736 REPOET OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1902. 



DIACHAS. 



In wokas pods properly roasted as awal the interior tissues are in the 

 condition of a mucilao'inoiis paste. The seeds do not separate from 

 this paste as readily as they do from the mucilage in pods of the spok- 

 was grade, and therefore the Indian has invented another method of 

 extracting- them. This method is known as diachas (di-a"-chas'). 

 About a peck of awal, of either the nokapk or the chiniakum grade, is 

 placed upon a sack or upon a hard smooth area of bare ground and 

 pounded with a small stone (ska) into a gluey mass. To this is added 

 about half the (piautity of dr}^ rotten wood (mu-lo') of a sort that is easily 

 crumbled into dust. This is pounded and rubbed into the mass of 

 pounded pods (Plate 11). Finely pulverized charcoal or ashes is often 

 substituted for the rotten wood when the latter is not readily obtainable. 

 After the manipulation is sufficient to take up the moisture and leave 

 the surface of the seed dry and free al)out three quarts of the mixture 

 is usually placed in a wicker screening basket (ti-a') and the empty 

 capsule skins screened out, the liner matter falling through into a wokas 

 shaker. Sometimes a screen is not used. The material in such case 

 is placed directly in a shaker, and the skins, after being brought to the 

 top by rotating, are shoved off. The winnowing of the seeds, as in the 

 preparation of lowak, follows, and the seeds are then made into lolensh 

 by the process already descrilied. 



THE GRADES OF WOKAS. 



Inquiry among the Indians as to the relative quality of the different 

 kinds of wokas, irrespective of the method of cooking, but on the basis 

 of what in the grain trade would be called grade, elicited replies show- 

 ing the following order: (1) Spokwas, (2) stontablaks, (3) lowak, 

 (4) nokapk, (5) chiniakum. 



The significance of this arrangement of grades by the Indians lies in 

 the fact that the sequence they gave represents exactly the relative 

 degree of maturity of the seeds. In chiniakum and nokapk the seeds 

 in the still green pods are roasted at once, usually on the da}' after 

 they are gathered, and of these two grades the one called chiniakum 

 is visibly the less fully developed. In lowak the seeds have several 

 days longer to grow, since between the time when the pods are spread 

 out in the drying piles and the time when they actually become dry 

 the seeds are undoubtedly making considerable progress toward matur- 

 ity. The stontablaks, lying in the center of the drying piles, and 

 therefore remaining moist for a longer time than the pods on the sur- 

 faces of the piles, have a still further opportunity for the development 

 of their seeds, and in spokwas the seeds are of course fully matured 

 when they are gathered. 



