Gä-ne-gä-tä, Gä-nih-gä-dä, or CORN MORTAR and POUNDER.

The Senecas use three varieties of corn: the White, (O-na-oga-ant) the Red, (Tic-ne) and the White Flint, (Ha-go-wä). Corn is, and always has been, their staple article of food. When ready to be harvested, they pick the ears, strip down the husks, and braid them together in bunches, with about twenty ears in each. They are then hung up ready for use. The white flint ripens first, and is the favourite corn for hominy; the red next, and is used principally for charring and drying; the white last, and is the favourite corn of the Indians; it is used for bread, and supplies the same place with them that wheat does with us. They shell their corn by hand, and pound it into flour in wooden mortars. In two hours from the time the corn is taken from the ear it is ready to eat, in the form of unleavened bread. It is hulled. in the first instance, by boiling in ashes and water; after the outer skin is thus removed from each kernel, it is thoroughly washed, and pounded into flour or meal in a mortar, of which a representation is here given. Having been passed through a sieve basket, to remove the chit and coarser grains, it is made into loaves or cakes about an inch in thickness, and six inches in diameter; after which they are cooked by boiling them in water. Upon bread of this description, and upon the fruits of the chase, the Indian has principally subsisted from time immemorial.

The practice of charring corn is of great antiquity among the Red race. In this condition it is preserved for years without injury. Caches or pits of charred corn have been found in the vicinity of ancient works and deserted settlements, in various parts of the country. Many of these are supposed to reach back to the period of the mound builders. How far this custom has prevailed among the Iroquois, cannot with certainty be determined; neither do we know whether those caches, which are still discovered in various parts of the state, are to be ascribed to them. It is certain, however, that they were in the habit of charring corn, to preserve it for domestic use. The Senecas still do the same. For this use the red corn is preferred. When green the corn is picked, and roasted in the field before a long fire, the ears being set up on end in a row. It is not charred or blackened entirely, but roasted sufficiently to dry up the moisture in each kernel. The corn is then shelled, and dried in the sun. In this state it is chiefly used by hunting parties, and for subsistence on distant excursions. Its bulk and weight having been diminished about one half by the two processes, its transportation became less burdensome. The Red races seldom formed magazines of grain, to guard against distant wants. It is probable, therefore,

that these pits of charred corn owe their origin to the sudden flight of the inhabitants, who buried their dried corn because they could not remove it, rather than to a desire to provide against a failure of the harvest.

There is another method of curing corn in its green state, quite as prevalent as the former. The corn is shaved off in small particles, and having been baked over the fire in pans or earthen dishes, it is then dried in the sun. In this condition it is preserved for winter use.

A favourite article of subsistence is prepared from the charred corn. It is parched a second time, after which, having been mixed with about a third part of maple sugar, it is pounded into a fine flour. This is carried in the bear skin pocket of the hunter, and upon it alone he subsists for days together. It was also the principal subsistence of the war party on distant expeditions. Its bulk is reduced to the smallest possible compass, and it is so light that the Indian could carry, without inconvenience, sufficient for a long adventure. When we consider the rapidity of their journeys, and their powers of enduring abstinence, it becomes easy to understand how the war party could leave the valley of the Genesee, make an inroad upon the Cherokees of the south, and return, relying almost entirely upon this species of subsistence. A basket of each of the three varieties of corn, of the two species of dried corn, and of this flour, will be found among the specimens.

This noble grain, one of the gifts of the Indian to the world, is destined eventually to become one of the staple articles of human consumption. Over half of our republic lies within the embrace of the tributaries of the Mississippi. Upon their banks are the corn-growing districts of the country; and there, also, at no distant day, will be seated the millions of our race. Experience demonstrates that no people can rely wholly upon exchanges for the substance of their bread stuffs, but they must look chiefly to the soil they cultivate. This law of production and consumption is destined to introduce the gradual use of corn flour, as a partial substitute at least, for its superior rival, in those districts where it is the natural product of the soil. In the southern portions of the country this principle is already attested, by the fact that corn bread enters as largely into human consumption as wheaten. Next to wheat, this grain, perhaps, contains the largest amount of nutriment. It is the cheapest and surest of all the grains to cultivate; and is, also, the cheapest article of subsistence known among men. Although wheat can be cultivated in nearly all sections of the country; although its production can be increased to an unlimited degree by a higher

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agriculture; we have yet great reason to be thankful for this secondary grain, whose reproductive energy is so unmeasured as to secure the millions of our race, through all coming time, against the dangers of scarcity or the pressure of want.

Our Indian population have been long in the habit of manufacturing sugar from the maple. Whether they learned the art from us, or we received it from them, is uncertain. One evidence, at least of its antiquity among them, is to be found in one of their ancient religious festivals, instituted to the maple. It is called the Maple Dance, (O-tä-de-none-neo-wa-tä) which signifies, "Thanks to the Maple." In the spring season, when the sap begins to flow, it is still regularly observed by the present Iroquois. The sap tub is a very neat contrivance, and surpasses all articles of this description. Our farmers may safely borrow, in this one particular, and with profit substitute this Indian invention. for the rough and wasteful trough of their own contrivance.

A strip of bark about three feet in length, by two in width, makes the tub. The rough bark is left upon the bottom and sides. At the point where the bark is to be turned up to form the ends, the outer bark is removed; the inner rind is then turned up, gathered together in small folds at the top, and tied around with a splint. It is then ready for use, and will last several seasons. Aside from the natural fact that the sap would be quite at home in the bark tub, and its flavour preserved untainted, it is more durable and capacious than the wooden one, and more readily made.

O-yeh-quä-ä-weh, or INDIAN TOBACCO.

Tobacco is another gift of the Indian to the world; but a gift, it must be admitted, of questionable utility. We call both corn and tobacco the legacy of the Red man, as these indigenous plants, but for his nurture and culture, through so many ages, might have perished, like other varieties of the fruits of the earth. Many of our choicest fruits owe their origin to vegetable combinations entirely fortuitous. They spring up spontaneously, flourish for a season, and would become extinct, but for the watchful care of man. Nature literally pours forth her vegetable wealth, and buries beneath her advancing exuberance the products of the past. But few of the fruits and plants and flowers of the ancient world have come down to us unchanged; and still other plants, perhaps, have perished unknown in the openings of the past, which contained within their shrivelled and stinted foliage the germ of some fruit, or grain, or plant, which might have nourished or clothed the whole human family. We may therefore, perchance, owe a debt to the Indian, in these particulars, beyond our utmost acknowledgments.

The Senecas still cultivate tobacco. The name they give it signifies "The only Tobacco," because they considered this variety superior to all others. A specimen is furnished. It is raised from the seed, which is sown or planted in the spring, and requires but little cultivation. The leaves are picked early in the fall, when their colour first begins to change, and when dried are ready for use. After the first year it grows spontaneously, from the seed shed by the plant when fully ripened. If the plants become too thick, which is frequently the case, from their vigorous growth, it becomes necessary to thin them out, as the leaves diminish in size with their increase in number. This tobacco is used exclusively for smoking. The custom of chewing the cud, appears to have been derived from us. Although this tobacco is exceedingly mild, they mingle with it the leaves of the sumac, to diminish its stimulating properties. The sumac has been used by the Indian to temper tobacco from time immemorial.

Until within a few years, the Iroquois used the wild potato as an article of food. It still grows spontaneously upon the western reservations, and is usually about the size of a hen's egg. They never cultivated this potato, but gathered it in its wild state.

Six varieties of the bean, and four of the squash, are also furnished. Which varieties were of original cultivation and which indigenous, the writer cannot state.