

FOOD PLANTS OF THE COAHUILLA INDIANS 7 1 



On the reservations they raise cattle, especially in the mountain Coa- 

 huilla valley. They plant maize, beans, peas, potatoes, water melons, 

 squashes and. in the mountains, also wheat and barley. All but the 

 last two require irrigation, and for this purpose they make in the 

 mountains small reservoirs, by damming and deepening the springs, 

 and dig rude zanjas or irrigating ditches. In the Cabeson valley they 

 conduct the water short distances out of the canons in which it trickles, 

 or at certain villages they irrigate small patches from their wells. The 

 vegetables are boiled or fried ; the melons are a favorite fruit, as among 

 all Indians ; the barley is cut for hay for the stock, and the wheat is 

 threshed and ground on the metate to make flour. The threshing 

 is an interesting scene. The hay is piled in a small stack upon the 

 threshing floor, a circular, hardened plat of ground, called wa-ki-wa- 

 nut. Indian boys then ride ponies round this stack, while a man 

 slowly rakes the straw well under the horses' feet. An hour's hard 

 riding will thresh out a good-sized pile. The men then take rakes, 

 wa-kau-vil, and draw off the straw. Rude pitchforks, sal-sal-awit, are 

 also used. Then the women gather up the grain and chaff in large 

 baskets, se-kwd-vel-em. A winnowing cloth, ke-la, is spread on the 

 ground. The winnowing is done in the afternoon, when the fresh 

 wind from the Pacific reaches the valley. A woman fills her chi-pat- 

 mal or winnowing basket and, standing on the cloth, holds her burden 

 high above her head and shakes the contents slowly out. The chaff 

 is carried away by the wind while the heavy grain falls at her feet. 

 Heads that the horses' hoofs do not thresh out are carefully gathered, 

 placed in a deep se-kwa-vel, and the woman steps in and tramps the seed 

 out with her bare feet. The grain is either stored in the basket gran- 

 ary, mai-a-not, or put into gunny sacks, kow-kwa-nil. Two women 

 will winnow a couple of centals in the course of an afternoon's leisurely 

 work. 



51. It is an interesting question from what source these Indians 

 first became acquainted with agriculture, the use of irrigation, and with 

 those plants indigenous to America maize, beans, pumpkins. The 

 California Coast Indians do not seem to have been planters. Cabril- 

 lo's Reladon, however, records repeatedly that the Indians told them 

 that there was much maize growing in the interior. But this statement 

 is far from final. They may and they may not have understood one 

 another. He seems nowhere to have seen maize growing or in the 

 possession of the coast Indians, though he noticed their other impor- 

 tant foods, the maguey, seeds, and the acorn. 



