MAPLE-SUGAR MAKING 



289 



The folds at the top of the vim are held in place by means of a thin 

 strip of wood neatly stitched with strands of basswood bark, and 

 an additional cord is made to extend across the top to serve as a 

 handle. Two buckets are attached to the wooden hooks suspended 

 from a shoulder-yoke, an illustration of the latter being presented in 

 plate xxxn a. 



The yoke is made of light though durable wood. The specimen ob- 

 tained from the Menomini, and now in the National Museum, measures 

 34 inches in length by CA inches across the indent part, the depth of 

 this thick concavity being 2 inches, while the piece itself is but half 

 an inch. The cords are apparently of buckskin, while the hooks are 

 evidently of oak. The Indians claim to have invented this form of 

 yoke, though this is a difficult question to decide, since they have been 

 in contact with the whites more than two centuries. 



As maple-sugar making appears to have originated with the Indi- 

 ans, it is reasonable to 

 presume that their re- 

 quirements would in 

 time have suggested 

 th e construction of 

 such a contrivance as 

 a yoke to facilitate 

 the transportation of 

 buckets of sap, partic- 

 ularly as by this means 

 the weight would be 

 transferred to the 

 shoulders, making the 

 burden less fatiguing to the arms. Wooden sap-troughs also were made 

 during the summer season, when opportunity or inclination offered. 



The season of sugar-making, as before mentioned, began in March, 

 when the crows migrated from the south. At this time everyone was 

 on the lookout, and so soon as the necessary camp equipage and sugar- 

 making utensils could be brought together each family removed to its 

 customary sugar grove. On arriving at the grounds, tents or temporary 

 wigwams were erected for sleeping quarters, and a frame structure, 

 with a roof of bark or mats, before described, was constructed for 

 sheltering the sugar-makers. A sugar-making camp is illustrated in 

 plate xxxiii. 



When these preparations had been completed, and the kettles sus- 

 pended from the ridgepole, the trees were selected; then, with an ax, a 

 transverse cut, anywhere from a foot to iij feet above the ground, was 

 made in the trunk. Into this cut a chip of wood was wedged, to direct 

 the flow of sap away from the tree and into the bark vessel placed 

 on the ground beneath. All available pans were thus placed at trees 

 conveniently situated, and the sap was collected and brought to the 

 14 eth 19 



Fig. 55— Birchbark vessel for maple sap. 



