34 BULLETIN 139, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



before pounding it, as Virgil "fruges torrere parant Flammis et 

 frangere saxo," "to parch the fruit (grain) and break (grind) them 

 with a stone." 



A method showing the use of small portions of fire is that of shak- 

 ing grains in a vessel with hot coals. A basket is often used, and 

 great dexterity is displayed in properly parching the corn without 

 burning it or the basket. A hot stone is sometimes used. This 

 method has been noted among the Cocopas of northern Mexico, some 

 California tribes, and the Natchez and other eastern tribes. The 

 Pueblo Indians parched corn by heating and stirring in a pot over 

 the fire. Du Pratz says that the Natchez half cooked the corn in a 

 pottery vessel and dried it before parching.''' 



Frying. — The Greek word phrigo means to parch. The word now 

 may be confined to cooking with indirect heat, the utensils employed 

 being a flat stone, griddle, frying pan, etc. Aboriginal methods 

 where a dough of seed flour is put on a flat stone and cooked or in a 

 concave stone dish or on a flat or curved worked stone are commonly 

 termed baking, but are on the order of frying in its older sense. 

 With vegetal food, as dough, mush, etc., the effect is to dry and 

 harden in cooking, as in the bake oven. 



In the use of stone we are here introduced to soapstone, the lapis 

 ollaris, potstone, whose properties were much appreciated by all 

 peoples who could procure it. Frying in the modern sense is cooking 

 in a pan with grease in amount or with a little to prevent sticking. 

 Soapstone does not require greasing. Frying in deep fat is effected by 

 the high temperature of the medium. No material has been collected 

 as to the antiquity of this method, but it was probably known to the 

 Romans and other nations within the oil hne of Europe. 



Baking. — Food dried and hardened by cooking in an oven is said 

 to be baked, according to definition, and the oven is an inclosed 

 chamber in which food is cooked by indirect heat from the walls. 

 Baking may be effected as stated under frying, without the oven, or 

 by reflected heat in the reflecting oven stood before an open fire. 



Interesting primitive or seemingly primitive devices which may 

 be classed here under the oven are the incasing of birds, fish, or other 

 small animals in clay and baking the mass in the fire. There is 

 every reason for believing that baking under ashes is primitive. It 

 is suggested in every open fire, and came down until recently in the 

 roast potatoes and ash cakes of our near progenitors and is revived 

 in the camp craft of the Boy Scouts. The Australians present a 

 mixed method in which the animal is made the oven. 



When a wallaby or other animal is killed they throw it whole upon 

 the fire in order to singe it. Then a stone or stick is looked for to 



» J. R. Swanton, Bull. 43, Bur. Amer. Eth., 19n, pp. 74, 75. 



