DAWN AND THE DONS 100
not enough. Six or seven serve in the kitchen. Five or six are constantly busy washing the clothes of the children and servants, and nearly a dozen are required to
attend to the sewing and spinning. As a rule, the Indians are not inclined to learn more than one duty. She who is taught cooking will not hear of washing clothes; and a good washerwoman considers herself insulted if she is compelled to sew or spin. All our servants are very clever. They have no fixed pay; we give them all they need. If sick, we care for them;
when their children are born we act as godparents; and we give their children instruction.” This picture is typical of the relationship that existed between the races, and from which developed a social aristocracy that gave to Spanish California a rare and distinctive charm. Probably the most unique feature, and the one most difficult mentally to grasp of this period, is the grace and refinement of manner, and the ceremonial courtesies cultivated and practiced in this remote land by adventurous pioneers. We are accustomed to associate frontier life with rude and primitive surroundings, and to think of pioneers as hardy folk with little thought for the social graces; but here was a frontier whose isolation from the world centers of civilization was all but complete, and yet where life was easy and pleasant, and the
