Page:On the border with Crook - Bourke - 1892.djvu/161

 Of the bread made from mesquite beans, as of the use made of the fruit of the giant cactus, mention has already been made in the beginning of this work. Sweet acorns are also used freely.

The "nopal," or Indian fig, supplies a fruit which is very good, and is much liked by the squaws and children, but it is so covered with a beard of spines, that until I had seen some of the squaws gathering it, I could not see how it could be so generally employed as an article of food. They would take in one hand a small wooden fork made for the purpose, and with that seize the fruit of the plant; with the other hand, a brush made of the stiff filaments of the sacaton was passed rapidly over the spines, knocking them all off much sooner than it has taken to write this paragraph on the typewriter. It requires no time at all to fill a basket with them, and either fresh or dried they are good food.

The seeds of the sunflower are parched and ground up with corn-meal or mesquite beans to make a rich cake.

There are several varieties of seed-bearing grasses of importance to the Apache. The squaws show considerable dexterity in collecting these; they place their conical baskets under the tops of the stalks, draw these down until they incline over the baskets, and then hit them a rap with a small stick, which causes all the seed to fall into the receptacle provided.

In damp, elevated swales the wild potatoes grow plentifully. These are eaten by both Apaches and Navajoes, who use with them a pinch of clay to correct acridity. A small black walnut is eaten, and so is a wild cherry. The wild strawberry is too rare to be noticed in this treatise, but is known to the Apaches. Corn was planted in small areas by the Sierra Blanca band whenever undisturbed by the scouting parties of their enemies. After General Crook had conquered the whole nation and placed the various bands upon reservations, he insisted upon careful attention being paid to the planting of either corn or barley, and immense quantities of each were raised and sold to the United States Government for the use of its horses and mules. Of this a full description will follow in due time.

The Apaches have a very strict code of etiquette, as well as morals, viewed from their own standpoint. It is considered very impolite for a stranger to ask an Apache his name, and an Apache will never give it, but will allow the friend at his side