VERBAL EXPRESSION
Sourdough bread was so much a part of the Forty-Niners’ lives that it features in other genres of folklore. In particular, sourdough bread appears in verbal folklore, which is defined as any lore containing words (Sims and Stephens 2011, 12). Analyzing verbal expression can reveal and reinforce values, traditions and customs that are important to a specific folk group (Paredes 1958, 34-36). In the examples that follow, verbal expression illuminates the daily custom of sourdough and appears to be a method for miners to lament their living conditions and monotonous diets.
Gold miners came to be known by the nickname "sourdoughs" because sourdough bread played such a central role in their daily diets and lives:
"Old sourdoughs, hard rock men,
speculators, and mining engineers"
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(Conlin 1981, 29).
Another example is a personal narrative from Edward Gould Buffum, a gold miner in California around 1850:
“In Cabins rude, our daily food
Is quickly counter o’er;
Beans, bread, and salt meat, is all we
eat–
And the cold earth is our floor”
(as cited in Conlin 1985, 224).
The final example of verbal folklore is the song of a prospector:
“I loathe! Abhor! Detest! Despise!
Abominate dried-apple pies;
I like good bread, I like good meat,
Or anything that’s good to eat;
But of all poor grub – beneath the skies
The poorest is dried-apple pies”
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(as cited in Conlin 1981, 34).
