vou. 1.} Customs of the Coyotero Apaches. 169 
lightly pressed together in several layers. In this shape they are 
dried and kept for food, being quite sweet but stringy (the fibrous 
portion, chewed and rejected, was formerly used for gun wads). 
The cores when removed from the pit resemble loaves of brown 
sugar and are nearly as sweet, all their pungency having disappear- 
ed. They are soft and greedily eaten. The syrupy juice is some- 
times expressed, the children being particularly fond of it. The 
only net used by these Indians is made from split yucca leaves and 
is used to carry this cooked agave, called by them “ mescal,’’ this 
term being applied to the plant and all its products. 
The Indian granaries are made of woven twigs in basket form, 
widest at the base, narrowed at the top, covered with plaster of 
Paris, and mounted on stands some feet in height. They vary in 
size, but usually have a capacity of several bushels. 
The cooking and carrying baskets are made from the twigs of, 
Rhus aromatica, which are long, slender and very tough. They 
are split by the teeth of the women, and rolling up elastically, are 
tied in that shape for future use. The fruit called “ squaw berries ” 
is washed to get rid of the acid exudation, insects, etc., then dried 
and pounded forfood. Acorns are made into meal after the man- 
ner of all Indians, but the small sweet ones of the dwarf oak, called 
‘‘biotas,” are eaten like chestnuts, without any preparation. 
Mesquit, ‘“‘ejd,” is much used. The pods when ripe are ground 
fine on a metate, mixed with water and formed into cakes which are 
baked in the ashes or dried in the sun. Juniper berries are eaten 
either boiled and the seeds rejected, or the whole fruit pounded up 
and made into bread. The berries of /. /e¢ragona are rather sweet, | 
but those of another species also used are resinous, Grass and sun- 
flower ( Helianthus) seeds are gathered for food. For this purpose ~ 
they are parched in a large flat basket, which being thoroughly 
moistened, the seeds are poured in and hot coals added. The bas- 
ket is then vigorously shaken with the coals uniformly distributed 
among the seeds until the practiced eye observes the time to discard 
the fire. The grains are then ready to be made into flour, which is 
either used as porridge or shaped into thin cakes and baked in the 
ashes. Both the porridge and the bread thus made are as well- _ 
flavored and nutritious as some of our own articles of wih Ri eal 
wheat cakes, for instance. 
The Apaches are very fond of greens. Species of Amarantus and, oS 
