To serve the corn and beans we poured the mess into a wooden bowl and ate with spoons made from the stems of squash leaves. [Figure 10] is a sketch of such a spoon. The squash stem was split at one end and the split was held open by a little stick. Stems of leaves of our native squashes have tiny prickles on them, but these did not hurt the eater’s lips. Leaf stems of native squashes I think are firmer and stronger than those of white men’s squashes, such as we now raise.
My grandmother, Turtle, was a faithful watcher in our family field in the watching season. I remember she used to bring home in the evening all the uneaten corn she had boiled that day.
Youths’ and Maidens’ Customs
We always kept drinking water at the stage; and if relatives came out, we freely gave them to drink. But boys and young men who came were offered neither food nor drink, unless they were relatives.
Our tribe’s custom in such things was well understood.
The youths of the village used to go about all the time seeking the girls; this indeed was almost all they did. Of course, when the girls were on the watchers’ stage the boys were pretty sure to come around. Sometimes two youths came together, sometimes but one. If there were relatives at the watchers’ stage the boys would stop and drink or eat; they did not try to talk to the girls, but would come around smiling and try to get the girls to smile back.
To illustrate our custom, if a boy came out to a watchers’ stage, we girls that were sitting upon it did not say a word to him. It was our rule that we should work and should not say anything to him. So we sat, not looking at him, nor saying a word. He would smile and perhaps stop and get a drink of water.
Indeed, a girl that was not a youth’s sweetheart, never talked to him. This rule was observed at all times. Even when a boy was a girl’s sweetheart, or “love-boy” as we called him, if there were other persons around, she did not talk to him, unless these happened to be relatives.
Boys who came out to the watchers’ stage, getting no encouragement from the girls there, soon went away.