72 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



husk and tied in the middle. It was then ready for boiling. To 

 complete the cooking required about one hour. 



Twenty-four of these cakes were taken by the girl's maternal grand- 

 mother (by blood or by clan appointment, if the maternal grand- 

 mother was dead) to the door of the maternal grandmother of an 

 eligible male. The recipient, " who had previously conferred with 

 the donor, if she favors the alliance suggested by the gift, tastes 

 the bread and notifies her daughter that her (the daughter's) son 

 is desired to unite with a certain young woman in marriage by the 

 grandmother of that young woman. The mother of the boy must 

 submit to her mother's wish if she can offer no substantial objec- 

 tion. The boy's grandmother then makes 24 wedding cakes 1 and 

 carries them to the girl's grandmother who then notifies her 

 daughter that the girl must marry a certain man. If the suit is 

 rejected at the first proposal the wedding cakes are left untouched 

 and the humiliated donor must creep back and reclaim the cakes. 

 My informant says the rejected cakes were never eaten, but prob- 

 ably reserved as ammunition with which to pelt the offending old 

 dowager, who had given reasons to believe that the suit was smiled 

 upon. The bounds of a cake recipe forbid further discussion. 



Sagard found this bread among the Huron who, he says, called 

 it Coinkia. He remarked that instead of being baked it was boiled. 

 His description ''deux balles jointes ensemble" makes the identity 

 of the dish absolute. 2 



Early bread, Ganeo n te"doV Before the corn was thoroughly 

 dry in the autumn it was plucked for making early bread. The 

 unhulled corn was mixed with a little water in a mortar and beaten 

 to a paste instead of a meal. Loaves were molded by the hands from 

 the paste and boiled. This bread was considered a great delicacy 

 and valued especially as a food for invalids. 



Early corn pudding, Ganeo n te v do n odjis'kwa. The paste from 

 the mortar, as described above, was sometimes drained, sifted and 

 tossed into a wet meal. It was then thrown in boiling water and 

 boiled down into a pudding. 



1 Morgan. League, p. 322 ; cf. Sagard, p. 94, 136. 



2 ". . . excepte le pain mis et accommode comme deux baltes iointes 

 ensemble, enueloppe entre des fueilles de bled d'Inde, puis boiiilly et cuit 

 en 1'eau, et non sous la cendre, lequel ils appellent d'vn nom particulier 

 Coinkia." Sagard, Grand Voyage, p. 136, Paris 1682, see also Tross ed. p. 94. 



3 Ga'te'do n gana'darho, pounded bread, Mohawk form. 



