Untitled - Smithsonian Institution

24 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 55
appropriate present. When a woman is about to be confined, her
husband's father often brings her firewood,^
Pope^ 'driftwood.' This is gathered and used as firewood. Considerable
quantities of driftwood are to be found along the Rio
Grande.
TseWi, 'pith,' 'core' of fruit. Seepage 18. This word is the adjective
t^^\ ' soft,' used' as a noun. It refers to the soft, light, spongy
tissue found in the stems of some plants. Thus: Fy,^iitsei\ 'pith
of the cornstalk' {k'y,''y,, cornstalk; txhl, pith).
Fiber
Qtvi, 'fiber.' Thus: p'aqwi^ 'yucca fiber' {p'a, Yucca baccata; rjwl,
fiber). We possibly have this word also in \iqwi, 'tendril,' and
(iwite^ 'shreddy bark.' See page 21.
P^Qj^ 'string.' This word usually applies to fiber already made into
string, but might be said of any kind of fiber.
Juice
Po, 'water,' 'juice.' This word covers all the meanings of English
'water,' 'juice.' Thus: Jc'u'ij^po^ 'juice of a cornstalk' {I>:'u\i,
cornstalk; po, water); tepo, 'sap of a valley cottonwood tree' {te,
Populus wislizeni; po^ water, juice).
^Apo, 'sweet juice,' 'syrup' ('«, sweetness; p>, water).
Melasa, 'sweet juice,' 'syrup' (< Sipimish. utelasa).
Gum
K}n'de,^ 'gum.' The gum of various plants was chewed. Gum was
also much used for sticking things together. Thus: ijivsRyhnr^,
'gum or pitch of the rock pine' {tjtvsey, rock pine; kwfe, gum).
Chewing-gum is called merely kws^.
Bark
K' oim^ 'tegument,' 'skin,' 'bark.' This is the commonest and most
inclusive word meaning 'bark.' Thus: teTvOVM^ 'valley cottonwood
bark' (fe, Populus wislizeni; Foiva, tegument, bark). The
general name for 'moss' is IcuUowa^ 'rock skin' ijcu, rock;
Uowa^ tegument, bark).
I In the seventeenth century women went to fetch firewood; see Benavides, Memorial (pp. 32, 7G):
" Nacion Tafis . . . una vieja hechizera, la qual, d titulo do ir por lena al campo, saco A otras quatro
mugeres buenas Cristianas." At Santa Clara, after peace had been made with the Apaches de Navaj6
in September, 1629, "Salian hasta las viejas por lena por aquella parte." The acquisition of donkeys,
and subsequently of horses and wagons, with iron tools, by the men, has removed wood-getting from
the women's sphere of labor. Occasionally an old widow, or a woman whose husband is an invalid,
may be seen chopping wood or gathering fallen branches.