Chapter XVI

BEAUTY AND PERSONAL GROOMING

Of Atsugewi standards of beauty Garth states: “The ideal woman was short but plump and solidly built so that she could do much work. A slim woman was considered too weak, and a very tall woman was made fun of and called lohkata (stick woman). Heavy breasts, a straight slim nose, large eyes, long black hair, and small feet were all admirable qualities. A girl with big feet was likely to be lazy, also a small foot was desirable because it would not take so large a moccasin. A mother pressed her girl child’s foot together to make it slender. The ideal man was of average height and was heavy set. If a child had a flat nose, his mother pinched it and tried to give it a higher bridge. Bow legs, it was said, might be straightened by the mother when the child was young. Also a child’s ears were pressed against his head; if the ears stood out, this was thought to indicate poor hearing. A slim hand indicated a lazy person; a short stubby hand signified a good worker.”

Garth also comments to the effect that evidently the ideals of Indian beauty had a very practical basis. The same general criteria of beauty and desirability of women seem to have prevailed among the other tribes of this region also, but Yana preferred a rather flat and broad faced feminine beauty.

The hair of both men and women among California Indians was generally worn long. The tribes of the Lassen area were no exception. However, bangs on the forehead were known. Boys and girls let their hair hang loosely, except that Atsugewi sometimes cut small boys’ hair short to make it grow better later.

Women usually parted their hair in the middle wearing it in two hanks, one hanging in front of each shoulder. Each was tied with a piece of rawhide. Women of Yana tribes often used strips of otter or mink fur for the purpose as did some Atsugewi. Yana women might add further decoration in the form of a small string of shell beads. Atsugewi women might paint their scalps at the part in the hair with red paint.

The male Indian tied his hair in a bunch which hung down the back. All local tribes, except mountain Maidu, seem also to have frequently used a small mesh hairnet made of plant fibers with a buckskin band to hold a man’s hair in a sort of roll at the back of his head. Maidu called the net wee-kah. In preparation for war or for the hunt Yana men coiled their hair on their heads with well defined top knots. For dances and other special events, male Maidu and Yana, if rich, wore mesh bonnets thickly covered with white eagle down feathers tied in so that the net strands were not visible. Bone hairpins were sometimes used among Yana and mountain Maidu men.

_NET_ _BUCKSKIN_ _DRAWSTRING_ _CORD_

Adults cut their hair off with stone knives to show grief and mourning when relatives died. Both men and women cropped their hair closely, but mountain Maidu women sometimes only trimmed it off to shoulder length. Singeing instead of cutting the hair was sometimes resorted to.

For combing the hair, Atsugewi might use a single stick, a pine cone, or a teasle burr. Mountain Maidu might use stiff pine needles, but the item most commonly used by all tribes for the purpose was the porcupine tail. The animal’s tail was skinned out, stuffed with grass, and sewed shut at the open end. Sharp ends of the porcupine quills were blunted with hot stones.

Hair was not dyed in this region. It was, however, rubbed with animal fat or bone marrow to make it look nicer by aboriginal standards. Atsugewi are said to have perfumed their hair on occasion with aromatic plant foliage. Hair and body lice were not uncommon; these were hunted and removed by hand. Maidu washed their hair frequently with common soaproot (_Chlorogalum pomeridianum_).

Faces of adults were painted for a number of occasions. Black was used to some extent by both sexes to prevent sunburn and snow-blindness if long exposure in the bright sun were expected. Although Yana men and women used red and white paint when dancing, among our other tribes face paint was used chiefly by men for dances and ceremonies.

Paint pigments were mixed with animal fat, especially deer grease, or with marrow and applied with the fingers. It was smeared on upper arms, legs, chest, and cheeks. Atsugewi and mountain Maidu blackened their eyebrows. Red pigment was either red soil, usually roasted or burned to make the color brighter, or the spores from a fungus which grows on the bark of fir trees. The fungus material was dried over a slow fire to prepare it for use. Black pigment was universally charcoal. Ashes were not used as white pigment. Students of local tribes state that chalk was employed for white paint. However, chalk is lacking in the Lassen vicinity and it is highly probable that the suitable and readily available white diatomaceous earth deposits were used for this purpose instead. Atsugewi also used blue color which was obtained in rock form by trade with their northern Pit River or Achomawi neighbors.

The light beards which started to grow on male Indians’ faces were universally removed completely by plucking with the fingers.

Earlobe and nose piercing was generally practiced by both sexes. Among Atsugewi rims of their ears as well as the lobes were perforated in some instances.

Tattooing was occasionally done by Yana, but not as commonly as among Atsugewi where women not infrequently wore tattooed vertical lines across their mouths. Both sexes commonly tattooed their cheeks with horizontal lines or with two or three lines radiating from the corners of the mouth. Arms and legs were also tattooed to a certain extent. The mutilation was done by rubbing charcoal into cuts which had been made with stone knives or by rubbing charcoal on the skin and then pricking it with bone awls or porcupine quills. However, even among Atsugewi, tattooing was by no means universal. Mountain Maidu women were sometimes tattooed with three, five, or seven vertical lines on the chin.

Earrings were worn by nearly all men and women. Atsugewi employed bone rings, clamshell beads, feathers and even painted ear ornaments. Mountain Maidu and Yana usually used bone or wooden ones, plain or decorated with feathers or shells. Abalone, like other sea shells, were received only in trade and were fashioned into pendants for ears or noses.

Nose piercing consisted of making a hole through the septum of the nose. This practice was popular among all local tribes. It was done to permit the wearing of jewelry although Yana ascribed a deeper meaning to the custom as well. They believed that no person would go to his equivalent of heaven unless the nose septum was pierced. Hence this was done to the dead and a stick inserted if it had not been done in life. Two-pointed bone nose-pins were popular inserts as were long narrow dentalium shells, or nose pendants of beads. Only among mountain Maidu were nose ornaments highly decorated.

Necklaces were common adornments too, but local tribes did not use bracelets. Items used for necklaces were perhaps bear teeth and bear claws among Atsugewi and Yana. More commonly, certainly, and used by all of our tribes were olivella shells, shaped pieces of abalone shells, small animal and bird bone rings or tubes, clamshell discs, long tooth-shells (dentalia), and Digger Pine nuts which had been parched until blackened. Their ends had then been rubbed off or holes bored through ends or sides and cleaned out. Yana also made mussel shell disks locally, not only for necklaces but as ear pendants. In later years all tribes used glass trader beads, usually interspersed with native items.

Maidu, especially their tribes of the lower elevations, went in for elaborate feather decorations and headdresses. Valley Maidu even had feather cloaks for ceremonial use.