50 ETHNO-BOTANY OF THE CO AH VILLA INDIANS 



with an apology and an explanation of the noble weapon made by " los 

 antiques" (their ancestors). The string is either sinew or cord twisted 

 from the fibers of the agave. Two sorts of arrows, whi-al-em, are used. 

 One is made of two pieces ; the shaft of the jointed hollow reed, pa- 

 kal (Phragmites communis), which has a strong culm, five to ten feet 

 high. It grows in wet places and along stream banks and is closely 

 related to the "pampas grass". The end or point of the arrow is 

 made of mesquite wood hardened in the fire, or of the greasewood, 

 sanka (Adenostoma spar sifo Hum), and is inserted into the hollow end 

 of the shaft and fastened there with glue and sometimes by sinews wrap- 

 ped around it. Two feathers are attached to the shaft. This two-piece 

 arrow is identical with that made by the Yumas, Cocopahs, Chemehuevi, 

 Mojaves, Yampais, and Panamints. The Coahuillas also make an 

 arrow from the shoot of a species of wormwood, which grows abun- 

 dantly throughout the Cabeson valley and surrounding mountains, 

 hang-al (Artemesia Ludoviciana, Nutt.). These shoots are peeled, 

 notched and pointed, and straightened with the teeth. This arrow is 

 unfeathered. 



The southern California Indians use a rabbit stick, suggestive of 

 those in use among the Pueblos. Among some valley Indians these 

 are flat, curved, and carefully made. The Sabobas, at the foot of the 

 San Jacinto mountains, hunt rabbits with them on horseback. The 

 ordinary Coahuilla rabbit stick, however, is rather a small throwing 

 club made of the root and branch of the " chamiso " (Adenostoma 

 spar sif olid]. They are thrown with accuracy up to fifty yards. They 

 are called na- hat-em. The Coahuillas once used a war club like those 

 of the Yumas. 1 



CHAPTER VI. 



THE GATHERING, PREPARATION, AND STORING OF FOODS. 



34. The study of those plants which yield sustenance forms one 

 of the most instructive chapters in savage life. The record of starva- 

 tion and want lies behind the discovery of almost every plant food. 

 The thoroughness with which every grass, stalk, fruit, tuber, and seed, 

 available to the savage, has been examined, treated by fire, by leaching, 

 and by every form of analysis that can be devised, affords us a grim 

 picture of the figure of hunger that is not far from every man. 



* Yuma Club, described by LIEUTENANT MICHLER in Mexican Boundary Survey, Vol. I, p. 108. 



