stomach." The Baron also considered that the maple sap possessed 

 "a much pleasanter taste than the best lemonade or cherry-water." 



The sap was collected into troughs, by the squaws, and hot stones 

 were plunged into it, and this process was continued until the sugar 

 had boiled down to the desired consistency. The Baron saw two 

 kinds of maples tapped; the black or hard, and the white or soft 

 maple; "the former makes infinitely the best grained and flavored 

 sugar, and fully equal in quality to the best Muscovado." 



The Indians mixed maple sugar with melted bear's fat and made 

 sauce for their roast venison ; they used it to sweeten boiled corn, and 

 the parched corn which they carried with them on journeys. The 

 Iroquois Indians called the Algonkians "ratirontaks," "tree-eaters," 

 on account of their fondness for sugar. There is an Algonkian legend 

 that explains why maple sap runs so thin instead of being thick like 

 syrup as it was originally. 



One day, Nokomis, the grandmother of Manabush, was roaming 

 through the forest, and by accident cut the bark of a tree. Seeing 

 a rich syrup flow slowly from the wound, she tasted it, and delighted 

 at finding it so delicious, gave some to Manabush. He also was much 

 pleased with the new sweet-meat, but felt afraid that if the women of 

 the tribe found the syrup could be obtained so easily, all ready-made 

 as it were, they would become idle. So, in order to keep his aunts 

 busy, he diluted the sap, making it thin, as we know it, by pouring 

 water over the tops of the trees. This is why the women must boil 

 down the sap to make syrup. 



Early Mention of the Sugar Maple 



One of the earliest references to maple sugar appears in an issue 

 of the "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society," (England) , 

 published in 1684, "an account of a sort of sugar made of the juice of 

 the maple in Canada." The writer tells us that "The savages of 

 Canada, in the time that the sap rises in the maple, make an incision 

 in the tree by which it runs out ; and after they have evaporated eight 

 pounds of the liquor there remains one pound as sweet and as much 

 sugar as that which is got out of the canes. The savages here have 

 practised this art longer than any now living among them can 

 remember." 



Lambert's "Travels Through Canada and the United States," 

 published in 1813, mentions maple sugar (evidently one of the novel- 

 ties of the New World), as being very hard and requiring to be 

 "scraped with a knife when used for tea, otherwise the lump would 

 be a considerable time in dissolving." Its flavor reminded the author 

 of the candied horehound sold in England, and he added that the 

 Canadians ate large lumps of the sugar believing it to act medicinally. 

 "It very likely acts as a corrective to the vast quantity of fat pork 

 which they consume, as it possesses a greater degree of acidity than 

 the West India sugar. Before salt was in use, sugar was eaten with 



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