PLANT MATERIALS USED IN MANUFACTURES 47 



Little ones are often made as toys for children. A shallow dish for 

 serving food is called a wa-yi-maL 



28. The Yucca Me haven sis (Coahuilla nin-yil) furnishes a valuable fiber 

 for weaving. The pliant, fibrous leaves are soaked and basted until the 

 pulpy part and the epidermal sheath are gone. The fibers are buried 

 in mud to whiten them and are then combed out. From these are 

 made a thick foot-pad or sandal, almost identical with the sort described 

 by Mr. Otis T. Mason. 1 They are provided with two tie-strings in 

 front, one passing between the great and second toes and meeting 

 over the instep, and a loop behind. Such sandals are called wak-ut-em 

 and are still in constant use among the old people. The Coahuillas, 

 to a limited extent only, manufacture the "cocas" or yucca fiber saddle 

 mats, once so much sought after in California by horsemen, but they 

 are still made in large quantities by the Diegenos at Warner's ranch. 

 Dr. Palmer has described the weaving of one on a small primitive 

 loom and with a shuttle. 2 They are commonly about two and a half 

 by three feet in size, very strongly and durably made, and ornamented 

 tastefully with patterns in brown, yellow, and red. I do not know the 

 plants used in preparing the dyes. A rawhide sandal is also made 

 called push-wow and its strings tack-a-chil. The fibers of the leaves of 

 the " mescal," amul (Agave deserti), make the best cordage and ropes. 

 These fibers are prepared in the same way as the yucca. An old 

 woman will then take a handful, comb them straight between her 

 fingers, wet the end with saliva and twist them into a beautiful cord on 

 her bare thigh. Such cordage is of the strongest. Bowstrings are 

 made of it that last for years. Little brooms and even hair brushes 

 are made from these fibers. 



A beautiful cordage is furnished also by the Phragmites communis 

 (Coahuilla wish), a reed with a straight- jointed stalk. These stems are 

 soaked in water and then the bark is easily removed, a layer of soft, 

 silky, yellowish brown fibers. It is twisted into a beautiful and very 

 strong cordage. Carrying nets for supporting a burden on the back 

 are woven from strings twisted from this material, and also, and per- 

 haps more commonly, from the fibers of the agave. The loop is the 

 regular diamond-shaped hammock loop and knot, and is about two 

 inches in length. The head band of the carrying net which passes 

 across the forehead is wound and thickened so as to form a pad. In 

 such a net an old woman will carry a stone mortar, weighing 150 



i" Sandals of the Cliff Dwellers," in Popular Science Monthly, March, 1897, the one figured as 

 No, 4. 



2 American Naturalist, Vol. XII. 



