ABORIGINAL USE OF WOOD IN NEW YORK 1 55 



9*4 inches across and 3 deep, the handle being 6 inches long and 

 the top curved over but with no animal carving. Another has a 

 narrower bowl, being 9^4 by 7 inches, and is shown in figure 60. 

 The handle is 6^/2 inches long, curved at the top. In the same 

 collection is a deep and well made tray, 9 inches long and 6 wide. 

 Slight projections at each end serve as handles. 



While much grain was put in pits, a great deal was stored in 

 houses. The ears of corn often were, and still are, braided in long 

 ropes, and festooned within and without the cabins. This was an 

 old custom. Mention has been made of the stores of corn which 

 Van Curler saw in Mohawk houses in 1634. He added that the 

 Mohawks made bark barrels. In De Tracy's invasion of the 

 Mohawks in 1666, the villages were found well stored with grain. 

 In De Nonville's expedition of 1687, the Abbe de Belmont said that 

 one Seneca village appeared at " a distance, to be crowned with 

 round towers, but these were only large chests (drums) of bark 

 about four feet in length, set the one in the other, some five feet in 

 diameter, in which they keep their Indian corn. . . There 

 were in the four corners great boxes of corn which they had not 

 burnt" 



Mr Morgan has figured and described a bark barrel, but these 

 are now rare, though boxes of the same form and material may 

 be found. In speaking of bark vessels, he said: 



The bark barrel, go-no' '-qua, was of the number. It was made 

 of the inner rind of red elm bark, or of black ash bark, the grain 

 running around the barrel. Up the side it was stitched firmly, and 

 had a bottom and a lid secured in the same manner. . . These 

 barrels were made of all sizes, from those of sufficient capacity to 

 hold 3 bushels, to those large enough for a peck. Morgan, 2 : 23 



In his figure he calls this " G'd-sn'd Ga-ose-ha, or Bark Barrel," 

 omitting the name given above. The Onondaga word for barrel 

 and pail is ka-noh'-kwah, but the latter is also called a-jen-tuk'-wah, 

 to dip with. Figure 96 represents one of these receptacles. 



Mr Morgan also gives a figure of the bark ladle, or scoop, which 

 he said " was made of red elm bark and would hold but little more 

 than the common spoon." Figure 36 shows this; but these ladles 

 are not now in use. 



