ABORIGINAL USE OF WOOD IN NEW YORK 



193 



because they damaged defenseless fields. When John Bartram 

 passed the small Onondaga village of Tu-e-yah-das'-soo, in 1743, 

 he saw appletrees full of fruit. " The Indians had set long bushes 

 all round the trees at a little distance, I suppose to keep the small 

 children from stealing the fruit before they were ripe." 



Roger Williams is singular in what he says of the depredations 

 of birds : " They put up little watch-houses in the middle of their 

 fields, in which they, or their biggest children lodge, and earely in 

 the morning prevent the Birds." Williams, ch.15 



The same author said : " The Indian Women to this day (not- 

 withstanding our Howes) doe use their naturall Howes of shells 

 and Wood." Of these he mentioned " A breaking up How," and 

 "A weeding or broad How," with their Indian names. Bruyas 

 gave onarate as the Mohawk word for wooden hoe. It may have 

 been of one piece. 



A good deal of maize was shelled, charred, and placed in pits, 

 lined with bark, and this was a general custom. Asaton was the 

 Mohawk word for making a cache, and open ones are still frequent 

 but reduced in size. Occasionally one is found filled with grain, 

 and figure 105 shows some of this charred corn, perhaps 400 

 years old. 



Bruyas alone took notice of one use of fuel in New York, which 

 yet may have been frequent in suitable places. Gaiengoaarontanni 

 meant to give a signal by the smoke of a fire made on purpose for 

 this. He also mentioned a shuttle, but did not say whether it was 

 of wood or bone. Something of this kind was also used in a child's 

 game. 



He also recorded gaionwe as the Mohawk word for "a willow 

 hurdle for drying anything," without further description. Four 

 crotched sticks were placed in the ground, forming a rectangle and 

 connected by horizontal rods. On these cross sticks were thickly 

 laid, and on these fish, or other things requiring to be smoked or 

 dried, were placed. For smoking a slow fire was kept up under- 

 neath. This was the custom in Canada and the eastern United 

 States, and huckleberries were dried in a similar way. 



