[The Mountains of California by John Muir]@TWC D-Link book
The Mountains of California

CHAPTER XIII
19/22

Even the young Digger Indians have sufficient love for the brightest of those found growing on the mountains to gather them and braid them, as decorations for the hair.
And I was glad to discover, through the few Indians that could be induced to talk on the subject, that they have names for the wild rose and the lily, and other conspicuous flowers, whether available as food or otherwise.

Most men, however, whether savage or civilized, become apathetic toward all plants that have no other apparent use than the use of beauty.

But fortunately one's first instinctive love of song-birds is never wholly obliterated, no matter what the influences upon our lives may be.

I have often been delighted to see a pure, spiritual glow come into the countenances of hard business-men and old miners, when a song-bird chanced to alight near them.

Nevertheless, the little mouthful of meat that swells out the breasts of some song-birds is too often the cause of their death.


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