IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 73 



Dumplings, Oho'^'sta'. Moisten a mass of corn meal with boil- 

 ing water and quickly mold it into cakes in the closed hand moist- 

 ened in cold water. Drop the dumplings one by one into boiling 

 water and boil for a half hour. 



Dumplings were the favorite thing to cook with boiling meats, 

 especially game birds. 



To fish the dumplings from the pot every one had a sharpened 

 stick or bone. The dumplings were speared and held on the stick 

 to cool and nibbled with the meat as it was eaten. The sticks after 

 use were wiped off and stuck between the logs or bark of the wall 

 for future use. 



Many oj the sharpened splinters of bone now excavated from 

 village and camp sites are probably nothing more than these primi- 

 tive forks, or more properly food holders. 



Oho"sta' was one of the foods of which children were very fond, 

 nor did grown people despise it as a bread with their meat. 



Hominy, Onon'daat.^ Hominy is prepared from flint corns. 

 For a family oi five persons, a quart of corn was thrown in a 

 mortar and moistened with a ladleful (four tablespoon fuls) of 

 water.^ To make the pounding easier a teaspoonful of white ashes 

 or soda is thrown in also. The pounding with the pestle proceeds 

 slowly at first to loosen the hulls, this work being accelerated if 

 ashes have been used. When the hulls begin to come ofif easily the 

 pounding is quickened until the corn is broken up into coarse pieces. 

 It is then ready for the first sifting, e^yowo^k'. A basket called a 

 oniius'tawanes is used for this purpose.. The hominy passes through 

 and is placed in a bowl while the umcracked corn is thrown back 

 into the mortar to be repounded. After the second sifting the un- 

 cracked kernels that remain are thrown out to the birds or chickens. 

 The hominy is then ready for winnowing. The results of the two 

 poundings are carefully mixed and then put in a tossing bowl ot 

 basket. The hominy is tossed with a peculiar motion the bowl being 

 held at a slant. The lighter chit rises to the top w'hile the heavier 

 portion stays at the bottom. The hulls and chit are thrown out by 

 hand or by the use of a fan made of a bird's wing, called oneg'osta'. 

 The process of winnowing is called waegai"tawak. 



^ Onon'darha is the Mohawk word. 



2 Harrington says cold water. See Seneca Corn Foods. Amer. Anthrop- 

 ologist. New Ser. v. 10, no. .3, p. 587. 



