734 REPOKT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1902. 



treated and produce a superior grade of seed having- a different name, 

 stontablaks (,stont"-a'-l)laks). The rotten pods, denuded of their 

 covering of dry ones, are pounded to a pulpy mass with a ska. 

 According to information from the Indians, the pounded pulp is fur- 

 ther exposed until dr}^, and is then screened and winnowed, being thus 

 left in the same form as lowak, suitable for cooking as shiwulinz, but 

 not as lolensh and shnaps. 



SHIWULINZ. 



When required for cooking, the dried seeds, either lowak or stonta- 

 blaks, are first roasted, shell and all, then cracked, and the shells win- 

 nowed out from the T)roken seeds on a shaker. The seeds, called in 

 this condition shi'-wu-linz (Plate 12, tig. 3), are then boiled, forming 

 a sort of nuish to which the Indians apply the same name. 



The word is derived from shi'-wi, meaning to shake or winnow, and 

 refers to the winnowing of the shells from the cracked seeds. Among 

 the younger women the cracking is often done in a hand coffee mill, 

 but the usual instrument is the primitive mealing stone. 



The roasting of lowak, preparator}' to the making of shiwulinz, is 

 now usually done in a f lying pan, but the primitive method of roast- 

 ing with live coals in a wokas shaker is still occasionally used ])y some 

 of the old people. This operation, as witnessed at one of the wokas 

 camps on Klamath Marsh, is conducted as follows: About 3 quarts of 

 lowak were placed in a shaker and several pieces of live coal from a 

 lodge pole pine tire were laid on top of the seeds. Most of the coals 

 were 1 inch or less in diameter; a few were 3 or 4 inches long and 2 

 or 3 inches thick. The seeds and coals were then tossed so as to roll 

 over and over each other in the shaker, the contents going into the 

 air from the farther margin of the shaker and falling in the middle. 

 After a few minutes the coals began to cool. They were then brought 

 to the top of the mass of seeds by a rotary motion, the shaker was set 

 on the ground, and a little vigorous fanning with another empty shaker 

 soon brought the coals to a lively heat. Then the tossing went on 

 again as before until the roasting was completed. The whole process 

 requires dexterity, both to keep the coals in motion so that the shaker 

 will not burn and to roast the seeds evenly without scorching th(Mn. 



Another form of food prepared from lowak is named stilinsh (stil'- 

 insh). This differs from shiwulinz in that the shells are not win- 

 nowed out on a shaker, but are skimmed from the boiling pot while 

 the seeds are cooking. The name is derived from sti-lin', to skim, a 

 word now applied to various operations, from the removal of cream 

 from milk to the washing of gold in a miner's pan. In earlier times a 

 food named talwas (tal'-was) was prepared from lowak. This was 

 essentially the same as shiwulinz and stilinsh, but the boiling was done 

 in a water-tight basket into which hot stones were dropped, a method 

 of cooking not practiced among the Klamaths at the present day. 



