820 PLANTS USED BY INDIANS OF MENDOCINO COUNTY, CAL. 
sweet as sugar when they are thoroughly roasted. It seems probable 
that this part does not contain much sapotoxin or saponin at this 
season. 
The last-named substance is the principle which gives to the bulb 
its value as a detergent, or soap. This use was quickly learned by the 
early Spanish settlers, who called the plant amo/e. When crushed and 
rubbed into any fabric with water it froths up like ordinary soap. 
Long before the advent of the white man this was most extensively 
used for soap by the Indians, and even now many old squaws use it 
in preference to the ordinary article. Others prefer it especially in 
cleansing baskets and in washing their hair; and, indeed, on account 
of the absence of any alkali it is really preferable for washing silk 
and any delicate fabrics. It is used considerably for the special pur- 
pose of removing dandruff from the scalp. The hair is left very soft 
and glossy. 
Besides this use as a hair wash, the roasted bulb is used antiseptically 
as a poultice for sores. The Wailakis rub the fresh bulb on the body 
for cramps and for rheumatism, This same tribe, and perhaps others, 
use a decoction of the bulb as a diuretic and laxative, and also for 
stomach ache characterized by an accumulation of gas in that organ. 
One Pomo Indian informed me that a white man advised him to use 
the soapy juice as a lotion for the cure of poisoning by poison oak 
(Rhus). 
Second in importance to the use of the bulb as a substitute for soap 
is its use as a means of stupefying fish and thus procuring them for 
food. Large quantities were caught in this way in early days, but 
now this practice is forbidden by law. The method as carried out 
on the Russian River near Ukiah and described to the writer by a 
Pomo chief, is substantially as follows: 
After the last June freshet, when the river was running very low, all 
of the inhabitants of a village or of several neighboring rancherias 
would assembie together at some convenient place on the river. The 
squaws were each provided with a quantity of the fleshy bulbs, which 
they deposited in a common heap and proceeded to mash up on the 
rocks. <A weir 6 to 7 feet high had in the meantime been constructed 
by the men by driving willow sticks into the river bed and then lash- 
ing them together by means of redbud bark. Bushel after bushel of 
the crushed pulp was thrown into the water and thoroughly stirred in. 
Much of the finer material passed through the weir; the larger pieces 
were again taken out and again crushed and thrown into the water. 
The Indians, stationed all along the stream for 3 miles or so, added 
fresh bulbs here and there and kept the water in a state of thorough 
agitation. After avery short time all of the fish, and also the eels, 
but not the frogs, were so stupefied by the poison that they floated to 
the surface and were quickly captured, either by hand or by the use 
of a shallow, coarse-meshed basket. 
