36 ETHNO-BOTANY OF THE COAHUILLA INDIANS 



1 8. The Coahuilla house, or rather houses, for there are several types, 

 is a rather interesting ethnographical study. The most typical habita 

 tion is the jacal. Jacal is a Mexican word in wide use, derived from 

 the Aztec xa-calli, meaning a &quot;house of straw.&quot; The Coahuilla word 

 for &quot; house &quot; is kish, but an jacal is commonly called samat, a word 

 meaning also the brush and grass from which it is constructed. The 

 most typical jacal is perhaps to be found in the mountain villages. 

 The work of building is done by the men. A quantity of stout poles 

 six to ten feet long and from four to five inches in diameter are cut 

 from the &quot; greasewood,&quot; Coahuilla o-ot (Adenostoma fasiculatd], which 

 in these mountains attains the dimensions of a small tree. Sometimes 

 for the heavier pieces branches and trunks of the great manzanita 

 (Arcostaphylos glauca), which grows sometimes twenty feet high and 

 has a most beautiful bark of a reddish brown or mahogany color, are 

 used. At other times various species of mountain oak. The site for 

 the home is marked off in a rectangle, perhaps twelve by eighteen feet, 

 or smaller, according to the size desired. The trunks are trimmed so 

 as to leave a crotch at the smaller end. One is then sunk at each 

 corner of the proposed dwelling, leaving about four feet above ground. 

 Midway between each two end-posts is planted a larger, stouter trunk, 

 also crotched at the top and rising eight or nine feet above ground. 

 These six posts form the perpendicular framework of the building, 

 though a seventh may be set up about thirty inches to the side of 

 the central post at the front end, and with it form the sides of the 

 door. Three long poles are then cut and laid horizontally between the 

 corners and central posts, resting in the crotches and forming the 

 ridgepoles and sidebeams. Other poles are put on for rafters, and 

 across these and parallel to the ridgepole are laid many other lighter 

 pieces at intervals of six or eight inches. Ridgepole, sidebeams, 

 rafters, and every piece is bound tightly in its place with green, pliant 

 leaves or fronds of the Yucca Mohavensis. Stakes are driven in along 

 the sides and at the end, then brush of the salix (the willow is called 

 by the Coahuillas sak-hat] is wattled in very close to form the walls, 

 which may then be chinked or roughly plastered with mud if pos 

 sible, adobe. For the thatching, the &quot;tule&quot; or bulrush is used. The 

 tule is of well-known importance to the Indians of California. Sev 

 eral species of the scripus are carefully distinguished by the Coa 

 huillas, according to the form of the rush or stalk, by the names 

 pa-ul-em, pang-at-em, ku-ut-em, etc. These varieties grow about springs 

 or small cienegas, and are all of them of value for thatching. They 



