IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 



55 



Great Hill People; O-na-ote-kah-o-no, Oneida, The People of the 

 Stone. The label reads as follows : 



(CANADIAN) MOHAWK BREAD BOWL. 



This decoration is a fac-simile of the old bowl taken by the Mo- 

 hawks when they left the League and departed with Brant. 



5 yellow lines — The sun's path guarding the 5 nations." 5 Beaver 

 tails — the beaver tail soup symbol. At the 5 Fire councils each Fire 

 (or nation) was compelled to dip his soup from its own national 

 division of the bowl. The dipping of the spoon into each portion 

 allotted to its Fire signified union and fidelity. This bowl, obtained 

 in Canada, was decorated by a Seneca Indian Artist on the Catta- 

 raugus .Reservation, June 12, 1899. 



Harriet Maxwell Converse 



Cattaraugus Reservation, N. Y. 

 June 15, 1899. 



Ordinary eating bowls were smaller than feast bowls and were 

 often carved with great nicety from maple, oak or pepperidge knots. 

 After carving and polishing the bowls. were dyed in a solution made 

 from hemlock roots. Continual scouring soon reduced the bowl to 

 a high polish and the grease which it absorbed gave it an attractive 

 luster Avhich contributed in a large measure to preserve the wood. 

 Bowls which have been in the State Museum for 50 years still yield 

 grease if scraped with a penknife. 



Eating bowls are usually round but many of the older forms have 

 suggestions of handles oppositely placed. Some of these handles go 

 beyond mere suggestions and take the form of a bird's head and tail 

 or two facing human effigies.^ Bowls are shown in plates 14 and 15. 



Wooden spoons, Atog'vs^asha. - Great care was exercised in 

 carving wooden spoons. As a rule, each individual had his own 



Fig. 10 Wooden^spoon from bottom of Black lake. Collected by E. R. BarmasterJ 

 191 o. Specimen is i5 inches in length. 



spoon which he recognized by the animal or bird carved on the 

 handle. In olden times, the dream animal or clan totem was usually 

 can'-ed upon the handle, but specimens of later times nearly always 



^ See Harrington. Some Unusual Iroquois Specimens. Am. Anthrop- 

 ologist, new ser. 11 :85. 

 2 Niwado^kwatserha, in Mohawk. 



