266 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 34 



Among the Tarahumare a plant called maquasdvi is dried and 

 kept in jars; it is boiled \vith salt and eaten like spinach. Large 

 quantities of mescal and pitaya fruits are consumed, and there are 

 other wild fruits, berries, and nuts that are gathered in their seasons 

 for food. Wlien corn is scarce the people have recourse to the leaves 

 of nopal (flat-leaved cactus) and the roots of saravi, t)r herba del oso. 

 The flowers of the pines, the flowers and young leaves of the ash tree, 

 a plant known as chinalca, leaves of beans and squashes, young maize, 

 various seeds, roots, and other vegetal substances are eaten. 

 Hartman* mentions chenopodium and the male flowers and young 

 leaves of oak. In the summer months several varieties of mush- 

 rooms are gathered for food. 



The mountain Yaqui, as well as the Tepehuane, Tepecano, Huichbl, 

 Cora, and some of the Tarasco, use, particularly in seasons of want, 

 a large variety of native vegetal foods, including a great variety of 

 wild fruits, roots, leaves, greens, and nuts, but among those of the 

 Mexican Indians who live in proximity to the whites, as the lowland 

 Yaqui, Opata, Pima, Aztec, Otomi, and others, the knowledge and 

 utilization of these resources have greatly diminished. Most of the 

 Mexican tribes were visited in the dry season, when collection of the 

 food plants was impossible. 



"The Indians of North-Western Mexico, in Congrts International des Americanistes, Stockholm, 

 1894, 128. See also C. Lumholtz, Unknown Mexico, New York, 1902. 



