446 AGRICULTURE. 



this dried corn, cracked in a stone mortar, and then boiled ; 

 when pounded into meal and sifted through a basket, to be 

 made into ash-cakes, it was caHed " Sup-paun." The warriors, 

 when on a war-path, subsisted on parched corn, which they 

 called "Nokake." Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode 

 Island, speaks of having " travelled with two hundred Indians 

 at once, nearly two hundred miles through the woods, every 

 man carrying a little basket of this at his back, sufficient for 

 one man three or four days." " With their corn," says Smith, 

 "they plant also peas they call assentamus, which are the 

 same they call in Italy fagiolia. Their beans are the same 

 the Turks call garnaness, but these they much esteem for dain- 

 ties." "In May, also, among their corn they plant pumpeons, 

 and a fruit like unto a musk-melon, but less and worse, which 

 they call macocks." These additional crops not only keep the 

 ground around the roots of the growing corn moist, but they 

 supply materials for the celebrated Indian dish called " mu-si- 

 quatush," which has been changed into succotash. This was not 

 then, however, simply composed of corn and beans, for we are 

 told, by Gordkin, that they boiled in it " fish and flesh of all 

 sorts, either new taken or dried venison, bear's flesh, beaver, 

 moose, otter, or raccoon, cut into small pieces ; Jerusalem arti- 

 chokes, ground-nuts, acorns, pumpkins, and squashes." At the 

 northwest wild rice was gathered and kept for winter use ; and 

 Barlowe, who visited North Carolina in 1584, asserted that he 

 saw there " both wheat and oats." It is not improbable that 

 oats were found growing wild there, as they are known to grow 

 wild on other portions of the continent ; but doubts may be 

 entertained as to the wheat, although he, an Englishman, should 

 have known that grain. Dr. Hawks thinks, however, that he 

 saw some variety of the triticum, and, without critical examina- 

 tion, pronounced it wheat. The sunflower was also cultivated 

 for its seeds, of which bread was made. 



"Mish-i-min," in the Algonquin tongue, signifies apple; al- 

 though it is the opinion of some learned writers that this fruit 

 was unknown among them before the arrival of the Europeans. 

 Several old printed compilations of early voyages, however, 

 reckon apples among the early native fruits ; and, unless crab- 

 stocks were found, it does not appear how the large orchards, 



