oiLMdRE) TAXONOMIC LIST OF PLANTS 



79 



used it only for decorative purposes, a red stain obtained from the 

 fruit being employed in painting horses and various articles of use 

 or adornment. 



NVMPHAEACEA?: 



Xymphaea advena Soland. Large Yellow Pond Lily. 



There is some dialectic variation in the speech of the four tribes 

 of the Pawnee Xation. and by one tribe, the Skidi, this plant is 

 called tukairla: by another, the Chawi, it is called fut. It is said the 

 seeds were cooked for food. This was the information given, but my 

 informants may have mistaken this plant for the next one. 



Xeltjmbo lutea (Willd.) Pers. Yellow Lotus, Water Chinquapin. 

 (PI. 10.) 



Ten-ape (Dakota). 



Tffhawe (Omaha-Ponca). 



Tsh^rop (Winnebago). 



Tnkawiu (Pawnee). 



This is one of the plants considered to be invested with mystic 

 powers. It is an important native food plant, both the seeds and the 

 tubers being used. The plant was much sought and highly prized by 

 the tribes living within its range. The hard, nutlike seeds were 

 cracked and freed of their shells and used with meat for making 

 soup. The tubers, also, after being peeled, were cut up and cooked 

 with meat or with hominy. It contributes a delicious flavor, unlike 

 any other. 



The tubers were harvested by wading into the pond to search for 

 them in the mud with the toes. When found, the mud was worked 

 away from them with the feet, and they were pulled out by means 

 of a hooked stick. In shape and general appearance they nuu-h re- 

 semble a small banana. This resemblance between the banana and 

 Xelumho tubers was remarked by the Omaha when bananas were first 

 brought to their notice, so they were called tethaire er/a:^, " the things 

 that look like tethawe,''' which is now the Omalia name of the banana. 

 NeJwnho tubers might be cooked when first iiarvested, but to pre- 

 serve them for winter use they were dried, being first peeled and 

 cut into pieces about an inch long. An anatomical feature of the 

 plant body is a ring of tubular air spaces extending longitudinally 

 throughout the stem. This characteristic also pertains, naturally, 

 to the tubers and gives rise to a droll notion in regard to them. The 

 Indians say that one who is digging these tubers must be careful to 

 refrain from snuffing through the nostrils, else the cavities of the 

 tubers which he digs will become filled with mud and so spoiled. 

 Another notion held in regard to this plant is that the ttibers gath- 

 ered by a tall man will be long, while a short man will get short 

 tubers. 



