WATER HEMLOCK. K>1 



coyote said, in a bragging way. that he, too, could do those things just 

 as well as Isis, and Isis said; "Very well, go ahead and make a 

 flower.' 1 Then the coyote, who knew that lie really couldn't make 

 much of anything, was greatly ashamed, but he went oft' iu the grass 

 a little way and vomited, and on that spot pretty soon this great, rank, 

 yellow-flowered weed canto up. And that was the best the smart 

 coyote could do. 



APIACEAE 



Carum gairdneri (Hook. *V Am.) (Jray. 



Ndalk, — A plant closely related to epa (Carina oreganttm), and so 

 much like it as not to be distinguishable to an unpracticed eye. Epa 

 has shorter, stouter roots than ndalk, and a slightly different taste. 

 The roots are a common article of food not only among the Klamaths, 

 but among tlie Umatillas, who call it sa-hwet'; among the I'tes, who 

 call it yam'- pa, and in many other tribes. 



Carum oreganum Wats. 



E'-pu. — A slender, white-flowered, umbelliferous plant, without a 

 popular English name, but rather commonly known among the whites 

 by its Indian designation. This is one of the earliest spring plants 

 gathered for food, the roots being dug about the 1st of May, at which 

 time the contents are soft and milky. The root is commonly dried and 

 eaten raw. (See also Carum gairdnerl.) 



Cicuta maculata I>. 



8M' -iciinks. — One of the species of water hemlock, white-flowered, 

 umbelliferous plants, common in swamps and along streams, the roots 

 containing a deadly poison. It is not clear from the specimens col- 

 lected whether the species of the Klamath country is maculata or some 

 very closely related one. The roots mashed and mixed with poison 

 from a rattlesnake's poison sacs or with the decomposed liver of a deer 

 or some other animal, which has been buried in the ground a i'ew days, 

 was used to poison Avar arrows, the heads of the arrows being dipped 

 in the moist mixture and dried over a special kind of tire with a certain 

 ceremonial. Cicuta was sometimes used among Indians to poison 

 people in very much the same way as arsenic or other well known 

 poisons are used in civilized communities. It was also stated that 

 pieces of dead fish dried in a certain manner (my informant did not 

 know exactly how) are a deadly poison when taken in food. 



Cicuta roots have the reputation of killing horses and cattle. In 

 tramping in marshes when; the plants abound, the animals crush the 

 roots, and the poisoned water in the hoof holes is afterwards drunk or 

 the exposed roots eaten. 



