4& ETHNO-BOTANY OF THE COAHUILLA INDIANS 



pounds. These carrying nets are used everywhere by Shoshonean 

 tribes, and identical ones are taken from the Cliff Dwellers of Utah and 

 Colorado. 



Cord made from the phragmites is called i-kut, the carrying net is 

 to-ko, and the head pad nach-wow. 



Splints for coarse weaving and plaiting are made from the fronds 

 of the Washingtonia filifera (Coahuilla ma-wu/), the stems of which 

 furnish also a variety of small stirring sticks for mush and flails for 

 beating out seeds. 



29. The Prosopisj uliflora furnishes a very valuable wood. It is hard 

 and durable and is adapted for various articles. Stools are carved 

 from blocks of it and wooden mortars hollowed from its trunk in which 

 the mesquite beans are pounded to a flour with long stone pestles. The 

 branches of this plant exude also a valuable gum akin to gum arabic. 

 Glue, san-ot, is also obtained from the &quot;creosote bush &quot; (Larrea Mexi- 

 cana}, on the bark of which an amber colored gum is deposited by a 

 small scale-insect. Gum for adhesive purposes is obtained from the 

 white sap of the milkweed (AscUpias fascicularis), and from the Pinus 

 monophylla. Native bitumen is of similar economic importance for 

 pitching and caulking. This mineral product abounds in California 

 under the eastern name &quot;asphaltum&quot; or the Mexican name &quot;abrea.&quot; 

 The Coahuilla name is rather a pretty metonymy. Vegetable gum 

 being called san-ot, bitumen is pa-san-ot, or the gum that resembles 

 water. Anyone who has seen the streams of molten asphaltum that 

 issue as bitumic springs from many hillsides in southern- California 

 and in hot weather flow like black sluggish currents for considerable 

 distances would not fail to recognize the figure. 



30. The root of the Yucca Mohavensis is grated and these scrapings 

 (called hu nu-wui] are used for soap. The roots of both Y. baccata 

 and Y. agrifolia are, according to Mr. Hough, thus used by the Moki 

 people. 1 Another soap-plant is of much more frequent use by the 

 Coahuillas, the Cheno podium Californicum. This plant has a long 

 carrot-like root of hard texture. It is grated on a rock and makes a 

 good soap. It is called ke-ha-wut. The valuable soap-root of the 

 coast, the plant usually meant by &quot;amole&quot; (Chlorogalum pomeridia- 

 num], which has a large, very saponine bulb, surrounded by a coarse 

 husk of fibers, does not occur in the present territory of the Coahuillas, 

 although in days past, when their ordinary range was wider, they knew 

 its use, and occasionally, now, they obtain it from the San Jacinto plains. 



i American Anthropologist, Vol. X, p. 2, 1897. 



