140 WITH THE FLOWERS AND TREES 



population, though the medical brother is disposed 

 to flout them as poor stuff. Old Manuelito, whom I 

 met on the desert one day and who favored me with 

 a report on the medicinal value, as he conceived it, 

 of some herbs which I had submitted to him, put 

 the matter this way: 



"Sure good for Indian; but for white folks 

 quien sabe? Maybe no good." 



The troubles for which the redman resorted to 

 plant remedies, were usually coughs and colds, 

 rheumatism, sore eyes and digestive disorders; and 

 if an herb was good for any of these, it was often 

 considered good for all. At the present day, in 

 spite of the illuminating influence shed by Govern- 

 ment doctors and school teachers, the California 

 Indian preserves faith in his own medicine man, and 

 even among the young folk, whom white heresies 

 have made skeptical of much of the tribal tradition, 

 the remedial ways of the old people are held in re- 

 spect. As Manuelito expressed it: 



"White doctor him pretty good for colds; In- 

 dian sick abed, white doctor him no good." 



Perhaps the most widely known of California 

 plants used medicinally by the aborigines, is the 

 bitter-bark, wahoo, or coffee berry of the American 

 pioneers, or the cascara sagrada (sacred bark) of 

 the Spanish-Californians names given to a vari- 



