THE WAPPATO.
The party found a root new to them on the lower Columbia.
The Indians called it wappato.
Captain Clark called it arrowhead.
The wappato grew all the year.
The Indian women gathered it.
A woman carried a light canoe to a pond.
She waded into the pond.
She put the canoe on the water.
With her toes she pulled up the wappato from the bottom of the pond.
The woman caught it and put it in the canoe.
She was in the water many hours, summer and winter.
When her canoe was full, she put it on her head and carried it home.
She roasted the wappato on hot stones.
It tasted very good.
The soldiers said it was the best root they had tasted.
The Indian women used to put some wappato in grass baskets and sell it
to the tribes up the river.
anx ious cheer ful view break ing dis tinct ly shores