52 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



sions are from i to 2 feet in diameter and from 4 to 9 inches 

 deep. Some bowls are elliptical in shape. These bark bowls were 

 used for mixing the corn meal into loaves previous to boiling and 

 afterward for holding the finished loaf. 



The writer has .seen these bark bowls used for cooking vessels, 

 heated stones being thrown into the Hquid within it. The bark vessel 

 can also be put over an outdoor earthen or stone fireplace and water 

 heated if the flames are kept away from the rim. Bark bowls are 

 still used in some parts of the Seneca reservations as dish pans, sap 

 tubs, wash pans, etc. Bark dishes are easily made and their first use 

 may be referred to very early times. Two of these bowls are 

 shown in plate 14. Morgan collected a series of bark vessels for the 

 State Museum in- 1854 and some of the specimens are still on 

 exhibition. 



Wooden bread bowl, Owe^ga'ga'oii'wa'.^ Sometimes instead of a 

 bark dish a wooden one was used for a bread bowl. It was of about 

 the same relative size and carved from pine or maple. The form 

 naturally differed somewhat from the bark bowls, but in general out- 

 line followed them. Some of these bowls are carved from maple 

 knots, or knots from other trees. Usually, however, they were 

 carved from softer wood. 



Wide paddle, Gatgun'yasshuwa'ne. ^ The wide paddle was 

 used for lifting corn bread from the kettle in which it was boiled. 

 Some of these paddles are beautifully carved and ornamented. The 

 wide bread paddle took two forms, the round blade and the rectan- 

 gular bladed paddle [see pi. 16]. A feature which distinguishes a 

 lifting from a stirring paddle is the hole made in. the middle of the 

 blade. , The holes are either round or heart-shaped: 



Narrow paddle, Nigat'gwunyashaa'.^ This paddle was used 

 for stirring boiling soups and hulled corn. 



Both wide and narrow paddles were carved from some hard wood, 

 preferably some variety of maple. Some are decorated with carv- 

 ings of phallic symbols. Such designs are regarded as sacred, in the 

 Iroquois religion, and are never looked upon with levity. The 

 carving of paddles gave opportunity for the carver to display his 

 best genius. Chains. were carved from the solid wood of the paddle 

 handle and balls cut in barred receptacles [see pi. 16, fig. 3]. Even 

 some of the plainer forms had decorations made by carving a series 

 of small triangles arranged in figures on the handle. 



1 Oyen'de'^gaoniiwa' in Mohawk. 



2 Gagawe"tserhowane' in Mohawk. 



3 Nigagawe"tselha in Mohawk. 



