Page:Wee wee songs for our little pets.djvu/79

COOKING, IN OLD TIMES.

No little girl or boy hath guessed
  The process or the art
By which the early Indians dressed
  And cut their meat apart;
Since neither knife, nor spoon, nor fork,
Had they to aid them in their work.

A piece of flint or sharpened shell,
  The place of knife supplied,
And answered every purpose well,
  To free it from the hide,—
To clear the entrails, scrape the hair,
And make the carcass clean and fair.

Then in the earth a pit was made,
  To hold the fish or game,
There, stones at sides and bottom laid,
  An oven it became;
No better did their wants require,
And here they lighted up a fire.

From this, when gained sufficient heat,
  The glowing coals were dug,
And here the squaw laid in her meat,
  With leaves encompassed snug;
With heated stones 'twas covered up
Till time to breakfast, dine, or sup.