FRS-MrRRE'co'*^™'^'] ETHNOBOTANY OF THE TEWA INDIANS 23 



Root 



Pu^ 'base,' 'buttocks,' 'stem,' 'root.' Thus: Vy,mpii^ 'corn root' 

 {Jcny^ corn plant; pu^ root). Rootlet is called 2>^^^-t 'little root' 

 {pu^ root; 'f, diminutive). 



Leaf-sheath 



K^y^yJcowa, ' leaf -sheath of corn' (k'li'y,, cornstalk; k'owa, tegument, 

 skin, bark). 



Tap'ek'owa, 'leaf -sheath of a stalk of grass' (^«, grass; p^e, stalk; 

 k'owa, tegument, skin, bark). 



£^owa, 'tegument,' either alone or postpoiindcd, would un- 

 doubtedly be the term applied to any leaf -sheath. 



Wood, Pith 



P'^, 'stick,' 'stalk,' 'stem,' 'pole,' 'trunk,' 'log,' 'lumber,' 'wood,' 

 ' plant.' P'e is used of wood as palo and madera are used in Span- 

 ish, but Spanish lena in the sense of 'firewood' is translated so. 

 JP'e is never used meaning 'firewood.' (Hodge gives as "Fire- 

 wood or Timber" clan, San Juan and Santa Clara JPe-tdoa, San 

 Ildef onso Petdoa^ Hano Pe-towa (iowa, people). ^ The rendering of 

 j9'(S in these clan names as "firewood" is incorrect according to 

 the wa'iters' Indian informants.) 



P'e is common as the first element of compounds, where it must be 

 rendered by 'wood' or 'wooden' in English. Thus: p'ekutsanda^ 

 'wooden spoon' {p'e, stick, wood; kutsatida, spoon < Spanish 

 cuehara). 



Green wood is called p'e ''otfu'iy {p'e^ stick, wood; "'otfii, 

 fresh, green, wet); dry or seasoned wood is called p'e IfPiij (p'e, 

 stick, wood; hi, dry). 



So, 'firewood.' This usually consists of dead, fallen, or drifted 

 wood, picked up or torn off; but the same word is applied to trees 

 felled for firewood. See p'e. 



A Tewa of Santa Clara told the following story: Long ago people 

 had no fire and were trying to find it — who knows how they cooked'^ 

 Perhaps they ate berries. They made four holes in a row in a slab of 

 ywsey and then they twirled a stick in the holes and out of one of the 

 holes came fire. 



A few billets of firewood, carried by means of a cord on a man's 

 shoulder and thrown down beside a woman's door, is considered an 



1 F. W. Hodge, Pueblo Indian Clans, Amer. Anthr., ix, p. 350, Oct., 1896. 



