FIRE AS AIST AGENT IN HUMAN CULTURE 33 



8. Tripod pot for boiling. Earthenware, with three legs, allowing 

 the vessel to be set up in the fire. Zuni, New Mexico. 



9. Coiled pot for boihng. Ancient vessel from the abandoned 

 pueblos. Hopi, Arizona. 



10. Shoe-shaped pot. Earthenware, small handle. In use this 

 vessel was thrust in the ashes at the side of the fire. Hopi, Arizona. 



11. Chafing dish. Combination stove for boiUng and frying. 



12. Rice boiler. Double vessel, the lower containing hot water 

 to prevent the food from scorching, 



13. Steamer. Double vessel, the bottom of the upper portion 

 perforated and set over the lower vessel containing hot water. Used 

 for steaming food." 



The continuation of the series belongs in the inventive period 

 and is not illustrated. 



Roasting and hroiling. — There are introduced here the two simple 

 and early cooking appHances, the spit and the grid widely used by 

 tribes observed still retaining native conditions. Roasted food re- 

 quires constant watching, boiled or baked food does not. 



An extemporaneous spit which looks primitive is a stick upon which 

 game is impaled and held over the fire. Rods definitely made for 

 this purpose were first noticed in North America by the Raleigh 

 expedition and figured by John White, the first painter of North 

 American Indians. These were sticks sharpened at both ends for 

 thrusting through fish or other game and into the ground against 

 the fire. White portrays in the same drawing a grid with bars of 

 wood for drying, smoking, or partially cooking various food supplies 

 (pi. 9). The Natchez Indians of Louisiana also use spit and grid. 

 In spitting large fish two rods were often used among the Kwakiutl 

 Indians of British Columbia. The Carrier Indians at Stewart Lake, 

 British Columbia, also roasted meat and fish in this manner. Among 

 many instances of this method, the Roucouyemies of French Guiana 

 roasted or dried game for transport on a grid of four posts with a 

 rack.^* The same device is generally used in South America. Under 

 this class comes planking, which is not known to be aboriginal, but 

 no doubt is an old method. 



Parching. — Roasting is accomphshed by the application of direct 

 heat, generally to animal food. Through a loose use of terms roast- 

 ing is applied to other methods of cooking, mainly of vegetal food. 

 True roasting of vegetal food is seen in the roasting of corn and 

 potatoes on the live fire. Parcliing has been called roasting, but 

 is affected by indirect heat, as in parcliing corn. Lafitau says that 

 it was the universal practice of the ancients to parch their grain 



"Walter Hough. Synoptic Series of Objects in the United States National Museum Illustrating the 

 History of Inventions, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1922, vol. 60, art. 9, pp. 1-47. 

 '•Jules Crevaux. De Cayenne aux Andes, Le Tour du Monde, vol. 40 p. 1021 «; vol. 54, p. 68. 



