Aboriginal Use of Wood in New York (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1905. Excerpt: ... As the early Indians in Canada and New York used no salt, the modern wooden salt cellar, figure 48, had no place among them. White men living among them in the I7th century sometimes did without salt for years; and, when the Onondagas brought Father Le Moyne to the salt spring at Onondaga lake, they thought a demon dwelt in it. The Onondagas call the salt cellar a-jik-ha-tuk'-wah, salt box, and their name for the mineral means sour. Bruyas, in his Mohawk words of the I7th century, gave none expressly for salt, but recognized its use, as in Takkiosiston, Give me salt. Gutters or conductors of bark entered into the household economy, but in a limited way. Champlain told how rapidly these discharged water on his fires at the Oneida fort of 1615. They were also employed in conducting the water from the spring around the Seneca fort in Victor. This was destroyed in 1687. It is probable these discharged into wooden reservoirs at convenient intervals. So obvious an aid would not be overlooked by a people sparing of personal labor, and they may have been an unnoted feature of many bark cabins. So Bruyas gives not only atsannhon, to let water fall drop by drop, but atsennhonnion, a quantity of gutters. Two charred articles from an Indian fireplace in Jefferson county were obtained by Mr R. D. Loveland of Watertown. Figure 38 is one of these and suggests the body and head of a wooden doll. The accidental fracture on the face adds to this impression, but was made in charring. The length is 1JHs inches, the edges are chamfered and notched, and the outline is perfect. Figure 37 is an inch wide by 1 nr inches long, is rectangular and flat, and has three edges chamfered. There are cross cuts in the center on both sides. They are the oldest New York Indian household arti...