The Spirit Land

Gallinomero (Russain River, Cal.)

WHEN the flames burn low on the funeral pyres of the Gallinomero, Indian mourners gather up handfuls of ashes and scatter them high in the air. Thus the good mount up into the air, or go to the Happy Western Land beyond the Big Water.

But the bad Indains go to an island in the Bitter Waters, an island naked and barren and desolate, covered only with brine-spattered stone, swept with cold winds and the biting sea-spray. Here they live always, breaking stone upon one another, with no food but the broken stones and no drink but the salt sea water.

Putnam & Valentine

Courtesy of F. Ellerman, Mount Wilson Solar Observatory