The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-04-20

squaw or a superannuatedt brave. who alone has the requisite patience and uns limited time-and the pounding is dona upon the fiat stone with the pestie. fha basket serving admirably to prevent tho particles from flying away. and 1t its s0 closely and is held so firmly to the stono that no meal is lost.
 Although the meal thus produced is quite fine. 1t is mixed with coarser par- ticles, which are removed in the following manner: The meal Is spread out on q cir- cular piece of basket work, which. bein0 held inclined toward the body, the meal is by vigorous shaking. thrown up ana down upon it until all of the coarser par- ticles have rolled into the basket which has been placed to receive them. This operation is repeated several times overs until the seventh time. the meal adherea so firmly that it has to be beaten off by sharp blows with long bone, which ia kept in hand for the purpose. The meal then undergoes a process of teaching in a filter made of sand through which th9 water percolates. This lasts for several days.
 Meal Mixed With Clay.
 This done. the meal mixed with red clay. is made up into dough, the propor- ton being about one pound of clay to twenty of meal. This clay, the Indians explain. makes the bread sweet. The mixture is next placed on a bed of soaps root, oak. maple, or even poison oak leaves, which in turn rests on a bed cd rocks previously heated by small fire The dough Is then covered with layer of leaves and hot rocks. and cooked gent~ ly for twelve hours, usually all night- When removed the next morning. ths bread is as black as jet, and has the con. sistency of rather soft cheese.
 In the course of few days It becomes hard. when, on account of the leaf inc pressions stamped upon it. it might easily be mistaken for a fossil-bearing piece of coal. It is not porous, being as heavy as so much cheese. Notwithstanding the ut- terly repulsive appearance of this bread. It. Is remarkably sweet. The black color Is due to the tasteless insoluble compound formed at the baking temperature. under tho influence of the air and moisture. by the action of the tannin of the acorn with the oxide of iron contained in the clay. An analysis of this clay showed that fE contained no interesting ingredient excepg hydrated red oxide of iron. Experiments showed that acorn meal containing 6.6k per cent of tannint acid was made black and at the same time sweet. by simplN keeping 1t heated in the moist state at a boiling temperature with 1 per cent ads dition of ferric oxide for about twenty- four hours.
 
 are the more interesting because they are wholly original with the Indians of Caif- fornia. For untold centuries they have been thus using a crop which is particu- larly abundant throughout California. and of which little use is made by the white people of today, other than as a means of fattening hogs. For human food different kinds of acorns have been esteemed in am cient Greece and in France, and are now used throughout the Mediterranean re- zion, Mexico, and the Southern United States.
 In all cases, only the sweet acorns have been used. and in no case. except in Cali~ fornia, has any extensive manufacturina process been adopted to prepare them for eating. One process was, however, en1- ployed in the Eastern United States In early times. The acorns were boiled by the Indians in. water containing the ash of maplewood. in order to extract the oil. which was used with their meat.