Katniss is another Indian name of a plant, the root of which they were likewise accustomed to eat, when they lived here. The Swedes still preserve this name. It grows in low, muddy and very wet ground. The root is oblong, commonly an inch and an half long, and one inch and a quarter broad in the middle; but some of the roots have been as big as a man’s fists. The Indians either boiled this root or roasted it in hot ashes. Some of the Swedes likewise eat them with much appetite, at the time when the Indians were so near the coast; but at present none of them make any use [[97]]of the roots. A man of ninety-one years of age, called Nils Gustafson, told me, that he had often eaten these roots when he was a boy, and that he liked them very well at that time. He added that the Indians, especially their women, travelled to the islands, dug out the roots, and brought them home; and whilst they had them, they desired no other food. They said that the hogs, which are amazingly greedy of them, have made them very scarce. The cattle are very fond of its leaves. I afterwards got fond of these roots roasted, and in my opinion they tasted well, though they were rather dry: The taste was nearly the same with that of the potatoes. When the Indians come down to the coast and see the turneps of the Europeans, they likewise give them the name of katniss. Their katniss is an arrow-head or Sagittaria, and is only a variety of the Swedish arrow-head or Sagittaria sagittifolia, for the plant above the ground is entirely the same, but the root under ground is much greater in the American than in the European. Mr. Osbeck in his voyage to China, vol. i. p. 334, of the English edition, mentions, that the Chinese plant a Sagittaria, and eat its roots. This seems undoubtedly to be a variety of this katniss. Further in the north of this [[98]]part of America, I met with the other species of Sagittaria which we have in Sweden.
Taw-ho and Taw-him was the Indian name of another plant, the root of which they eat. Some of them likewise call it Tuckah; but most of the Swedes still knew it by the name of Taw-ho. It grows in moist ground and swamps. Hogs are very greedy of the roots, and grow very fat by feeding on them. Therefore, they often visit the places where these roots grow; and they are frequently seen rooting up the mud, and falling with their whole body into the water, so that only a little of the back part was out of the water. It is therefore very plain, that these roots must have been extirpated in places which are frequented by hogs. The roots often grow to the thickness of a man’s thigh. When they are fresh, they have a pungent taste, and are reckoned a poison in that fresh taste. Nor did the Indians ever venture to eat them raw, but prepared them in the following manner: They gathered a great heap of these roots, dug a great long hole, sometimes two or three fathoms and upwards in length, into which they put the roots, and covered them with the earth that had been taken out of the hole; they made a great fire above it, which burnt till they thought proper to remove it; and then [[99]]they dug up the roots, and consumed them with great avidity. These roots, when prepared in this manner, I am told, taste like potatoes. The Indians never dry and preserve them; but always take them fresh out of the marshes, when they want them. This Taw-ho is the Arum Virginicum, or Virginian Wake-robin. It is remarkable, that the Arums, with the plants next akin to them, are eaten by men in different parts of the world, though their roots, when raw, have a fiery pungent taste, and are almost poisonous in that state. How can men have learnt, that plants so extremely opposite to our nature were eatable; and that their poison, which burns on the tongue, can be conquered by fire. Thus the root of the Calla palustris, which grows in the north of Europe, is sometimes used instead of bread on an exigency. The North American Indians consume this species of Arum. Those of South America, and of the West Indies, eat other species of Arums. The Hottentots, at the Cape of Good Hope, in Africa, prepare bread from a species of Arum or Wake-robin, which is as burning and poisonous as the other species of this plant. In the same manner, they employ the roots of some kinds of Arum as a food, in Egypt and Asia. Probably, [[100]]that severe but sometimes useful mistress, necessity, has first taught men to find out a food, which the first taste would have rejected as useless. This Taw-ho seems to be the same with what the Indians in Carolina call Tuckahoo; and of which see Vol. I. p. 287.
Taw-kee is another plant, so called by the Indians who eat it. Some of them call it Taw-kim, and others Tackvim. The Swedes call it always by the name of Taw-kee. The plant grows in marshes, near moist and low grounds, and is very plentiful in North America. The cattle, hogs and stags, are very fond of the leaves in spring; for they are some of the earliest. The leaves are broad, like those of the Convallaria, or Lilly of the Valley, green on the upper side, and covered with very minute hair, so that they looked like a fine velvet. The Indians pluck the seeds, and keep them for eating. They cannot be eaten fresh or raw, but must be dried. The Indians were forced to boil them repeatedly in water, before they were fit for use; and then they ate them like pease. When the Swedes gave them butter or milk, they boiled or broiled the seeds in it. Sometimes they employ these seeds instead of bread; and they taste like pease. Some of the Swedes likewise [[101]]ate them; and the old men among them told me, they liked this food better than any of the other plants which the Indians formerly made use of. This Taw-kee was the Orontium aquaticum.
Bilberries were likewise a very common dish among the Indians. They are called Huckleberries by the English here, and belong to several species of Vaccinium, which are all of them different from our Swedish Bilberry-bush, though their berries, in regard to colour, shape, and taste, are so similar to the Swedish bilberry, that they are distinguished from each other with difficulty. The American ones grow on shrubs, which are from two to four feet high; and there are some species which are above seven feet in height. The Indians formerly plucked them in abundance every year, dried them either in the sun-shine or by the fire-side, and afterwards prepared them for eating, in different manners, These huckleberries are still a dainty dish among the Indians. On my travels through the country of the Iroquese, they offered me, whenever they designed to treat me well, fresh maize-bread, baked in an oblong shape, mixed with dried Huckleberries, which lay as close in it as the raisins in a plumb-pudding. I shall [[102]]write more at large about it in the sequel. The Europeans are likewise used to collect a quantity of these berries, to dry them in ovens, to bake them in tarts, and to employ them in several other ways. Some preserve them with treacle. They are likewise eaten raw, either quite alone or with fresh milk.
I shall, on the 27th of March, find occasion to mention another dish, which the Indians ate formerly, and still eat, on formal ceremonies.
March the 18th. Almost during the whole of this spring, the weather and the winds were always calm in the morning at sun-rising. At eight o’clock the wind began to blow pretty hard, and continued so all day, till sun-setting; when it ceased, and all the night was calm. This was the regular course of the weather; but sometimes the winds raged, without intermission, for two or three days together. At noon it was commonly most violent. But in the ordinary way, the wind decreased and increased as follows: At six in the morning, a calm; at seven, a very gentle western breeze, which grew stronger at eight; at eleven it was much stronger; but at four in the afternoon, it is no stronger than it was [[103]]at eight o’clock in the morning; and thus it goes on decreasing till it is quite a calm, just before sun-set. The winds this spring blew generally west, as appears from the observations at the end of this volume.
I was told, that it was a very certain prognostic of bad weather, that when you see clouds in the horizon in the south-west, about sun-setting, and when those clouds sink below the horizon, in an hour’s time, it will rain the next day, though all the forenoon be fair and clear. But if some clouds be seen in the south-west, in the horizon, at sun-set, and they rise some time after, you may expect fair weather the next day.
March the 20th. An old Swede prognosticated a change in the weather, because it was calm to-day; for when there has been wind for some days together, and a calm follows, they say, rain or snow, or some other change in the weather, will happen. I was likewise told, that some people here were of that false opinion, that the weather commonly alters on Friday; so that, in case it had rained or blown hard all the week, and a change was to happen, it would commonly fall on Friday. How far the former prognostic has been true, appears from my own observations of the weather, to which I refer. [[104]]
March the 21st. The red maple (Acer rubrum) and the American elm (Ulmus Americana) began to flower at present; and some of the latter kind were already in full blossom.
March the 24th. I walked pretty far to-day, in order to see whether I could find any plants in flower. But the cloudy weather, and the great rains which had lately fallen, had allowed little or nothing to grow up. The leaves now began to grow pretty green. The plants which I have just before mentioned, were now in full blossom.