Plants and Animals of

the Jaredites and Lehites

by Howard Wood; Devon, England

‘All manner of food for their flocks & herds’

4
And it came to pass that when they had prepared all manner of food,
that thereby they might subsist upon the water, and also food for
their flocks and herds, and whatsoever beast or animal or fowl that
they should carry with them—and it came to pass that when they had
done all these things they got aboard of their vessels or barges, and set
forth into the sea, commending themselves unto the Lord their God.

The above verse tells us as to the Jaredite’s migratory preparation.

They not only had to prepare food for themselves, but also for their
animals. We need to ask what grains, seeds, cuttings and animals did
they attempt to bring in hopes of propagating, cultivating, and/or
raising.

Mesopotamian diet of the Jaredites

Having an idea for what the Jaredites ate on a daily basis previous to
their migration will give us an idea as what plants & animals they may
have brought with them.

Mesopotamian food is known from archaeology and written records on

cuneiform tablets. These sources indicate the importance of barley
bread, of which many kinds are named, and barley and wheat cakes, and
grain and legume soups; of onions, leeks and garlic; of vegetables
including chate melon, and of fruits including apple, fig and grape; of
honey and cheese; of several culinary herbs; and of butter and
vegetable oil. Sumerians drank beer often, wine seldom if at all; wine
was better known in northern Mesopotamia and in later items. Animal
foods included pork, mutton, beef, fowl including ducks and pigeons,

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and many kinds of fish. Meats were salted; fruits were conserved in
honey; various foods, including apples, were dried.

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Israelite diet of the Lehites
Wheat and barley were the current grains and were eaten cooked or
parched on a hot plate, or ground into flour by crushing the grain
between two pieces of stone. The common vegetables were lentils,
coarse beans, and cucumbers; squash and pumpkin, tomato and potato
were as yet unknown. Flavoring was supplied by onions, leeks, and garlic.

The basic fruits were figs, dates, grapes, pomegranates, and sycamore
figs. Olives were used especially for their oil. Figs, raisins, and dates
were dried for future use. Oranges and bananas were introduced only
after the Arab conquest (7th century A.D.).

The chief domesticated animals were sheep, goats, cattle and donkeys.
Poultry and eggs seem to have been introduced in Palestine only after
the exile.

Sheep were of the fat-tail variety. The tail of these sheep often
weighs more than ten pounds and its fat was considered a great
delicacy, even as it is today among Arab peasants. The flesh of the
sheep is still the main meat in Bible lands and their wool serves for
clothing. Goat's meat was also eaten, and their hair woven into cloth
which was used for tents and also for cheaper clothes. Goats' skins
were used as containers for wine. The chief value of goats, was as
producers of milk, of which they were the chief source. Arabs prefer
goats' milk to that of cows.

Fish was eaten and was plentiful along the Mediterranean and the Sea
of Galilee. Phoenician merchants shipped seafood to Jerusalem markets
where it was sold near the Fish Gate. Fish products from Galilee were
salted and dried and sent great distances.

Salt was secured in the Biblical period as now, by evaporation in beds

or pans from waters along the rim of the Dead Sea and the
Mediterranean. It was also mined from cliffs along the Dead Sea.

Sugar was unknown but honey was extensively produced in the highland
apiaries and shipped abroad. Candies made of dates, honey and nuts
were so plentiful and excellent that they were exported to Tyre (Ez.
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 27:17). In Bible times as now, sticky sweetmeats, of which the people
are very fond, were always available in the bazaars.

‘All manner of fruit and of grain’

Jaredites: 17 Having all manner of fruit, and of grain, and of silks, and
of fine linen, and of gold, and of silver, and of precious things. . . (Ether
9:17)

Lehites: 21 And it came to pass that the people of Nephi did till the land,
and raise all manner of grain, and of fruit, . . . (Enos 1: 21)
9
And we began to till the ground, yea, even with all manner of seeds,
with seeds of corn, and of wheat, and of barley, and with neas, and with
sheum, and with seeds of all manner of fruits; and we did begin to
multiply and prosper in the land. (Mosiah 9:9)

Domestication of Plants . . . In the ‘Promised Land’

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By roughly 6000 BC, hunter-gatherers
living in the highlands and lowlands of
Mesoamerica began to develop agricultural
practices with early cultivation of squash
and chiles. The earliest example of maize
comes from Guila Naquitz, a cave in
Oaxaca, that dates to ca. 4000 BC. It
should be noted, however, that earlier
maize samples have been documented at the Los Ladrones cave site in
Panama, ca. 5500 BC. Slightly thereafter, other crops begin to be
cultivated by the semi-agrarian communities throughout Mesoamerica.
Although maize is the most common domesticate, the common bean, tepary
bean, scarlet runner bean, jicama, tomato and squash all become common
cultivates by 3500 BC. At the same time, cotton, yucca and agave were
exploited for fibers and textile materials. By 2000 BC corn is the staple
crop in the region and would remain so up through modern times. The
Breadnut tree was an occasional substitute for maize in producing flour.

Fruit was also important in the daily diet of Mesoamerican cultures.

Some of the main ones consumed include Avocado, Papaya, Guava,
Mamey, Zapote, and Anona, among others.

Wheat and Barley

There is no clear proof, as per the Book of Mormon, that neither the
Jaredites nor the Lehites brought “seeds” with them. Rather, we may
assume that many or most references to grains and plants in the Book
of Mormon were to New World plants. It has been known for years
that there are several kinds of wild barley native to the Americas.

There is no reason to believe this barley was descended from Old

World barley that theoretically could have been brought by Nephi's
group. The Nephites could easily have been using a similar New World
grain that they called barley and that Joseph Smith translated as
barley.

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There are a wide variety of cultivated grains from ancient
Mesoamerica that could have been called "wheat" or "barley."
Specifically, there are multiple varieties each of "wheatgrass,"
"buckwheat," and "cowwheat," and one species called "desert
Indianwheat."

Sheum and neas

The Nephites refer to a grain called ‘sheum’; this is an ancient Assyrian
term used at various times to refer to barley, grains generally, and
even pine nuts. Use of this term in the Book of Mormon is itself
significant, since Akkadian could not be read (and hence the term
sheum was not known) until decades after the Book of Mormon was
published.

Still another crop, "neas," bears an untranslated plant name and is

mentioned with corn and sheum, so it must also be of non-Nephite
origin. The two names and three crops may be presumed to be of
Jaredite origin and likely came down to the Nephites and Lamanites via
the people of Zarahemla if not some more exotic intermediary
population.

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Corn
Now, "corn" is clearly maize, the native American plant that was the
mainstay of the diet of many native American
peoples for thousands of years. There is no
possibility that Lehi's party brought this key
American crop with them or that they
discovered it wild upon their arrival. Maize is so
totally domesticated a plant that it will not
reproduce without human care. In other words,
the Zeniffites or any other of Lehi's
descendants could only be growing corn/maize
because people already familiar with the
complex of techniques for its successful
cultivation had passed on the knowledge, and
the seed, to the newcomers. Notice too that
these passages in Mosiah indicate that corn had become the grain of
preference among the Lamanites, and perhaps among the Zeniffites.
That is, they had apparently integrated it into their system of taste
preferences and nutrition as a primary food, for which cooks and
diners in turn would have had familiar recipes, utensils, and so on.

This situation reminds us of how crucial the natives of Massachusetts

were in helping the Puritan settlers in the 1600s survive in the
unfamiliar environment they found upon
landing. The traditional American
Thanksgiving cuisine of turkey, pumpkin,
and corn dishes—all native to the New
World—is an unconscious tribute to the
gift of survival conferred by the
Amerindians by sharing those local foods
with the confused and hungry Europeans.

Did an equivalent cultural exchange and unacknowledged thanksgiving

process take place for Lehi's descendants in the Book of Mormon land
of first inheritance or land of Nephi?

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8
‘All kinds of fruit’

Grapes
Though the people of Lehi were familiar grapes from
the old world, there is no evidence in the Book of
Mormon that they had brought grapes with them.
Grapes would have to have been started by grapevine
cuttings.
There is evidence that native Americans harvested wild
new world grapes, but did not cultivate them.

Wine is mentioned in thirty two verses in the Book of Mormon. There is

no indication that the wine was made with grapes or another fruit. On
one occasion, Lemhi used wine to pay tribute to the Lamanite guards,
and when the guards were drunk, this allowed Lemhi and his people to
escape their captivity. Another similar ploy was used by Moroni to
incapacitate Lamanite guards.

15 And it came to pass that he planted vineyards round about in

the land; and he built wine-presses, and made awine in abundance;
and therefore he became a wine-bibber, and also his people.

"Wine" and the "vineyards" in King Noah's land (Mosiah 11:15) can
definitely be clarified by attention to linguistic matters. Those
terms seem puzzling at first glance, since wine was apparently not
made from grapes in the New World. (Certain grapes were
present, but we do not know that they were used for food or
drink. ) However, the Book of Mormon nowhere says that "grapes"
were present, only "vineyards." The Spaniards spoke of
"vineyards" referring to plantings of the maguey (agave) plant
from which pulque is made. And various sorts of "wine" were
described by the early Europeans in Mesoamerica: one from
bananas in eighteenth-century Guatemala, another from
pineapples in the West Indies, palm wine from the coyol palm
trunk (manufactured from Veracruz to Costa Rica), and the
balche of the Mayan area, made from a fermented tree bark.
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 Clearly Noah the "wine"-bibber in the book of Mosiah could have
been drinking something intoxicating besides the squeezings of
the grape (Sorenson, John L. _An Ancient American Setting for
the Book of Mormon._ FARMS 1985, pl. 186).

We assume that any wine the Lehites used was from native stock or
made from another fruit.

Olives

There is no evidence that the Lehites grew olives in

the new world. Olive oil was used to anoint kings &
princes, to anoint the sick, and used for cooking and
other uses.

We must assume that they

attempted to bring the olive plant, however, you
have to use a ‘cutting’ to propagate the plant (using
seeds won’t work). The question is if the cuttings
could have made such a journey? In addition, in the
western hemisphere (all of the Americas), olives can
only be grown in subtropical climate of California,
Argentina, and Chile. In most likelihood, if the
cuttings did survived the journey, the olive plant did not flourish
because of the climate where the Lehites had landed.

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Other fruit & vegetables

Native to the Americas; listed below are

fruits and vegetables the Jaredites &
Lehites encountered upon their arrival:

The cocoa plant, vanilla, bananas, squash, pumpkin, beans, tobacco,

onions, red tomatoes, green tomatoes, sweet potatoes, jicama,
huautli, and maize.

In addition: The aloe plant, Jerusalem artichoke, alligator pear,

pineapple, arrowroot, Indian fig, prickly pear, chile pepper, star
apple, strawberry, and the peanut.

Native American Food Pyramid

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Plants used for clothing

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And they did have silks and fine-twined linen; and they did work
all manner of cloth, that they might clothe themselves from their
nakedness. (Ether 10:24)
29
And now, because of the steadiness of the church they began to be
exceedingly rich, having abundance of all things whatsoever they
stood in need—an abundance of flocks and herds, and fatlings of every
kind, and also abundance of grain, and of gold, and of silver, and of
precious things, and abundance of silk and fine-twined linen, and all
manner of good homely cloth. (Alma 1:29)

‘Silk and fine-twined linen,

and all manner of good homely cloth’
Linen is defined as a cloth, often quite stiffish and hard-wearing, made
of fibers from flax or hemp plants prepared by soaking and pounding.
Although the flax plant was apparently not known in pre-Spanish
America, several fabrics were made from vegetable fabrics that look
and feel much like European linen. One was made from fibers (called
henequen) of the leaf of the ixtle (maguey or agave plant), but fibers
from the yucca and other plants gave similar results. Conquistador
Bernal Diaz said of henequen garments that they were "like linen." Bark
cloth, made by stripping bark form the fig tree and soaking and
pounding it, was common in Mesoamerica and also has some of the
characteristics of linen.

Dictionaries define silk as a "fine, lustrous fiber produced by the

larvae of certain insects." It refers especially to the fiber form which
an Asian moth, Bombyx mori, spins its cocoon, but also to cloth more
generally "something silklike." Silk from cocoons gathered form the
wild in Mexico and spun into expensive cloth at the time of the Spanish
conquest provides the most literal parallel to Asiatic "silk."

Silklike fiber (kapok) from the pod of the Ceiba (or "silkcotton") tree
was gathered in Yucatan and spun; this seems to be what Landa
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referred to as "silk." Father Clavigero said of this kapok that it was "as
soft and delicate, and perhaps more so, than silk."

Furthermore, the silky fiber of the wild pineapple

plant was prized in tropical America; it yielded a
fiber, "finer and perhaps more durable than agave,
derived form the pita floja or ‘silk-grass' plant.

Moreover, a silklike fabric was made by the Aztecs

form fine rabbit hair. But even cotton cloth was
sometimes woven so fine that specimens excavated
at Teotihuacan and dating to the fourth century A.D.
have been characterized as "of irreproachable evenness, woven . . .
exceedingly fine," and "of gossamer thinness." Aztec cloths "like
damask" (a figured fabric of silk, linen, or wool) were inventoried by
the Spaniards.

Mesoamerica evidently exhibits almost an embarrassment of riches for

the "silk" and "linen" of Alma 1:29. All but the most trivializing critics
should be satisfied with the parallels. There is no need to look beyond
the mark to seek traces in ancient America of the flax plant or
mulberry trees.

Cotton
Naturally pigmented cotton and fine fabrics
have been produced for nearly five
millennia in Peru, constituting the oldest
recorded tradition of spinning and weaving
in human history. The vast array of natural
cotton colors has been well documented
since the time of the New World
explorers.

When the Spaniards crossed the Peruvian desert in 1531 they marveled
at the extensive fields of cotton growing in a range of colors unlike
anything they had seen before. Highly prized by the Europeans, these
long stapled cotton plants of Central and South America, were
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transported around the world to become the progenitors of what today
are considered to be the world's premier cottons.

It may have been, that the Jaredites, and later the Lehites, benefited
from the native varieties of cotton already being cultivated by ‘other
peoples’.

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‘All manner of animals’ – domesticated & wild

Jaredites: : 18 And also all manner of cattle, of oxen, and cows, and of
sheep, and of swine, and of goats, and also many other kinds of animals
which were useful for the food of man.
19
And they also had horses, and asses, and there were elephants and
cureloms and cumoms; all of which were useful unto man,
man and more
especially the elephants and cureloms and cumoms. (Ether 9: 18, 19)

Nephites: 25 And it came to pass that we did find upon the land of
promise, as we journeyed in the wilderness, that there were beasts in
the forests of every kind, both the cow and the ox, and the ass and
the horse, and the goat and the wild goat, and all manner of wild
animals, which were for the use of men.men And we did find all manner of
ore, both of gold, and of silver, and of copper. (1 Ne. 18: 25)
21
And it came to pass that the people of Nephi did till the land, and
raise all manner of grain, and of fruit, and flocks of herds, and flocks
of all manner of cattle of every kind, and goats, and wild goats, and
also many horses. (Enos 1: 21)

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Uses of Animals: food, labour, and clothing

Animals used as food

The following were described by both Jaredites and Nephites as sources
of food:
Cattle, cows, oxen, sheep, goats (and wild goats), swine, and many
other kinds of animals, and wild game (animals not specifically
named, but may have been brought, include: bees, sorts of fowl,
guinea pigs, and dogs – yes, dogs!).

Animals used as a source of labour

The Nephites named:
The horse & ass (donkey)
While the Jaredites named:
The elephant, cureloms, and cumoms, in addition to the horse &
donkey.

Typical labour for such animals included, such activities as ploughing,

hauling timber & boulders, etc… In addition, they were used for
transportation and warfare.

Animals used for clothing etc…

Animals such as: The goat, sheep, llamas, cow, & swine provide skins and
fibers necessary for man to exist in reasonable comfort. Skins can be
processed to make shoes, clothing, books (scrolls), shelter (such as tents
etc…), and a variety of other uses. Fiber, such as wool & hairs, can be
spun and woven to make clothing, blankets, rugs etc… .

It would appear that the ancient American peoples used most all of the
common domestic animals known among civilized peoples the world over.
The use of the elephant by the Jaredites is a little unusual, but let us
keep in mind that this large and noble animal is still domesticated in
India and some other parts of Asia.

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Wild Game
The Book of Mormon does not specifically name
each wild animal. The New World, however, was
full with wild game and these were hunted and
even somewhat "tamed." Several types of deer,
while technically "wild," were kept in pens nearby
the living quarters, and it was even said that
Mayan women would suckle baby deer from their
own breasts. Deer was probably the most
commonly hunted and eaten of the wild animals.
Also utilized were two types of iguana, whose eggs and flesh were
eaten, the armadillo, the peccary, the tapir, and several types of
monkeys.

Cattle and Cows

The term “cattle” is used three times in the Book of Mormon (Ether
9:17-19; Enos 1:21; 3 Nephi 3:22), while the term “cow” is used twice (Ether
9:18; 1 Nephi 18:25). The Jaredite record is unclear as to whether
“cattle” and “cows” are the same animals, or if “cows” are a subcategory
of “cattle.” When the Miami Indians, who were familiar with cows, first
encountered the unfamiliar buffalo they simply called them “wild cows.”
Likewise the Spanish explorer DeSoto called the buffalo “vaca,” which
is Spanish for “cow.” The Delaware Indians named the cow, “deer,” and
a group of Miami Indians labeled sheep, which they were unfamiliar
with, “looks-like-a-cow.”

The Ox
“Ox” or “oxen” is mentioned six times in the Book of Mormon. Some
people consider the “ox” only as a castrated bull —
something that would be impossible to find in the
wild. Ox, however, also refers to: the Asiatic
buffaloes, African buffaloes, cattle, and American
bison.

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Some LDS scholars have suggested that the Book of Mormon “ox” and
“cow” may refer to the tapir, American camels, or perhaps the
American bison.

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Swine
The early Americans did have native pigs. The Aztecs called them
pisote, which basically means “glutton” and was often
applied to the peccary or wild pig. Peccaries were well
known in Mesoamerica and look very much like
domesticated pigs and could easily fit the Book of
Mormon designation of swine.

The Nephites followed the Mosaic Law. It being a strict set of laws
given to the ancient Jews, through the prophet Moses, to prepare them
for the coming of the Messiah. Among other dietary restrictions, pork
was not allowed to be eaten. The Jaredites, however, did not have the
Mosaic Law – for they had left Babylon well before Moses was born.

Sheep, goats (and wild goats)

As to sheep and goats named in the Book of Mormon, it should only be

necessary to point out that we still have the Rocky Mountain sheep and
Rocky Mountain goats, both native of North America.

Rocky Mountain Goat (above)

Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep (right)

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Elephants
The only place where elephants
are mentioned in the Book of
Mormon is in Ether 9:19 which
was written in approximately
2500 B.C. Thus any elephants
existing upon the American
continents need not have
survived past about 2400 B.C.
While the jury is still out,
there are a number of North
American Indian traditions that recount legends of giant stiff-legged
beasts that would never lie down, had a big head and large leaf-like
ears, round footprints, forward bending knees, and had a fifth
appendage coming out of its head. In addition to the legends, five
elephant effigies have been found in ancient Mexico and two in Arizona.

Scientists agree that mammoths and mastodons

once inhabited the Americas, and an article in
Scientific Monthly, entitled “Men and Elephants
in America,” suggests that this family of
elephants, mammoths, mastodons may have
survived in the Americas until 1000 B.C. — well
within the time frame demanded by the Book of
Mormon.

The elephant is a
marvelously intelligent creature,
and if the question is of
transportation, or
the carrying of
burdens, or even of military
service in primitive warfare,
he cannot be surpassed, when
properly trained.

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21
 Elephants Used in War

War elephants were important, although not widespread, weapons in

ancient military history. Their main use was in charges, to trample
the enemy and/or break their ranks. War elephants were exclusively
male animals, as they are faster and more aggressive.

History

Elephant taming began in the

Indus valley (present day
Pakistan/India) around 4,000
years ago. The first species to
be tamed was thus the Asian
elephant, for agricultural ends.
The first military application
of elephants dates from around 1100 BC and is mentioned in several
Sanskrit hymns.

The successful military use of elephants spread across the world.

The successors to Alexander's empire, the Diadochi, used hundreds
of Indian elephants in their wars.

A reportedly effective anti-

elephant weapon was the pig.
Pliny the Elder reported that
"elephants are scared by the
smallest squeal of a pig". A
siege of Megara was
reportedly broken when the
Megarians poured oil on a herd
of pigs, set them alight, and drove them towards the enemy's
massed war elephants. The elephants bolted in terror from the
flaming squealing pigs.

The evidence seems to suggest that Indian tribes, when better equipped
and organized, may have put an end to horses, mastodons, camels, and
mammoths.
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The Horse
After the Book of Mormon was
published, archaeological discoveries
were made that clearly indicate that
horses were in the Americas before
Columbus arrived. In the asphalt
deposits of Rancho LaBrea in southern
California, numerous fossil remains of
horses have been found that antedate Book of Mormon times. These
discoveries do prove horses were in the Americas in the time period
covered by the Book of Mormon (about 2600 B.C. to A.D. 421).

There is a body of evidence both from the mainland of Central

America and even from rock drawings in Haiti itself tending to
show that the horse may have been known to man in the Americas
before the coming of the Spaniards.

In addition, could the Nephites have used the term “horse” for deer or
some other animal? It is not impossible considering the following
examples: Figurines, for example, of the pack bearing South American
alpacas — which are related to the camel — have been unearthed as far
north as Costa Rica (the llamas, as far as California & Utah). An early
pre-Spanish incense burner discovered in Guatemala shows a man riding
on the back of a deer. A stone monument dating to 700 A.D. shows a
woman riding a deer. Another similar figurine was found in central
Mexico, and until recently, many people in Siberia rode on the backs of
deer. In such cases the deer served as “horses.”

Cureloms and Cumoms

These animals were unknown to the Nephites, and so Moroni leaves the
words untranslated, or else though known to the Nephites they are out
of our experience so that our language has no name to call them by.

We do not know what animals are meant by cureloms and cumoms in the
Jaredite record. Some possible candidates to fill the usefulness of the

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animals described above, are: Mastodons or Mammoths, Llamas &
Alpacas, and the bear (its fur being extremely useful for warm
clothing).

When the Spanished arrived . . .

. . . they found some domestication of animals, including duck, deer,
dogs, and turkey that were raised for meat. Turkey was the first of
the four animals to be domestication, occurring around 3500 BC. Dog
was clearly an important supplement to the diet of ancient
Mesoamericans, as dog bones are common in midden deposits
throughout the region. These animals were typically eaten around the
age of one. The lack of larger animals for domestication was likely the
result of climate change, as certain species of horse and cattle
previously living in the region had gone extinct. Additionally, and
related to this fact, Mesoamerican cultures lacked pack animals to
assist in transportation; this is one notable difference between
Mesoamerica and the cultures of the South American Andes.
Societies of this region did hunt certain wild species to complement
their diet. These animals included deer, opposum, raccon, rabbit,
birds and various types of insects. They also hunted in order to gain
luxury items such as cat fur and bird plumage.

‘All manner of fowl’

4
. . . whatsoever beast or animal or fowl that they should carry with
them—and it came to pass that when they had done all these things they
got aboard of their vessels or barges, and set forth into the sea,
commending themselves unto the Lord their God. (Ether 6:4)

Fowl is a term for certain birds often used as food by humans. It

includes some poultry such as chickens or turkeys, game birds such as

24
pheasants or partridges, other wildfowl like guineafowl or peafowl, and
waterfowl such as ducks or geese.

Chicken
The term chicken also could easily apply to the native turkeys that
Mesoamericans used. Although a turkey is not a chicken, it is not
surprising that people encountering turkeys for the first time might
use the term "chicken" to describe them.

Since it is certain that "others" passed on knowledge about and a taste

for corn to the Nephites and Lamanites, it becomes likely that other
cultural features also came from them. The keeping of "flocks” was not
a pattern which Lehi's folks are said to have brought with them; no
animals are mentioned in Nephi's Old World record (it is purely
speculation that they utilized camels or any other animals in their trek
from Jerusalem to Bountiful). Even if they started out with animals,
these would not have survived the party's famine-plagued journey
through western Arabia. Moreover, no hint is given that any were
taken aboard Nephi's boat (in specific contrast to the Jaredite case—
see Ether 6:4). So how would they have obtained native American fowls
or other animals to keep in "flocks," or, more importantly, how would
they have discovered techniques for successfully caring for them?
Discovery or invention of a major cultural feature like the
domestication of animals is rare enough in human history that it is
highly unlikely that these newcomers could simply have pulled
themselves up culturally "by their bootstraps" in this way in a
generation or two.

Dogs
The origin of these dogs goes far back into
history. Previously the natives ate their
flesh which was highly prized. The breed
was regarded as the earthly representative
of the god "Xolotl", from which his name
obviously originates. His task was to
25
accompany the souls of the dead to their eternal resting place. The
breed is also known by the name "Mexican Hairless Dog".

26
 ‘Wild beasts’ not specifically mentioned in the Book
of Mormon, but found in the Americas today . . .

Nephites: 25 . . . that there were beasts in the forests of every

kind . . . and all manner of wild animals, which were for the use of
men . . . (1 Ne. 18: 25)

Cats in the wild

Native American wild cats include: The Andean
Mountain Cat, Cougar, Jaguar, Ocelot, and the
Tiger Cat among others.

The jaguar was the largest and most culturally

significant of the spotted cats in Central and
South America. Throughout pre-Columbian
America the jaguar was worshiped and feared for its ability as a
hunter. Its nocturnal prowling through the moist, lowland forests led it
to be mystically associated with the night, the underworld, rain, and
fertility.

The hunter, the warrior, the ruler, and the priest wore jaguar skins in
order to share the power of the jaguar. Mayan priests often had
jaguar names and sat on symbolic jaguar seats, while warriors dressed
in jaguar skins, believing that they took on some of the powers of the
jaguar.

Tapir
They inhabit jungle and forest regions
of South America, Central America.
Their closest relatives are the horses
and rhinoceroses.

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Capybara
Also known as the “water pig”, the capybara is
the largest of living rodents. In South America
today, the capybaras are occasionally hunted
for food and for their leather. The flesh is
described as tasting like pork and has a similar
whitish appearance.

Peccary
Collared Peccaries look very much like a
medium-size domestic pig. Collared
Peccaries are hunted by jaguars,
cougars, ocelots, and sometimes by
coyotes. Humans hunt the Collared
Peccaries also mainly for their meat.
Collared Peccaries where once prolific
threw out Honduras.

Guinea Pigs
It's original home was in the savannahs of northern South America.
Before the colonisation of the Americas by Europeans, the Incas had
first begun to domesticate guinea pigs as both
religious icons and as a source of food from around
500 BC. In many villages in Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia
guinea pigs are still kept today as a source of food.
Fed on scraps and becoming food themselves when
plump enough, as this mountainous region has little
space available for the raising of cattle, as many as
7 million guinea pigs are eaten each year in Peru.

However, they were not bred by the Incas only for food. In Peru guinea
pigs have a hallowed place in native folklore. Legend holds that guinea
pigs are mystical beings that can heal the sick and assist the dying in
the journey from the world of the living to the great beyond... yet

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another good reason to make sure that your domestic pets are happy
and comfortable!

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American Camels

The guanaco, alpaca, and the llama are three members of the Camel
family that live in the Americas.

The guanaco is primarily used for leather. The skin

found on its neck being is extremely hard, and
makes for very durable shoes.

The alpaca resembles a

sheep in appearance, but is
larger and has a long erect
neck. Though not used for farm labour, the
alpaca is valued only for their fiber (wool).

Llamas are the largest of the American camels.

They are used for transportation, and their wool
of great value as well. 25,000 years ago, llamas
would have been a common sight in modern-day
California, Texas, Utah, Missouri and Florida.

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Honeybees

"And they did carry with them deseret, which by interpretation, is a

honey bee; and thus they did carry with them swarms of bees..."
(Ether 2:3)

According to scientist, for thousands of years in the

tropical Americas, Indians have raised the Apis Mellipona
honey bees in special hives made out of logs, gourds, clay
pots, and other simple containers. Honey from these
bees has lower sugar content than honey from the
introduced honeybee, but the Melipona honey is
considered better tasting.

There are several references to bees or honey in the Book of Mormon -

but all occur in the Old World. Lehi's group found honey in the Old
World, and the Jaredite group carried bees with them as they
traveled in the Old World. We are not told that the Jaredites brought
bees into the New World. Bees are missing in the list of items placed
on the ships in Ether 6:4. But no wonder: We'd be uncomfortable being
locked in a closed vessel with hives of bees. With no indication of bees
being brought to the New World, we have nothing to explain.

When the Spanish missionaries arrived, The Spanish conqueror Cortes

found honey being sold by Native Americans in their market places
when he came to the New World. Cortez . . . told Emperor Charles V of
the commodities sold in the great market of Tlaletolco--"There is
sold," says he, "honey of bees and wax, honey from the stalks of maize,
and honey from a shrub called maguey by the people. The natives make
sugar of these plants, and this sugar they also sell." They found Maya
farmers raising the native stingless bees, which are kept in small,
hollow logs closed with mud plaster at either end and stacked up in A-
frames, but wild honey was also much appreciated. Honey was a
valuable export from the Yucatan.

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Mayan Life
As a point of reference, the following is description of modern and
past Mayan life will give us a good idea for Nephite & Lamanite culture.

Many Maya communities today are probably living and farming much like
their ancestors did 2,000 years ago. They usually have a communal
farm for the less fortunate: widows, elderly, sickly, that everyone
takes turns tending. Then each family group has a small plot. They still
clear the land the way their ancestors did before they had metal tools
or machines, by a method called slash and burn. Just before planting
you can see (and smell) smokey fires all over the Maya region as
farmers clear their land by burning and then plant in the rich ash. The
problem is that after only 2 or 3 years the soil is depleted of nutrients
and a plot must be left fallow for several years. Still, when you
consider that the soil in the Maya region is naturally poor for farming,
the slash and burn method actually was and still is a sound technology.

In fact, slash and burn is perfectly acceptable when there is and

abundance of land, but if the population is getting too large to be
supported by the land, then leaving large areas fallow for many years
would be impossible. The alternative - trying to farm depleted soil
would result in famine. Some archaeologists believe that this was a
factor in the collapse of the Classic Maya civilization.

The Maya today (and probaly in the past) make very good use of their
land in the way they plant. They plant corn (maize) beans and squash on
the same plot. Corn takes nitrogen from the soil and beans replace it,
so they are a good combination. Corn needs to be planted in rows in
order to cross pollinate and the beans need to climb a trellis so they
are trained to grow up the corn stalks. Since the young bean plants
need a cooler temperature, the corn provides some shade. Meanwhile
the squash plants grow along the ground (they also like some shade
when just starting) filling in between the rows and by the time the corn
is harvested the squash plants are ready to take over the field. When
the corn is ripe, Maya farmers bend the ears over so that they dry out
in the sun on the stalk and in this way they can be stored and
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preserved for the months between harvests.

Maize kernels are ground by the women. Traditionally this was done
between a stone pallet and a long grinding stone. Corn is their primary
staple and the Maya women make many meals with the cornmeal. Mixed
with water it becomes a milky drink called posol which is often drunk
for breakfast. Patted and toasted on a griddle it is a tortilla and can be
eaten alone or wrapped around beans and sometimes meat. It can also
be use as a coating on peppers to make tomalley. Peppers are another
popular food with the Maya — the hotter the better.

Many people don't realize that some of the foods we take for granted
were unknown in the European and Asian cultures until they were
discovered in the Americas. Corn, peppers, and tomatoes were all first
discoverd in the Americas. In fact, Columbus was seaching for a faster
route to Inida to buy black pepper. When he returned to Spain, not
with peppercorns but a plant that could be used to spice the bland
European dishes, they called that plant "pepper". Potatoes were also
unknown in Europe prior to being brough back from Peru. My favorite
food is from the Maya - chocolate. The Maya actually used the cacao
bean as money — that's how valuable it was. Only the very rich could
afford to take their money and make it into a delicious cup of
chocolate!

Meat is not often eaten by the Maya, mainly because today they are
very poor and in ancient times there were few native animals that were
appropriate for livestock. They would keep small, hairless dogs as pets
and also to eat, as well as turkeys. Like most indigenous peoples of the
Americas, the men hunted for game, such as birds, rabbits and deer.
There were also monkeys and jaguars, but there is no indication that
they were eaten. Maya today use bows and arrows, but there is no
indication of them in their ancient art, but spears ands knives are
shown. These were tipped with sharpened stone, flint or obsidian, as
the ancient Maya did not forge metal. Today the machete is a tool
every Maya man uses with great skill.

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Today, and back in ancient times, the Maya traditionally divided roles
between men and women much the same as peoples around the world.
Men were hunters and women worked the milpa, prepared the food,
raised the children, tended the animals and wove their clothing

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Plants and animals used for medicine

Medicinal Plants

“And there were some who died with fevers, which at some seasons of
the year were very frequent in the land—but not so much so with
fevers, because of the excellent qualities of the many plants and
roots which God had prepared to remove the cause of diseases, to
which men were subject by the nature of the climate.” (Alma 46:40)

In addition to being a food source, plants

and animals provide medicines used by
humans to ward off disease and
disability.

Mankind has used herbal remedies for

thousands of years. Even our modern
pharmaceuticals are largely based on
derivatives of plants and other
organisms that heal or prepare the
body’s immune system to resist disease.
Take, for example, the most commonly-
used medicine, aspirin, is derived from
the bark of the yew tree. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the natives
of Peru used an infusion of the bark of the cinchona tree to treat
fever. From it comes quinine sulfate, used to lessen the symptoms of
malaria. In the ancient Near East,
poultices of grapes or figs were placed on
wounds (2 Kings 20:7). Alcohol, fermented
from various plants, is still used as a
disinfectant (D&C 89:7)

Microorganisms are frequently used to

fight infections of other microscopic
creatures. For example, dead forms of

36
flu and smallpox virus can be used to inoculate against the live forms
that cause disease. One of the most widespread medicines used during
the 20th century was penicillin, which is a living mold such as one finds
on stale bread. (Egyptian history professor Aziz Atiya believed that
stale bread, which was the staple diet of early Egyptian Christian
hermits, was the reason they lived up to a century, with the mold
fighting off diseases.)

An example of an American scientist in the tropical rainforest:

“. . . I was out with Pablo, on the way to making an animal trap. I had a
headache, and he noticed it. Moments later he pulled two leaves off a
vine growing up a tree trunk and rubbed them vigorously into my
temples. He actually rubbed the skin raw enough to draw a little blood,
then had me hold the leaves in place there. In minutes the headache
vanished. His cure worked so well that I asked if he had others. He
laughed and said he did, and began to point things out as we walked. As
I later learned was typical for him, he would act out the infirmity as he
discussed the treatment.”

When the Spanish arrived, in

Mesoemerica, there were healers
who knew how to deal with
fractures, treat and dress
wounds, and were even able to
perform certain obstetric
procedures. They also knew how
to treat using plants, and
successfully used the active
ingredient in aspirin, which at
that time was already known, and
extracted from willow bark.
Medicine was practiced by priests
who inherited their position and
received extensive education. The
Mayas sutured wounds with human
hair, reduced fractures, and used

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casts. They were skillful dental surgeons and made prostheses from
jade and turquoise and filled teeth with iron pyrite.

Medicinal Animals
Bugs and parasites are making a comeback into modern medicine, and
although they have been used as a means of therapy for thousands of
years, they lost their popularity in the second half of the 20th century
only to regain their previous status as medical wonders during the
1980s. Two such parasites used today are leeches and maggots. As
gruesome as both are conceived, they have been found to possess
numerous advantages in the field of medicine.

Leeches
The use of leeches in medicine dates as far back as 2,500 years ago
when they were used for bloodletting in ancient Egypt. All ancient
civilizations practiced bloodletting including Indian and Greek
civilizations. It seems very possible that the Nephites and Lamanites,
(& other ancient Americans) had that same knowledge.

Leeches were thought to be able to cure everything from headaches

to brain congestion. They were used to cure obesity, hemorrhoids,
nephritis, laryngitis, eye disorders as well as mental illness.

Today, Bloodletting has become a proven medical technique particularly

valuable in plastic and reconstructive surgery.

Leech therapy is now being used to restore circulation to grafted

tissues and reattached appendages. As many as 50 leeches may be used
in succession on one patient post operatively. As they feed, they apply
the perfect amount of suction
to restore blood flow after
delicate reattachment surgery.
Medicinal leech saliva also
contains many useful medical
38
Head of the giant Amazon leech. The retractable proboscis is used to
pierce the skin and suck blood from the host.
compounds that have anaesthetic, vasodilator, anticoagulant and clot-
dissolving properties.

Maggots
The beneficial effects of maggots on wounds
have been observed since ancient times, with
reports of their success by Maya Indians and
aboriginal tribes. Observations of favourable
outcomes following maggot colonisation of battle
wounds have highlighted the ability of maggots
to eliminate needless dead tissue whilst sparing
living tissue.

They also excrete substances which inhibit and

may even kill bacteria. This is especially useful in areas with poor blood
supply that do not benefit much from antibiotics that cannot reach the
area in adequate concentration to do their job.

Not all maggots can be used in medicine; only those

that do not burrow under the patient’s skin and do
not eat healthy tissues can be used. They do not
multiply in the wound as they must leave it to pupate
or they will die. When the maggots have completed
their job, the doctor simply flushes them out of the
wound. The maggots range from 1 to 2 mm in length
when they are one day old and they reach a length of about 1 cm by
their fourth day.

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Frogs & Toads
The Choco Indians of Colombia
recognized the toxic
properties of the brightly
colored little frogs hopping
around the rainforest floor,
using them to
make poison
blowdarts for hunting.

South American Indians knew other species of frogs had healing

properties in their skin secretions and rubbed the animals across
cuts and wounds. That ooze seems to have antimicrobial
properties that combat bacteria, fungi and parasites that might
find moist skin an inviting environment.

Curare, a poison used by Amazonian Indians on arrow tips, can be

used as a muscle relaxant, helping people who suffer from
multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. More than 2,000
tropical rainforest plants have been identified with the potential
A possible cure for caughs ?

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The Bee
Most people associate bees with honey or pollen. But
another bee product—bee venom—may be valuable in
treating certain illnesses.

We all know about the medicinal effects of bee

honey. Indeed, tea with honey has long been a
remedy of choice for sore throats. And some
nutritionists consider bee pollen to be a near perfect source of protein.

The medicinal use of bee venom apparently dates back as far as ancient
Egypt and is reported in the history of Europe and Asia. It may be that
native Americans too had sufficient knowledge to use the bee
medicinally.

Bee venom is purported to be useful for treating the following:

chronic injuries such as bursitis and tendonitis; cardiovascular

conditions such as hypertension; pulmonary conditions such as
asthma; removal of scar tissue; skin conditions such as eczema;
hearing loss; bone healing; premenstrual syndrome (PMS)

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