TUCKAHOE, OR INDIAN BREAD. 



By Prof. J. Howard Gore. 



Among the many interesting topics relative to the American aborig- 

 ines, few are moreinterestiug than their means of obtaining subsistence j 

 principally because of its imx>ortance as a factor in solving the problem 

 of the primitive poj^ulation. Procuring food, and waging war, occu- 

 pying the Indian's whole attention, developed his ingenuity by exercis- 

 ing it, and the degree of skill employed in these pursuits determines 

 the relative status of different tribes. Nearly every writer upon the 

 customs of the Indians has made this the subject of special considera- 

 tion, and as the early settlers in different parts of America were fre- 

 quently compelled to resort to the use of Indian foods, on account of 

 failure in their first crops, our historians have dwelt largely upon the 

 food products of the Indians. In regard to the character of the game 

 and the means of obtaining it, there is but little doubt, but in the case 

 of vegetable foods, much that has been written is of no value, since only 

 the common names of the plants and roots were given, on account of 

 the ignorance of the writers on botanical subjects; and, in addition to 

 this, many mistakes have occurred by the change or corruption of the 

 names by which these plants were formerly known. Those who were 

 sufBciently skilled in the ideutification or the naming of the plants which 

 came under their observations have given us important data for coinjiar 

 ing the flora of the country at different periods. Unfortunately, many of 

 the scientific pioneers were so enthusiastic in the discovery of new species 

 that insufficient care was observed in naming plants already described, 

 so that our botanical synonymy has become tangled, and in some cases 

 the specific is not a check for the common name, wliich, varying in differ 

 ent places and at different times, causes plants to possess impossible 

 properties, that have been ascribed to others once bearing the same com- 

 mon name, and the complicated synonymy sometimes fails to ])oint out 

 the exact inconsistency. An example of the condition of affViirs just 

 mentioned is the subject of this paper. 



In 1875, while in charge of the museum of Richmond College, Virginia, 

 some specimens of Tuckahoe were received, which elicited considerable 

 interest concerning its production and the methods by which it was 

 obtained, since the donor said that it was once an article of great es- 

 teem among the Indians as food. Many questions were asked of the 

 students who came from the locality from whence the specimens were 

 sent, and some correspondence was resorted to in hopes of obtaining 



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