USEFUL WILD PLANTS 



old Indian man. Immediately three or four women 

 appeared at house doors and called inquiringly 

 ^'amoleV The old man halted his donkeys, lifted 

 from one a sack, out of which he drew several pieces 

 of thick, blackish root, which he distributed impar- 

 tially among the women, and then proceeded on his 

 way. The root, it transpired, was a sort of vegetable 

 soap and answered to that strange word of the 

 women, amole. This, in fact, is the name current 

 throughout our Spanish Southwest for several com- 

 mon wild plants indigenous to that region, and rich 

 .enough in saponin to furnish in their roots a natural 

 and satisfactory substitute for commercial soap. 

 Several are species of the familiar Yucca — ^in 

 particular Y. haccata, T. angustifolia and Y. glauca. 

 Americans who prefer their own names for things 

 call them soap-root, when they do not say Spanish 

 bayonet, or Adam's Thread-and-Needle or just 

 Yucca. All three species mentioned have large, 

 thick rootstocks firmly and deeply seated in the earth, 

 so that a pick or crow-bar is needed to uproot them. 

 Before the white traders introduced the sale of com- 

 mercial soap, amole was universally used by Mexi- 

 cans and Indians for washing purposes, and the 

 practice is not yet obsolete by any means. The 

 rootstock is broken up into convenient sizes and 



168 



