8o ETHNO-BOTANY OF THE COAHUILLA INDIANS 



made by saddle-tree and cinch ring. The various herbs, valuable for 

 liniments and washes described above, find thus frequent use in the 

 cure of saddle-gall. 



A curious poultice for such saddle sores is made of the root of the 

 " mock orange," Cucerbita perennis, called ne-kish. This is crushed and 

 mixed with sugar and applied to the wound. 



Is-wa-chai-al, the mistletoe, that grows abundantly upon the juni- 

 per, is dried, pounded up into a flour, and sprinkled as a powder into 

 such wounds. 



The worst saddle-gall I ever witnessed was received by the pony of 

 a Coahuilla Indian with whom I made a trip in 1897 from the Coa- 

 huilla valley across the Cabeson, descending from the mountains by the 

 trail north of Torres peak. His horse was a small black bronco of not 

 more than 750 pounds weight, and as tough as new raw-hide. Its back 

 began to be sore, however, the second day and in spite of every care 

 grew daily worse. By the time we returned to the mountains the 

 animal's withers were swollen as large as a man's head, and a sinus as 

 large as one's forearm, discharging pus, extended down each shoulder 

 to the breast. The last day of mountain climbing the horse was com- 

 pletely disabled and fell repeatedly, banging his nose and head on the 

 trail. In this extreme juncture the Indian relied for a remedy upon 

 the intoxicating Datura me.teloides^ hunting the obnoxious weed in the 

 storm-swept gorges. He crushed the entire plant between two flat 

 stones, wet it still more with water and rubbed it into the sores. He 

 said it was very strong medicine and would relieve a gall when all else 

 failed. He said further, that as a delirient it was used with extreme 

 danger, that his father, who is a medicine-man of Santa Rosa village, 

 had known four men to die at one time from indulging in it. 



Unlike the practices of the medicine-men, this knowledge of the 

 plants to be used in sickness is common to all and peculiar to neither 

 class nor sex. The knowledge in these matters is greatest, of course, 

 in the old men and women, but the good effects of some herbs are 

 known to every child. 



This wisdom is only a part of the race adjustment of this people to 

 their chosen home. 



58. The Shoshones have not been estimated highly by ethnolo- 

 gists. According to Brinton, Virchow found some of them the lowest 

 in skull-form of any tribes of the continent. 1 Whether or not the 

 Coahuillas are really superior to other tribes of Nevada and Utah I 



* Races and Peoples, p. 256. 



