Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/602

 fifty plants of which they could use either seeds, fruits or roots for food, the most important being camas or wappato. . . . Ten-pound cakes of three inches in thickness were made which would keep indefinitely; and camas was considered even by the whites the equal of the potato, being both palatable and nutritious. Sometimes water was poured on the hot stones and the steam used in cooking, or hot stones were placed in water in tight baskets the Indians were able to weave. Fish, meat and other vegetables were similarly cooked with results quite astonishing to contemporary whites.

The wappato root was about the size of a small potato, coarser than camas and slightly bitter, but palatable and much valued. Because of its prevalence on Sauvie's Island, that island and the Indians who harvested and traded in this commodity were known as Wappato. Indian women waded into the marshes in all sorts of weather and loosened the bulbs of the plant with their toes. Lewis and Clark found about 100 light canoes of gatherers of wappato congregated by one of the swamps in April, 1806. Both wappato and camas were articles of trade, especially the former, because of the convenient location of the source of supply.

For fruit, the natives had "fine large blackberries, delicious, large raspberries", crabapples, gooseberries, cranberries, huckleberries, and the pine forests furnished the distinctively western salalberry. . . . The migratory system of the Indians was quite suited to and accommodated by the delicious fruitstands along the future highways to California. . ..

Lack of horses and adequate weapons limited the hunting activities of the Willamette Valley Indians and caused them to invent ingenious methods of killing game. Practically the only weapon used was a very elastic bow made of white cedar, to which was fitted an arrow of pine or hardwood with a barb of iron, copper or stone. Pits and snares were sometimes used for the larger game, but the common method was to hunt the deer while wearing a deer head. By crouching in the rank grass and rubbing the horns occasionally in