DBNSMORB] 



PLANTS AS FOOD 



313 



cool during the summer so that it would neither become sour nor 

 freeze. Makuks of this substance were often placed in the storing 

 lodge of a sugar camp where the women could get them at any time. 

 If left an entire year, the women, on returning to the sugar camp, 

 found it as fresh as when placed in storage. 



The uses of maple sugar were many and varied. It was used in 

 seasoning fruits, vegetables, cereals, and fish. It was dissolved in 

 water as a cooling summer drink and sometimes made into sirup in 

 which medicine was boiled for children. The granulated sugar and 

 the sugar cakes were commonly used as gifts, and a woman with a 

 goodly supply of maple sugar in its various forms was regarded as 

 a thrifty woman providing for the wants of her family. 



A pleasing diversion of the young people was the making of birch- 

 bark transparencies, described on pages 390-396. 



A Chippewa living in Canada where there are few maple trees 

 said that his people tap the white birch trees and boil the sap into 

 sirup. He said that the sap of these trees does not run as long as 

 maple sap. 



Gathering Wild Rice 



Wild rice constitutes the chief cereal food of the Chippewa. It 

 abounds in certain lakes, ripening earliest in the shallow lakes fed by 

 streams and later in the lakes fed by springs. The soil of some lakes 

 seems to produce more rice and larger kernels than that of other lakes. 

 By a wise provision of nature the seed of the rice is carried by wild 

 ducks, which also afford food for the people at the season when the 

 rice is ripe. 



In the old days each family or small group of families had a por- 

 tion of a rice field, as it had a " sugar bush " for making its maple 

 sugar. The portion of a rice field was outlined by stakes, and a 

 woman established her claim to it by going to the field about 10 days 

 before the rice was ripe and tying portions of it in small sheaves. 

 Basswood fiber is used without twisting for the tying of rice. One 

 length is tied to another, making a large hard ball that unwinds from 

 the middle. The ball is placed in a tray behind the woman as she 

 sits in the canoe. For this work she wears a special waist (pi. 36, a), 

 which, with the care of Chippewa women, is reenforced on the shoul- 

 der where the basswood fiber passes through a little birch-bark ring. 

 This method of carrying the " twine " keeps it ready to her hand and 

 free from becoming tangled. (PI. 36, h.) She draws a little group of 

 rice stalks toward her with the " rice hoop " (pi. 37) and winds the 

 fiber around them, bending the tip of the sheaf or bundle down to 

 the stalks. The process in detail is shown in Plate 38. The rice is 

 left standing until ripe, when the sheaf is untied, the rice shaken out, 

 55231°— 28 21 



