boffman] WILD-RICK GATHERING 291 



provident have some rice during the winter. The fish, consisting principally of 

 sturgeon and salmon-trout, are in the greatest abundance in the hay. 



The Menoinini method of gathering and cleaning wild rice is as fol- 

 lows: At the proper season the women, and frequently the men as 

 well, paddle through the dense growth of wild rice along the shores 

 of the lakes and rivers, and while one attends to the canoe, the others 

 grasp with one hand a bunch of rice stalks, bend it over the gunwale 

 into the boat, and there beat out the ears of rice. After collecting a 

 load in this manner, the next process is to dig a hole about 6 inches 

 deep and 2 feet across; this hole is then lined with a dressed buck- 

 skin and filled witli the rice, which is beaten with a stick, heavier and 

 somewhat curved at one end. In this manner the husk is separated 

 from the grain, and by winnowing on a windy day by means of a birch- 

 bark tray, the rice is cleaned. Sometimes the rice and hulls are sep- 

 arated by spreading on a mat and fanning with a bark tray. It is then 

 ready to dry in a metallic vessel, after which it is stored for use when 

 required. 



Some of the Menomini women make a special form of bag in which 

 to beat out the rice. This bag is 2 feet wide by from 18 to 20 inches 

 deep, and is woven of bark strands. It resembles very much an old- 

 fashioned carpet bag. After the rice is put into this, the bag is laid 

 into a depression in the ground and beaten to separate the hulls. 



Sometimes a hole is dug in the ground, a large mat placed into it, 

 and the rice laid on the mat. To prevent the scattering of the seed 

 while beating it, other mats are suspended from racks on three sides of 

 the depression, so as to keep the rice from flying out too far. The 

 fourth side is left open for the thresher. 



The rice is subsequently kept in bags. To prepare it for use, it is 

 boiled and eaten plain with maple sugar; or it may be boiled with meat 

 or vegetables, or with both, and served as soup. 1 



BERRIES AND SNAKEROOT 



During springtime it was customary among the more, northern bands 

 of the Menomini to gather large quantities of raspberries, some of 

 which were eaten fresh, but the larger portion was dried and used dur- 

 ing autumn and winter, when other food became somewhat scarce. In 

 summer, when blueberries ripened, many of the Indians encamped in 

 localities which afforded abundant quantities. These also were dried, 

 though their freshness could be preserved by putting them into barrels 

 of water, which was changed every day or two. By this means the 

 Indians were enabled to carry the berries from time to time to sell. 

 During the berry season the woods frequently reechoed with shouts ol 

 hilarity and merry-making of the younger folk, after the completion of 

 the day's labor. Plate xxxiv illustrates a camp of berry hunters in 



>See Indian Use of Wild Rice, by G. P. Stickney ; Am. Anthropologist, Washington, April, 1896. 



