Page:Don Coronado through Kansas.djvu/277

260 260 "CORN dodgers" those days. taMng car i for the enterprising towns to have a har- beeue on the 4th of July, as it would bring Indians fifty miles to be reminded of old times, and after hav- , Ing a good blow-out were willing to entertain the crowd with a dance in true Indian fashion. The bread, or as the early white settlers called it, "corn dodger," (for mind you, the Indians when discovered in Amer- i)G^ knew nothing of flour,) was made from the flour of the corn and the acorn, instead of the flour of w;heat. Although it may not be very good argument to suggest that ahorse, cow, hog or chicken will not thrive neai-ly so well on wheat as they will on corn, yet why will not this hold good witii the higher {uii;mal8iif The Spaniards did not take kindly to ^e aerated, ash-^erated buffalo, — manureated bread woald better express the thought, — for the "modus operan- di" was to mix the meal, then put it right on top of the hot embers. Now there would be nothing very nasty about this method if wood was used to make the hot coals, but should the surface peat be utilized in the way of chips, then, if you knew, the thought of the manner of its being aerated would cut some figure; but if you did not know that chewed grass had been utilized, you might smack your lips and exclaim, as one does when eating a piece of ham smoked with hickory wood, "What a delicious flavor it has!" While on this day's march numerous towns are seen, but the inhabitants were very much wilder than the Indians, and showed by their actions of having no desire for civilization, much preferring their own man- ner of ^chitecture and living. These permanent rea-^ idents of the prairies have some peculiar habits.