Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/704

 holmes] AURIFEROUS GRAVEL MAN 635

matter. He had been closely associated with the Scribner coterie in the early days, and knew all the principal people of Angels Camp almost from its foundation. It is his belief that the whole affair grew out of the "joshing" proclivities of his fellow-townsmen, and he laughed heartily as he recited the circumstances of the finding and subsequent misadventures of the so-called Calaveras skull. He went on to state that the skull had been in his store several weeks before it fell into the hands of his fun-loving associates; together with a companion specimen it had been brought to him from a burial place in Salt Spring valley, twelve miles west of Angels, by Mr J. I. Boone. I was extremely sorry not to be able to visit the supposed place of origin of so famous a specimen, for the stories seemed sufficiently circumstantial to warrant scientific attention.

Is it a Changeling Skull t — According to some of the current stories of the region the skull was placed in the mine by one of Mattison's neighbors merely as a joke, while he was at home for dinner, and he is supposed to have found it where it was buried among the debris at the bottom of the shaft. This may or may not be true ; at % any rate, as no names are given the statement cannot be verified.

The remark made by Mr Stickle and others that the skull obtained by Whitney did not come from the Mattison mine or through Mattison at all, may also have little value as evidence ; but it is suggestive, and gives rise to a legitimate inquiry as to the possibilities in the case. There were ancient skulls in plenty in this region in early times, and the valley and county received their name Calaveras — which, in Spanish, signifies skulls — from this circumstance.

The Indians of the high sierra do not bury their dead, but cast them into pits, caverns, holes in the rocks, and deep gorges. Generation after generation follows one another into these gaping Golgothas where, in a confused heap along with rude personal belongings and sacrificial offerings the bodies decay and are

�� �