BOUEKE.] HODDEXTIN A PREHISTORIC FOOD. 519 



tance the propitiation of the deities will be effected by foods whose use 

 has long since faded away from the memory of the laity. 



The sacred feast of stewed puppy and wild turnips forms a promi 

 nent part of the sun dance of the Sioux, and hud its parallel in a colla 

 tion of boiled puppy (catullus), of which the highest civic and ecclesias- 

 tical dignitaries of pagan Koine partook at stated intervals. 



The reversion of the Apache to the food of his ancestors the hod- 

 dentin as a religious offering has its analogue in the unleavened bread 

 and other obsolete farinaceous products which the ceremonial of more 

 enlightened races has preserved from oblivion. . Careful consideration 

 of the narrative of Cabe/a de Vaca sustains this conclusion. In the 

 western portion of his wanderings we learn that for from thirty to forty 

 days he and his comrades passed through tribes which for one-third 

 of the yea* had to live on &quot;the powder of straw&quot; (on the powder of 

 bledos), and that afterwards the Spaniards came among people who 

 raised com. At that time, Vaca, whether we believe that he ascended 

 the Bio Concho or kept on up the Rio Grande, was in a region where 

 he would certainly have encountered the ancestors of our Apache tribe 

 and their brothers the Navajo. The following is Hen-era s account of 

 that part of Vaca s wanderings: &quot;Padeciendo mucha hainbre eu 

 treinta i quatro Jornadas, pasando por una Gente que la tercera parte 

 del Afio conien polvos de paja, i los liuvieron de comer, por haver llegado 

 en tal ocasion.&quot; 1 



This powder (polvo) of paja or grass might at first sight seem to be 

 grass seeds ; but why not say &quot;flour,&quot; as on other occasions 1 The phrase 

 is an obscure one, but not more obscure than the description of the 

 whole journey. In the earlier writings of the Spaniards there, is am 

 biguity because the new arrivals endeavored to apply the names of their 

 own plants and animals to all that they saw in the western continent. 

 Neither Castafieda nor Cabeza de Vaca makes mention of hod- 

 denim, but Vaca does say that when he had almost ended his journey: 

 &quot;La cote ne possede pas de ma is; on n y mange quo de la poudre de 

 paille de blette.&quot; &quot; Blette&quot; is the same as the Spanish &quot;bledos.&quot; 2 &quot;Nous 

 parvinmes chez line peuplade qui, pendant le tiers de 1 annee, ue vit que 

 de poudre de paille.&quot; &quot;We met with a people, who the third part of 

 the yeere eate no other thing save the powder of , straw.&quot; :l 



Davis, who seems to have followed Herrera, says: &quot; These Indians 

 lived one-third of the year on the powder of a certain straw . 



After leaving this people they again arrived in a country of per 

 manent habitations, where they found an abundance of maize. . . . 

 The inhabitants gave them maize both in grain and flour. 



The Tusayan Indians were formerly in the habit of adding a trifle of 



1 Dec. 6, lib. 1, p. 9. 



2 Ternaux-Compans, Voyages, vol. 7. ]ip. 242, 250. 



1 Relation of Cabeza de Vuca in Purchas, vol. 4. lib. 8, cap. 1, sec. 4, p. 1524. 

 4 Conquest of New Mexico, p. 100. 



