FIEE AS AN AGENT IN HUMAN CULTURE 37 



oak and iris leaves. Acorn meal was then put on this layer, then a 

 layer of leaves, and finally the remaining hot stones. Six inches of 

 earth was piled on top and the heap was left to cook for six or eight 

 hours. ^ 



The type of pit oven in which the heating medium is hot rocks 

 has been observed in many parts of the world. Even the western 

 Eskimo cook and render harmless the roots of the wild parsnip in an 

 underground oven with hot stones. 



Maj, J. W. Powell records that the Ute Indians cooked grasshop- 

 pers with hot stones in a pit packed with layers of hot stones alter- 

 nating with the insects. The grasshoppers were dried and ground 

 for food. *' 



A pit oven for cooking new corn is employed by the Winnebago 

 Indians. They dig a large circular pit 1 to 2 feet in depth, with flat 

 smooth bottom, heaping the excavated earth in a ring around the 

 border of the pit. A heap of new corn is piled near by and rocks are 

 heated on a fire. Everything being in readiness, the hot rocks are 

 piled in the middle of the pit and the corn heaped in, leaving a cen- 

 tral hole down to the rocks. Earth is covered over the mass and 

 water poured down onto the rocks, producing a tremendous volume 

 of steam. The pit remains closed for several hours ^^ (fig. 2). 



The Pomo extracted the poisonous principle from buckeyes by 

 steaming them underground for two or three days. They first exca- 

 vate a large hole, pack it water-tight around the sides, burn a fire 

 therein for a space of time, then put in the buckeyes with water and 

 heated stones and cover the whole with a layer of earth. ^ 



The roasting of the fleshy leaf bases and trunk of various species 

 of agave was an ancient custom of the Mexicans, and is continued 

 to this day among the tribes of the southwestern United States and 

 Mexico. The oven is a cross between the heap and pit oven, is 

 circular and from 6 to 20 feet in circumference and slopes evenly to 

 the center, 1 to 3 feet in depth, and is packed with a fire bed of 

 coarse gravel or medium-sized stones. A fire is built on the pit, 

 raked over after the stones are hot, and the pieces of agave plant 

 put in and covered with grass and earth. After two days' cooking 

 the pile is opened and the mass ready for consumption. The baking 

 rendered the acrid agave very sweet. At Tequila, Mexico, the 

 writer observed the agave roasted with wood, to produce after fer- 

 mentation a spirituous hquor with a smoky flavor. 



Among the Maori of New Zealand food was generally cooked in 

 the earth oven. This consisted of a hole in the ground in which a 

 fierce fire of dry wood was kindled, and upon the wood was set a 



"J. W. Hudson. Amer. Anth., newser., vol. 2, 1900, p. 775. 



"J. W. Powell. Exploration of the Colorado River of the West, Washington, 1875, p. 128. 



w Information by Francis La Flesche, Dec. 5, 1921. 



w Ster'icn Powers. Cont. Amer. EthnoL, vol. 3, 1877, p. 150. 



