He
speaks a tongue (language it cannot be called) peculiar to himself, and
scarcely intelligible. It is a mixture, in about equal parts, of
German, English, French, Spanish, and _rancheria_ Indian, a compounded
polyglot or lingual _pi_--each syllable of a word sometimes being
derived from a different language. Stretching ourselves on the benches
surrounding the fire, so as to avoid the drippings from the pendent
salmon, we slept until morning.
_October 26_.--Mr. Schwartz provided us with a breakfast of fried
salmon and some fresh milk. Coffee, sugar, and bread we brought with
us, so that we enjoyed a luxurious repast.
Near the house was a shed containing some forty or fifty barrels of
pickled salmon, but the fish, from their having been badly put up, were
spoiled. Mr. Schwartz attempted to explain the particular causes of
this, but I could not understand him. The salmon are taken with seines
dragged across the channel of the river by Indians in canoes. On the
bank of the river the Indians were eating their breakfast, which
consisted of a large fresh salmon, roasted in the ashes or embers, and
a kettle of _atole_, made of acorn-meal.
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