WOKAy, A PRIMITIVE FOOD. 737 



TSIHLAK. 



Ill the preparation of lolensh and of .sliiwulinz the broken seed sliells 

 (tsi'-hlak) are winnowed, as already described, from the seed kernels. 

 These seed shells or hulls are not always thrown away, hut they are 

 often saved for a later curious use. In the manufacture of their 

 finer baskets and trays the Klamaths use for both w^arp and weft cords 

 twisted from the split outer surface of the tule {Scirpus lacuatrls). 

 Ui)on the main Ijody of the basket as woven from these cords are over- 

 laid various designs in white, black, yellow, and maroon. The patterns 

 in 1)lack are made from the same material as the l)ody of the l)askets, 

 split tule stems, which have l^een colored by a certain dyeing- process. 

 Ordinarily this is accomplished by immersing the tule stems in the 

 black mud of sluggish si)rings containing iron. A superior color, 

 however, is obtained ]>y the addition of a (piantity of wokas hidls, 

 which contain a large amount of tannin. The same result is now fre- 

 quently secured among these Indians by prolonged soaking of the tide 

 stems in an iron kettle, in water containing a lil)eral amount of the 

 hulls. The color is evidently due to the development of tannate of 

 iron. Samples of the wokas hulls analyzed through the courtesy of 

 Dr. H. W. Wiley, Chief Chemist of the Department of Agriculture, 

 were found to contain 20 per cent of tannin. 



WOKAS AS AN ARTICLE OF COMMERCE. 



Wokas, when freshly parched so as to l»e nicely browned, is a deli- 

 cious food, particularly if slightly salted and eaten w' ith cream. There 

 is every reason to believe that wokas could be brought into successful 

 use as a breakfast food. Small quantities of it can l)e purchased from 

 the Indians, but only at a price of from 10 to 20 cents a pound. It is 

 evident that in order to enter into successful competition with 

 other breakfast foods economical machine methods must be devised 

 for extracting- the seeds from the pods and putting them through the 

 processes necessary to bring' them to the lolensh stage, which is the 

 best form for shipment. The primitive methods at present employed 

 by the Indians are altogether too expensive. Some of the various 

 means now used by seedsmen, cofl'ee dealers, and millers for macerat- 

 ing, roasting", milling, and cleaning seeds are undoubtedly applicable, 

 with some modifications, to the production of wokas. 



The writer does not consider the cultivation of the wokas plant 

 on a commercial scale to be feasible. The available supply of the 

 seeds nuist be limited to the natural product, which in the Klamath 

 country is estimated at a])out lo,oOO acres. Other, but, so far as 

 known, smaller areas of the plant exist on the Northwest Coast. There 

 seems to be no probability that the pods can be harvested by any other 

 JSAT MUS 1902 17 



