CHAPTER V 



SOME DESERT INDIAN LORE 



Doubtfulness of Indian lore — The Tahquitz demon: his haunt — 

 The Pleiades legend — Toluache and its properties — The raven 

 again ill-omened — Indian word-building — Cahuilla fire-makers 

 — A desert Indian views the sea — Uses of sundry plants — Coyote 

 tobacco — Bows, arrows, throwing-clubs, baskets — Ever-useful 

 cacti and yuccas — Mesquit and chia — The hunter's instinct — 

 Fruits, wild and cultivated — Indian baskets and pottery, passing 

 arts — Medicines and other things — All necessities supplied. 



IN this chapter I pass on to the reader some items 

 of information that I have gathered, in some in- 

 stances directly, in others at second-hand, of the 

 beHefs and practices of the desert Indians, especially 

 with regard to the uses of certain plants. The topic 

 is a large one, and cannot here be more than touched 

 upon. Even so, much of what follows cannot be 

 taken as trustworthy. Every one who has attempted 

 to delve into affairs ethnological, even if he be fitted 

 for the task by study and training, knows the hope- 

 lessness of efforts to clear up the doubts and contra- 

 dictions that arise at every step. Hence these scraps 

 of supposed fact or belief are offered more for the 

 passing interest or amusement of the reader than as 

 reliable fragments of knowledge. The only items 

 not subject to this qualification are those referring 

 to the medical qualities of plants, in so far as they 

 may have been proved and accepted by authorities. 

 Of Tahquitz, or Tahkoosh, the bad spirit of the 

 Cahuillas, an Indian friend tells me that his visible 

 manifestation is as a meteor: not, however, any 



