HEATING AND LIGHTING UTENSILS IN NATIONAL MUSEUM 105 



diameter.) The Mexican tortilla griddle, coniial^ is of thin earthen- 

 ware. It is made by forming the clay on a sand support, allowing 

 it to dry, and baking. The pottery coinal is quite fragile. (PI. 95, 

 fig. 4; Cat. No. 176438, Edward Palmer; 16.9 inches (43 cm.) 

 diameter.) The Pueblo Indian griddle is an oblong slab of stone 

 carefully selected, worked, and prepared for use. It is mounted 

 at the ends on a low stone wall and the fire built underneath. The 

 batter is smeared deftly on the griddle with the hand, and the 

 resulting bread is papery. (PI. 96, from family group in National 

 Museum.) Iron griddles of a simple character, consisting of a 

 rectangular plate of thick sheet iron with a loop handle riveted 

 on at one end, have taken the place of pottery gridirons to some 

 extent in Mexico. (PI. 95, figs. 7, 8; Cat. No. 75350, Matamoros, 

 Mexico; U. S. Department of State; 12 inches (30.6 cm.) by 16 

 inches (40.7 cm.).) 



OVENS 



Ovens appear to have begun with pits in the ground heated by 

 means of a wood fire, the food placed in, and the cavity covered 

 with earth. Such ovens are widespread among uncivilized peoples. 

 Covering an animal with clay and burying the bundle in the ashes 

 is conceived of as a more primitive phase of the oven, but the 

 method is not generally used, is for animal food, and must be 

 regarded as a makeshift. The oven has its development in the 

 cooking of vegetable food, principally, and has its greatest useful- 

 ness in performing this function. The pit oven is seen in the oven 

 for baking clams and other shellfish. There are also pit ovens for 

 roasting pig, found among the Pacific islanders. The barbecue 

 trench oven is allied to the pit oven. There is a relationship between 

 the oven for cooking and those for baking pottery and smelting 

 metals. The earth oven, therefore, is presumed to have a very 

 ancient history. Two classes of earth oven may be distinguished, 

 those requiring a pit dug in the ground and those heaped up on 

 the ground. In the latter hot rocks performed the cooking, while 

 the pit oven usually cooked by the absorbed heat of the ground 

 subjected to fire action. Some tribes poured water on the rocks 

 just before closing the oven, thus calling in the aid of steam. 



The Hopi Pueblo Indian field oven consists of a bottle-shape hole 

 excavated in the sandy loam of the fields located along the washes. 

 A duct is cut from the bottom of the excavation to the surface for 

 the purpose of draft. A fire of field debris is built in the hole and 

 maintained for several hours till the earth is very hot. Roasting 

 ears are then piled in, the draft hole closed, the top hole covered, 

 and a fire built on it. When opened there issues from the mouth 

 of the oven a tall column of steam. Corn ears lying near the hot 



