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Spokwas
A day's harvest, judging from actual measurements Of several
loads, is ordinarily 4 to 6 bushels of hard pods and a peck to half a bushel
of spokwas. (Plate 6.)
Spokwas
The basketful of spokwas as it is
brought from the boat is emptied into a pit dug in the ground for the
purpose, to which each successive day's harvest of spokwas is added. The
disintegrating pods undergo some process of fermentation, which changes them
into a mucilaginous liquid mass having the texture of a thin but very
elastic dough. The pits are commonly 1˝
to 2 feet in both diameter and depth. The top is covered with grass, tales,
or an empty grain sack. These holes may be found anywhere about a wokas
camp, and from the inconspicuous character of their covering, among the
miscellaneous furniture of an Indian's summer camp, it is altogether too
easy to step into one. If a motto were to be suggested for visitors, it
might well be: Let the stranger in a wokas camp beware of the spokwas hole.
Other cases were observed in which an old dugout, a
large spokwas basket, a grain sack, or even a wooden box was used as the
fermenting receptacle for spokwas. Large holes plug themselves with pieces
of the pods and small ones are sealed by the drying of the mucilaginous
contents. In every case the receptacle was shaded, a fact which, taken with
the limited diameter of the receptacle or pit, which never exceeded 2 feet,
suggested that the contents were liable, under adverse conditions, to
overfermentation and heating.
At the end of the period of harvesting by any
individual, whether it is one week or five weeks, the contents of the
spokwas pits are dipped out and placed in a dugout. Water is then poured in,
the whole mass stirred, and the coarser portions squeezed with the hands,
much as curdled milk is manipulated in a cheese vat. The seeds, no longer
held in suspension in the mucilage, drop to the bottom, and the floating
refuse, mucilage, and water are removed by skimming, by rocking the boat,
and by baling. The wet seeds, with a small amount of mucilage and occasional
small scraps of pod adhering, are scooped from the boat and spread on a tale
mat (shap'ss) in the sun to drain. They are then ready for manufacture into
lolensh and subsequently into shnaps.
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Wokas, Primitive Food of
the Klamath Indians
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