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They dressed in the skins of animals, were rude agriculturists, and built for themselves shelters or huts of willows, tules, and mud. The principal written source of authority for our knowledge of the Indians at the time of the arrival of the Fathers is Fray Geronimo Boscana's Chinigchinich: A Historical Account, etc., of the Indians of San Juan Capistrano.
Sholoc became a great hunter, then chief of the people of Santa Catalina, where he became a great fisherman also." The children looked grave. "Do you think such bad seasons can ever come again?" asked Gesnip. "Who can tell?" replied the mother, with a sigh. "Last year was very bad and there is little rain yet this year. That is why the men offered gifts to Chinigchinich last night."
"But we won't let them find us out, stupid one," replied his brother, impatiently. "What if Chinigchinich should be angry with us? He does not like to have children in the ceremony of the offering," said Payuchi. "I will give him my humming-bird skin, and you shall give him your mountain quail head; then he will be pleased with us," answered Nopal.
Payuchi shivered and drew a long breath. "We must get away now; Nihie will be back soon to get the offerings," said Nopal. "But first we must offer our gifts, or Chinigchinich will be angry," said Payuchi.
"Hush, do not waken mother," said Nopal, speaking very softly. "I know that the men will make an offering to Chinigchinich. I am going to watch them. We are old enough, at least I am. Do you want to come?" A star shone in at the top of the jacal, and Payuchi gazed up at it, blinking, while he pulled his thoughts together. "They will punish us if they find us out," said he at length.
When this ceremony was concluded, the dancing was resumed and kept up for three days and nights. They said that the Panes was a woman who had run off to the mountains and there been changed into a bird by the god Chinigchinich. They believed that though they sacrificed the bird annually, she came to life again and returned to her home in the mountains.
In the middle of the opening they saw, by the light of a low fire, a small cone-shaped hut. Beside it stood a gigantic figure painted and adorned with shells, feathers, rattlesnake skins, and necklaces of bone. "Come back," whispered Payuchi, his teeth chattering with fear. "It is Chinigchinich himself; he will see us, and we shall die." "No," answered Nopal, "it is only Nihie, the medicine man.
"I think he is going to make an offering of the new bow to Chinigchinich," answered Nopal. "I thought he was going to keep it and give me his old one," he added, with some disappointment. "What are they offering for?" asked the young brother. "For rain," said Nopal. "See, they are going now." In single file the men walked swiftly away, stepping so softly that not a twig cracked.
After a time Gesnip, looking up from her play, exclaimed, as she saw the black diamond pattern the weaver was making: "Mother, why are you weaving a rattlesnake basket?" "I am making it to please Chinigchinich that he may smile upon me and guard you, children, and Cuchuma from the bite of the rattlesnake. There are so many of them here this year, and I fear for you."
"Nobody must take me away from you to keep me from being hungry," said gentle Cleeta, hiding her face in her mother's lap. "If I were Chinigchinich," said Payuchi, "I would not let so many people die, just because they needed a little more rain. I would not be that kind of a god." "Hush, my child," said the mother, sternly. "He will hear and punish you. If it is our fate, we must bend to it."
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