This book is included in the Outdoor Survival - Bio-Regional Environments section.
FOREWORD
Sam Hicks, the author of this book, has been intimately
associated with me for nearly twenty years. He is about the best
all-around outdoorsman that I have ever met.
I first met Sam in Wyoming when he was working a ranch of his
own, and working during the hunting season as a guide and
outfitter.
Even Sam's competitors admitted that Sam was just about the
best hunter in the state. Sam can look at an elk's track, follow it
for a hundred yards, and then quit following the track and take
you to the elk.
This sounds incredible, but I have had him do it with me more
than once.
Like all tricks, there is an explanation. After Sam has followed
the track for a hundred yards or so, he knows whether the elk
is feeding, going to water, or going in to bed down. And Sam
knows the country in which he hunts so intimately that he
knows just about where the elk will go to feed, where it will go
to water, and where it will go to bed down.
After I had been on two or three hunting trips with Sam, I knew
that I needed him in my business; so I made it worth his while
to give up his ranch in Wyoming, quit his outfitting and come
down to southern California to live and adventure with me.
Together, we have been on many adventurous trips — down in
Baja California, out in the desert searching for lost mines, using
helicopters to explore terrain that has never known a footprint
in modern times, and exploring the Delta country of the
Sacramento River by houseboat.
Even before Sam knew me, he was doing writing on his own.
And, from time to time, when Sam becomes interested in
something, he writes about it, and writes about it
entertainingly.
Sam is a gregarious soul who loves people, and when we went
down into Baja California and Sam found there was a language
barrier which kept him from understanding the people with
whom we were camping, he started doing something about it —
not by conventional study but by simply talking and listening,
the way a child learns language, until he became quite fluent in
Spanish.
And just as Sam likes people, so people like Sam. It wasn't long
until the Mexicans and the Indians were telling Sam their
innermost secrets.
And since many of those secrets had to do with herb remedies,
Sam was duly impressed.
My ranch at Temecula is bounded on two sides by an Indian
reservation, and Sam became acquainted with the Indians and
their medicine and saw some very remarkable cures made by
the use of herbs. So it was only natural that Sam started
studying the herbs and then writing about them.
Much of this knowledge is rapidly disappearing from human
ken — which is a shame, because the people who have this
knowledge are the older people who can't be with us forever.
That is why I think this book in which Sam has collected so
much of the information he has acquired is a valuable
contribution to our knowledge as well as a valuable
contribution to health.
I can't guarantee that the herbs have the medicinal value which
is claimed for them, but I can state that on my ranch I have a
Mexican who believes in herb remedies. He has been with us for
several years and during several of the so-called periods of
"flu" epidemics.
When I start getting the flu, I don't monkey with it. I go to bed. I
take antibiotics and antihistamines. I drink orange juice
copiously. I have a fever thermometer; I keep a chart of my
temperature; I keep warm, and I am usually in bed for three or
four days until the fever begins to break.
When my Mexican employee starts to get the flu, he takes a
concoction of herbs and keeps right on working; and he hasn't
missed a day since he has been on the ranch.
Moreover, since Sam Hicks has become interested in herbs, he
is doing virtually the same thing.
One thing is certain — there are medicinal properties in plants
and herbs, most of which are unknown to the average modern
individual.
And, apart from any medicinal value, the authentic
compilation of knowledge which has been kept secret by
Indians and Mexicans is a valuable contribution to our
intellectual heritage.
I think this is an important book.
ERLE STANLEY GARDNER
February 7, 1966
Introduction
No one knows when herbs of medicinal value were first used,
and few care to even venture a guess. In all probability, certain
unknown early plants which produced a feeling of well-being
were recognized and ingested regularly by the primates who
preceded man. After the emergence of man, in the early dawn
of time, there followed thousands of centuries of
gastronomical experimentation by this strange, upright being,
during which time he learned to select from available foods
those which were best suited for his system.
There is no proof, but there is every reason to believe that in
the natural course of events, our earliest forbears discovered
specific roots and barks which aided their digestion after a
bountiful feast. Certain soft, green plants conditioned their
stomachs for the intake of food after prolonged fasting, in
much the same manner that a northern black bear just out of
hibernation in early spring still eats nothing for the first few
days except the grasses and wild onions which shoot up rapidly
in the wake of melting snows.
In recent centuries the progress of scientific medical research
and the discovery of so many reliable cures for man's various
ailments by dedicated doctors, have largely supplanted, among
modern people, the general need tor widespread knowledge of
herb medicines.
One of the few remaining places where I have had the
opportunity to observe a lingering interest in herb medicines
and similarly useful plants, is the desert regions of the
southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Here, in spite
of our space-age advancement and miraculous medicines, the
native people continue to display a proud knowledge of their
flora and its many practical uses.
CONTENTS I. The Tradition of Herb People II. Disinfectant and Healing Plants and Materials Yerba del Manzo, or Swamproot Melón Mescaha, or Sagebrush Yerba del Pasmo III. Medicinal Herbs of the Sierra Matarique Chuchupati Yerba de la Vibora Yerba Colorado Escorcionera Pionía Bavisa Totolmeca Manzanilla Oregano Yerba del Indio IV. Useful Cactus Plants Charamatraca Prickly Pear Cactus, or Nopal Cardón Viznaga Musaro, or Garambullo V. Medicinal, Edible and Other Useful Plants Salvia, or White Sage Chía Manrubio Blanco Estafiate Ruda, or Rue Kuanaya Ocotillo Squawbush Candelilla Popotillo Flor de San Pedro Mistletoe Ejotón VI. Beverage Teas Damiana Sycamore Bark, or Cáscara de Aliso, Tea Té de la Sierra Té del Campo VII. Medicines of Rural Mexico VIII. Alamo, or Cottonwood, and Other Trees Eucalyptus Guatamote Elderberry, or Saúco Gobernadora Higuera Cimarrona, the Wild Fig Tree of Baja Dipúa Palo Fierro, or Desert Ironwood Alamo, or Cottonwood
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