Omaha Dwellings, Furniture and Implements / Thirteenth Annual Report of the Beaurau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution 1891-1892, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1896, pages 263-288

by James Owen Dorsey

Mortar and Pestles.

A mortar was made by burning a large hole in a round knot or piece of wood about 7 inches in diameter. The lower end was sharpened to a point, which was thrust into the ground when needed for use. After putting corn in a mortar of this description, the woman grasped the wooden pestle in the middle, with the larger end upward; the smaller end, which was about an inch in diameter, was put into the mortar. The operation of pounding corn among the Omaha was called "he." The mortar (uhe) and pestle (wehe) were both made commonly of elm, although sometimes they were fashioned of white oak. Mortars were of various sizes, some of them measuring 2 feet in diameter. Pestles were always of hard and heavy wood, and fully 3 feet long, taperring from 4 inches to an inch in diameter.

Fig. 314.—Omaha pestle.

Fig. 313.—Omaha mortar.