IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE 9I 



affirmed that the " citrules " were hard tasteless things. Hunger 

 and mood largely govern descriptions of food. 



iLahontan^ records that the citruls (pumpkins) of this country are 

 sweet and of a different nature from those of Europe. ". . . and I 

 am informed," he writes, " that the American citruls will not grow 

 in Europe. They are as big as our Melons; and their Pulp is as 

 yellow as Saffron. Commonly they are bak'd in Ovens, but the 

 better way is to roast 'em under the Embers as the Savages do. 

 Their Taste is much the same with that of the marmalade of Apples, 

 only they are sweeter. One may eat as much of 'em as he pleases 

 without fearing disorder." 



Charles Hawley in his Early Chapters of Cayuga History"^ quotes 

 Dr Shea's translation of de Casson's Historie de Montreal which 

 gives the account of the journey of Trouve and the Catholic fathers 

 to Kente. A part of the narrative reads : 



Having arrived at Kente we were regaled there as well as it was 

 possible by the Indians of the place. It is true that the feast con- 

 sisted only of some citrouilles (squashes) fricasseed with grease and 

 which we found good ; they are indeed excellent in this country and 

 can not enter into comparison with those of Europe. It may even be 

 said that it is wronging them to give them the name citrouilles. They 

 are of a very great variety of shapes and scarcely one has any re- 

 semblance to those in France. They are some so hard as to require 

 a hatchet if you wish to split them open before cooking. All have 

 different names. 



A favorite way of presenang pumpkins and squashes for winter 

 use was to cut them into spirals^ or thin sections and hang them 

 on the drying racks to evaporate. Sometimes even now this method 

 is used but the modern way among the Seneca and Onondaga at 

 least is to cut off thin sections and string the pieces on cord. A 

 string would hold about half a pumpkin or squash and be suspended 

 perpendicularly to pegs back of the stove or near the fireplace. 



Varieties of squashes 



The Iroquois generally planted their squashes in the same hills 

 with corn and some kinds of beans. Beside the land and labor saved 

 by this custom there was a belief that these three veo^etables were 



1 1:151. 



2 Early Chapters of Cayuga History. Auburn 1879. 



3 Cf. Adair, p. 408. 



