43S 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



fNo.7 



SCRAPS FROM 



OLD AUTHORS 

 VIRGINIA. 



RESPECTING 



To the Editor of the Farmers' Register. 



I send you some notes on the natural history of 

 Virginia— Indian words, &c, taken principally 

 from the old histories of Smith, and Beverly, and 

 Stith. Smith you know writes in the uncouth sim- 

 plicity of a soldier; and Mr. Jefferson has said 

 that Beverly is as much too concise and unsatis- 

 factory, as Stith is prolix and dry. 



Indian toords. 



Putchamins — Persimmons. 



Pawcohiccora — Milk of walnuts. 



The Indians heat hickory nuts or walnuts — 

 mixed water— when it looked like milk — hence 

 they called cows-milk, hickory. 



Maracocks — A fruit like a lemon. This is the 

 fruit of the passion flower. 



Popanoio — Winter. 



Cohonk — Winter. Cohonkwas the cry of wild 

 geese, whence it was applied to winter. 



Caltapeak — Spring. 



Cohattayough — Summer. 



Messinough — Earing of corn. 



Taquiiock — Fall of leaves. 



Ponup — Meal dumplings. 



An old writer says the pone, a favorite corn 

 meal bread in Virginia, is not derived from the 

 Latin pants, but from the Indian oppone! 



Ustatahamen — Hominy. Lord Bacon calls this 

 "cream of maize," and commends it. as a most nu- 

 tritious diet. The Indians also made bread of the 

 sunflower seed. 



Macocks and Cushaiv — Names for the cymbling 

 — called by the Indians of the north, squash — 

 which is an onomatapeia. 



Messarnins — Muscadine grapes. 



Chechinquamins — Chinquapins. 



In the botanical department, Beverly had met 

 with the following: 



Three sorts of cherries. 



Persimmons. 



Three sorts of mulberries. 



Two sorts of currants. 



Three sorts of hurts or huckleberrys. It seems 

 in his day they knew no such word as whortleber- 

 ry, made since to puzzle the wits of school boys. 



Cranberries — probably the same with Captain 

 Smith's rawcomens. 



Wild raspberries — probably blackberries, and 

 the wild strawberry. 



Nuts — chestnuts, chinquapins, hazel-nuts, hick- 

 ories, walnuts. 



Six species of the grape. 



The honey tree — sugar tree — the maple. The 

 Indians had made the maple sugar time out of 

 mind. 



Maycocks— maracocks — lupines. 



Myrtle-wax — out. of which were made candles 

 without grease, never melting, and exhaling a 

 fragrant incense. 



Puccoon and musquaspen roots, with which 

 the Indians painted themselves. 



Sumach and sassafras. 



Jamestown weed — "a great, cooler.'''' 



Flowers — The crown imperial — The scarlet car- 

 dinal flower — Magnolia glauca, and liriodendron 

 tulipifera. 



Of Indian corn, four sorts. 



The tuckahoe — a tuberous root growing like 

 the flag in marshes. There is a place of this 

 name in New York, and a creek in Virginia, the 

 people living east of which are termed Tuckahoes, 

 as those on the west are styled Cohees. 



The Indians had no salt but what they found in 

 ashes. They were exceeding fond of roastin<r- 

 ears. They had dried peaches. 



Perhaps our Virginians are not aware that their 

 ancestors amused themselves catching wild horses. 

 They hunted them in the uplands. Butit was unpro- 

 fitable sport — more tame horses killed, than caught 

 of the wild. 



1699. Eight hundred Huguenots settled in Mo- 

 nocan town, south side of James River, 20 miles 

 above Richmond. They attempted to tame buf- 

 faloes, by catching them young. They also made 

 a strong-bodied claret wine of wild grapes. 



Prices current in Virginia in 1703. 



from 



Beef and pork 



Poulets, 



Capons, 



Chickens, 



Ducks, 



Geese, 



Turkey hens, 



Turkey cocks, 



Deer, 



Id to 2d. 

 6 



8 to 9 



3 shillings a doz 



9 a piece. 

 1 shilling. 



18 

 20 

 lOshill. ahead. 



In the time of Beverly, oysters and wild fowl 

 were the cheapest food going — ducks so plenty, 

 that the historian, though a poor shot, killed twen- 

 ty at a bang. 



For sauces they used red buds and sassafras. 



But withal they were so lazy and good-for-no- 

 thing a pack as to send home to England for cab- 

 inets, chairs, tables, stools, chests," boxes, cart- 

 wheels, bowls, and birchen brooms. Just so their 

 lazy and good-for-nothing descendants send to the 

 north for the same articles. 



Beverly calls it a happy climate, near the same 

 latitude of the land of promise. 



Judea full of rivers: so is Virginia! 



Palestine possessed a great bay and sea: so 

 does Virginia — a fertile soil: so does Virginia. 

 And mine [author] concludes that where the Cre- 

 ator is merciful enough to work for people, they 

 never work for themselves. 



He adds that Virginia lies in the same latitude 

 with Canaan. Syria, Persia, India, China, Japan, 

 the Morea, Spain, Portugal, and the Barbary 

 Stales. But here follows the cap-sheaf of eulo- 

 gy. "If people will be persuaded to be temper- 

 ate and take due care of themselves I believe it is 

 as healthy a country as any under heaven; but 

 the extraordinary pleasantness of the weather, and 

 the goodness of the fruit, lead people into many 

 temptations. The clearness and brightness of the 

 sky, add new vigor to their spirits, and perfectly 

 remove all splenetick and sullen thoughts. Here 

 they enjoy all the benefits of a warm sun, and by 

 their shady groves are protected from its inconve- 

 nience. Here all their senses are entertained with 

 an endless succession of native pleasures. Their 

 eyes are ravished with the beauties of naked na- 

 ture. Their ears are serenaded with the perpetu- 

 al murmur of brooks and the thorough-bass which 

 the wind plays when it wantons through the 



