WOKAS, A PRIMITIVE FOOD. 729 



brace consisted of a laro-e wire nail. The triangular base thus formed 

 presents a larger surface to the mud and often permits the pole to rest 

 firmly across one of the stout rootstocks of a wokas plant. Paddles 

 (ka-chik') are seldom used in wokas harvesting, as the water in the 

 wokas fields is rarely open, and when open is seldom too deep for the 

 propulsion of the boat by poling. Within a wokas field the use of a 

 paddle would be very laborious if not wholly inefl'ective, while the 

 resistance offered l)y tli<^ plants in the water is readily overcome when 

 the dugout is shoved ])y a pole resting on the l)ottom. In localities 

 afi'ording consideral)le deep open water, paddles also are carried. The 

 other necessary implements in the boat are a fiat-bottomed coarse tule 

 basket (tliiks) holding about half a bushel, and a large wicker spoon 

 (nap, or s(V-ot a-ko'-olks) made of tule or willow. 



When a l)oat is poled by a single occupant, she takes a position not 

 in the stern, like a paddler, nor at a point a little aft of the middle, 

 like an oarsman, but at a point a few feet from the bow, and for the 

 most effective work she stands instead of kneeling (Plate 5). As the 

 boat is poled slowly along among the wokas plants the woman stoops 

 forward, and, grasping a full-grown wokas pod (ka-kar'-ga'-li), pulls 

 it off' its stem and throws it into the boat. At tiiis ])oint occurs the first 

 step of differentiation into grades or qualities of wokas. The pod 

 when fully mature bursts open irregularly at the l)ase; the white, 

 moist, but mealy interior, as soon as it is l)rought into contact with 

 the water ))egins at once a mucilaginous dissolution, and the seeds are 

 soon scattered in the water. The seeds contained in these dissolving 

 pods are more fully matuivd, larger, whiter, more palatable, and pre- 

 sumably more mitritious than those of the other pods, and consequently 

 are much more prized and sought after hy the Indians. They have a 

 special designation, spokwas (spok'-was), which is applied also to the 

 dissolving capsule itself and to the mucilaginous mass it forms when 

 gathered. Spokwas constitutes only a small part of the whole gather- 

 ing of wokas, and this fact, in yicw of the great demand for seeds of 

 this (juality, led to the (piestion. Why do not the women gather only the 

 fully matured pods of the spokwas grade 'i This is clearly answered b}^ 

 the result of a day's harvest of wokas pods. Ordinarily not more than 

 10 per cent is spokwas, a proportion due to the rapid dissolution of 

 the fully ripened pcxls. If the women gathered only these, their day's 

 harvest would ])e very small, while by gathering the full-grown but 

 still hard pods they get a several times greater product. 



The spokwas pods, in a state of mucilaginous dissolution, are lifted 

 from the water not by the hand, but in the wicker spoon already men- 

 tioned, and are placed in the tlaks (tlaks), or spokwas })asket. 



The wokas gatherer's day is a long and laborious one. The women 

 set out at about 8 o'clock in the morning and, taking a lunch, remain 

 on the water until about C) o'clock in the afternoon. They often go 



