54 ETHNO-BOTANY OF THE COAHU1LLA INDIANS 



the lower, giving considerable slope to the slightly concave grinding 

 surface, which is increased by resting the upper end on several flat 

 stones. The " mano " or rubbing stone, called tdk-ish, is long, wide, and 

 rather thin ; the rubbing surface is nearly flat, the upper side convex. 

 It is held in both hands. In grinding, the woman kneels at the upper 

 end of the metate, puts a little pile of wheat in the middle of the stone 

 and, beginning with the lower edge of the heap, quickly reduces it to 

 a reasonably fine meal. A flat basket, chi-pat-mal, is placed under the 

 lower edge of the metate to receive the flour. Both the metates and 

 the mortars are furnished with neat little brooms made of a handful 

 of mescal fibers (Agave deserti) and called si-yu-vish, with which the 

 meal is brushed from the stone. The grinding is done a little at a 

 time, enough for each day, and forms a regular employment for the 

 women. 



A rather curious sifter is used for separating the finer parts of the 

 meal from the coarser, and for removing the iron pyrites grains after 

 milling. The rim is the upper portion of a basket, the bottom removed. 

 Across the smaller opening is stretched a piece of fine woven-wire 

 cloth, obtained from the whites, held in place by abrea. In early 

 times, before the wire cloth was obtainable, I suppose they must have 

 used the fibers of the yucca or agave, or the fibrous covering of the 

 soap-root or "amole" (Chlorogalum pomerdianum), which is used by 

 the Moki Indians for sifting. 1 The Tulare Indians wove a beautiful 

 basket particularly for a sifter. 



39. In methods of cooking the Coahuilla woman is rather limited. 

 Some things are boiled in an olla, a few are roasted among the coals, 

 but almost everything is dried, crushed into meal, and boiled into a 

 mush or "atole." Atole (atollt) is the Aztec word for porridge. The 

 boiled mush served daily to the Indians under the missions went by 

 this name, and thus it was adopted into the various Indian vocabu- 

 laries. " Pozzoli " is a somewhat richer mush containing beans or 

 perhaps a little pulverized dried meat. The Coahuillas call atole 

 wi- wish - wi- wish . 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE FOOD PLANTS OF THE COAHUILLA INDIANS. 



40. As already suggested, to the unsophisticated it would seem 

 that the dry and rocky slopes of the desert's sides, with their curious 



i JAMES STEVENSON, Second Report, Bureau of Ethnology ', 1879, p. 335. 



