ROSSBLL] ■ THE FOOD SUPPLY 79 



MEDICINAL PLANTS 



A'taftak. The root of the wikl gourd " is pounded up in mortars, 

 boiled, and the extracted juice put into the ear to cure earache. It is 

 poured into a liollow toolli to stop aching. "It kills maggots in open 

 sores." 



Ha'tam, Sphseralcea angustifolia. The leaves are boiled and used 

 as a remedy for diarrhea. Anotlior informant states that the root 

 is boiled and the liquitl extracted is used as a remedy for biliousness. 



Ka'l-aitco v-us, '"quail plant," Heliotropium curassavicum. The 

 upper part of the light yellowish root is dried and ground in mortars, 

 dried again, and grountl very tine upon the metate, when it is ready 

 to be applied to sores or wounds after they have been washed. 



Kdl.pildin. The leaves of this bush are boiled and the extract used 

 as an emetic. 



Koi, Prosopis velutina. The black gum of the mesquite is boiled 

 and the dilute liquid used as a wasii for sore eyes and open woiuids. 

 The inner bark of the ines(iuile is boiled and the liquid used as an 

 emetic and cathartic. 



KoUillt, Prosopis pubesc(>ns. The bark of the root of the screw 

 bean is pounded up in mortars, dried, and again ground into a line 

 powder on the metate; or it may be boiled without pounding or 

 gi'inding and the liquid used as a dressing for wounds. After a few 

 days, as the wound heals, the dry powder is substituted. 



OsikakamMc, Pluchea borealis. The bark of the arrow-bush root 

 is separated by pounding between stones and then placed in water 

 for a few hours to extract a liquid for waslung the face and for sore 

 eyes. 



O'sitcLW'dtjx.'f, Zizyphus lycioides. The root of this bush is pounded 

 up in mortars and boiled, the liquid extracted being used as a rem('<J3' 

 for sore eyes. 



PiJioi. An evil spirit that lives in the east is called Pilio|. lie 

 causes certain diseases, which have their appropriate songs. One 

 informant declared that a tree that grows near the Maricopa village 

 on the Gila was also called pihoj, and from it a medicine stick is 

 made that will cure diseases of the throat. The writer was unable 

 either to verify or to disprove this statement. 



Rsios. Two unidentified species of Bigelovia are used as a dress- 

 ing for scarified wounds. The bruised leaves are applied to bleeding 

 surfaces that have been cut with broken glass. 



Bsvk-ail;o]i-ul, Larrea niexicana. The leaves of the creosote bush 

 (pi. IX, a) are boiled and the licpior is allowed to cool a little, when it 

 is drunk as an emetic. The boiled leaves are also used as a poultice. 



o In pioneer days the whites used the rocits of two species of wild gourds. Cucurhita palinata 

 and r. digitata, as a cathartic, Doctor Palmer stating that they were " very much beliked by the 

 soldiers." 



