MAN-OF-THE-EARTH (Macoupin 



Ipomoea pandurata ( L. ) Mcy. 



Summer 

 Bottomlands 



Tlu'n^ wa.-^ a good deal to oat in the land of the Illiniwek 

 - — if you knew where to look for it. There were cattail 

 and calamus r(K>ts. and cake.< to he made of cattail 

 pollen or acorn meal or panic p'ass seeds. There were lotus pods and 

 lotus roots, as well as the hoans and corn and squash which the ancestors 

 of the Illiniwek had hrouglil fioin their ancient homelands in the south. 

 And there was always the macoupin. or man-of-the-earth, if you knew 

 where to find it. 



Man-of-the-earth, or man-root, is a memher of the Bindweed 

 family. The root is huge and dccpiy hidden in the eartli. hut tJKMV is so 

 nmch food in it that the eifort in digging it out is worthwhile. Said 

 Father Alloucz, hack in the late .«;eventeemh century: "The Illiniwek 

 gathered 'macopin', a long tuberous swamp root wliidi nnist be leached, 

 before eating. Thi^se niaco])ins serve as ])rovision for most of the savages. 

 The roots are as large as an arm, others a little smaller. The savages 

 make a lu)l(> in the earth where they ))ut a bed of rock icddentnl in the 

 lire, then one of hvnes, one of macopin, one of reddend rocks, and 

 so on up to the to]) wliiih they cover with earth and leave their roots 

 inside to sweat for two or three days. After this they boil them and eat. 

 them alone or with oil." 



The man-()f-the-eai1h or maconi»in (from which the name Ma- 

 coupin County was obtained) still giows in Illinois. K(H)ts weighing 29 

 ])ounds or more still are found. The llowers of man-of-the-earth vine are 

 luminous white trunijiets with a purple throat which 0[>en broadly in 

 the smnmer sunshin»>. The leaves are fid(lle-sha]ied or heart-shaped.. 



arranged on a long 



straggling vine. 



•208 



