Our first example is drawn from the Indians of California,
who living in a fertile country under a serene and temperate sky,
nevertheless rank near the bottom of the savage scale. The
Acagchemem tribe adored the great buzzard, and once a year they
celebrated a great festival called _Panes_ or bird-feast in its
honour. The day selected for the festival was made known to the
public on the evening before its celebration and preparations were
at once made for the erection of a special temple (_vanquech_),
which seems to have been a circular or oval enclosure of stakes with
the stuffed skin of a coyote or prairie-wolf set up on a hurdle to
represent the god Chinigchinich. When the temple was ready, the bird
was carried into it in solemn procession and laid on an altar
erected for the purpose. Then all the young women, whether married
or single, began to run to and fro, as if distracted, some in one
direction and some in another, while the elders of both sexes
remained silent spectators of the scene, and the captains, tricked
out in paint and feathers, danced round their adored bird.
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