154 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Several reduced figures are given of old wooden spoons in the 

 Hildburgh collection, all being from graves in Ontario county, 

 N. Y. Figure 109 is a small one, 3 inches broad and with an unusu- 

 ally wide handle. These old spoons may not have had the carved 

 top, though this is uncertain. This one seems perfect. Figure 106 

 is of the same width, but has a nearly circular bowl, the handle being 

 apparently slender. Figure 108 is more like the modern form, but 

 with a narrow handle. Figure 107 is a broken one, now 4 J/2 inches 

 long, the handle being wide and angular. 



Figure 104 is from another collection and from a Cayuga grave. 

 It is of actual size and shows part of the handle, the bowl being 

 circular and partly split. These early examples are given for com- 

 parison, but one approaching a perfect condition. No early writer 

 speaks of carved figures on them, and they may have been quite 

 plain. The first use of the projecting top was for suspension, as 

 by a hook. 



With spoons or fingers the Indians ate from a common dish, as 

 the whites once did, and portions were often served in individual 

 dishes or kettles, but the individual spoon was owned and used at 

 a very early day. A Mohawk chief, killed in 1658, was known as 

 Atogwaekwan, or Great Spoon, perhaps from the size of a spoon 

 which he had. On the occasion of DeWitt Clinton's visit to Skenan- 

 doah in 1810, he said, " a large kettle of corn was boiling, which 

 was the only breakfast the family appeared to have. It was 

 occasionally dipped out from the pot into a basket, from which 

 the children ate." This is the only mention of a basket used for 

 succotash which the writer now recalls, and it may have been of 

 bark or very closely woven. Skenandoah's finely dressed son also 

 ate from this. 



The writer found none of the characteristic Iroquois spoons in 

 the National Museum in 1903 ; but it was a matter of interest that 

 Cherokee wooden spoons had a slight bar above, ending in carved 

 turtle heads. In no others did this feature appear; and the 

 Cherokees were an early offshoot of the Iroquois family. Cherokee 

 spoons have the modern oval bowl, and some St Regis spoons have 

 this feature. A large ladle in that collection has a circular bowl, 



