Beginning with the Pacific Coast, we are told by Powers (405) that, on the whole, California Indians did not make such slaves of women as the Indians of the Atlantic side of the continent.  This, however, is merely comparative, and does not mean that they treat them kindly, for, as he himself says (23), “while on a journey the man lays far the greatest burdens on his wife.”  On another page (406) he remarks that while a California boy is not “taught to pierce his mother’s flesh with an arrow to show him his superiority over her, as among the Apaches and Iroquois,” he nevertheless afterward “slays his wife or mother-in-law, if angry, with very little compunction.”  Colonel McKee, in describing an expedition among California Indians (Schoolcraft, III., 127), writes: 

“One of the whites here, in breaking in his squaw to her household duties, had occasion to beat her several times.  She complained of this to her tribe and they informed him that he must not do so; if he was dissatisfied, let him kill her and take another!” “The men,” he adds, “allow themselves the privilege of shooting any woman they are tired of.”

The Pomo Indians make it a special point to slaughter the women of their enemies during or after battle.  “They do this because, as they argue with the greatest sincerity, one woman destroyed is tantamount to five men killed” (Bancroft, I., 160), for without women the tribe cannot multiply.  A Modoc explained why he needed several wives—­one to take care of his house, a second to hunt for him, a third to dig roots (259).  Bancroft cites half a dozen authorities for the assertion that among the Indians of Northern California “boys are disgraced by work” and “women work while men gamble or sleep” (I., 351).  John Muir, in his recent work on The Mountains of California (80), says it is truly astonishing to see what immense loads the haggard old Pah Ute squaws make out to carry bare-footed over the rugged passes.  The men, who are always with them, stride on erect and unburdened, but when they come to a difficult place they “kindly” pile stepping-stones for their patient pack-animal wives, “just as they would prepare the way for their ponies.”

Among some of the Klamath and other California tribes certain women are allowed to attain the rank of priestesses.  To be “supposed to have communication with the devil” and be alone “potent over cases of witchcraft and witch poisoning” (67) is, however, an honor which women elsewhere would hardly covet.  Among the Yurok, Powers relates (56), when a young man cannot afford to pay the amount of shell-money without which marriage is not considered legal, he is sometimes allowed to pay half the sum and become what is termed “half-married.”  “Instead of bringing her to his cabin and making her his slave, he goes to live in her cabin and becomes her slave.”  This, however, “occurs only in case of soft uxorious fellows.”  Sometimes, too, a squaw will take the law in her own