1878. | Plants Used by Indians of the United States. 595 
which they place in a net. Draw strings are tied around the 
neck of the net which, when full, is let down by means of a long 
rope fastened to the centre of the draw-string. Some one on the 
ground empties the load, and the net is drawn up to be re- 
filled. Thus for many days this gathering goes on until the sup- 
ply is exhausted, or they have satisfied their wants. To hasten 
the opening of the cones, they are thrown on hot ashes for a few 
minutes. The seeds are at once removed and put into an earthen 
pot over a slow fire. After a few stirrings they are sufficiently 
parched to render the hull brittle, so as to be easily removed, 
while the oil in the kernel is set free. By this process the kernel 
is rendered more digestible and will keep for a long time. If 
not parched, the seeds would soon become rancid and mouldy. 
Algarobia glandulosa or Prosopis juliflora, in Texas, Arizona, 
New Mexico, and Sonora, grows from twenty to forty feet high, 
and eighteen inches in diameter. Charcoal is manufactured from it, 
and it is also made into handsome furniture, the grain being very 
fine. It flourishes where no other fruit tree would grow, and is 
one of the most useful trees of the deserts. It yields a gum 
nearly indentical with gum arabic for. medicinal and technical 
purposes, especially in the preparation of mucilage, gum drops, 
jujube-paste, &c. In parts of Texas great quantities are gather- 
ed for exportation. The Indians have long been acquainted with 
its valuable properties, for they not only eat it but mix it with 
mud and cover their heads with it for two or three days. When 
washed off, the hair of the oldest is not only jet black, but the 
unwelcome visitors that previously lodged therein are all dead. 
The leaves of this plant are used by the Indians of Southern 
California to give the blue color to their freshly tattooed faces, 
the spines of a species of cactus being used to puncture the skin. 
The moistened leaves are then rubbed over the markings and 
the desired color is obtained. 
The fruit of this plant is one of the leading articles of diet with 
_the Utah; New Mexico, California and Arizona Indians. It is 
gathered and housed with great care. Last winter I watched the 
process of converting the seed-pods of this plant into bread. A 
female squatted herself on the ground by a wooden mortar, the 
_ lower end of which was some distance in the ground. With a 
= long stone pestle she pounded the hard seed-pods into meal. _ 
She then tosk from her beea a small conical hat, and — a 
VOL. XII.—NO 
