40 ETHNO-BOTANY OF THE COAHUILLA INDIANS 



affords ample protection from the sun and suitable seclusion. Accom- 

 modations in such a ramada are vastly superior to any tent, being com- 

 modious, airy, and cool. The construction of the ramada occupies 

 the resident Indians several weeks, but it is usually torn to pieces for 

 firewood during the winter, and a new one is made on a fresh site each 

 recurring season. Nearby are built corrals and feeding racks for the 

 horses. 



The Coahuillas seldom build barns of any description, their rough 

 little ponies running loose in all sorts of weather, but pigpens and 

 chicken-houses are made of poles, brush, and earth, and sometimes a 

 circular coop, made of sticks and tules, is perched on a high platform 

 where the fowls will be safe from the coyotes. 



Of other forms of houses the adobe is in wide favor : its use hav- 

 ing been learned from the Mexicans. As in the jacal, the walls are low 

 and the roof is thatched with the scirpus. Some of the Indians are 

 building rough frame shanties of one or two rooms, in the securing of 

 which they are unfortunately encouraged. 



22. The furnishing of an Indian home is simple. At one side of 

 the door within lies the woman's broad metate and her mortar for 

 crushing seeds, both kept covered with a mat or cloth. At the other 

 side of the door stands the brown tinaja or water jar (Coahuilla kow- 

 wo-mat] brought full each morning from the spring. In the center of 

 the floor is the hearth with its few blackened cooking pots ; perhaps a 

 beautifully woven baby hammock swings from the ceiling, and in one 

 corner are the saddle and reata of the man. Bunks of poles are 

 sometimes built against the wall, but in the more primitive homes the 

 usual bed is simply an untanned rawhide and a blanket spread on the 

 floor. Supplies of food are kept in earthen ollas or beautiful grass 

 baskets, and pieces of jerked meat and bundles of herbs, together with 

 innumerable household articles, are tucked into the sides of the thatch- 

 ing. There is little to become disarranged, and the interior of an 

 jacal is usually tidy and clean. In the summer the furniture is moved 

 into the patio. 



CHAPTER IV. 



BASKETS AND BASKET-MAKING. 



23. No single manufactured article is of the same importance as 

 the basket, and for this reason it is considered separately. It is made 

 in a variety of shapes and sizes and supplies many purposes. While 



