SWanton] INDIAN TKIUKS OF 'I'lIK l-OWKi; M ISSISSI I'lM VALLKV 75 



l)<)uii(h'(l. wliicli iimkcs the skin cil' (lie ^.'riiiiis Imrst and ii'diici's it coiuitli'tely 

 to meal. 'Iliis meal is crnshod and dried in tlie sun. After this last operation 

 this meal may \>r tiansported anywhere and kept for six months. It must be 

 observed. ho\vev('r. lliat oin' ini,i,'li( not lo forjret to expose it to the sun from 

 time to time. In order to eat it a vessel is filled with it a third full and the 

 rest almost entirely with water, and at the end of some minutes the meal is 

 found swollen and i^ood to eat. It is very nourishini: and is an excellent pro- 

 vision for travelers and for those who go trading, that is to say, to enter upon 

 any iie.uotintioiis." 



The Natchez prepared their fields for cultivation bj^ means of a 

 curved mattock made of hickory (''white walnut"). These were 

 used — 



to weed the maize and cut down the canes in order to make a field. When 

 the canes w^ere dry they set fire to them, and to sow the maize, they made a 

 hole with the hand, in which they put some grains. These mattocks were 

 made like a capital L. They cut by means of the sides of the lower end, 

 which is very flat.* 



The Journal of Le Marin says that the Bayogoula cidtivated their 

 fields by means of bison bones, probably the shoulder blades, and there 

 is every reason to believe that these were used by the Natchez and 

 other lower Mississippi Valley tribes as well.' 



Maize Avas reduced to flour in the wooden mortars previously 

 described/^ 



The work was done in common. De Montigry states that the 

 entire village assembled and, after a general dance, followed by a 

 great feast, men and women repaired to the chief's land, and in 

 half a day worked it, planted it. or gathered the harvest from it.« 

 " Planting of the grain," wrote M. de la Veilte. " is alwa,ys done in 

 common; to-day the whole village works for one and to-morrow all 

 of the same village will work for another, and so successively until 

 all of their work is finished.'" ^ 



The dishes afterward made of it are described thus: 



They make of some of it bread cooked in a vessel, of some bread cooked in 

 the ashes, and of some bread cooked in water. They make of it the cold meal 

 of which I have spoken in the article on maize, ground corn (fariiic grOlce), 

 and the coarse and the fine grits (gniau) called in that country sagamitc. In 

 my opinion this dish and the cold meal are the two best. The others are only 

 for variety. i' 



Elsewhere he refers to them again : 



There is made of it (maize) ground corn. It is a dish of the natives like the 

 Co oc'doii or bread mixed with beans (favioles). Smoke-dried grain also origi- 



" Du Pratz, Hist, de La Louisiane, ii, 3-6. 

 »Ibid., 26, 176. 

 <■ See p. 277. 

 <* See p. 67. 



« Letter of Aug. 2.5, 1600. referred to by M. Gosselin in Compte Rendu Cong. Internat. 

 des Amer., 15th sess., i, 47. 

 r Letter of July 4, 1708, ibid. 

 9 Du Pratz, Hist, de La Louisiane, iiij 8-9 ; also Dumont's account on p. 74. 



