312. PLANTS USED BY INDIANS OF MENDOCINO COUNTY, CAL. 
The seeds are gathered (PI. XIII, fig. 1) almost exclusively by an 
old squaw, who, providing herself with a V-shaped basket capable of 
holding over a bushel, goes out into the fields at the proper season, 
and, by means of a piece of basket work made into the form of a ten- 
nis racket, beats off the ripe seed into the basket and then carries it 
home. The hair and the sharp points are singed off and the seeds 
parched by skillfully tossing them about with live coals in a shallow 
basket. The parched seed is then ground in a mortar until the flour isas 
fine as desired. Common salt or the ash from certain plants is added 
and the flour is generally eaten in the dry condition,  S7-ié-yd ho 
is the Yokia name applied to this flour. The seed has been shown to 
be easily improved by continued cultivation and careful selection. 
The Spanish word ** pinole” has come to be almost universally applied 
both by the Indians and whites to any meal made from parched seeds. 
Si-me'-yd ho is therefore a special kind of pinole. The same name has 
applied also to the seeds (Pl. XIII, fig. 2) from which the meal is 
made. In its original Spanish and later Mexican sense, however, the 
word was much restricted in application. 
Only one kind of pinole seed is usually collected at one time, and 
each collection is generally kept separate until after the chaff has been 
removed and the seeds ground into meal. The different kinds may 
then be mixed to suit the most fastidious taste, some particular kinds 
being frequently added in small quantity to give a particular aromatic 
taste, which is often very appetizing. When the process for the 
removal of the chaff and the subsequent parching is the same for sev- 
eral kinds of seeds, they are mixed together before the process is 
begun. The inethod must necessarily vary considerably with the kind 
of seed used. 
Bromus marginatus Nees. 
Kd'-op (the o much prolonged) (Yuki). -A rough, hairy grass with a 
simple, slightly drooping panicle of rather heavy seeds, which grows 
commonly in separate tufts 2 to 3 feet high in the damp meadows of 
Round Valley, and is known to the whites as ‘* poverty grass.” The 
seeds were formerly used for pinole. The Little Lake name for the 
grass is shd-ti'-e. 
Elymus triticoides Buckl. 
Sé’-Ail (Yuki). A tall, slim, very conspicuous gray-green erass, 3 
to 6 feet high, which grows all over the meadows and in the hills about 
Round Valley and near Ukiah. The seed is abundant, and it is so well 
known to be used for pinole that the plant has been called ‘ squaw 
grass” by the whites. It is more widely known as ‘* wild wheat.” 
The foliage makes an excellent fodder after most other grasses have 
been dried up in late summer. 
