VARIOUS MEDICINES AND POISONS. 423 
bread, then lay on hot stones and earth. The bright-red berries of the 
California holly (Photinea arbutifolia—yo'-lus) ave eaten with relish; also the 
berries of the elder, nok, and wild grapes, pi’-men. They call a grape-vine 
a bush, pi’-men-en du. ; 
Soap-root, hauh, is used for poisoning fish. They pound up the root 
fine, and mix it into pools where the fish and minnows have no way of 
escape, and at the same time stir up the bottom until the water becomes 
muddy. The minnows thrust their heads cut of the water stupefied, and 
are easily scooped up. Buckeyes are used in the same manner. Soap-root 
is also used to heal and cleanse old sores, being heated and laid on hot. 
Both soap-root and buckeyes are eaten in times of great scarcity; they are 
roasted underground thirty-six hours or more to extract the poison. 
For toothache the remedy is the root of the California buckthorn 
(Frangula Californica—lu'-hum du). It is heated as hot as can be borne, 
placed in the mouth against the offending member, and tightly gripped 
between the teeth. Several sorts of mints, hi’-suh, are used in, a tea or 
decoction for colds or coughs. _ Ague is believed to be cured by a decoc- 
tion of the little mullen (Zremocarpus setigerus—ba'-dah), which grows on 
black adobe land in autumn. Colic is treated with a tea made from a 
greenish-gray lichen (Parmelia saxicola—wa'-hat-tak), found growing on 
stones. For rheumatism they take the leaves and stems of a parasite vine 
(Galium—shesh-em) which grows up in the middle of the chaparral bush, 
heat or burn them, and clap them hot on the place. 
Yellow dock, hit’, is a valuable specific in their pharmacopeia. In case 
of acute pain of any description the root is heated hot and pressed upon 
the spot. In the spring the leaf is eaten boiled for greens, together with 
clover and many other things. 
Bunch-grass, bu’-~puh, is the subject of superstition. They believe that 
the long, slender stalks of it, discharged as arrows from a little bow against 
a pregnant woman, will produce a miscarriage; also, that they will hasten 
the time of maturity ina maiden. There is another thing which they call 
wo-ko'-mah, probably wild parsnip, which they believe to be a deadly 
poison. It will produce nose-bleed, and the people who keep it in their 
houses will surely die. I will here state that J cannot discover that the 
