76 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



roasted brown and pounded slowly in a mortar and sifted until all 

 the granules were uniform, the coarser ones being pounded and 

 resiittd until this end was achieved. The meal was then thrown in 

 boiling water and cooked until tender. 



Preserved in skin bags this meal was carried by hunters and 

 either eaten raw with water, boiled as above or thrown in with boil- 

 ing meat. 1 



V an der Donck, in his Description of New Netherlands, says : 



When they intend to go a great distance on a hunting expedition 

 . . . where they expect no- tood, they provide themselves severally 

 with a small bag of parched corn meal which is so nutritious that they 

 can subsist upon the same many days. A quarter of a pound of the meal 

 is sufficient for a day's subsistence; for as it shrinks much in drying, 

 it also swells out again with moisture. When they are hungry they 

 take a handful of meal after which they take a drink of water, and 

 then they are so well fed that they can travel a day. [See N. Y. 

 Hist. Soc. Lol. Ser. 2. i : 193-94, 1841.] 



i 



Heckewelder describes this food as follows : " Their Psindamo- 

 can or Tassmanane, as they call it, is the most durable food made 

 out of the Indian corn. The blue sweetish kind is the grain which 

 they prefer for that purpose. They parch it in clean hot ashes until 

 it bursts, it is then sifted and cleaned, and pounded in a mortar into 

 a kind of flour, and when they wish to make it very good they mix 

 some sugar with it. When wanted for use they take about a table- 

 spoonful of this flour in their mouths, then stooping to the river or 

 brook, drink water to it. If, however, they have a cup or other 

 small vessel at hand they put the flour in it and mix it with water, 

 in the proportion of one tablespoonful to a pint. At their camps 

 they will put a small quantity in a kettle with water and let it boil 

 down, and they will have a thick pottage. With this food, the 

 traveler and warrior will set out on long journeys and expeditions, 

 and, as a little of it will serve them for a day, they have not a heavy 

 load of provisions to carry. Persons who are unacquainted with 

 this diet ought to be careful not to take too much at a time, and 

 not to suffer themselves to be tempted too far by its flavor; more 



1 " The Indians boil it till it becomes tender and eat it with fish or veni- 

 son instead of bread; sometimes they bruise it in mortars and so boil it. 

 The most usual way is to parch it in ashes, stirring it so artificially as to 

 be very tender, without burning; this they sift and beat in mortars into 

 a fine meal which they eat dry or mixed with water." Harris. Discoveries 

 and Settlements. Pinkerton's Voyages. 12:258. 



