CHAPTER VIII. 

 INDUSTRIAL OCCUPATIONS (CONTINUED). 



FOOD AND ITS PREPARATION. 



§ 164. Meat.— They ate the <<{ra," or dried meat of the buffalo, elk, 

 deer, hut seldom tasted that of the beaver. They cut the meat in slices 

 (waga), which they cut thin (mab^eija), that it might soon dry. It was 

 then dried as explained in § 150. Before drying it is "ja-nujja," wet 

 or fresh meat. The dried meat used to be cooked on glowing coals. 

 When the meat was dried in the summer it lasted for the winter's use, 

 but by the next summer it was all consumed. In the x a da and Weji n cte 

 gentes venison and elk meat could not be eaten, and certain parts of 

 the buffalo could not be eaten or touched by the Iiike-sabg, Hanga, 

 ^e-da-it'aji, ^e-smde, and Ing<fe-jide. (See §§ 31, 37, 49, 59, and 67.) 



The marrow, wajibe, was taken from the thigh bones by means of nar- 

 row scoops, or w^bagude, which were made out of any kind of stick, 

 being blunt at one end. They were often thrown away after being 

 used. 



The vertebrae and all the larger bones of the buffalo and other ani- 

 mals are used for making wahi-weg^i, bone grease, which serves as but- 

 ter and lard. In recent times hatchets have been used to crush the 

 bones, but formerly stone axes (i n '-igaga n or i n/ -igacije) were employed, 

 and some of these may still be found among the Omahas. Now the 

 Omahas use the i n '-wate, a large round stone, for that purpose. The 

 fragments of the bones are boiled, and very soon grease arises to the 

 surface. This is skimmed off and placed in sacks for future use. Then 

 the bones are thrown out and others are put in to boil. The sacks into 

 which the grease is put are made of the muscular coating of the stom- 

 ach of a buffalo, which has been dried, and is known as ''inijeha." 



They ate the entrails of the buffalo and the elk. Both the small and 

 large intestines were boiled, then turned inside out and scraped to get 

 off the remains of the dung which might be adhering to them. Then 

 they were dried. According to Two Crows, the iiigcfe, or dung of the 

 buffalo, is not " b<£a n -piaji," offensive, like that of the domestic cow. 

 Though the buffalo cow gives a rich milk, the Indians do not make use 

 of that of such as they kill in hunting. 



§ 165. La Fleche and Two Crows never heard of any Omahas that 

 ate lice, but the writer saw an aged Ponka woman eat some that she 

 took from the head of her grandson. The following objects are not 

 eaten by any of the gentes: Dried fish, slugs, dried crickets, grass- 



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