Fróðskaparrit

						KANNUBJØLLUVISA TIL MATNA

49

ditional use of horsetail for producing dyes.

Miscellaneous uses

Some older sources mention the use of E.

arvense as a vegetable tan (von Paula

Schrank 1789: 414; Retzius 1806: 230). E.

arvense and other species of Equisetum

have also been utilized as raw material for

producing various kind of small crafts. E.

arvense has been used for manufacturing

baskets in North America. The Costanoan

Indians used the roots of both E. arvense

and E. hyemale in basketry, while the stems

of the great horsetail (Equisetum telmateia)

were used among the Coast Salish for black

imbrication in basketmaking (Turner and

Bell, 1971: 68; Bocek, 1984: 247). Chil-

dren used stems of E. arvense and other Eq-

uisetum species to make a kind of whistles

both in Scandinavia and in North America

(Høeg, 1974: 324, 347; Gilmore, 1991: 11).

In northern Sweden the peasants made

brushes of E. hyemale (Lindberg, 1975).

According to Øllgard and Tind (1993:

55-56) it is still customary for clarinet and

oboe players to have along a few stems of

E. hyemale in their instrument case in order

to make the final trimming of the sensitive

reed mouthpieces, rubbing them with the

stems.

Equisetum arvense is said to be extreme-

ly receptive to heavy metals, a feature

which has been used in the search for gold

in Alaska (Benedict, 1941).

Various Equisetum species have also

been used for hair wash and cosmetics. It is

recommended for washing tired, ageing

and problem skins. Horsetail baths should

be taken each night for at least a week, ac-

cording to Czech authors (Hlava, et al.

1995: 100).

Especially the E. hiemale, but also E. syl-

vaticum and sometimes E. arvense, has

been used for polishing woods and metals,

a practice known not only in Scandinavia

but also from the British Isles, Continental

Europe and among both North American

Indians as well as settlers from Europe

(Høeg, 1974: 348; Lightfoot, 1789: 659;

Bohringer, 1913: 35; Schullerus, 1916:

389; Tumer and Bell, 1971: 68; Johnston,

1970: 304; Bergvall, 1972; May, 1978:

520; Gilmore, 1991: 11). Olvier de Serres

wrote in 1600 about its use as for polishing

(Lieutaghi, 1996: 368). Southern Kwakiutl

Indians of British Columbia used the rough

leaves and stems of E. arvense and E. tel-

mateia for polishing canoes and other

wooden articles (Turner and Bell, 1973:

264). Salish Indians in the Cowichan re-

serves near Duncan, Vancouver Island,

were sandpapering the wooden knitting

needles smooth with E. arvense (Lane,

1951: 22). In the cities gold- and silver-

smiths used it to polish their craft (Linnæus

1755). The rough silicious surface made

them very useful for this purpose. E.

hiemale was actually gathered by poor"

farmers from Hárjedalen who sold it on

their winter migration for labour to Háls-

ingland (Modin, 1911: 731). Its use for pol-

ishing and cleaning wooden dairy vessels is

well-known from northern Sweden (Frid-

ner, 1926: 274; Berglund, 1935: 53). Cot-

tagers in Oxfordshire used E. telmateia for

scouring saucepans (Vickery, 1995: 162).

From northeastern India ethnobotanist Is-

lam reports that joints of stem from E. de-