Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1891-02-26
PRIMITIVE PEOPLE.
METHODS THEY PURSUED IN COOK
ING THEIR FOODS.

A Synopsis of Lecture BY Professor
Morse-The Antiquity of CoOking-orig-
| inaI Manner of Applying Heat to Meats
and observation-disclosures Huts.
Professor Morse gave his second lect-
ure ON Primitive People" at Academy
hall, and spoke particularly of freplaces
and stoves. In opening he briefly re-
viewed his first lecture, making special
reference to the fact that men and ami
mails adapt themselves to their surround
ings. Thus dogs and cats in civilized
homes eat corn and oatmeal, while COWS
in Iceland will eat salt fish as a steady
diet, though neither of these animals
would eat such food in the ordinary
natural state.
Proceeding to the subject in hand,
Professor Morse cited the finding of
baked cakes with the Egyptian num-
mics as evidence of the antiquity of
cooked food, and of the universal prim-
tive fashion among savage or primitive
peoples of cooking food in vessels resting
on three rounded stones, which man
very early found out were better than
four. This method was employed by
the North American Indians, the Esqui-
maux, the modern Firms, and even by
the Irish in the Seventeenth century.
Another method employed was the
cooking of meats in baskets of water
with hot stones. Some tribes of the
North American Indians cooked corn,
grasshoppers, and perhaps other delica-
cies by placing them in clay lined bask-
cts, with red hot Goals, and shaking the
baskets back and forth and blowing off
| the ashes and cinders till the contents
were done to what the Indians probably
considered turn.
ESoUMAU HJTs.
| The kitchens of New Zealand and Cey-
Ion are but rough primitive forms of
many that are seen in Germany and Eng
land, except that in the former cases
the fires are out of doors. English and
German freplaces are far behind the
American stove and cooking range, and
are really survivals of prehistoric times
| though the hearths for the fires are raised
| and arrangements made for the escape of
| the smoke.
Succeeding the period of placing pots
on three stones over the fire comes their
I suspension by some support, familiar
method being by means of three sticks
fastened together at the top. The Esqui
mau suspends his kettle from the ceiling
of his ice hut by means of cord or hide.
And here the lecturer departed from his
subject to describe how the hut is built
spirally, with blocks of ice and of dome
shape The hut is lined with skins, so
that what little of the ice melts will not
drop down ON the occupants in the form
of water.
These huts are warmed by open crude
oil lamps, in which is moss saturated
with oil, and over them are suspended
the kettles The oil comes from the
blubber of the whale, seal and similar
animals, and is obtained by the women
and children, whose principal business it
is in the winter time to chew blubber to
get the oil. Under the hut there is usu-
ally large supply of blubber stored for
winter use.
Professor Morse describes the stoves
Vi Nulld dL1d OdkSctAs ch4o ouOnOo O"O
patterns of what appeared to be earthen-
ware portable stoves, about the size of
bean pots. Other stoves are rough clay
or brick affairs, with openings for wood
and varying numbers of holes on top for
the accommodation of cooking utensils,
and none have arrangements for the di-
rect escape of the smoke out of doors.
EARLY METHODS OF GETTING FIRE.
Some of these eastern stoves have
shrines or symbols over the fireplaces to
keep out evil spirits, and in some of them
light is kept burning, or little food
or some other trife placed by way of in
voking the care of some good spirit over
the food that is to be cooked.
In closing, the lecturer had something
to say about primitive modes of creating
and preserving fire, followed by some in
teresting experiments with crude appli-
ances. The origin of fire is not known,
nor its first discoverer, but the discovery
must have been followed by tremendous
stride of advancement by the human race.
Probably fire was first used as religious
rite, and by many savage nations it has
been worshiped as god; after that it
was PROBABLY uSeu IOr COOk1HS, anu tIeH
for other purposes.
Some people never learned the art of
making fire, but took good care never to
be without it. Emin Pasha, whose rescue
from the heart of Africa Stanley sought,
vouches for wondrous tales in that region
to the effect that in some sections of Cen
trail Africa bands of chimpanzees occa-
sionally raid the native villages with
lighted torches.
Professor Morse illustrated three meth
DDS of starting ires-one by rubbing
piece of bamboo with sharp edged
stick; another by rubbing stick in
groove on piece of wood, and a third
by means of fire drill. None of these
methods brings direct blaze, but will
produce spark from which fire may
be brought by coaxing with tinder. The
fire drill was the most successful of the |
experiments on this occasion, and was &C
companied by considerable smoke, but |
no fire. The drill is simple arrange |
ment of wood and cord, by which stick |
is kept rapidly revolving on piece of
wood, and in fraction Of minute Gre
ates smoke and sparks.-SaIem Gazette.
Queer Remedies.