EDIBLES—SACRED ANIMALS 379 
teasel, thresh out the seed and make flour of if; also wild rye and wild 
sunflower seed. They eat grass-nuts (Cyperus) and the seeds of the same, 
a plant with a triangular stalk. In the mountains they used to fire the 
forests, and thereby catch great quantities of grasshoppers and caterpillars 
already roasted, which they devoured with relish, and this practice kept the 
underbrush burned out, and the woods much more open and park-like than 
at present. This was the case all along the Sierra. But since about 1862, 
for some reason or other, the yield of grasshoppers has been limited. They 
are fond of a huge, succulent worm, resembling the tobacco-worm, which is 
roasted ; also the larvee of yellow-jackets, which they pick out and eat raw. 
Dogs are reared (or were) largely for the flesh which they supply, which 
is accounted by them a special dainty, and which comes well in play, like 
the farmer’s yellow-legged chicken, when other meat is scarce. Unlike the 
Miwok, they eat skunks. 
Among the animals which are, in some sort, sacred to them, is the 
rattlesnake (te’-el), which they never destroy. A story is related of an 
Indian who captured one on the plains and carefully conveyed it into the 
mountains, where he released it, that it might be less liable to the attacks 
of white men; and of another, who, seeing an American about to destroy 
one, scared it into the rocks that it might escape. The coyote also moved 
among them with perfect impunity, for he is revered as the creator of the 
universe. Before the impious American came, these animals swarmed thick 
about every mountain rancheria, and they often chased the dogs into the 
village itself. An old hunter says he has seen Indian dogs more than once 
turn on a coyote and drive it off a few rods, when it would fall on its side, 
turn up its legs, and commence playing with them. It is a singular fact 
that, in the Gallinoméro language, hai’-yuw denotes “dog”, while in the 
Yokuts kai’-yw means “coyote”. Indeed, to judge from his appearance to 
this day, the Indian dog is an animal in whose genealogy the coyote largely 
assisted. In the Wintin language the word for “ coyote” is literally “ hill- 
dog”. 
Some of the medical practice, and all of the midwifery, are performed 
by the women. In cases of severe travail they frequently employ a decoc- 
tion of scraped bear’s claws. Again, the nurse will smear her palms with 
