522 MEDICINE-MEN OF THE APACHE. 
con ellas, para que perdiesen el sentido, y no sintiesen tanto la muerte 
eruel, que las daban.”! 
Guautli, generally spelled ‘ yuautli,” one of the foods paid to Monte- 
zuma as tribute, may have been tule pollen. Gallatin says: “I can not 
discover what is meant by the guautli. It isinterpreted as being semilla 
de Bledo; but Lam not aware of any other native grain than maize 
having been, before the introduction of European cereales, an article 
of food of such general use, as the quantity mentioned seems to indi- 
cate.” 
Among the articles which the king of Atzapotzaleo compelled the 
Aztecs to raise for tribute is mentioned “ahuauhtli (que es como 
bledos).”° 
“BLEDOS” OF ANCIENT WRITERS—ITS MEANING. 
Lafitaut gives a description of the Iroquois mode of preparing for 
the warpath. He says that the Iroquois and Huron called war 
“Wondoutagette” and “gaskenragette.” “Le terme Ondouta signitie 
le duvet qu’on tire de ’épy des Roseaux de Marais & signifie aussi la 
plante toute entiere, dont ils se servent pour faire les nattes sur quoi ils 
couchent, de sorte qwil y a apparence quwils avoient affecté ce terme 
pour la Guerre, parce que chaque Guerrier portoit avec soy sa natte 
dans ces sortes d’expeditions.” 
This does not seem to be the correct explanation. Rather, it was 
because they undoubtedly made some sacrificial meal of this “duvet,” 
or pollen, and used it as much as the Apache do hoddentin, their 
sacred meal made of the pollen of the tule, which is surely a species 
of ‘“roseaux de marais.” 
The great scarcity of corn among the people passed while en route 
to Cibola is commented upon in an account of Coronado’s expedition 
to Cibola, in Coleccion de Documentos Inéditos, relativos al descu- 
brimiento, conquista y colonizacion de las posesiones Espanolas de 
América y Oceania. ° 
Weare also informed ® that the people of Cibola offered to their idols 
“polbos amarillos de flores.” 
Castaneda speaks of the people beyond Chichilticale making a bread 
of the mesquite which kept good for a whole year. He seems to have 
been well informed regarding the vegetable foods of the tribes passed 
through by Coronado’s expedition. * 
That the “ blettes” or “‘ bledos” did not mean the same as grass is a 
certainty after we have examined the old writers, who each and all 
' Torquemada, Monarchia Indiana, vol. 2, lib. 10, cap. 22, p. 274. 
2Gallatin, in Trans. Am. Ethnol. Soc., vol. 1, pp. 117-118. 
3Vetancurt, Teatro Mexicano, vol. 1, p. 271. 
4Mceurs des Sauvages, vol. 2, pp. 194, 195. 
5 Madrid, 1870, vol. 14, p. 320. 
6 Thid. 
7 Ternaux-Compans, Voyages, vol. 9, p. 159. 
