“I have now mentioned the different articles forming the ordinary food of the Californians; but, besides these, they reject nothing that their teeth can chew or their stomachs are capable of digesting, however tasteless or unclean and disgusting it may be. Thus they will eat the leaves of the Indian fig-tree, the tender shoots of certain shrubs, tanned or untanned leather, old straps of rawhide, with which a fence was tied together for years; _item,_ the bones of poultry, sheep, goats, and calves; putrid meat or fish swarming with worms, damaged wheat or Indian corn, and many other things of that sort which may serve to appease the hunger they are almost constantly suffering. Anything that is thrown to the hogs will be also accepted by a Californian, and he takes it without feeling offended, or thinking for a moment that he is treated below his dignity. For this reason no one took the trouble to clean the wheat or maize, which was cooked for them in a large kettle, of the black worms and little bugs, even if the numbers of these vermin had been equal to that of the grains. By a daily distribution of about 150 bushels of bran (which they are in the habit of eating without any preparation) I could have induced all my parishioners to remain permanently in the mission, excepting during the time when the pitahayas are gathered. “I saw one day a blind man, 70 years of age, who was busily engaged in pounding between two stones an old shoe made of raw deerskin, and whenever he had detached a piece he transferred it promptly to his mouth and swallowed it; and yet this man had a daughter and grown grandchildren. As soon as any of the cattle are killed and the hide is spread out on the ground to dry, half a dozen boys or men will instantly rush upon it and commence to work with knives, flints, and their teeth, tearing and scratching off pieces, which they eat immediately, till the hide is full of holes or scattered in all directions. In the mission of St. Ignatius and in others further toward the north there are persons who will attach a piece of meat to a string and swallow it and pull it out again a dozen times in succession, for the sake of protracting the enjoyment of its taste.