54 CALIFORNIA DESERT TRAILS 



chapter, the barrel cactus, Echinocactus cylindraceus 

 {hiznaga or viznaga of the Mexicans) is the one that 

 first claims notice. Here and there about the rocky 

 hillsides and mesas stand these odd shapes, upright 

 cylinders from two to six feet high. The surface is 

 beautifully fluted and covered with a close network 

 of spines three or four inches long, hard as ivory and 

 sharp as needles, real works of art. On the top of the 

 cylinder there comes in spring a circle of papery, 

 rose-like, lemon-yellow flowers. They sprout di- 

 rectly from the cylinder, making a dainty pale gold 

 coronet that seems strangely out of place on that 

 preposterous tousled "nigger-head" (as the plant 

 is sometimes called). 



This portly vegetable is, as I suggested, really a 

 reservoir of water. The interior is a sponge of water- 

 holding tissue, protected from evaporation by the 

 leathery skin. Desert men, of course, know all about 

 this convenient arrangement, and draw upon it at 

 need: and many a life forfeited to the thirst-demon 

 would have escaped out of his hand if the doomed 

 wretch had but known the secret. He is an unwise 

 man, indeed, who dares that demon without the key 

 to many of the desert's problems. 



The process of tapping this source of water is 

 simple enough. The top of the "barrel" is cut off; 

 a depression is scooped in the pulp ; the surrounding 

 tissue is crushed by pounding with axe-helve or any- 

 thing that will serve as a pestle; and then a clear 

 liquid, rather flat in taste but quite drinkable, will 

 gradually exude into the hollow that has been made 

 in the pulp. Like Samson's conundrum, "Out of the 



