80 MOETAES AND PESTLES. 



and placed with other articles in the graves.' It was unquestionably used 

 as food by the Indians of former times as well as of the present, and its 

 presence indicates one of the uses to which the mortars were put. 



The identification of this seed is by Dr. J. T. Rothrock, botanist of the 

 Expedition, from whose report on the Botany of the Expedition, p. 48, we 

 take the following abstract : 



"During the summer of 1S75 my attention was called, while in Southern California, 

 to a mealy preparation iu popular use among the Indians, Mexicans, and prospectors. 

 On inquiry I found it was called " Chia." Further examination proved that it was 

 furnished by the seeds of Salvia Cohimbarice Benth. The seeds are collected, roasted, 

 and ground in the native way between two stones. This puts it in the condition in 

 which I first saw it. It is used as a food by mixing it with water and enough sugar to 

 suit the taste. It soon develops into a copious mucilaginous mass, several times the 

 original bulk. The taste is somewhat suggestive of linseed meal. One soon acquires 

 a fondness for it and eats it rather in the way of a luxury than with any reference to 

 the fact that it is exceedingly nutritious besides. It is in great demand among the 

 knowing ones who have a desert to cross or who expect to encounter a scarcity of 

 water, and what there is of bad quality. By preparing it so thin that it can be used 

 as a drink it seems to assuage thirst, to improve the taste of the water, and in addition 

 to lessen the quantity of water taken, which in hot countries is often so excessive as to 

 produce serious illness. ' As a remedy it is invaluable from its demulcent properties in 

 cases of gastro-intestinal disorders. It also holds a place among domestic remedies 

 for the same purpose that flaxseed occasionally does with us, i. e. ; a grain of the seed 

 is placed in the eye (where it gives no pain) to form a mucilage by means of which a 

 foreign body may be removed from the organ. I have found it of great service as a 

 poultice. As a matter of archaeological interest it may be noticed that quantities of 

 this seed were found buried in graves several hundred years old. This proves that the 

 use of the seed reaches back into the remote past. Indeed, I find several allusions to 

 the name Chia in the second volume of Bancroft's great work on the " Native Eaces 

 of the Pacific States," pp. 232, 2S0, 347, 360. CMawpinoM appears to have been made 

 by the so-called Aztec races from corn which was roasted and ground as the Chia was. 

 Chia was among the Nahua races of ancient Mexico as regularly cultivated as corn, 

 and often used in connection with it. Indeed, it was one of the many kinds of meal 

 in constant use, and which appear to have gone then as now under the generic name 

 of piuoli." 



Dr. Yarrow informs me that these statements as to the uses of Chia 

 are corroborated by one of his diggers living in Santa Barbara, who at once 

 recognized the seed when first discovered in the graves, and then and there 

 mentioned the various ways in which it was used at the present day, 

 particularly as a demulcent drink, and for placing in the eyes when it was 

 desired to remove obnoxious foreign substances or inflammatory action. 



