MCGEE] THE CACTUS HARVEST 207* 



Tbere is no such well-stuclied aud semicereinouial apparatus for tuua 

 gatbering as, for example, the Papago device made from the ribs of 

 the dead saguaro in accordance with traditional formula. 



Perhaps second in importance among the vegetal constituents of 

 Seri diet is the mesquite bean, which is gathered in random fashion 

 whenever a well-loaded tree is found and other conditions favor. The 

 woody beans and still woodier i)ods are roughly pulverized by pound- 

 ing with the hupf on any convenient stone used as an ahst (metate or 

 mortar), or, if suitable stones are not at band, they are carried in 

 baskets or improvised bags to the nearest shore or other place at which 

 stones may be found. The half-ground grist is winnowed in the ordi- 

 nary way of tossing in a basket; and the grinding and winnowing con- 

 tinue alternately until a fairly uniform bean meal is obtained. So far 

 as was actually observed this is eaten raw, either dry in small pinches 

 or, more commonly, stirred in water to form a thin atole; but expres- 

 sions at Costa Rica indicated that the meal is sometimes stirred in 

 boiling water or pot-liquor, and thus partially cooked, in times of rest 

 and plenty. 



Other vegetal products used as food comprise a variety of seeds col- 

 lected from sedges and grasses growing about the mud-flats of Laguna 

 La Cruz and other portions of the province, as well as the seeds and 

 nuts of the scant shrubbery of shores and mountains; while a local 

 seaweed or kelp is eaten in small quantity, apparently as a condiment, 

 and is sometimes carried on journeys even as far as Costa Rica, where 

 specimens were obtained in 1894. 



It is of interest to note that one of the most distinctive constituents 

 of the Sonoran tiora, aud one intimately connected with human life in 

 the great neighboring province of Papagueria, is of negligible rarity 

 in Seriland; this is the visnaga (Echinocavtus, i)robably of two or 

 three species), the thorniest of the cacti and the only one containing 

 consumable pulp and sap. This peculiar plant is of no small interest 

 in itself as a striking example of the inverse relation between pro- 

 tective devices of chemical sort (culminating in acrid, offensive, or 

 toxic juices) and the mechanical armaments so characteristic of desert 

 plants;' it is of still deeper interest economically as the sole source of 

 water over broad expanses of the desert, and one to which hundreds of 

 pioneers and travelers have been indebted for their lives; and it is 

 of intei'est, too, as a factor of Papago faith, in which the visnaga ranks 

 among the richer guerdons of the rain gods. Throughout most of Papa- 

 gueria this cactus is fairly abundant; usually there are several speci- 

 mens to the square mile of suitable soil (it is not found in playas or on 

 the ruggeder sierras), so that it is always within reach of the sagacious 

 traveler; but it diminishes in abundance toward the borders of Seri- 

 land, and not more than a dozen examples were found in the portions of 

 that province traversed by the 1895 expedition. Its rare occurrence, 



'Cf. The Beginiiius of Agriculture; The American Anthropologist, vol. vill, Oct., 1895. pp. 350-375. 



