VEGETABLE SUBSTITUTES FOR SOAP 



washed free from any adhering dirt and grit. Then, 

 when needed, a piece is mashed with a stone or 

 hammer, dropped into a vessel containing water, 

 cold or warm, and rubbed vigorously up and down 

 until an abundant lather results — aiid this comes 

 very quickly. After dipping out the fibre and 

 broken fragments, the suds are ready for use. They 

 answer every purpose of soap, and are particularly 

 agreeable in their effect upon the skin, leaving it 

 soft and comfortable. A shampoo of amole is, 

 among the long-haired Southwestern Indians, not 

 only a luxury but a prescribed preliminary to cere- 

 monies of the native religious systems. Even whites 

 recognize the efficacy of the root, and an American 

 manufacturer in the Middle West has for years been 

 making a toilet soap with the rootstock of Yucca 

 baccata as a basis. It is put upon the market under 

 the name of Amole Soap. 



Certain species of Agave, that is, the Century 

 Plant fraternity, are frequent along the Mexican 

 border and contain saponin in greater or less quan- 

 tity, affording a soap substitute as do the Yuccas. 

 Best known, perhaps, is the species that Spanish- 

 speaking residents call lechuguilla (botanically. 

 Agave lechuguilla, Torr.). This is distinguished by 

 a cluster of radical, yellowish-green, spine-tipped, 



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