Material culture of the Menomini / by Alanson Skinner.

  • Alanson Skinner
Date:
1921
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Material culture of the Menomini / by Alanson Skinner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    187/600 page 145
    *- eaten. This ceremony having been per¬ formed, the four days of calm weather are sure to follow unless someone has failed to fulfil the conditions of respect and quiet which are enjoined. Women undergoing their menses and persons belonging to a family in which there has been a death within a year may not go on the rice fields, for such an act would offend both the Thun¬ derers and the Underneath gods. The morning following the feast the Indi¬ ans visit the rice-beds in their canoes. An ideal party is composed of three—a man to pole the boat, and two women to gather the rice. Owing to the oozy nature of the lake bottoms at the river inlets, where the rice grows, an ordinary pole is not feasible for pushing the dugouts, and because of the matted rice-plants, paddling is likewise impossible. For propelling the bateau, therefore, a sapling, crotched at one end, and ten to sixteen feet long, is used. The boatman, standing in the stern, shoves his pole down among the roots of the rice, and drives his craft ahead with a twisting push, each turn causing the forked, end of the
    digitised image 1
    digitised image 2
    digitised image 3