Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/139

128 THE INDIAN WHO KNEW. effected milk it was the same as If the onions had been boiled in it, and sometimes it was so pronounced that the milk was spoiled for making butter. Again, these same pioneer women of Kansas can give you a. receipt for making a delicious pie from a plant which was cheap and plenty, only requiring to be gathered. This is called sheep sorrel. It has the same qualities as the pie-plant, and when properly "fixed" makes as good eating as gooseberries, currants or rhubarb.^ And last, but more important, Ysopete knew the httle isolated nooks in the ravines, where he found wild strawberries, and even gooseberries on reaching Quivira. But one secret Ysopete did not impart to other than his friends, was that at every oppor- tunity, wherever he came across an elm or other tree • he knew of, he would strip some bark and pound it into a pulp between two stones, which the natives' carried to grind their corn, making a delicious paste like cream, except not as white. A small amount of this had a soothing effect upon the stomach; counter- acting the bad effect of two much wild meat. These native secrets used by our Indian v^ere numerous and only a part of them are recorded here. The smaller party departed first after mature deliberation with Ysopete, who recited to Alonso every incident of his capture and travel over the country on his way to captivity. From v^hat he stated, it was concluded to take a direction northeast to the settlements. But poor Turk was in disgrace, for he had half acknowledged that the populous and large cities he had told them about were only villages; so from the Arkansas he was treated as a prisoner.