46 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 195 



Corn was preserved for winter use by either boiling and drying it or 

 parching it. Beans and squash also were dried, as were most wild 

 roots, fruits, and berries. OK mentioned that turnips were preserved 

 by first boiling them, then skinning them and splitting them in two. 

 Meat was cut into thin strips, then smoked and dried over a cedar 

 fire. This treatment not only preserved the meat but gave it a 

 special flavor as well. Both meat and com were pounded in a wooden 

 mortar with a stone pestle. The corn thus prepared was made into 

 corncakes which were apparently like the "corn balls" of the Mandan 

 and Hidatsa. Pemmican or dagddube was the Ponca "emergency 

 ration," carried by hunters and warriors. Bones were boiled until 

 the "bone grease" or marrow fat rose to the surface. This was 

 skimmed off, mixed with pounded meat and dried berries, and stored in 

 sections of gut. 



Ponca cookery was quite elementary if judged by European stand- 

 ards. Usually the meat was merely cut into pieces about the size of 

 a man's hand and dropped into the kettle (PLC). Wabdsna^ or 

 "roast," was made by cutting meat into pieces about 3 inches square 

 and broiling it over an open fire on a green stick. Fish were also 

 cooked in this manner. Dani^ the special soup served at the Tiedusha 

 dance, was made of large pieces of meat boiled with squash, corn, and 

 tipsina. 



Fried bread or umdsnesn^, still a popular dish at the present time, 

 represents the first use to which the Wliite man's flour was put by the 

 Ponca. It is made of ordinary bread dough which is cut into pieces 

 about 3 inches square, slit down the middle, and fried in hot grease. 

 Occasionally the Ponca make "meat pie" by wrapping the fried bread 

 dough around a piece of precooked meat before frying it. However, 

 this is considered to be an Osage dish. In recent years the Ponca 

 have learned many of the recipes of the Wliites, and delicious cakes, 

 pies, and other specialties are prepared for special occasions. The 

 daily fare, however, remains quite simple in most families. 



Formerly there were but two regular meals a day, one at noon and 

 one in the evening about dusk (PLC, EBC). The entire family was 

 present at these times. If a person became hungry at any other time 

 he merely nibbled on a piece of dried meat. Nowadays there are 

 usually three meals: breakfast, dinner (always the noon meal), and 

 supper. 



Usually there is little ceremony at meals, though many families 

 begin each meal with a prayer in the native language. If a guest is 

 present he is often asked to return thanks for the group. Formerly 

 bison-horn spoons and hunting knives were the only eating utensils, 

 but now plates, cups, table knives, forks, and spoons of White manu- 

 facture are in universal use. At a Teton Dakota dance near St. 



