42 ETHNO-BOTANY OF THE COAHUILLA INDIANS 



and drawings are published in the volume on archaeology before cited, 1 

 but the process can still be witnessed by any visitor to a village of 

 Coahuillas or Diegenos. 



The Coahuilla basketry is a coiled ware, the foundation of the coil 

 being composed of a narrow bunch of grass, around which is wrapped 

 closely a narrow splint. A small awl is used to punch a hole in the 

 coil next below and the wrap is passed over the upper coil, through 

 the under one, and drawn taut, binding the whole tightly together. 

 The coils are narrow, making five to seven to an inch, and there are 

 in an ordinary basket eight to eleven wraps of the splint in the same 

 distance, although the number varies greatly according to the charac 

 ter and use of the basket and the skill of the maker. 



The materials used are several. The grass forming the body of the 

 coil is the Cinna macroura, Kunth (Vilfa rigens of Bolander s distri 

 bution). 2 This grass is called by the Coahuillas su-ul. It is found 

 everywhere in their homes, dried and tied into bundles, but I have 

 found it growing only once, in a torrent-swept gorge in the mountains 

 a few miles above the desert. The materials forming the wrap vary 

 according to the color desired. Wooden splints carefully split from 

 the aromatic sumac (Rhus trilobata, Nutt) are much used. These 

 give a light straw color and are largely employed, not only by the 

 Coahuillas, but by other tribes throughout the southwest. They are 

 also dyed a very deep black by soaking them for a week or so in a 

 wash made from the berry stems of the elder (Sambucus, Spanish sauco, 

 Coahuilla hun-kwat for both bush and berry). The other material is 

 a small bulrush or reed grass (Juncus LeseneHi, Bolander). Dr. 

 Palmer calls it Juncus robustus, Watson. It grows abundantly in 

 cienegas or in damp soil. The scape and leaves are two to four feet 

 high, or more, stout and pungent. A supply of these tough scapes is 

 gathered by the basket maker and cut off at a suitable length. She 

 then takes a rush by one end and with her teeth splits it into three 

 equal portions, carefully separated the entire length of the piece. 

 Each scape thus furnishes three withes. This reed is, near its base, of 

 a deep red, lightening in color upwards, passing through several 

 shades of light brown, and ending at the top in a brownish yellow. 

 Thus this bulrush, in its natural state, furnishes a variety of colors. 



On the desert, instead of the sambucus a little green or purplish 

 plant (the Sueda suffructescens, Watson, according to Mr. Jepson s 



^United States Geographical Survey West of the tooth Meridian, Vol. VII, pp. 242-48. 

 2 This is according to Dr. Palmer s identification of the plant. 



