As an indication of the domestic economy of the Indians in utilizing various articles of food, not for sustenance only, but to gratify the palate as well, the following will be of interest.

Father Fremin, a Jesuit missionary among the Senecas, narrates that in the autumn of 1669, "owing to the unusual abundant harvest of walnuts this year, the joy of the people is so great that one sees scarcely anything but games, dances and feasts, which they carry even to debauch, although they have no other seasoning than the oil."

The fact that Father Fremin gives the custom such a passing allusion, indicates that the use of the oil was well known.

Galinee, who visited the Senecas in 1669 with La Salle, says, "Another of their favorite dishes is Indian meal cooked in the water and served in wooden bowls, with a small portion of sunflower, nut, or bear's oil."

La Mercier (Jesuit Relations, 1657), alludes to the process by which the Indians extract oil from the sunflower, while from similar sources we are informed that the butternut, black walnut and shag-bark walnut were much prized by the Indians as an article of food, and especially the extracts made from them for seasoning.

In a representation made by La Salle in 1684 (N. Y. Col. Doc. ix, 217) in relation to Fort Fron-tenac, is the following: "Around the lake (Ontario ) are to be found wild apple trees, chestnuts and nuts from which the Indians extract very good oil; also divers sorts of grain, mulberry, plum and cherry trees."

In July, 1750, the Moravian missionaries, Bishop Cammerhoff and Rev. David Zeisberger, were regaled by the Indians at Onondaga with "chestnut milk," and the next day "with Indian corn and nut oil, a new dish to us, but which we found very palatable."

What can "chestnut milk" be? There could be no chestnuts in July. The translation of the Cammerhoff journal was made by a lady teacher in Bethlehem, and furnished us within the past year by Bishop de Schweintz, and was very carefully done - the original is in German.

In the narrative of the captivity of the Gilbert family, Rebecca Gilbert states that in the autumn of 1780, "when they arrived at their settlement, it was the time of gathering their crops of corn, potatoes, pumpkins, and preserving their store of hickory nuts." Another of the captives, Thomas Peart, says, "When they had loitered at home a few days, they set about gathering their winter store of hickory nuts; from some of them they ex. tracted an oil, which they eat with bread or meat at their liking."