82 CALIFORNIA DESERT TRAILS 



Lulseno rancher ia. The shapes were good, but the 

 workmanship clumsy or careless. In graceful outline 

 and delicate construction, the older specimens one 

 finds are admirable. The old ollas were sometimes 

 decorated, though seldom elaborately. In view of the 

 fragility of the vessels it is not to be expected that 

 great pains should have been spent over ornament. 

 The ground about the sites of old villages is lit- 

 tered with an astonishing amount of pottery debris, 

 and the traveller reflects with awe upon the centu- 

 ries of spanking to which these countless tokens of 

 youthful misadventure solemnly bear witness. 



Of medicines that were resorted to by the Indians 

 in olden days there were too many to be more than 

 briefly touched upon here. Some have already been 

 noticed. To name a few others that were most in 

 vogue: 



The gum of the incense-bush, Encelia farinosa, 

 was heated and applied for pain in the chest, whence 

 the plant was known as yerba del vaso. The twigs 

 of the chamiso of the desert mountains, Adenostoma 

 sparsifolia (yerba del pasmo), furnished an emetic. 

 A famous remedy, almost a cure-all, was the yerba 

 santa [Eriodictyon) . The wild buckwheat, Eriogonum 

 fasciculatum, yielded an eye-wash and alleviated 

 pain in head or stomach; and an infusion of the 

 leaves of the sumac, Rhus ovata, gave relief in case 

 of colds. Another herb of renown was the yerba 

 mansa {Anemopsis calif ornica), found in damp places 

 and thought excellent in sundry complaints. The 

 herbal remedies were supplemented by the curative 

 virtues of the thermal springs and by the very 



