Volume 29 (1874) (428 pages)

October 10, 1874.]MINING AND SCIENTIFIC PRESS 233 Sharp-shinned Hawk. The sharp-rhinned hawk ranges far to the north and to the south, and is met with in every State and Territory, bnt is more ahundant in the Middle and Southwestern States than in the Northern. Mr. Audubon prononnces it “the miniature of the goshawk.’’ Not only is this likeness in its appenrance, but in the irregulsr, swift, vigorous, varied, yet often undecided manner of flight, whioh is at times, however, groatly protracted. It moves hy sudden dashes, pounces npon, or strikes such objects as hest suits its appetite, hut ao vory snddonly that it appcers quite hopeless for any of them totryto escape. It is often seen to descend headlong into a clump ot briers, regardliss of all thorny obstacles, and to emerge from the other side elntching in its sharp claws n spnrrow ora finch. At other times, two or three of them may he seen conjointly attacking n goldeu-winged wood-pecker, which had taken position against the hark of a tree in fenoied aecurity. While defeuding itself from the attack of one or two of these hawks, the wood-pecker is usually vanquished hy the efforts of nuother, which thrusts it legs forward with vivid qnickness, protrudes its aharp talons and seizes the victim hy the hack, while it tears and lacorates, Thus wouuded, it falla to the ground with its captor, where the strngvle is continued; hut n disengaged hawk now tears ont its vitala with its claws, and the repast of the assailants commences. Young chickens are often seized hy it, even in the presence of their keepera; and as mauy as twenty or thirty have heen carried away by oue hawk in as many consecutive days. Birds of vorious sizes, from the amallest warhler to the pasaenger pigeon, snd small reptiles aud insects, algo, it ia aaid, comprise its food. The roosting-placea of these hawks, in ordinary seaaons, are in the fissures of rocka, in tall trees in isolated situationa, and in precipitoua declivities overhanging turhulent strenms; hut it cautiously retires after daylight has depayee: aud leaves its resting-place hefore the ight of morning. Its nest has not ofton been invaded hy the curious investigatot into its habits at the season of incuhation. Aboriginal Botany of California. Ata receut meeting of the California Academy of Sciences, the Secretary read the following interesting paper on ‘Aboriginal Botany’ by Stephen Powers, of Sheridan, Placer county, California: As employed in this paper the word “botany” is aomewhat loosely comprehensive, nod is used for lack of a better. Under it are included . " all the forms of the vegctahle world which’ the aborigines use for medicine, food, textile fabrics, ornaments, etc. Among savages, of course, there is no systematic classification of botanical knowledge. Every oak, pine, grasa has its seperate namé; the Indian never groups individnals together, except occasionally, by adding one of the words cha, doo, popo, com, wi, back, (tree, bush, grasa, seed, root, leaf), or something of that sort. But it is not fora moment to he supposed that the Indian is a superficial obaerver; he takes careful note of the forms nnd qualities of everything that grows on the face of the earth. True, he ascribes marvellous and impossible qualities to aomeplanta—frequently thosewhich do not grow in his neighhorhood—but that does not blind him to their real properties. And aa his perceptions of individual differentintions ia nice and Minute, so his nomenclature is remarkably full. T assert without hesitation that an average intalligent Indian, even if not a medicine-man, knowa 8 much greater catalogue of names than nine-tentha of Americans. Nothing escapes him, he haa a name for everything. And, indeed, there iareason. In timea of great acarcity they are driven hy the aore paugs of hunger to test everything that the aoil producea, if perchauce they may find something that will appease the gnawinga of appetite. ‘They therefore know the properties of all herha, shruhs, roots, leavea, whether they are poisonous or nutritive, whether purgative, astringent, seda~ tive, or what not, or without any active principle. And they have often found out these thinga by bitter experience in their own peraons. It is aurprising what a numher of roots, leavea, berries and nuta the squaw will discover. She wilt go ont in the spring with nothing hut a fire-hardened stick, and-in an hour she will pick a hreaktast of preen stuff, into which there may enter 15 or 20 ingredients, though, of course, they are seldom reduced to this extremity uowadays. Her eye will he arrested hy a minute plant that willyield her only a bulhous root as large aa a lerge pea, but which the American would hase passed unnoticed. The women are generally best acquainted with the edihle mattera; while the old men are the authority as to the medicines. There are seventy-three vegetable suhstanoes mentioued in this paper. I am indebted to the Kindness of Prof. H. N. Bolander, who ideutified for me many plants that I was unahle to determine. There are a few specimens which are so scarce, nowadays, owing to the ravages of stock, or so difficult to find in flower, that it was impossihle to give their scientifio names. I will take this occasion to suy that there are uwauy substances popniarly called ‘Indian wnedicines’’ which ure humbngs, and which have been fathered upon the aborigines hy patent-medicine men. Whatever is set down in this paper hns been learned from the Indians thenisel ves In®regard to medicinnl herhs and plants, their usages are pecnliar and sometimes amusLg. As the prnotice of medicine among them is n source ofgreat profit and prestige, it ia sought to be iuvested with mystery. The medicines always are crafty men, keen observers, reticont. An old doctor always elothes his art with a groat deal of superstition, secrecy, and pompous solemuity. In answer to impertiuent young questiouers, ho says his simples do not grow enywhore in that ueighhorhood; he is obliged to purehase them from trihes liviug at & great distaues. I hnve known an old doctor and his wife, hoth n» full of guile and subtlety as au eg dead of night, orept stealthily ont of camp and gathered their potent herhs, roots, etc., then returned before any one was stirring and concealed them. The Indians referred to in this paper are the Neeshenams, of Bear River: and the flora ia that of the extreme lower foothills of Placer County. Their general name for ‘‘mediciue’’ is wenneh, which denotes ‘‘good;’’ but they frequently use the word ‘‘medicine,”” even among themselves, To hegin with the oaks, the species which producea their favorite acorus is the Quercus Gambelii, Indian name, chacow. They generrally select those trees which have a free, coarse bark and large acorns. About the middle of Octoher the barvest hegins, when the Indian, armed with a long, slender pole, ascends the tree and heats off the nuts. A tree which has been well stripped looks as if had heen scourged in a mighty hail storm. The old men generally assiat in carrying them home iu their deep, conical haskets, and there the squaw’s duties commence. Holding an acorn on a stone, she givesit a slight tap with a stone pestle called soonah, to crack the ahell, which she strips off rapidly. They are thendried and heaten to powder in small hollowa on top of aome great rock. The flour is aoaked a few houra ina lerge hollow scooped in the sand, the water draining off and carrying away the is of meat, who always arose at the. cha. hitteruess; after which it is cooked into a kind of mush in baskets hy means of hot atoues, or haked as bread underground. The acorn which stands second in favor is that of the hurr-oak(Q. lobata—Indiau, lowh). In Placer County this onk seems to he more properly Q. Douglasii; as its branchlets aro erect and rigid. There fs an oak which they call shuhehk, which seems to he somethiug like a cross betweeu the white and burr-osks, having very white and coarsely rimose bark, aud glebrons, shiuing, deeply siunnte lesves. But Professor Bolander pronounces this nlso Quercus Gambetii. The live-oakis haha; Q. Wislizenia, hammut; the hlack oak (Q, Sonomensis), hamchu. The acorns of these last are eaten only when they can procure no others. There is one other very swell species called cheepis, fonnd growiug in the monntains; hut I cannot determiuo from their descriptions whether it is the chinquapin or the whortlyherry oak. The nut-pine or silver piue is foan, toanem It ia a great favorite with them, the most usoful treethey have, and they always regret The tosee an American cutting one down, nuts are 2 choice article of food; and, burned and heaten to powder, or crushed up raw and spread on in a plaster, they form their specific for a hurn or a acald. The pitch and the mistletoe which growa on this pine are very valuhle, in their estimation, for coughs, colds and rheumatism. They set them afire, making 2 dense smndge, and then the patient, wrapped ina blanket, squats over it or stands on allfours over it, and works and shuffles hia blauket, so aa to make the smoke circulate all through it, and comein contact with every portion of hisbody. When an Indian has an arrow-wound, or wound or sore of any kind, he smears it with the pitch of this tree, and renews it when it wears off. In the spring, if food is scarce, they eat the buds on the ends of the limha, the inner hark, and the core of the cone (iaehk), which is something like a cahhage-stalk when green. The cone-core and hunch-grass are boiled together for a hair dye. They are aa proud oftheir hlack hair as the Chinese; aod when an old chief who is somewhat vain of his personal appearance, or one of the dandies of the trihe, finda his hair growing gray, he has hia squaw hoil up 2 decoction of this kind, and he sops hia bleaching locks in. it. Thetar shindac, which is worn by widows . in mourning, is made of hot pitch and burned} acorns, powdered; it is removed by means of soap-root and hot water. (In adding the word for ‘‘tree’’ or hush,’ they generally snflix the syllahle em, thus loan, toanem cha; paddu, padditem doo). Chippa is the willow, the long twigs of whioh are nsed both for arrows aud basket-making. In making an arrow, the hunter employs a rude kind of turning-lathe, a couple of stieks held in the hand, hetween which thetwig intended for the arrow is tightly clamped and twisted around, which ruhs off the hark and the alhurnum, aud makes it round. The long straight shoots of the buckeye, poaloh, poalem doo are used forthe same purpose. For the wouf in basket making, they employ the wood of the redbud (Cercis occidentalis-paddit), which is split up with flints or the finger-nails into five strings, used substantially asthread. Tho willow twig is passed round and round the hasket, thehutt cf one lapping the tip of the other, while the redbud strings are sewn over the upper and uuder the lower. Cotoh is the manzauita. Its herries are a favorite article of food, and are eaten raw, or pounded into flour in a hasket, the seeda aeparated ont, and the flour madeinto mush, or sacked aud laid away for winter. They also make quite an agreeahle artiole of cider from them, hy soaking the flour in water aeveral hours, and then draining it off. Alder is Shootoom; poisou oakais cheetoc. They are less easily poisoned by the latter than Americana; their children hnndle it a great deal while little. They eat the leaves hotn as a& preventive, and as & cure for its affects; thonghit aometimes poisons them internally. The women use the leaves freely in cooking; they lay them over a pile of roots or a hatch of acorn hread, then lay on hot stones and earth. The bright red berries of the California holly( Photinea arbutifolia—yoaus)are eaten with relish; also the berries of the elder, nock, and wild grapes—peemen. They call 2 grapevine a bush, Speenenem doo, Soaproot, howh, ia used for poisoning fish. They pound up the root fine, and mix it into pools where the fieh and minnowa have no way of escape, and atthe aame time stir up the hottom untilthe water hecomos muddy. The minnows thrust theirheads out of the water stupefied,aud are easily scooped up. Bnekeyes are usedin the same manner. Soaprootis also used to heal and cleanse oldaores, heing heated and laid on hot. Both soaprooé and buckeyes are eaten in times of great acarcity; they are roasted underground thirty-six houra or more, to extract the poison. For tootheche the remedy is the root of the California buckthorn, (Frangula Californica— luhum doo). It ia heated as hot es cen he horne, placed inthe mouth against the offending member, and tightly gripped hetween the teeth. Severel sorts of mints, heesuh, ere used in @ tea or decoction for colds or coughs. Ague is believed to he cured by a decoction of the little mullin, (Hremocarpus setigerus—badah) which grows on hlack adohe land in autumn. Colic is treeted with a tea made from a preenish-gray lichen, (Parmelia soxicola—wahattac), fouud growing on stunes. For rheumatism they take the leavea and stems of a parasite vine (Galium—sheshem), which grows up in the middle of the ohapparel bush, heat or hurn them, and clap them hot on the place. Yellow dock, feet, is a valuable apecific in their pharmacopoeia. In case of acute pain of any description the root is heated hot and pressed upon the spot. Inu the spring the leaf is eaten hoiled, for greens, together with clover and many other things, Bunch-grasa, boopuh, is the suhject of auperatition. They believe that the long, slender stalka of it, discharged as arrows from a little bow against a pregnant womau, will produce a miscarriage; also, that they will hasten the time of matnrity in a maiden. There is another thiug which they call wocoamah, probably wild parsuip, which they helieve to he a deadly poison. It will produce nose-hleed, and the people who keep it in their housea will surely die. I will here state that I can not discover that the Indians ever used poisons to any considerahle extent to rid themselves of enemies; if they did, it was the old medicine-men, and they keep the matter a secret. The Indians profess to stand in great and perpetual dread of being poisoned by one another; end no one will taste anything handed.to him hy one who is not 8 memher of his family, uoless the other tastes it first; but they imagine a hundred cases of poisoning where one actually occura. Of grasses, they eat the seed of the wild oat, (tootootem com), hut verysparingly. Wild clover, cheewee; alfilerilla, baflis; and a kind of grasa growing in wet placea (Jelica—holl) are all eaten raw wheu young and tender, or hoiled for greens, There are two kinda of mnshrooma which they consider edible. The one of which they are fondest is called poolcut, and is 2 little round ball, from the aize of a marhle to that of a hleck walnut, found under-gronnd in chapparel and pine thiokets. They eatit raw with great relish, or roast it on the eshes. Another Kind is the wachuhk, which grows in the ordinary form, hrown on the upper side, chocolatecolored aud deeply rihbed underneath, end easily peeled. Itis eaten hoiled. Higher up in the mountains they find a root looking somewhat like cork, @ piece of which they sometimes wear auspended to their clothing ase charm. It is called chook or champoo. Indiens of other iribes in the State invest differont species of Angelica with talismnnuic attrihntea. Under the popular uame of grass-nut there [Continued on Page 236.)

October 10, 1874.]MINING AND SCIENTIFIC PRESS 233 Sharp-shinned Hawk. The sharp-rhinned hawk ranges far to the north and to the south, and is met with in every State and Territory, bnt is more ahundant in the Middle and Southwestern States than in the Northern. Mr. Audubon prononnces it “the miniature of the goshawk.’’ Not only is this likeness in its appenrance, but in the irregulsr, swift, vigorous, varied, yet often undecided manner of flight, whioh is at times, however, groatly protracted. It moves hy sudden dashes, pounces npon, or strikes such objects as hest suits its appetite, hut ao vory snddonly that it appcers quite hopeless for any of them totryto escape. It is often seen to descend headlong into a clump ot briers, regardliss of all thorny obstacles, and to emerge from the other side elntching in its sharp claws n spnrrow ora finch. At other times, two or three of them may he seen conjointly attacking n goldeu-winged wood-pecker, which had taken position against the hark of a tree in fenoied aecurity. While defeuding itself from the attack of one or two of these hawks, the wood-pecker is usually vanquished hy the efforts of nuother, which thrusts it legs forward with vivid qnickness, protrudes its aharp talons and seizes the victim hy the hack, while it tears and lacorates, Thus wouuded, it falla to the ground with its captor, where the strngvle is continued; hut n disengaged hawk now tears ont its vitala with its claws, and the repast of the assailants commences. Young chickens are often seized hy it, even in the presence of their keepera; and as mauy as twenty or thirty have heen carried away by oue hawk in as many consecutive days. Birds of vorious sizes, from the amallest warhler to the pasaenger pigeon, snd small reptiles aud insects, algo, it ia aaid, comprise its food. The roosting-placea of these hawks, in ordinary seaaons, are in the fissures of rocka, in tall trees in isolated situationa, and in precipitoua declivities overhanging turhulent strenms; hut it cautiously retires after daylight has depayee: aud leaves its resting-place hefore the ight of morning. Its nest has not ofton been invaded hy the curious investigatot into its habits at the season of incuhation. Aboriginal Botany of California. Ata receut meeting of the California Academy of Sciences, the Secretary read the following interesting paper on ‘Aboriginal Botany’ by Stephen Powers, of Sheridan, Placer county, California: As employed in this paper the word “botany” is aomewhat loosely comprehensive, nod is used for lack of a better. Under it are included . " all the forms of the vegctahle world which’ the aborigines use for medicine, food, textile fabrics, ornaments, etc. Among savages, of course, there is no systematic classification of botanical knowledge. Every oak, pine, grasa has its seperate namé; the Indian never groups individnals together, except occasionally, by adding one of the words cha, doo, popo, com, wi, back, (tree, bush, grasa, seed, root, leaf), or something of that sort. But it is not fora moment to he supposed that the Indian is a superficial obaerver; he takes careful note of the forms nnd qualities of everything that grows on the face of the earth. True, he ascribes marvellous and impossible qualities to aomeplanta—frequently thosewhich do not grow in his neighhorhood—but that does not blind him to their real properties. And aa his perceptions of individual differentintions ia nice and Minute, so his nomenclature is remarkably full. T assert without hesitation that an average intalligent Indian, even if not a medicine-man, knowa 8 much greater catalogue of names than nine-tentha of Americans. Nothing escapes him, he haa a name for everything. And, indeed, there iareason. In timea of great acarcity they are driven hy the aore paugs of hunger to test everything that the aoil producea, if perchauce they may find something that will appease the gnawinga of appetite. ‘They therefore know the properties of all herha, shruhs, roots, leavea, whether they are poisonous or nutritive, whether purgative, astringent, seda~ tive, or what not, or without any active principle. And they have often found out these thinga by bitter experience in their own peraons. It is aurprising what a numher of roots, leavea, berries and nuta the squaw will discover. She wilt go ont in the spring with nothing hut a fire-hardened stick, and-in an hour she will pick a hreaktast of preen stuff, into which there may enter 15 or 20 ingredients, though, of course, they are seldom reduced to this extremity uowadays. Her eye will he arrested hy a minute plant that willyield her only a bulhous root as large aa a lerge pea, but which the American would hase passed unnoticed. The women are generally best acquainted with the edihle mattera; while the old men are the authority as to the medicines. There are seventy-three vegetable suhstanoes mentioued in this paper. I am indebted to the Kindness of Prof. H. N. Bolander, who ideutified for me many plants that I was unahle to determine. There are a few specimens which are so scarce, nowadays, owing to the ravages of stock, or so difficult to find in flower, that it was impossihle to give their scientifio names. I will take this occasion to suy that there are uwauy substances popniarly called ‘Indian wnedicines’’ which ure humbngs, and which have been fathered upon the aborigines hy patent-medicine men. Whatever is set down in this paper hns been learned from the Indians thenisel ves In®regard to medicinnl herhs and plants, their usages are pecnliar and sometimes amusLg. As the prnotice of medicine among them is n source ofgreat profit and prestige, it ia sought to be iuvested with mystery. The medicines always are crafty men, keen observers, reticont. An old doctor always elothes his art with a groat deal of superstition, secrecy, and pompous solemuity. In answer to impertiuent young questiouers, ho says his simples do not grow enywhore in that ueighhorhood; he is obliged to purehase them from trihes liviug at & great distaues. I hnve known an old doctor and his wife, hoth n» full of guile and subtlety as au eg dead of night, orept stealthily ont of camp and gathered their potent herhs, roots, etc., then returned before any one was stirring and concealed them. The Indians referred to in this paper are the Neeshenams, of Bear River: and the flora ia that of the extreme lower foothills of Placer County. Their general name for ‘‘mediciue’’ is wenneh, which denotes ‘‘good;’’ but they frequently use the word ‘‘medicine,”” even among themselves, To hegin with the oaks, the species which producea their favorite acorus is the Quercus Gambelii, Indian name, chacow. They generrally select those trees which have a free, coarse bark and large acorns. About the middle of Octoher the barvest hegins, when the Indian, armed with a long, slender pole, ascends the tree and heats off the nuts. A tree which has been well stripped looks as if had heen scourged in a mighty hail storm. The old men generally assiat in carrying them home iu their deep, conical haskets, and there the squaw’s duties commence. Holding an acorn on a stone, she givesit a slight tap with a stone pestle called soonah, to crack the ahell, which she strips off rapidly. They are thendried and heaten to powder in small hollowa on top of aome great rock. The flour is aoaked a few houra ina lerge hollow scooped in the sand, the water draining off and carrying away the is of meat, who always arose at the. cha. hitteruess; after which it is cooked into a kind of mush in baskets hy means of hot atoues, or haked as bread underground. The acorn which stands second in favor is that of the hurr-oak(Q. lobata—Indiau, lowh). In Placer County this onk seems to he more properly Q. Douglasii; as its branchlets aro erect and rigid. There fs an oak which they call shuhehk,

which seems to he somethiug like a cross betweeu the white and burr-osks, having very white and coarsely rimose bark, aud glebrons, shiuing, deeply siunnte lesves. But Professor Bolander pronounces this nlso Quercus Gambetii. The live-oakis haha; Q. Wislizenia, hammut; the hlack oak (Q, Sonomensis), hamchu. The acorns of these last are eaten only when they can procure no others. There is one other very swell species called cheepis, fonnd growiug in the monntains; hut I cannot determiuo from their descriptions whether it is the chinquapin or the whortlyherry oak. The nut-pine or silver piue is foan, toanem It ia a great favorite with them, the most usoful treethey have, and they always regret The tosee an American cutting one down, nuts are 2 choice article of food; and, burned and heaten to powder, or crushed up raw and spread on in a plaster, they form their specific for a hurn or a acald. The pitch and the mistletoe which growa on this pine are very valuhle, in their estimation, for coughs, colds and rheumatism. They set them afire, making 2 dense smndge, and then the patient, wrapped ina blanket, squats over it or stands on allfours over it, and works and shuffles hia blauket, so aa to make the smoke circulate all through it, and comein contact with every portion of hisbody. When an Indian has an arrow-wound, or wound or sore of any kind, he smears it with the pitch of this tree, and renews it when it wears off. In the spring, if food is scarce, they eat the buds on the ends of the limha, the inner hark, and the core of the cone (iaehk), which is something like a cahhage-stalk when green. The cone-core and hunch-grass are boiled together for a hair dye. They are aa proud oftheir hlack hair as the Chinese; aod when an old chief who is somewhat vain of his personal appearance, or one of the dandies of the trihe, finda his hair growing gray, he has hia squaw hoil up 2 decoction of this kind, and he sops hia bleaching locks in. it. Thetar shindac, which is worn by widows . in mourning, is made of hot pitch and burned} acorns, powdered; it is removed by means of soap-root and hot water. (In adding the word for ‘‘tree’’ or hush,’ they generally snflix the syllahle em, thus loan, toanem cha; paddu, padditem doo). Chippa is the willow, the long twigs of whioh are nsed both for arrows aud basket-making. In making an arrow, the hunter employs a rude kind of turning-lathe, a couple of stieks held in the hand, hetween which thetwig intended for the arrow is tightly clamped and twisted around, which ruhs off the hark and the alhurnum, aud makes it round. The long straight shoots of the buckeye, poaloh, poalem doo are used forthe same purpose. For the wouf in basket making, they employ the wood of the redbud (Cercis occidentalis-paddit), which is split up with flints or the finger-nails into five strings, used substantially asthread. Tho willow twig is passed round and round the hasket, thehutt cf one lapping the tip of the other, while the redbud strings are sewn over the upper and uuder the lower. Cotoh is the manzauita. Its herries are a favorite article of food, and are eaten raw, or pounded into flour in a hasket, the seeda aeparated ont, and the flour madeinto mush, or sacked aud laid away for winter. They also make quite an agreeahle artiole of cider from them, hy soaking the flour in water aeveral hours, and then draining it off. Alder is Shootoom; poisou oakais cheetoc. They are less easily poisoned by the latter than Americana; their children hnndle it a great deal while little. They eat the leaves hotn as a& preventive, and as & cure for its affects; thonghit aometimes poisons them internally. The women use the leaves freely in cooking; they lay them over a pile of roots or a hatch of acorn hread, then lay on hot stones and earth. The bright red berries of the California holly( Photinea arbutifolia—yoaus)are eaten with relish; also the berries of the elder, nock, and wild grapes—peemen. They call 2 grapevine a bush, Speenenem doo, Soaproot, howh, ia used for poisoning fish. They pound up the root fine, and mix it into pools where the fieh and minnowa have no way of escape, and atthe aame time stir up the hottom untilthe water hecomos muddy. The minnows thrust theirheads out of the water stupefied,aud are easily scooped up. Bnekeyes are usedin the same manner. Soaprootis also used to heal and cleanse oldaores, heing heated and laid on hot. Both soaprooé and buckeyes are eaten in times of great acarcity; they are roasted underground thirty-six houra or more, to extract the poison. For tootheche the remedy is the root of the California buckthorn, (Frangula Californica— luhum doo). It ia heated as hot es cen he horne, placed inthe mouth against the offending member, and tightly gripped hetween the teeth. Severel sorts of mints, heesuh, ere used in @ tea or decoction for colds or coughs. Ague is believed to he cured by a decoction of the little mullin, (Hremocarpus setigerus—badah) which grows on hlack adohe land in autumn. Colic is treeted with a tea made from a preenish-gray lichen, (Parmelia soxicola—wahattac), fouud growing on stunes. For rheumatism they take the leavea and stems of a parasite vine (Galium—sheshem), which grows up in the middle of the ohapparel bush, heat or hurn them, and clap them hot on the place. Yellow dock, feet, is a valuable apecific in their pharmacopoeia. In case of acute pain of any description the root is heated hot and pressed upon the spot. Inu the spring the leaf is eaten hoiled, for greens, together with clover and many other things, Bunch-grasa, boopuh, is the suhject of auperatition. They believe that the long, slender stalka of it, discharged as arrows from a little bow against a pregnant womau, will produce a miscarriage; also, that they will hasten the time of matnrity in a maiden. There is another thiug which they call wocoamah, probably wild parsuip, which they helieve to he a deadly poison. It will produce nose-hleed, and the people who keep it in their housea will surely die. I will here state that I can not discover that the Indians ever used poisons to any considerahle extent to rid themselves of enemies; if they did, it was the old medicine-men, and they keep the matter a secret. The Indians profess to stand in great and perpetual dread of being poisoned by one another; end no one will taste anything handed.to him hy one who is not 8 memher of his family, uoless the other tastes it first; but they imagine a hundred cases of poisoning where one actually occura. Of grasses, they eat the seed of the wild oat, (tootootem com), hut verysparingly. Wild clover, cheewee; alfilerilla, baflis; and a kind of grasa growing in wet placea (Jelica—holl) are all eaten raw wheu young and tender, or hoiled for greens, There are two kinda of mnshrooma which they consider edible. The one of which they are fondest is called poolcut, and is 2 little round ball, from the aize of a marhle to that of a hleck walnut, found under-gronnd in chapparel and pine thiokets. They eatit raw with great relish, or roast it on the eshes. Another Kind is the wachuhk, which grows in the ordinary form, hrown on the upper side, chocolatecolored aud deeply rihbed underneath, end easily peeled. Itis eaten hoiled. Higher up in the mountains they find a root looking somewhat like cork, @ piece of which they sometimes wear auspended to their clothing ase charm. It is called chook or champoo. Indiens of other iribes in the State invest differont species of Angelica with talismnnuic attrihntea. Under the popular uame of grass-nut there [Continued on Page 236.)