WOKAS, A PRIMITIVE FOOD. 733 



a much more even tind not extremely hioh temperature l)eing thus 

 secured. 



The parched wokas, or shnaps, has a delicious flavor, somewhat 

 similar to that of popcorn or, more especially, parched corn. When 

 freshly parched it is more crisp and appetizing-, and doubtless more 

 fully dig-esti])lc, than after it has Ix^en allowed to stand in a humid 

 atmosphere and absorl) moisture. 



Shnaps is often eaten dry, and in this state it is most palatal)le to 

 white people, but ordinarily the Indian places it in a dish and pours 

 over it ])arely enough cold water to cover it. It is then eaten with a 

 spoon, with or without salt, a modern innovation. Sometimes the 

 shnaps is linely ground before the addition of the water, and the pre- 

 paration is then known as shlotish (shlo-tish'). In primitive times 

 the Klamaths used for eating wokas a spoon cut from the breast bone 

 of the swan, which is conveniently shaped for the Durpose. Their 

 name for such a spoon is siro-ko)>h'. 



LOWAK. 



The nearly mature ]>ut still hard wokas pods that makt^ up the prin- 

 cipal part of a day's harvest are ordinarily spread upon the ground to 

 dry, in flat-topped piles a1)out S inches thick (Plate S). Each day 

 the margin of the pile is added to as new pods are brought in from 

 the marsh. The l)right sunshine prevalent at tiie time <^f the wokas 

 harvest hastens the drying, thick and mucihiginous as the i)ods are, and 

 in from one to two weeks those on the surface and margins of the 

 piles are thoroughly dry. The pods thus dried are phiced on a mat 

 or piece of gunny sack and pounded with a stone or short pestle 

 (ska). The seeds are tlioroughly dry and drop out easily, and when 

 the mass is sufliciently pounded portions of it are placed on a shaker 

 and the light corky or pithy pieces of the pods are winnowed out. 

 Some of the women, before winnowing the seed on a shaker, separate 

 the coarser pieces of waste matter ])y running- the whole mass through 

 a coarse wicker sifter (ti-a'). Seeds thus prepared from dried pods 

 and still covered by their shells are known as lo-wak' (Plate 12, tig. 1). 

 They are commonly stored in sacks for winter use. The screenings 

 (kakt-chi'-as) from lowak, thoug-h made up mostly of the light corky 

 pieces of the dry body of the pods, do contain a small percentage of 

 seeds. They were sometimes stored, in the old days, for use in case 

 of famine. 



STONTABLAKS. 



In the preparation of lowak, the pods in the interior of the drying 

 piles do not dry, but turn into a soft, moist, rotten mass (Plate 9), 

 the seeds themselves, however, retaining their freshness. When the 

 piles are opened the dry pods are thrown in a pile by themselves to be 

 made into lowak, bat these moist, decomposing pods are diflerently 



