WOKAS, A PRIMITIVE FOOD. 735 



AWAL. 



When seeds are required to be extracted from freshl}" gathered 

 pods, either to furnish an innnediate food supply, or to secure material 

 for the preparation of shnaps, or because the wokas gatherer is near- 

 ing the end of his harvest and can not wait for the pods to dry, a 

 process of cooking or steaming the pods is employed which facilitates 

 the extraction of the seeds. These cooked pods are known as awal 

 (a'-wal). The process of making awal, as observed at one of the camps 

 on the east side of the Klamath Marsh, was a follows: Two pine sticks 

 about 5 feet long and 4 to 5 inches in diameter were laid parallel, 4 

 feet apart, upon the ground. Upon these and at right angles to them 

 are laid close together a row of cross sticks 2 to 4 inches in diameter, 

 making a low platform about 4 feet square. Upon this platform was 

 placed al)out 3 l)ushels of freshly gathered wokas pods, forming a low 

 pyramidal pile about a foot deep in the middle (Plate 10). The space 

 between the cross sticks and the ground was stuffed looselv with dry 

 needles of the yellow pine {Plnus ponde7'(>sa) , which were then lighted. 

 A dense column of smoke rose high in the air, for awal is made only 

 on calm da3^s, The cross sticks soon ignited, and the blaze reached 

 through the cracks to the wokas pods. In ten minutes the lowermost 

 and outermost pods, sizzing and singing from the steam generated in 

 them, were considered sufficiently cooked. The cross sticks were 

 spread open a little and the cooked pods fell through to the ground, 

 making room for the spreading out of the raw ones from the upper 

 part of the pile. After five minutes more some of the burning cross 

 sticks were pried upward through the steaming pods and left still 

 burning on the top. Pods with their surface blackened ]»y the fire 

 were left upon the ground, but any green ones that fell off were 

 thrown back again. In ten minutes more all the cross sticks had been 

 brought to the top of the pile of pods and were roasting them from 

 above. The Indian woman who was conducting the operation poked 

 continuously ai'ound the margin with a pole to get the cooked pods 

 out, occasionally removing one of the charred hot sticks, imtil at the 

 end of an hour from the time of lighting all the sticks had been 

 removed and the cooking- was completed. 



The awal is separated after cooking into two grades, based on the 

 degree of maturity of the seeds. The better one (no'-kapk) makes 

 up ordinarily much the larger part of the awal, while the poorer grade 

 (chin-i'-a-kum) consists of the smaller and more shriveled pods. In 

 separating the two the woman tosses the large plump pods directly 

 into the nokapk pile, but coming occasionally to a doubtful one she 

 breaks it open, and from the appearance of the seeds themselves 

 decides into which pile to put it. 



