boas] DESCRIPTION OF THE TSIMSHIAN 405 



Preparation of Food. — Much of this food was boiled fresh. We 

 hear of boded fresh halibut (167), of fresh salmon which is split and 

 roasted (N 155), of fresh boded spring salmon (250), boiled fresh 

 deer meat (89), boded trout (251), fresh grizzly-bear meat (247), 

 fresh seal (N 135). Dried salmon was roasted by the fire (293). 



Winter Provisions. — The preparation of whiter provisions plays an 

 exceedingly important part in the life of the people. Salmon are 

 split, dried, and roasted (N 174); they are also smoked in smoke- 

 houses (159); eels also are smoked (177). 1 Halibut is dried (N 15S). 

 The meat of mammals is also dried. Thus we hear about dried seal 

 meat (N 176), dried porcupine meat and fat (10S), dried meat and 

 fat of mountain goat (SS) . Grizzly-bear meat kept for a considerable 

 length of time is mentioned (247). Berries are dried in summer 

 (251). Crabapples are boded and kept for winter use (240). 



Boiling iviih Stones. — Most of the food was boiled b} T means of stones, 

 either in square boxes (1S3, 240) or in root baskets (251). The ves- 

 sel was partially filled with water, which was brought to a boil by 

 throwing red-hot stones into it. Then the material to be cooked 

 was thrown in, and the vessel was covered with a mat. On 250 we 

 are told that fresh spring salmon steamed in a box are spread by 

 means of small sticks pushed through the fish a finger-width apart. 



Steaming. — Another method of cooking is hi an underground oven. 

 A hole is dug in the ground. A large fire is built, in which flat stones 

 are heated. These are thrown into the hole. They are covered over 

 with leaves of the skunk-cabbage. Then the food to be cooked — 

 as salmon cut lengthwise, fern roots, deer meat — is placed on top of 

 the leaves (6S). These are covered with another layer of leaves (68). 

 Earth is piled over the whole, and then water is poured in, and finally 

 a fire is built, on top of the whole. In a description of the cooking 

 of fern root in an oven, wet moss is used in place of skunk-cabbage 

 leaves, and the cover is made of ashes and soil (337). 



CooTcing Olachen. — In the Raven story a detailed account is given of 

 the way to cook olachen. When the olachen have been carried 

 ashore, a large fire is built, in which stones are heated. When they 

 are hot, four pads of water are poured into a large cedar box. The 

 red-hot stones are taken out of the fire with tongs and thrown into 

 the box; and when the water begins to boil, five baskets of olachen 

 are thrown in. Meanwhile more stones are placed in the fire. 

 When the stones in the box are cooling off, they are taken out 

 by means of a large ladle made of alder wood, and more water is 

 poured into the box. Then other red-hot stones are thrown in, and 

 the contents of the box are again brought to a boil. After this has 

 been done two or three times, the fish is done. The od is then 

 slammed oft' (66). 



i The dried salmon is tied up in bundles of forty (l.W). 



