66 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



IX FOODS PREPARED FROM CORN 



Leaf bread tamales, onia 5 ' tci'4a\ This is prepared from green 

 corn. The kernels are cut or scraped from the cob and beaten to 

 a milky paste in a mortar. The corn used for leaf cake tamales 

 should be too hard for green corn good for boiling and eating on 

 the cob.. The paste will then be of the proper consistency. The 

 paste is patted into shape and laid in a "strip on one end of a broad 

 corn leaf, the free half being doubled over the paste. Other leaves 

 are folded over the first, the ends all projecting uniformly from 

 one end for tying. The onia/'tci'da' was then tied three times 

 laterally and once transversely and dropped into boiling water. 

 When cooked cooking requires about 45 minutes the wrap- 

 pings are removed and the cake is eaten with sunflower or bear oil, 

 though in these modern days bacon grease or butter are more in 

 vogue. Oftentimes cooked beans are mixed with the mass before 

 wrapping in the leaves. These impart their flavor and give variety. 



Leaf cakes may be dried for winter's use if no beans have been 

 used with the corn. In wrapping the leaf bread a bulbous shaped 

 bundle is made resembling a large braid of hair doubled and tied, 

 hence the name onia"tci'da', derived from yenya'tci'dot, doubled 

 braid of woman's hair. 



Heckewelder 1 describes this bread but says it is too sweet al- 

 though the Indians consider it a delicate morsel. He says the 

 mashed green corn is put in the corn blades with ladles. 



Adair 2 in describing it remarks, " This sort of bread is very 

 tempting to the taste, and reckoned most delicious by their strong 

 palates." 



David DeVries 3 writing of the dish says, " They make flat cakes 

 of meal mixed with water, as large as a farthing cake in this 

 country, and bake them in the ashes, first wrapping a vine or maize 

 leaf around them. 



Sagard in describing leaf cakes says that the Huron called it 

 Andataroni. He describes the process of preparing it substantially 

 as given above. He mentions that berries and beans are often 

 added. 4 



1 Heckewelder, p. 195. 



2 Adair. North American Indians. 



3 Second Voyage. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Col. Ser. 2. v. 3, pt i, p. 107. 

 Cf. Vincent. History of Delaware. Phila. 1870. p. 74. 



4 Grand Voyage. Tross ed. p. 96. 



