Page:The History of the American Indians.djvu/421

 the North American Indians. 409

parately in their own fields, which in a great meafure checks the growth of their crops. Befides, they are fo defirous of having multum in parvo, without much fweating, that they plant the corn-hills fo clofe, as to thereby choak up the field. They plant their corn in ftraight rows, putting five or fix grains into one hole, about two inches diftant They cover them with clay in the form of a fmall hill. Each row is a yard afunder, and in the vacant ground they plant pumpkins, water-melons, marm-mallows, fun- flowers, and fundry forts of beans and peas, the laft two of which yield a large increafe.

They have a great deal of fruit, and they dry fuch kinds as will bear it. At the fall of the leaf, they gather a number of hiccory-nuts, which they pound with a round ftone, upon a ftone, thick and hollowed for the purpofe. When they are beat fine enough, they mix them with cold water, in a clay bafon, where the {hells fubfide. The other part is an oily,, tough, thick, -white fubftance, called by the traders hiccory milk, and by the Indians the flefh, or fat of hiccory-nuts, with which they eat their bread. A hearty ftranger ,, would be as apt to dip into the fediments as I did, the firft time this vegetable thick milk was fet before me. As ranging the woods had given me a keen appetite, I was the more rea dily tempted to believe they only tantalized me for their diverfion, when they laughed heartily at my fuppofed ignorance. But luckily when the ba fon was in danger, the bread was brought in piping hot, and the good-na tured landlady being informed of my fimplicity, (hewed me the right way to ufe the vegetable liquid. It is furprifing to fee the great variety of dimes they make out of wild flefh, corn, beans, peas, potatoes, pompi- ons, dried fruits, herbs and roots. They can diverfify their courfes, as much as the Englifli, or perhaps the French cooks : and in either of the ways they drefs their food, it is grateful to a wholefome flomach.

Their old fields abound with larger ftrawberries than I have feen in any part of the world ; infomuch, that in the proper feafon, one may gather a hat-full, in the fpace of two or three yards fquare. They have a fort of wild potatoes, which grow plentifully in their rich low lands, from South-Carolina to the Miflifippi, and partly ferve them in- (lead of bread, either in the woods a hunting, or at home when the fore going fummer's crop fails them. They have a fmall vine, which twines,

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