Pleito (quarrel, lawsuit, bargain). See page [161].
Plumas (feathers). See page [297].
Las Plumas (the feathers), near Oroville.
Pomo. See page [261].
Poncho (cloak, blanket).
Poonkiny (wormwood). Poonkiny, sometimes misspelled Pookiny, is from the Yuki Indian language.
El Portal (the gate), the entrance to the Yosemite Valley.
Portolá (a surname). See pages [231] and [340].
Posa (well, pool, also spelled by the Spaniards pozo, poso). The fact that posa also has the meaning of “passing bell for the dead” has caused some rather ludicrous mistakes. For instance, La Posa de los Ositos (the pool of the little bears), evidently refers to a place where some bears were seen drinking, and certainly would be absurd translated as “the passing bell of the little bears.” When used as names of places the connection makes it quite clear that they were so called in reference to pools of water present on the spot.
Las Positas (the little pools).