IN CALIFORNIA 133 



to imprison all the heat. On top of all another fire 

 might or might not be built, and then the cooks went 

 about other business. After the expiration of a 

 given time, perhaps twelve or twenty-four hours, 

 the pit would be opened and the bulbs taken out 

 ready for consumption. This style of cooking is 

 still to some extent employed by the Indians, and 

 has the effect of developing all the innate sweetness 

 of the article cooked, as well as of increasing its 

 digestibility. 



Another famous class of Indian food is what has 

 been known ever since the Spanish occupation as 

 pinole, a word used to designate a meal made from 

 the ground seeds of certain plants, well known to 

 the squaws and collected by them in baskets. The 

 seeds employed for this purpose were very numer- 

 ous, as, for instance, those of numbers of species of 

 grasses, notably wild oats, and a species of Salvia, 

 called chia by Indians, Spaniards, and Mexicans 

 alike. The different kinds of seeds were gathered 

 separately. The squaws who did this work would 

 go into the places where the plant sought for grew, 

 and with a receiving basket held in one hand and a 

 sort of basketry ladle resembling a tennis racquet 

 in the other, would bat the seeds into a basket until 

 a sufficient quantity was had. Before being eaten 

 the seeds were parched. This was ordinarily done 



