1890. | HARRIS—-ROOT FOODS OF SENECA INDIANS. IT5 
now be found in Central New York. I fully believe, however, that 
Luke Swetland’s ook-te-haw is the well-known Indian turnip. 
Very respectfully, Joun S. CLARK. 
In response to a request for particulars General Clark forwarded 
a letter from Mr. Rathbun from which we extract the following :— 
“The plant in question was found by myself, in the early summer of 
1856 or 1857, at Fort Edward, Washington Co., N. Y., west of the 
Collegiate Institute, in a moist situation near the location, of the Jane 
McRea spring. As something unique, I carried the bulb, flower or seed 
vessel and leaves, to the Professor of Natural History at the Institute 
for analysis, before the class in botany. Pronounced by him a rare 
find, something new. I recollect he seemed surprised ; also recollect 
the specific term esculenta or Indian bread root applied to the speci- 
men. His name was Solomon Sias. By the last Naturalists’ Directory 
I find his address to be Schoharie, N. Y., (Solomon Sias, A. M., M. D.)” 
It is well known that the flora of New York, has changed greatly 
during the past hundred years, and it may be an interesting question 
for our botanical section to decide, whether Psoralea esculenta can be 
added to the list of extinct plants. 
The yellow pond lily, now so greatly admired as an aquatic flower, 
is a native of marshes, and the Senecas who frequented Irondequoit 
bay often procured the roots from the marsh-beds that surrounded that 
beautiful and historic sheet of water. The roots are large, sweet, and 
glutinous and not an unpleasant food when boiled or roasted and eaten 
with wild fowl or meat ; or if well seasoned with salt. The lily was 
known to the early Senecas as o-was-oos-hah, a word almost identical 
in sound with the native name (o-a-o-sah) of arum or baby board; 
but the writer has been unable to learn the meaning of the term as 
applied to this particular flower. 
Musk rats, which once abounded in all the shallow waters of the 
Genesee country, stored quantities of the lily roots in their rude houses 
for winter support ; and it was the usual custom of the Indians when 
hunting the little water animals, to search their houses for the roots. 
It is a fact, well attested by men who have been familiarly associated 
with Indians and accustomed to their food, that when properly dressed 
to remove the rank odor, the flesh of the musk rat is excellent meat ; 
and the Senecas doubtless had good reasons for heartily enjoying their 
winter dishes of ju-no da-ga, or musk rat flesh, and o-was-oos-hah, or 
pond lily root. 
A more extended list of root foods might be presented, but a 
sufficient number has already been described. The hungry aborigines 
