38 ETHNO-BOTANY OF THE CO AH VILLA INDIANS 



hygienic features is the fact that, being easily built, it does not outlast 

 its freshness. As soon as dilapidation appears and the dirt collects in 

 the corners, down it comes and a new one takes its place on a fresh 

 site a few yards away. It is seldom that all the houses of a family are 

 left the same for two successive years. 



In the hot months the family usually moves into summer quarters. 

 The patches of maize, melons, and vegetables ripening at this time are 

 likely to be at some little distance from the permanent home. So on 

 the edge of the garden a ramada is built, and here are moved the 

 metates, pots, water jars, and other needful plunder, and a picnic 

 begins which ends only when the supply of garden truck is exhausted. 



19. The above description of an jacal is such a one as appears, 

 for instance, in the mountain Coahuilla valley. Form, and especially 

 materials, will vary greatly elsewhere. At Santa Rosa, the houses are 

 made of slabs of cedar from the trees among which the village lies. 

 These slabs are planted upright in the ground to form the sides, the 

 chinks are filled with mud, and the flat or slightly pitched roof is 

 made of poles covered with cedar bark. 



In Palm Valley are perhaps the most beautiful jacales to be seen 

 anywhere, for here are utilized the large palm leaves of the Washing- 

 tonia fililera. The pole framework is made as usual, but the thatching 

 and sides are made of these beautiful fronds. 



In the Cabeson villages the houses are built higher at the sides 

 with roofs sloping much more gently from the ridgepole. A favorite 

 material here is a tall thrifty plant, hang-al (the Artemisia Ludoviciana, 

 Nutt.), which is piled upon the roof and wattled in closely to form the 

 walls. Dirt is then piled on the roof and mud daubed thickly on the 

 sides. Some of these latter contain several rooms built on to one 

 another and are high, roomy, and really comfortable. On the desert 

 the posts, rafters, etc. are, of course, cut from the hard imperishable 

 mesquite (Prosopis juli flora). 



20. The evolution of the typical jacal is a little doubtful. Tem- 

 porary quarters, often erected for a few weeks' sojourn, many summer 

 booths and an occasional structure put together in an out-of-the-way 

 place by some old Indian, suggest that the primitive Coahuilla home 

 was quite different. Such as those just mentioned are generally nearly 

 circular or oblong in ground-plan, and are built by simply setting 

 up two or three crotched poles near together and connected with 

 poles, and leaning around these long limbs and branches. Over this 

 rude framework is piled grass or tule thatching. This is much like the 



