42 AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLETS 



Indian Village Sappokanikan was located, the natives 'brought great store 

 of very good oysters aboard, which we bought for trifles.' De Laet (1(>2.")) 

 says, 'their food is maize, crushed fine and baked in cakes, with fish, birds 

 and wild game.' Van der Donck and others wrote in 1649: 



Their fare, or food, is poor and gross, for they drink water, having no other 

 beverage; they eat the flesh of all sorts of game ilia t the country supplies, even 

 badgers, dogs, eagles and similar trash, which Christians in no way regard; those 

 they cook and use uncleansed and undressed. 



Moreover, all scuts of fish; likewise, snake-, frogs and such like, which they 

 usually cook with the offals and entrails. 



They know also, how to preserve fish and nieete for the winter, in order then to 

 cook them with Indian meal. 



They make their bread, hut of very indifferent quality, of maize, which they 

 also cook whole, or broken in wooden mortars. 



The women likewise perform this labor, and make a apa or porridge called by 

 some, Sapsis, by other. Duundare, which is their daily food, they mix this also thor- 

 oughly with little beans, of different colors, raised by themselves; this is esteemed 

 by i hem rather as a dainty than as a daily dish. 



"Their weapons were, of course, the usual aboriginal how, arrow, spear, 

 club and tomahawk, though hut a few years later, they had acquired from 

 the settlers enough fire-arms to become exceedingly expert in their use. 

 'Now, those residing near, or trading considerably with the Christian-, 

 make use of fire-locks and hatchets, which they obtain in barter. They 

 are excessively fond of guns; spare no expense on them, and are SO expert 

 with them, that in this respect they excel) many Christians.' Many of their 

 discarded neolithic weapons have been found, and these exhibit a wide 

 variety of material and workmanship, indicating considerable acquisitions 

 from other tribes and localities. Their household utensils included 'mats 

 and wooden dishes,' and Juet refers to their 'pots of earth to dresse their 

 meats in,' and speaks also of the women bringing 'hempe.' The character 

 of the grass mats which the women wove is to be seen in the imprints made 

 witli such matt-rial upon the outer surface of some of the local pottery. 

 They also made the grass baskets, often referred to in early records, as 

 'napsas.' The pots of earth were the large earthenware vessels made by 

 the Indian women, on the decorations of the rims and upper portions of 

 which these poor creatures expended all their ingenuity and sense of art. 



"Of these objects, then" remain a number of interesting examples dis- 

 covered in upper Manhattan, the most complete, and at the same time, 

 most artistic, being the fine Iroquoian vessel discovered by Mr. \V. I.. 

 Calver, on the south side of 214th Street, about 100 feet cast of 10th Avenue, 

 in the fall of 1906. The large vases found in broken condition in the cave 

 at Cold Spring, are of the cruder and therefore, earlier design of the original 



