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MORGAN.) ONE PREPARED MEAL EACH DAY. 99 
THE CUSTOM OF HAVING BUT ONE PREPARED MEAL EACH DAY—A DINNER—AND 
THEIR SEPARATION AT MEALS, THE MEN EATING FIRST, AND THE WOMEN AND 
CHILDREN AFTERWARDS. 
This was the usage among the Indian tribes in the Lower Status of bar- 
barism. In the Middle Status there seems to have been more method and 
regularity of life, but no change in their customs with respect to food, so 
marked in character that we are forced to recognize a new plan of domes- 
tic life among them. The Iroquois had but one cooked meal each day. It 
was as much as their resources and organization for housekeeping could 
furnish, and was as much as they needed. It was prepared and served 
usually before the noon-day hour, ten or eleven o’clock, and may be called 
a dinner. At this time the principal cooking for the day was done. After 
its division at the kettle, among the members of the household, it was served 
warm to each person in earthen or wooden bowls. They had neither tables, 
nor chairs, nor plates, in our sense, nor any room in the nature of a kitchen 
or a dining room, but ate each by himself, sitting or standing, and where 
most convenient to the person. They also separated as to the time of eat- 
ing, the men eating first and by themselves, and the women and children 
afterwards and by themselves. That which remained was reserved for any 
member of the household when hungry. Towards evening the women 
cooked hominy, the maize having been pounded into bits the size of a 
kernel of rice, which was boiled and put aside to be used cold as a lunch 
in the morning or evening, and for the entertainment of visitors. They 
had neither a formal breakfast nor a supper Each person, when hungry, 
ate of whatever food the house contained. They were moderate eaters. 
This is a fair picture of Indian life in general in America, when discovered. 
After intercourse commenced with whites, the Iroquois gradually began to 
adopt our mode of life, but very slowly. One of the difficulties was to 
change the old usage and accustom themselves to eat together. It came in 
by degrees, first with the breaking up of the old plan of living together in 
numbers in the old long-houses, and with the substitution of single houses 
for each family, which ended communism and living in the large household, 
and substituted the subsistence of a single family through individual effort. 
After many years came the use of the table and chairs among the more 
