

DRINKS, NARCOTICS, AND MEDICINES 75 



repulsive leaves and a showy flower. Occasionally an acre or so will 

 be sprinkled with this helpful little weed. The Coahuillas call it 

 pivat-isil or "coyote tobacco," to distinguish it from the "pivat" of 

 the whites. It is still smoked, but its use is disappearing in favor of 

 the cultivated article. Formerly it was prepared by being pounded 

 up in small stone mortars, especially kept for this purpose, mixed with 

 water and chewed. 



Two varieties of the milkweed, Asclepias, furnish a curious product. 

 The white sap in these plants, which exudes freely when its stem is cut, 

 is collected by the Coahuillas in a cup and set aside for one night to 

 solidify. Sometimes it is heated over the fire. After being thus coag- 

 ulated, it is chewed. Its bitter taste disappears after a little and a 

 tasteless gum is left which affords inexhaustible satisfaction to the user. 

 One of these varieties, Asdepias erosa, Torn, is called ke-at; the other, 

 which has a red flower, the species of which has not been determined 

 by me, is called wich-sal. The prepared gum is chil-se. Bancroft Lii 



The passion for intoxicants among Indians, as is well known, is 

 strong. Havard, in his monograph, cites a number of plants used by 

 them as intoxicants or delirients. The Coahuillas, in their native 

 state, seem to have been quite largely free from the use of such drugs. 

 They did not, so far as I can learn, ever distil or ferment the agave, 

 as did the Apaches in the manufacture of their "tiz-win." There is 

 one plant, cited also by Havard, which contains a very poisonous ele- 

 ment, which was used by the Coahuillas to produce delirium. This is 

 the Datura meteloides, which they call ki-ki-sow-il. It is a small 

 repulsive annual with a broad leaf and for fruit a large burr. The 

 whole plant is, or formerly was, pounded up, mixed with water and 

 drunk in small quantities, which produced the stimulus and eventual 

 unconsciousness desired. It evidently contains an active poison, and, 

 according to the Coahuillas, used frequently to produce death. It is 

 now almost wholly avoided. Havard says of it that it was smoked and 

 added to intoxicating drinks by the Colorado river and Pah Ute tribes. 



The appetites or cravings which lead men in all parts of the world 

 to indulge in stimulants is a very curious physiological phenomenon. 

 Its real basis does not seem yet to be fully understood. The wide 

 comparison of the use of such principles or drugs should assist in 

 determining the nature of alcoholism and attendant morbid appetites. 



54. Anyone whose fortune it is to associate at all intimately with 

 almost any of the Indians of North America must shortly become 

 aware of the intensity of their religious feeling and experience. The 



