82 USES OF PLANTS BY INDIANS [ETH. ANN. 33 
leaves of Pulsatilla are crushed and applied on the surface over the 
affected part. It acts as a counter-irritant and will cause a blister 
if left on the skin long enough. My informant especially cautioned 
me that it must be used externally, as it would be dangerous and 
harmful if taken internally. 
ANEMONE CANADENSIS L. Anemone, Wind Flower. 
Te-zhinga-maka" (Omaha-Ponca), “little buffalo medicine” (‘e, 
buffalo; zhinga, little; maka", medicine). 
The root of this plant was one of the most highly esteemed medi- 
cines of the Omaha and Ponca. I do not know whether its value 
rested more on real physiological effects or on the great mystic powers 
ascribed to it; however, it was prescribed for a great many ills, es- 
pécially wounds, by those who had the right to use it. It was ap- 
plied externally and taken internally, and was used also as a wash for 
sores affecting the eyes or other parts. The right to use this plant be- 
longed to the medicine-men of the Ze-sinde gens. To touch a buffalo 
calf was taboo to this gens; hence the name of the plant, “little buf- 
falo medicine.” My informant, Amos Walker, of the Ze-sinde gens 
of the Omaha, said that the plant is male and female, and that the 
flower of the male plant is white and that of the female red. 
ANEMONE cytinprica A. Gray. Long-fruited Anemone. 
Wathibaba-maka" (Ponca), “ playing-card medicine.” 
Some Ponca used the woolly fruits of this plant as charms for 
good luck in playing cards, rubbing their hands in the smoke arising 
from burning some of the fruits and also rubbing the palms with the 
chewed fruit when about to engage in a card game. 
Aqumercra canapeNsIs L. Wild Columbine. (PI. 11, 0.) 
Inubtho"-kithe-sabe-hi (Omaha-Ponca), “black perfume plant” 
(inubtho", fragrant; kithe, to make, to cause; sabe, black; hi, 
plant). 
Skalikatit or Skarikatit (Pawnee), “black-seed” (skali, seed; 
katit, black). 
The seeds are used by Omaha and Ponca, especially by bachelors, 
asa perfume. To obtain the odor the seeds must be crushed, a result 
which the Omaha commonly get by chewing to a paste. This paste is 
spread among the clothes, where its fragrant quality persists for a 
jong time, being perceptible whenever dampened by dew or rain. 
Among the Pawnee the seeds are used for perfume and as a love 
charm. In cases of fever and headache the seeds are crushed with an 
elm-wood pestle in a mortar hollowed out of the same wood. The 
resulting powder is put into hot water and the infusion is drunk. 
For use as a love charm the pulverized seeds are rubbed in the palms, 
and the suitor contrives to shake hands with the desired one, whose 
