Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/276

259 BARBECCnSD BUFFALO. 259 barbecue, but now he had an opportunity to examine the manner in which the Indians cooked for a large number of people. In the first place, it was amusing to watch some of the hunters bring in a young buffalo on their pole sledges drawn by dogs. To lighten the load the entrails were left behind where the animal was killed. This would reduce the weight about one- half, and with the hide on to keep clean while getting to the evening's rendezvous. Just as soon as the men could, they commenced to skin the animal, and they did it as quick as the modern butcher, (at least, so state the writers), notwithstanding they only had flint knives; but that you may yourself know what was really said along this line of the Kansas Indians when first seen 367 years ago, the following is verbatim from the original: "They cut the hide open at the back and pull it off at the joints, using a flint as large as a finger, tied to a little stick, with as much ease as if working with a good iron tool. They give it an edge with their own teeth. The quickness with which they do this is something worth seeing and noting." After the animal was skinned, two green skewers about two inches in diameter were pushed through the meat, and it is then ready to be barbecued, which is done by making a ditch in the ground about eight feet long and three feet wide and three deep; then brush and wood is put into the excavation and burnt to red coals, then the big skewers are rested on the ends of the pit, the whole carcass being over the fire. You can rest assured no grOl restaurant can make finer flavored meat than is produced by the barbecue process. In the early settlement of Kansas it was a