ABORIGINAL USE OF WOOD IN NEW YORK 



149 



fish were driven. This was closed behind them, and they were 

 speared in the inclosure. 



The Onondagas also used a fish basket made like our lobster pots, 

 and perhaps derived from them. When the fish had entered, the in- 

 side projections prevented its return. This basket was called 

 ka-ah'-he. 



Miss Powell said in her letter about the Indians at Buffalo creek 

 in 1789: "We saw some of the squaws employed in taking fish 

 in a basket. A gentleman of our party took the basket from one of 

 them, and attempted to catch the fish as she did, but failing, they 

 laughed at his want of dexterity." Ketchum, 2 : 94 



Household articles 



Though the Indian's house was not large, and his housekeeping 

 was simple, he had more articles of convenience than we might sup- 

 pose, reckoning only those of wood. Chairs and tables he ignored ; 

 but food was more important than position, and in the preparation 

 of this the wooden pestle and mortar had an old and prominent place. 

 The stone pestle had little use in New York 300 years ago, though 

 not discarded. Among the early illustrations of Champlain's travels 

 is one of a Huron woman pounding corn in a wooden mortar. There 

 may be a hidden expansion of the pestle, but, so far as appears, 

 it is a cylindric stick of uniform thickness, while the present Iroquois 

 pestle expands toward each end. The French missionaries to the 

 Hurons had a handmill, but found the meal made in the mortar better 

 than that from the mill. 



The Iroquois wooden mortar is about 2 feet across and a little 

 higher, a section being cut from a tree trunk of suitable size. This 

 is set on end and is excavated by burning and scraping even now. 

 The pestle is about 4 feet long, constricted along the middle and then 

 expanded toward each end in a narrowly elliptic form. Two per- 

 sons can pound together with alternate strokes, which is the favorite 

 way. Figure 100 shows two Onondaga women thus employed. One 

 may use the pestle alone. The Senecas call this mortar ga-ne'-ga-ta; 

 the Onondaga word ka-ne-ka'-tah is almost the same. Figure 56 

 shows both pestle and mortar. The Onondaga name of the former 

 is ate-ha-tok'-wah. 



