The folds at the top of the rim are held in place by means of a thin strip of wood neatly stitched with strands of basswood bark, and an additional cord is made to extend across the top to serve as a handle. Two buckets are attached to the wooden hooks suspended from a shoulder-yoke, an illustration of the latter being presented in plate XXXII a.

The yoke is made of light though durable wood. The specimen obtained from the Menomini, and now in the National Museum, measures 34 inches in length by 6 inches across the indent part, the depth of this thick concavity being 2 inches, while the piece itself is but half an inch. The cords are apparently of buckskin, while the hooks are evidently of oak. The Indians claim to have invented this form of yoke, though this is a difficult question to decide, since they have been in contact with the whites more than two centuries.

As maple-sugar making appears to have originated with the Indians, it is reasonable to

presume that their requirements would in time have suggested the construction of such a contrivance as a yoke to facilitate the transportation of buckets of sap, particularly as by this means the weight would be transferred to the shoulders, making the

burden less fatiguing to the arms. Wooden sap-troughs also were made during the summer season, when opportunity or inclination offered. The season of sugar-making, as before mentioned, began in March, when the crows migrated from the south. At this time everyone was on the lookout, and so soon as the necessary camp equipage and sugarmaking utensils could be brought together each family removed to its customary sugar grove. On arriving at the grounds, tents or temporary wigwams were erected for sleeping quarters, and a frame structure, with a roof of bark or mats, before described, was constructed for sheltering the sugar-makers. A sugar-making camp is illustrated in plate XXXIII.

When these preparations had been completed, and the kettles suspended from the ridgepole, the trees were selected; then, with an ax, a transverse cut, anywhere from a foot to 24 feet above the ground, was made in the trunk. Into this cut a chip of wood was wedged, to direct the flow of sap away from the tree and into the bark vessel placed on the ground beneath. All available pans were thus placed at trees conveniently situated, and the sap was collected and brought to the 14 ETH-19

boilers, who poured it into the kettles. So soon as one kettleful was converted into sugar, a new lot of sap was hung over the fire. Care was taken by the women detailed to superintend the boiling to note the period at which the sirup began to granulate. It was then poured into wooden troughs, where it was worked and the granulating process completed.

When maple sirup is thrown on the snow to cool rapidly, it becomes waxy in consistence and is then termed sugar wax, and is highly esteemed as confectionery. Small dishes, from 2 to 4 inches in diameter, also are filled with sirup, which is allowed to cool and harden, forming sugar cakes. These are given to friends and visitors, and pieces are always put into the grave-boxes of deceased relations, as an offering to the shade of the dead.

As the sugar is cooled and ready to be removed from the trough, it is put in makaks, or boxes, for transportation and future use. These makaks, which are made of birchbark, resemble sap-buckets in shape, though they are larger at the base than at the rim, and each has a lid with a slightly conical center. These boxes vary in capacity from 2 to 50 pounds, those of average size holding about 25 pounds of sugar. The cover projects slightly over the rim of the bottom vessel, and is finally fastened by stitching with strands of basswood bark.

Another, though more modern, form of sugar receptacle is made of saplings arranged on the same principle as the timber of a log house, but inclosing a space of only about 10 by 15 feet. The front and back poles are erected to the height of 6 or 7 feet, then turned off toward the central ridgepole, as in a modern roof. The vertical poles are from 23 to 3 inches thick, and are placed about 2 feet apart. The horizontal saplings also are about 2 feet apart, and are secured to the former by lashing with basswood bark. The roofs are afterward further strengthened by fastening with withes and brush, over which are placed the long, crude rush mats made solely for this purpose. Sometimes the bark or rush mats are fastened to the roof without the underlying rushes.

WILD RICE

Apart from the vegetables which the Menomini now cultivate, wild rice is still gathered in large quantities for use as food. As before stated with reference to the tribal designation, the term Menomini is derived from two words signifying "rice men," or "rice people," the French, at the time of first meeting them, having designated them Folles-avoines or False Oats, as wild rice was called by them.

Dr Morse,' who visited this tribe at Green Bay, in 1820, says of their food:

In the spring they subsist on sugar and fish; in the summer, on fish and game; in the fall, on wild rice and corn, and in the winter on fish and game. Those who are

1 Report to the Secretary of War, New Haven, 1822, p. 48.

provident have some rice during the winter. The fish, consisting principally of sturgeon and salmon-trout, are in the greatest abundance in the bay.

The Menomini method of gathering and cleaning wild rice is as follows: At the proper season the women, and frequently the men as well, paddle through the dense growth of wild rice along the shores of the lakes and rivers, and while one attends to the canoe, the others grasp with one hand a bunch of rice stalks, bend it over the gunwale into the boat, and there beat out the ears of rice. After collecting a load in this manner, the next process is to dig a hole about 6 inches deep and 2 feet across; this hole is then lined with a dressed buckskin and filled with the rice, which is beaten with a stick, heavier and somewhat curved at one end. In this manner the husk is separated from the grain, and by winnowing on a windy day by means of a birchbark tray, the rice is cleaned. Sometimes the rice and hulls are separated by spreading on a mat and fanning with a bark tray. It is then ready to dry in a metallic vessel, after which it is stored for use when required.

Some of the Menomini women make a special form of bag in which to beat out the rice. This bag is 2 feet wide by from 18 to 20 inches deep, and is woven of bark strands. It resembles very much an oldfashioned carpet bag. After the rice is put into this, the bag is laid into a depression in the ground and beaten to separate the hulls. Sometimes a hole is dug in the ground, a large mat placed into it, and the rice laid on the mat. To prevent the scattering of the seed while beating it, other mats are suspended from racks on three sides of the depression, so as to keep the rice from flying out too far. The fourth side is left open for the thresher.

The rice is subsequently kept in bags. To prepare it for use, it is boiled and eaten plain with maple sugar; or it may be boiled with meat or vegetables, or with both, and served as soup.1

BERRIES AND SNAKEROOT

During springtime it was customary among the more northern bands of the Menomini to gather large quantities of raspberries, some of which were eaten fresh, but the larger portion was dried and used during autumn and winter, when other food became somewhat scarce. In summer, when blueberries ripened, many of the Indians encamped in localities which afforded abundant quantities. These also were dried, though their freshness could be preserved by putting them into barrels of water, which was changed every day or two. By this means the Indians were enabled to carry the berries from time to time to sell. During the berry season the woods frequently reechoed with shouts of hilarity and merry-making of the younger folk, after the completion of the day's labor. Plate XXXIV illustrates a camp of berry hunters in

'See Indian Use of Wild Rice, by G. P. Stickney; Am. Anthropologist, Washington, April, 1896.