New Jerfey, Raccoon, gg 



they dug up the root?, and confumed 

 them with great avidity. Thefe roots, 

 when prepared in this manner, I am told, 

 tafte like potatoes. The Indians never dry 

 and preferve them ; but always take them 

 frefh out of the marfhes, when they want 

 them. This 'Taw-ho is the Arum Virgini- 

 turn, 6r Virginian Wake-robin. It is re- 

 markable, 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 tafte, 

 and are almoin, poifonous in that ftate. 

 How can men have learnt, that plants fo 

 extremely oppofite to our nature were eata- 

 ble ; and that their poifon, which burns on 

 the tongue, can be conquered by fire. Thus 

 the root of the Ca/Ia paluflris, which grows 

 in the north of Europe, is fometimes ufed 

 in (lead of bread on an exigency. The 

 North American Indians confume this fpecies 

 of A rum. Thofe of South America, and of 

 the Weft Indies, eat other fpecies of Arums. 

 The Hottentots, at the Cape of Good Hope, 

 in Africa, prepare bread from a fpecies 

 of Arum or Wake-robin, which is as 

 burning and poifonous as the other fpe- 

 cies of this plant. In the fame manner, 

 they employ the roots of fome kinds of 

 Arum as a food, in Egypt and AJia. Pro- 



G 2 bably, 



