THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



133 



of our Eastern States 



used acorns for bread 



and for oil, and mixed 



boiled acorns with 



their fish and meat. 

 The Iroquois of the 



State of New York, 



according- to F. W. 



W a u g h, commonly 

 made use of acorns 



for food, apparently 



favoring the sweet 

 kinds, as those of the 

 white and chestnut 

 oaks, but in times of 

 necessity resorted to 

 the bitter acorns of the 

 black and red species. 



Waugh states fur- 

 ther that nut meats 

 (presumably including 

 acorns) were pounded, 

 boiled slowly in water, 

 and the oil skimmed 

 off into a bowl ; the oil 

 was boiled again and 

 seasoned with salt, to 

 be used with bread, 

 potatoes, pumpkins, 

 squashes, and other 

 foods, and nut oil was 

 often added to mush. 

 The meats left after 

 skimming off the oil 

 were seasoned and 

 mixed with mashed 

 potatoes, and nut 

 meats were crushed . 

 and added to hominy 

 and corn soup to make 

 it rich. 



And the Hurons of 

 eastern Canada, ac- 

 cording to the Jesuit 

 Relations, prepared 

 the acorns by "first 

 boiling them in a lye 

 made from ashes, in 

 order to take from them their excessive 

 bitterness." Another way was by boiling 

 them in several waters. 



During the famine winter of 1649-1650, 

 after the Hurons, defeated by the Iro- 

 quois, had taken refuge on the Island of 

 Saint Joseph, at the north end of Lake 

 Huron, the Jesuits of the Mission at that 

 place "were compelled to behold dying 



m. 



Photograph by C. Hart Merriam 



ANCIENT ACORN MORTAR HOLES AND PESTLES IN SOLID 

 GRANITE, NEAR KAWEAH RIVER, CALIFORNIA 



These ancient grinding mills in hard granite rock are common on 

 the middle and lower slopes of the Sierra Nevada of California and 

 some of them have as many as 20 or 30 mortar holes. The pestles 

 are large and heavy with smoothly rounded striking ends and are 

 held in both hands; the modus operandi is illustrated on pages 131 

 and 132. When pounding the acorns, several women usually work 

 together, sitting at neighboring holes and singing in rhythm with 

 the strokes of the pestles. 



skeletons ekeing out a miserable life ; 

 . . . the acorn was to them for the 

 most part what the choicest viands are 

 in France." 



The Jesuits, before the snow had cov- 



ered the ground, had bought 500 or 600 

 bushels of acorns, and had dispatched 

 several canoes to procure a supply of fish 

 from the Algonkin tribes 60 to 100 



