290 THE MENOMINI INDIANS [eth.ann.u 



boilers, who poured it iiito the kettles. So soon as one kettleful was 

 converted into sugar, a new lot of sap was bung over the tire. Care 

 was taken by the women detailed to superintend the boiling to note 

 the period at which the sirup began to granulate. It was then poured 

 into wooden troughs, where it was worked and the granulating process 

 completed. 



When maple sirup is thrown on the snow to cool rapidly, it becomes 

 waxy in consistence and is then termed sugar wax, and is highly 

 esteemed as confectionery. Small dishes, from 2 to i inches in diame- 

 ter, also are filled with sirup, which is allowed to cool and harden, 

 forming sugar cakes. These are given to friends and visitors, and 

 pieces are always put into the grave-boxes of deceased relations, as an 

 offering to the shade of the dead. 



As the sugar is cooled and ready to be removed from the trough, it 

 is put in makaks, or boxes, for transportation and future use. These 

 makaks, which are made of birchbark, resemble sap-buckets in shape, 

 though they are larger at the base than at the rim, and each has a lid 

 with a slightly conical center. These boxes vary in capacity from 2 

 to 50 pounds, those of average size holding about 25 pounds of sugar. 

 The cover projects slightly over the rim of the bottom vessel, and is 

 finally fastened by stitching with strands of basswood bark. 



Another, though more modern, form of sugar receptacle is made of 

 saplings arranged on the same principle as the timber of a log house, 

 but inclosing a space of only about 10 by 15 feet. The front and back 

 poles are erected to the height of 6 or 7 feet, then turned off toward the 

 central ridgepole, as in a modern roof. The vertical poles are from 2i 

 to 3 inches thick, and are placed about 2 feet apart. The horizontal 

 saplings also are about 2 feet apart, and are secured to the former by 

 lashing with basswood bark. The roofs are afterward further strength- 

 ened by fastening with withes and brush, over which are placed the 

 long, crude rush mats made solely for this purpose. Sometimes the 

 bark or rush mats are fastened to the roof without the underlying 

 rushes. 



WILD RICE 



Apart from the vegetables which the Menomiui now cultivate, wild 

 rice is still gathered in large quantities for use as food. As before stated 

 with reference to the tribal designation, the term Menomiui is derived 

 from two words signifying "rice men," or "rice people," the French, at 

 the time of first meeting them, having designated them Folles-avoiues 

 or False Oats, as wild rice was called by them. 



Dr Morse, 1 who visited this tribe at Green Bay, in 1820, says of their 

 food : 



In the spring they suhsist on sugar and fish ; in the summer, on fish and game ; iu 

 the fall, on -wild rice and com, and in the winter on fish and game. Those who are 



1 Keport to the Secretary of War, New Haven, 1822, p. 48. 



