in mind for recourse in time of ensuing shortage, when the mass is ground on the ahst and reconsumed; and even the ordinary discharge is preserved during the seasons of less reliable food-supply. [283] An Account of the Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Californian Peninsula, as given by Jacob Baegert, a German Jesuit missionary.... Translated and arranged for the Smithsonian Institution by Charles Rau; Ann. Rep. Smithsonian Inst. for 1863, pp. 352-369. Baegert’s account of foods (pp. 363-367) is so apposite as to be worthy of quotation nearly entire: “Notwithstanding the barrenness of the country, a Californian hardly ever dies of hunger, except, perhaps, now and then an individual that falls sick in the wilderness and at a great distance from the mission, for those who are in good health trouble themselves very little about such patients, even if these should happen to be their husbands, wives, or other relations; and a little child that has lost its mother or both parents is also occasionally in danger of starving to death, because in some instances no one will take charge of it, the father being sometimes inhuman enough to abandon his offspring to its fate. “The food of the Californians, as will be seen, is certainly of a mean quality, yet it keeps them in a healthy condition, and they become strong and grow old in spite of their poor diet. The only period of the year during which the Californians can satisfy their appetite without restraint is the season of the pitahayas, which ripen in the middle of June and abound for more than eight weeks. The gathering of this fruit may be considered as the harvest of the native inhabitants. They can eat as much of it as they please, and with some this food agrees so well that they become corpulent during that period; and for this reason I was sometimes unable to recognize at first sight individuals, otherwise perfectly familiar to me, who visited me after having fed for three or four weeks on these pitahayas. They do not, however, preserve them, and when the season is over they are put again on short rations. Among the roots eaten by the Californians may be mentioned the yuka, which constitutes an important article of food in many parts of America, as, for instance, in the island of Cuba, but is not very abundant in California. In some provinces it is made into a kind of bread or cake, while the Californians, who would find this process too tedious, simply roast the yukas in a fire like potatoes. Another root eaten by the natives is that of the aloë plant, of which there are many kinds in this country. Those species of this vegetable, however, which afford nourishment—for not all of them are edible—do not grow as plentifully as the Californians might wish, and very seldom in the neighborhood of water; the preparations, moreover, which are necessary to render this plant eatable, require much time and labor.... I saw the natives also frequently eat the roots of the common reed, just as they