NO. 12 



SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I917 



97 



Food and its preparation formed the interesting subject of an 

 inquiry, which was Hmited to the period preceding the baking of 

 bread. The principal articles of food at that time were cooked rice 

 and vegetables, fish, meat and game, berries, maple sugar, and 

 beverages made from leaves and twigs. Wooden spoons, bone knives, 

 and a " marrow stick '' for scooping marrow from a bone were 

 used within the memory of the older informants, and water was 

 boiled in a vessel made of freshly cut birchbark if a trader's kettle 

 was noi available. The manner of securing each class of food was 

 studied. Three rice-camps were visited and photographed, the pro- 

 cess including the gathering of the rice, its parching, pounding, 



Fig. 99. — Frame of lodge in which maple sap is boiled, and lodge in which 

 sugar-making utensils are stored. Photograph by Miss Densmore. 



winnowing, and threshing. A boat was poled through the rice field 

 and the rice gathered by knocking the kernels from the stalk with 

 two short sticks, the kernels falling into the boat (fig. 97). The rice 

 was then parched in an iron kettle over a slow fire, being constantly 

 stirred to prevent scorching (fig. 98). The next phase of the work 

 consisted in pounding the rice in a barrel sunk in the ground, long, 

 heavy poles being used for the purpose. This loosened the husks, 

 which were removed by winnowing in birchbark trays and thresh- 

 ing with the moccasined feet in a shallow receptacle. 



The process of taking seines from the water and drying and pre- 

 paring fish was observed and photographed, and a maple sugar camp 

 was visited, though not seen in actual operation (fig. 99). 



