SOME DESERT INDIAN LORE 77 



stones into the food which has been placed in it. 

 The fruit of another kind serves as a hair-brush. My 

 fire-making friends brought a new vegetable to my 

 notice, in the shape of the flower-buds of the barrel 

 cactus {ko'-pash-em, they called them). They grow 

 in a circle at the top of the plant, and we had no 

 difficulty in gathering enough for a meal. When 

 boiled they taste midway between Brussels sprouts 

 and chestnuts, a very satisfactory dish. 



In another chapter I spoke of the agave. All its 

 relatives, the yuccas, are plants of many uses to the 

 Indians. One still finds old men and women wearing 

 sandals of yucca-fibre, and excellent saddle-blankets 

 are made from it. The root of one species, Yucca 

 mohavensis, makes very fair soap, and its seeds are 

 roasted for food. Of another species, Y. whipplei 

 (the well-known "Spanish bayonet," or quijote), 

 both fruit and flowers are eaten. So also are the 

 scarlet blossoms of the ocotillo, and the yellow flow- 

 ers of the agave; the latter, probably, for the sake 

 of their honey, which is very plentiful, but somewhat 

 bitter. The ocotillo, by the by, when not in sap, 

 makes a capital torch, burning with a white, steady 

 light as if there were some waxy ingredient. 



For food purposes, the two kinds of mesquit and 

 the chia sages, Salvia columharice and 5. carduacea, 

 were the great stand-by of the desert Indians, to- 

 gether with acorns and pifion-nuts from the sur- 

 rounding mountains. Comparatively little use is 

 made nowadays of these wild resources, but one 

 may still chance to see some old housewifely crone 

 seated on the ground and embracing with out- 



