AGAVES OF THE UNITED STATES. 61 
covered with highly-colored representations of the ‘* Sacred 
Heart,*’’ ‘‘the Good Shepherd,” etc., to keep the mindfrom 
being inflamed with thoughts of strife and blood. A 
pinch of salt, or flavoring of orange or lemon peel, is 
usually taken with the mescal, to remove the fiery taste. 
Considered from the stand-point of food, certain species of 
Agaves growing in our Southwestern States and Territories 
are esteemed great. delicacies by the Indians. These do not 
have so great a flow of sap as the Maguay plants and are 
further distinguished from them by having shorter and 
relatively broader leaves. Several species are used, but 
they are quite indiscriminately called ‘ Mescal,’’ as is also 
the jelly-like mass prepared from them as well as the intoxi- 
cating liquor fermented and distilled from its juice. 
The species most eagerly sought after by the Apaches are 
A. Palmeri, and A. applanata Parryi. Mr. Covillet gives 
a very interesting account of the use of even the small A. 
Utahensis by the Panamint Indians. The process of cook- 
ing seems to be much the same in all cases. A large 
pit is prepared and lined carefully with small smooth stones. 
A fire is kept up within the pit until the stones are thor- 
oughly heated, and then raked out leaving the pit ready 
for use. The plants are trimmed until nothing is left ex- 
cept the hearts, which consist of the sweet juicy stalks 
and young leaves. These are heaped on the hot stones in 
the pit, covered over with grass and earth and left to steam 
for two or three days. By this time all except the fibrous 
tissue is reduced to a jelly-like mass, very palatable and 
nutritious. Captain Bourket states that the Apaches put 
in the pit a plug made of the stalk of the plant. This they 
pull out as a test, and if the end of the plug is cooked the 
squaws decide that the whole mass is. 
Dr. Parrp writes in a letter to Dr. Engelmann, that this 
* Captain J. G. Bourke. Folk Foods of Rio Grande Valley and 
Northern Mexico. 
+ Panamint Indians of California, American Anthropologist, v. 1892, 
¢ On the Border with Crook. p. 200. 
