The pulp was then washed in a straining cloth, the starch of the Koonti draining into a deer hide suspended below.
Fig. 72. Koonti strainer.
When the starch had been thoroughly washed from the mass the latter was thrown away, and the starchy sediment in the water in the deerskin left to ferment. After some days the sediment was taken from the water and spread upon palmetto leaves to dry. When dried, it was a yellowish white flour, ready for use. In the factory at Miami substantially this process is followed, the chief variation from it being that the
Koonti is passed through several successive fermentations, thereby making it purer and whiter than the Indian product. Improved appliances for the manufacture are used by the white man.
The Koonti bread, as I saw it among the Indians, was of a bright orange color, and rather insipid, though not unpleasant to the taste. It was saltless. Its yellow color was owing to the fact that the flour had had but one fermentation.
[ INDUSTRIAL STATISTICS.]
The following is a summary of the results of the industries now engaged in by the Florida Indians. It shows what is approximately true of these at the present time: