382 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, lp40 



acter of elasticity, which appeals to the Indians. With them mealtime 

 is often visiting time. A meal started with 3 people may be increased 

 to 10 or more before it is finished. Tlie uninvited guests never seem 

 to cause embarrassment. To provide for tliem it is necessary only to 

 add water to increase the volume of the soup. 



With a squaw as a cook a favorite dish in the camp of rice-gather- 

 ing Indians has been wild rice, corn, and fish boiled together, called 

 Tassamanonny.^^ This combination of foods has also tickled the 

 palate of the white man, as may be judged by the enthusiasm of one 

 who spoke of it in his later years as being "an object of early love." 

 The Indian likes sweets and often eats his boiled rice with maple 

 sugar.^* He may also flavor his boiled rice with cranberries and his 

 soup with blueberries. Boiling does not, as a rule, reduce the kernels 

 to a paste, but should this condition occur, the pastelike mass is used 

 by the Indians as a substitute for bread.^'' 



Some Indians parch wild rice until the kernels burst open as pop- 

 corn does when heated, and eat it in this condition when away from 

 camp.^' Because of its keeping qualities, the parched grain is recom- 

 mended to vacation campers for use in either the dry or boiled state. 

 In the land of Ten Thousand Lakes where the parched grain is 

 comparatively cheap and is usually a part of the daily meal, the 

 woodman has the advantage of the man of the city, who must pay 

 exorbitant prices for it to cover handling charges and profits. Under 

 these circumstances wild rice in the city home is seldom used except 

 on special occasions. 



Knowing how some like the grain, we may assume that all would 

 be just as enthusiastic "ffor each man a handfull of that they putt 

 in the pott" and would exclaim with Wenibozho, "Oh, you are indeed 

 good!" 



" Blddle, James W., Recollections of Green Bay in 1816-17. Appendix No. 4. 1st Ann. 

 Rep. and Coll. State Hist. Soc. Wisconsin for the year 1854, vol. 1, p. 63. 



" Dunbar, Sir George, Other men's lives, p. 149, 193S. 



« Stickney, Gardner P., Indian use of wild rice. Amer. Anthrop., vol. 9. pp. 115-121, 

 1896. 



