a mother might even be glad if she is early relieved of the burden, especially if she already has one or two children. Furthermore, she has no fear that family property will pass into strangers' hands. At least I have not seen many women who tore their hair when their children died, or who treated them with much love, although a kind of dry weeping is not wanting on such occasions. The father, or the woman's husband, is even less sensitive and does not even look at his wife's child so long as it is an infant.

Nothing causes the California Indians less trouble and worry than the education of their children. All schooling is restricted merely to feeding them while they are incapable of searching for their own nourishment, that is, digging out roots, catching mice, and killing snakes. Once they are strong enough and have learned to help themselves, it is all the same to the young ones whether or not they have parents. Neither have they to hope for instruction or care, nor need they fear admonitions, punishments, orders, prohibitions, a sour face, or a good example. They may do as they please and behave as they wish. If the parents, instead of growing angry, felt pleased or at least exercised some patience whenever their little ones are slightly chastised by order of the missionary, even for gross crimes committed by them, it would be of great help. Just the opposite happens. The mother begins to lament whenever her son or daughter is facing such punishment. She screams like a fury from hell; she tears out her hair, beats her naked breasts with a stone, and pricks her head with a pointed bone or piece of wood until blood flows, as I have witnessed more than once.

As a consequence, the children do everything they wish. They learn to imitate very early all evils committed by others of equal age or by their elders. If they are caught by one of their parents in the act of committing

some misdeed, they do not have to fear any rebuke. Children who live in the mission roam about all day long after Mass and the hour of religious instruction is over. Those who live in the open fields will go wherever and with whomsoever they choose and not see their parents for many days. Their parents in turn do not manifest the slightest anxiety about them or even inquire after their whereabouts. In view of such conditions, which a missionary cannot remedy, it is not hard to imagine that there is little use in instructing, advising, or punishing such youngsters.

May God further enlighten the Indians and preserve Europe, and especially Germany, from rearing children in the Indian manner, which in part corresponds to the plan outlined by that base-minded zealot J. J. Rousseau in his Emile , and also to the moral teachings of some modern philosophers belonging to the same fraternity of dogs. They would like to have temptations and instincts run their course freely. They think that education, so far as Faith and the fear of God are concerned, should not be taught before the eighteenth or twentieth year, which is to say, if viewed in the proper light, that all such education should be omitted. Such a plan would entirely conform to the admirable methods of the California Indians.