36 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



or Long House is to be seen. These pits are near the house of Ed- 

 ward Cornplanter and were photographed in the spring of 1909 after 

 the store had been removed. 



The custom of caching vegetables in the ground is, of course, one 

 now followed by white people generally. Beauchamp 1 says the 

 Mohawk word for making a cache is asaton. The Seneca word is 

 similar, being wae'sado 11 , meaning she buried it. It is buried would 

 be, gasa'do". 



The modern caches are lined with hemlock boughs instead of bark 

 although wood is sometimes used and sometimes bark instead of 

 boughs at the top. Over this is placed a mound of earth. 2 

 Champlain is the first writer to describe the pit method of storing 

 corn. He says : " They make trenches in the sand on the slope of 

 the hills some five to six feet deep more or less. Putting their corn 

 and other grains into large grass sacks 3 they throw them into these 

 trenches and cover them with sand three or four feet above the sur- 

 face of the earth, taking out as their needs require. In this way it 

 is preserved as well as it would be possible in our granaries." 



The corn found by the Pilgrims in November 1620 was buried in 

 a similar manner. 



In the Journal of a Dutch agent, by some supposed to be Arent Van 

 Curler, who journeyed among the Mohawks and Oneidas in 1634-35, 

 is a statement that the houses were full of corn, some of them con- 

 taining more than 300 bushels. 4 



Corncribs are an Indian invention and for general construction 

 have been little improved upon by white men. Figure 2 in plate 7 

 shows a modern Seneca crib. 



IV CEREMONIAL AND LEGENDARY ALLUSIONS TO CORN 



In the cosmologic myth of the Senecas corn is said to have sprung 

 from the breasts of the Earth-Mother who died upon delivering the 

 twins, Good Minded and Evil Minded. Thus the food of the 

 mother's bosom still continued to give life to her offspring. Esquire 



Johnson, an old Seneca chief, in an interview with Mrs Asher 

 ,- 



1 Beauchamp, Dr W. M. N. Y. State Mus. Bui. 89. p. 193. 



2 Compare the following : " The Indians thrash it as they gather it. They 

 dry it well on mats in the sun and bury it in holes in the ground, lined 

 with moss or boughs, which are their barns." Pinkerton. Voyages, 12:258. 



*Cf. Hennepin. Voyages. Lond. 1698. p. 104. 



*Amer. Hist. Ass'n Trans. 1895. Wilson, Gen. J. G. Arent Van Curler, 

 Journal of, 1634-35, P- Qi- 



