SWANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 357 



cakes are large and two inches in thickness" (Garcia, 1902, p. 186). 

 Farther on we are told that 



the cakes which they make of this flour are little smaller than flat earthen 

 pans (comales) and are of the thickness of two fingers: they do not make them 

 with salt because they have none and they cook them under the embers: it is 

 a very palatable and sustaining sort of bread: they make little of it. (Garcia, 

 1902, p. 197.) 



The Choctaw, and probably most of the other tribes, sometimes 

 mixed sunflower seed with their corn meal when they made bread. 



Du Pratz summarizes Natchez bread making in the statement that 

 "they make of some of it [corn] bread cooked in a vessel, of some 

 bread cooked in the ashes, and of some bread cooked in water," the 

 three principal ways noted in Virginia and elsewhere. (Le Page du 

 Pratz, 1758, vol. 3, pp. 8-9 ; Swanton, 1911, p. 75.) 



Here is Speck's account of bread making among the Yuchi as prac- 

 ticed until recent times : 



A kind of flour, tsukhd, is made by pounding up dried com in the mortar. 

 At intervals the contents of the mortar are scooped up and emptied into the 

 sieve basket. The operator holds a large basket tray in her lap and over it 

 shakes and sifts the pounded corn until all the grits and the finer particles have 

 fallen through. According to the desired fineness or coarseness of the flour 

 she then jounces this tray until she has the meal as she wants it, all the chaff 

 having blown away. The meal, being then ready to be mixed into dough, is 

 stirred up with water in one of the pottery vessels. In the meantime a large 

 clean flat stone has been tilted slantwise before the embers of a fire. When 

 the dough is right it is poured out onto this stone and allowed to bake. These 

 meal cakes constitute the native bread kdnlo. Berries are thought to improve 

 the flavor and are often mixed in with the dough. (Speck, 1909, p. 44.) 



The method of making bread described by MacCauley is so tedious 

 that it seems incredible any such system could have been employed 

 unless on very special occasions. 



The corn is hulled and the germ cut out, so that there is only a pure white 

 residue. This is then reduced by mortar and pestle to an almost impalpable 

 dust. From this flour a cake is made, which is said to be very pleasant to the 

 taste. (MacCauley, 1887, p. 510.) 



Parched corn ground into powder was extensively used because it 

 would keep for a long time and was readily transported. We find 

 three ways of preparing this mentioned by our authorities, and we 

 do not know in every case to which of these a reference belongs or 

 whether, indeed, one term may not at times have been applied to all. 

 One of these makes its appearance only in the works of Louisiana 

 writers, but it was probably used much more widely. It is "smoked- 

 dried meal or meal dried in the fire and smoke, which, after being 

 cooked, has the same taste as our small peas and is as sugary." 

 (Dumont, 1753, pp. 32-34; Swanton, 1911, p. 74.) Du Pratz specif- 

 ically assures us that this dish originated with the Indians and he 



