IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 99 



The thrifty housewife examines the teeth of the June mullet 

 which her husband has caught in the creeks to see if the base of its 

 teeth is black. If so, it is an omen of a good blackberry year, A 

 legend states that frost will never come when blackberries are in 

 blossom in berry. Ha'tho, the frost spirit, once entered the lodge of 

 O'swi'noda', the summer spirit, but a boy entering and seeing the 

 strange cold spirit in his father's house threw a pot of hot blackberry 

 sauce in the frost spirit's face to his intense discomfort. There- 

 after Ha"tho never ventured from his hiding place in the north from 

 the time blackberries blossom until the fruit is mature. Blackberry 

 juice makes a fine drink in the winter for it frightens away the 

 cold. " Do not even bears eat berries all summer and defy the 

 blasts of winter?" Blackberry roots are considered an effectual 

 astringent and the tender new shoots as a fine blood remedy. 



Thimble berries w^ere eaten in the late summer as a diuretic. 

 Dried for winter use they were valued for the same purpose. Sumac 

 bobs were boiled in winter for a drink. 



XVI FOOD NUTS OF THE IROQUOIS 



Nuts formed an important part of the Iroquois diet. Great 

 quantities were consumed during the nut season and quantities were 

 stored for winter use. The nut season to the Iroquois was one of 

 the happiest periods of the year^ especially for the young people 

 to whom fell the work of gathering most of the nuts. The women, 

 however, often went in companies when serious business was meant, 

 for with the failure of other crops, nuts formed an important food 

 source. The nut season was called o'wadawisa'ho'''. 



The favorite food nuts of the Iroquois were hickory and chest- 

 nuts though other nuts were valued : A list of the principal nuts used 

 by the Iroquois follows : 



Acorns Quercus (sp) ogowa" 



Beechnuts Fagus grandifolia oska'^'a 



Black walnuts Juglans nigra djonyot'gwak 



Butternuts /. cinerea djonot'g-wes 



Chestnuts Castanea dentata onye"sta 



Hickory, bitter Carya cordiformis onio"gwadjiwage" 



Hickory Carya ovata djistaga'o" 



Hazel Corylus americana oso'wisha' 



1 See Relation of 1670, ch. IX. 



