FOOD PLANTS OF THE COAHUILLA INDIANS 63 



use among the Coahuilla Indians, I have never myself noticed any such 

 effects. 



The pifion or pine nut is a very important article of food. The 

 lower limit of the pineries, in southern California, is, of course, high, 

 being almost everywhere about 5,000 feet, and it is only by reason of 

 the fact that the Coahuillas have penetrated into the mountains from 

 the desert that this source of food is available to them at all. The 

 summits of Torres and Coahuilla mountains and the higher San Jacinto 

 peaks are covered with pines of several species ; the gigantic sugar pine 

 of the Pacific slope (P. Lambertiana, Dougl.) with a cone a foot and a 

 half in length, the Mexican nut pine (P. Sembroides), and (P. Parryana^ 

 Eng.), and also the single-leafed or Nevada nut pine (P. Monophylld), 

 so precious to the Indians of the Great Basin. These nuts are gathered 

 in large quantities, generally in the late fall of the year. Mr. B. H. 

 Butcher, of the Death Valley Expedition of 1891 has given a careful 

 account of pinon gathering among the Panamints on the west side of 

 Death Valley. 1 The tree was the P. monophylla, which has a small cone 

 three inches long. These were pulled and beaten from the trees with 

 a pronged stick and collected in light packing baskets while still sticky 

 with gum. They were then piled on a heap of brush and roasted, 

 which dried the pitch and spread the leaves of the cone. The nuts 

 were then jarred out by a heavy blow from a stone on the apex of the 

 cone. The nuts were winnowed from the chaff by tossing them from 

 a flat basket in the breeze. The Coahuillas harvest the nuts in pre- 

 cisely the same manner. Sometimes in mid-summer the cones are 

 beaten from the trees, before the ripened harvest time, thoroughly 

 roasted in a fire, split open with a hatchet and the nuts extracted. 

 Pinones are called by the Coahuillas te-wat-em; the cones te-vat, 

 and the little almond-like cavities in which the nuts lie and which are 

 exposed in section when the cone is split open are called he-push or 

 the " eyes" of the te-vat. The pine most used is the Pinusmonophylla. 



45. The sambucus or elder is of well-known value to the Indians 

 of North America and many are the purposes it serves. The Spaniards 

 in this state fully appreciated it and gave it the name by which it is 

 still well known, " sauco." The Sambucus Mexicana, Presl., is highly 

 prized by the Coahuillas. By them it is called hun-kwat. Through- 

 out the months of July and August the berries are gathered in large 

 quantities. The little clusters are usually dried carefully on the drying 

 floor and so preserved in considerable amounts. When wanted they 



i American Anthropologist, Vol. VI, p. 337. 



