IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE ^ 35 



five feet deep, lined with bark and covered with earth. Their fruits 

 keep perfectly sound during the winter without any injury from the 

 frost. As for the corn, it is different, instead of burying it, ex- 

 cept in the case of necessity, they allow it to dry on scaffolds and 

 under the eaves or in sheds outside of their houses. 



At Tsonnontouann 1 they make bark granaries round and place 

 them on elevations, piercing the bark from all sides so that the air 

 will get in and prevent the moisture from spoiling the grain. 



Morgan in his League 2 describes the cache in a somewhat similar 

 way: 



The Iroqttois were accustomed to bury their surplus corn and also 

 their charred green corn in caches, in which the former would pre- 

 serve uninjured through the year, and the latter for a much longer 

 period. They excavated a pit, made a bark bottom and sides, and 

 having deposited their corn within it, a bark roof, water tight, was 

 constructed over it, and the whole covered with earth. Pits of 

 charred corn are still found near their ancient settlements. 



The writer has found these corn pits throughout the Iroquois re- 

 gion in New York, one of them shown in plate 6. Many of these 

 ancient pits show that they had been lined with long grass or with 

 hemlock boughs, 3 for after the corn had been removed the pit was 

 filled with rubbish and the entire matter burned or charred. In 

 this manner the grass lining, if it were carbonized, was preserved 

 and when excavated the charred grass lining could be removed in 

 chunks or sheets. Mr Harrington has also noted this occurrence 

 throughout his field of investigation in New York. The Iroquois 

 have not abandoned this custom even now. Among the more primi- 

 tive the custom of burying parched corn and other vegetables is still in 

 vogue. In plate 7 is shown a group of pits on the Cattaraugus 

 Seneca Reservation in Erie county. In the background the Council 



1 Also known as Sonnontouan, Totiacton and La Conception. The site 

 of this old Seneca town is in the present town of Mendon, Monroe co., ii 

 miles from Honeoye Falls. 



2 Morgan, p. 319. 



3 In describing corn storage, Kalm writes : "After they reaped their maize, 

 they kept it in holes underground during winter; they dug these holes 

 seldom deeper than a fathom, and often not so deep; at the bottom and 

 sides they put broad pieces of bark. The Andropogon bicorne, 

 a grass which grows in great plenty here, and which the English call Indian 

 grass . . . supplies the want of bark; the ears of maize are then thrown 

 into the hole, and covered to a considerable thickness with the same grass 

 and the whole is again covered by a sufficient quantity of earth; the maize 

 keeps extremely well in these holes and each Indian has several such sub- 

 terranean stores where his corne lay safe though he travel far from it." 

 Kalm. Pinkerton's Voyages, 13:539. 



