24 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 190 



always very hard because of the difficulty in cooking it thoroughly. 

 Occasionally, by dragging hebind the canoe a line and frog's-skin- 

 baited hook, fish were caught and added to the kettle. Or, if not 

 pressed for time after making camp, the Indians would set nets in the 

 river to catch fish (S 59-60) . Corn was cached along the way in little 

 bags of birchbark. Every second day on the return trip, these caches 

 would be sought out although, occasionally, they were missed or not 

 found (S 60 ; JE 8 : 77 ; 19 : 253) . The Indians smoked often during 

 the day, deadening their hunger between the two meals (S 62). 



In order to make a fire, the Huron used two sticks of willow, lime, 

 or other dry, light wood. The first stick, cut an ell or a little less in 

 length by an inch wide, was slightly hollowed on one side. With a 

 beaver's tooth or the point of a knife, into this hollowed, broad side 

 was cut a little pit and then, beside it, a small notch into which was 

 put the end of a cotton match or other easily inflammable material. 

 The second stick, made of the same wood as the first and as thick as 

 a little finger, bore a pointed end which was inserted in the pit of the 

 broader stick. Kneeling on the end of the first, or broader, stick, the 

 Indian twisted the second between his hands so rapidly that the wood 

 was set on fire and the end of the cotton match ignited. If fire-making 

 proved difficult, he crumbled a little charcoal or some powdeiy dry 

 wood taken from a stump into the pit. If a broad stick was lacking, 

 a substitute was made by tying two round sticks together and placing 

 the point of a third between them (S 61).^^ 



Each town or village of the Huron had its special coat of arms which 

 the travelers erected along the route when they wished it known that 

 they had passed there. In one case, the coat of arms of the town of 

 Q.uieunonascaran Avere painted on a piece of birchbark as large as a 

 sheet of paper. They consisted of a roughly outlined canoe and drawn 

 in it as many black strokes as there were men on the trip. To indicate 

 that Sagard was with them, the Indians rouglily drew a man in the mid- 

 dle above the strokes. At the bottom of the piece of bark, they tied 

 with a shred of bark a piece of dry wood about half a foot long and 

 three fingers tliick. Then this coat of arms was hung on the top of a 

 pole stuck in the ground so that it leaned over a little (S 251-252).^- 



si This method of making fire is only one of the methods known to the Iroquois (Beau- 

 champ 1905: 91-93; Waugh 1916: 50-53). It seems likely that the Huron also knew 

 of these methods. 



32 Jackson (1830 b: 33) describes a similar Iroquois custom: "In their travelling excur- 

 sions, they frequently describe on the bark of trees, by certain emblems or characters 

 which they understand, the time they have been from home, the number of persons in 

 company, the ensign of the tribe they belong to, the course they are going, and the number 

 of deer or other animals they have killed." 



The Iroquois also recorded their war records by paintings on bark (Fenton 1953: 106). 



