in poisoning from Rhus toxicodendron, or Poison
Oak, and in various skin diseases."

Their food was of the crudest and simplest character. Whatever they
could catch they ate, from deer or bear to grasshoppers, lizards, rats,
and snakes. In baskets of their own manufacture, they gathered all
kinds of wild seeds, and after using a rude process of threshing, they
winnowed them. They also gathered mesquite beans in large quantities,
burying them in pits for a month or two, in order to extract from them
certain disagreeable flavors, and then storing them in large and rudely
made willow granaries. But, as Dr. Bard well says:

"Of the Vegetable articles of diet the acorn was the
principal one. It was deprived of its bitter taste by
grinding, running through sieves made of interwoven grasses,
and frequent washings. Another one was Chia, the seeds of
Salvia Columbariae, which in appearance are somewhat similar
to birdseed. They were roasted, ground, and used as a food by
being mixed with water. Thus prepared, it soon develops into
a mucilaginous mass, larger than its original bulk. Its taste
is somewhat like that of linseed meal. It is exceedingly
nutritious, and was readily borne by the stomach when that
organ refused to tolerate other aliment. An atole, or gruel,
of this was one of the peace offerings to the first visiting
sailors. One tablespoonful of these seeds was sufficient to
sustain for twenty-four hours an Indian on a forced march.
Chia was no less prized by the native Californian, and at
this late date it frequently commands $6 or $8 a pound.

"The pinion, the fruit of the pine, was largely used, and
until now annual expeditions are made by the few surviving
members of the coast tribes to the mountains for a supply.
That they cultivated maize in certain localities, there can
be but little doubt. They intimated to Cabrillo by signs that
such was the case, and the supposition is confirmed by the
presence at various points of vestiges of irrigating ditches.
Yslay, the fruit of the wild cherry, was used as a food, and
prepared by fermentation as an intoxicant. The seeds, ground
and made into balls, were esteemed highly. The fruit of the
manzanita, the seeds of burr clover, malva, and alfileri,
were also used. Tunas, the fruit of the cactus, and wild
blackberries, existed