l6o NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



As the early Indians in Canada and New York used no salt, the 

 modern wooden salt cellar, figure 48, had no place among them. 

 White men living among them in the 17th century sometimes did 

 without salt for years ; and, when the Onondagas brought Father Le 

 Moyne to the salt spring at Onondaga lake, they thought a demon 

 dwelt in it. The Onondagas call the salt cellar a-jik-ha-tuk'-wah, 

 salt box, and their name for the mineral means sour. Bruyas, in his 

 Mohawk words of the 17th century, gave none expressly for salt, but 

 recognized its use, as in Takkiosiston, Give me salt. 



Gutters or conductors of bark entered into the household economy, 

 but in a limited way. Champlain told how rapidly these discharged 

 water on his fires at the Oneida fort of 1615. They were also em- 

 ployed in conducting the water from the spring around the Seneca 

 fort in Victor. This was destroyed in 1687. It is probable these 

 discharged into wooden reservoirs at convenient intervals. So ob- 

 vious an aid would not be overlooked by a people sparing of personal 

 labor, and they may have been an unnoted feature of many bark 

 cabins. So Bruyas gives not only atsannhon, to let water fall drop 

 by drop, but atsennhonnion, a quantity of gutters. 



Two charred articles from an Indian fireplace in Jefferson county 

 were obtained by Mr R. D. Loveland of Watertown. Figure 38 is 

 one of these and suggests the body and head of a wooden doll. The 

 accidental fracture on the face adds to this impression, but was made 

 in charring. The length is i-Ms inches, the edges are chamfered and 

 notched, and the outline is perfect. Figure 37 is an inch wide by 

 ir 6 - inches long, is rectangular and flat, and has three edges cham- 

 fered. There are cross cuts in the center on both sides. They are 

 the oldest New York Indian household articles of wood known to 

 the writer, the charring having preserved instead of destroying them. 

 The handle of a stone axe may be older. 



Land travel and transportation 



The numerous lakes, rivers and streams of New York enabled the 

 Indian to travel easily and swiftly in his light canoe, even with con- 

 siderable freight. For land carriage and travel he had long to 

 depend on his own limbs. This necessity led to some ingenious de- 



