52 KESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



or by baking them in bread. The oven is a hole in the ground 

 about eighteen inches cubic. Bed-hot stones are placed at the 

 bottom of the hole, a little dry sand or loam is thrown over 

 them, and next comes a layer of dry leaves. The dough or 

 paste is poured into the hole until it is two inches or three 

 inches deep. Then comes another layer of leaves, more sand, 

 red-hot stones, and finally dirt. At the end of five or six 

 hours the oven has cooled down, and the bread is taken out, 

 an irregular mass, nearly black in color, not at all handsome 

 to the eye or agreeable to the palate, and mixed with leaves 

 and dirt. For grinding the acorns, a stone mortar is used. 

 This mortar is sometimes nearly flat, with a hollow not more 

 than two inches deep ; and occasionally one will be seen fifteen 

 inches deep, and not more than three inches thick in any part 

 of it. The pestle is of stone, round, ten inches long and three 

 thick. 



Horse-chestnuts are usually made into a gruel or soup. Af- 

 ter being ground in the mortar, they are mixed with water in 

 a waterproof basket, into which red-hot stones are thrown, and 

 thus the soup is cooked. As the stones when taken from the 

 fire have dirt and ashes adhering to them, the soup is not 

 clean, and it often sets the teeth on edge. 



Grass-seeds are ground in the mortar, and roasted or made 

 into soup. 



Grasshoppers are roasted, and eaten without further prepara- 

 tion, or mashed up with berries. 



Fish and meat are broiled on the coals. The intestines and 

 blood are eaten, as well as the muscle. 



Clover and grass are eaten raw. The Indians go out into 

 the clover patches, pull up the clover with their hands, and 

 eat stalks, leaves, and flowers. They consider clover a great 

 blessing, and get fat on it. 



The Indians rarely have salt and spices, and most of their 

 food is such as a white man could not eat, unless reduced to 

 near starvation. In eating they bave no plates, cups, knives, 



