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Lolensh
Fresh wokas seeds, in which
the kernels are still moist, are in the
condition necessary for manufacture into
what is called lolensh (lo-lensh'). This
condition exists in spokwas and in the two
grades of seeds, nokapk and chiniakuni,
derived from cooked pods, or away described
below. The dried seeds, lowed and
stontablaks, can not be made into lolensh.
The fresh seeds are placed in a frying pan,
one or two quarts at a time, and held over a
fire for perhaps ten minutes, constantly
stirred or shaken. This operation dries and
partially cooks the seed, leaving the shell
brittle and the kernel in a tough, elastic
condition. In early times the cooking was
done in a wicker tray with live coals, as
described below under shiwulinz.
The removal of the shells is accomplished by
grinding the seeds lightly on the ordinary
mewling stone and then winnowing them. The
lower meeting stone (lmach) is a piece of
flat lava rock commonly about a foot and a
half in length and about 10 inches in width.
The upper stone (si-lak'-al-ish), also of
lava, is much smaller and has usually two
nibs upon the back which fit into the hands
of the user as she sits or kneels on the
ground. The seeds to be ground are placed, a
few handfuls at a time, on the end of the
lower stone next to the grinder. The seeds
on that side of the pile farthest from her
are spread out in a thin layer reaching to
or beyond the middle of the stone. She
seizes the upper stone in both hands and
rubs it lightly over the lower and over the
thin layer of seeds upon it. The forward
stroke does the grinding, while the deft
backward stroke serves to catch between the
stones a small amount of seeds from the thin
edge of the pile on the lower stone. The
product of the grinding accumulates on the
end of the lower stone farthest from the
grinder and is shoved off upon a circular
mat or very shallow, tightly woven dish,
commonly known as a wokas shaker, described
below, upon which the end of the mewling
stone has been placed. (Plate
7).
The notable feature of the grinding of these
seeds is that the shells are cracked so that
they can be removed, while the kernels, from
the tough, elastic texture they have
acquired through their partial cooking and
from the lightness of stroke exercised by
the grinder, are not cracked as are
thoroughly dried or roasted seeds when
similarly manipulated upon the mealing
stone.
The next process is that of winnowing, by
which the loose pieces of broken seed shells
are separated from the seed kernels. The
implement employed is a winnowing tray,
known to the white people of the Klamath
Lake region as a wokas shaker (p'a-hla).
This is a broad, circular, very shallow dish
closely woven of a cord twisted from narrow
strips of tule stems, from the great tule
marshes of the Klamath Lake and Marsh
country. The wokas shaker has commonly a
diameter of 22 to 30 inches, and sometimes
has some slight adornment in figures lighter
or darker than the main body of the shaker.
Ordinarily, Indian winnowing trays are of
rigid construction, but the wokas shaker,
which is the general winnowing implement
used by the Klamaths and Modocs for the
preparation of a wide variety of seed foods,
is flexible, a characteristic which gives it
a more varied usefulness than an ordinary
stiff tray.
About a quart of the seeds, after cracking
on a mealing stone, as already described, is
placed on the shaker. This is seized by the
operator in both hands, at opposite points
of the margin, each hand, palm upward,
grasping from beneath a radial fold in the
margin, the end of the thumb usually
extending up over the Margin and occupying
the inside of the fold. The woman sits with
her back to the wind, and, grasping the
shaker in the manner just described,
proceeds by a series of skillful movements
to separate the broken shells from the rest
of the seed. One of these movements is the
rotation of the shaker back and forth upon
its own center as an axis. This accomplishes
a general shaking up of the contents,
through which the seed shells accumulate at
the surface. A second movement is a circular
motion of the whole shaker, which makes the
seeds travel about in it like water in an
eddy, the shells gathering in the center.
The shells are then shifted to the farther
margin by a jerk of the shaker, when they
are tossed into the air and are carried away
either by the wind or, when there is no
wind, by blowing. The broken seed shells (tsi'-hlak)
thus winnowed from the seeds are used in
dyeing, in a manner to be hereafter
described.
In the stage of preparation which they have
now reached the seeds are known as lolensh (Plate
12, fig. 4). This may be made
immediately into parched wokas or shnaps, or
it may be spread out upon a mat in the
sunlight to dry and then stored in sacks, to
be parched later as used.
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kas, Primitive Food of the
Klamath Indians
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