134 THE OLD ENGLISH HERBALS 



Boston. There he remained about eight years, making it 

 his business to collect all the information he could about plants 

 that interested him. Even as late as 1663 the country was 

 very imperfectly explored, for he gravely informs the reader 

 that he cannot say whether New England is an island or not. 

 He is not very sure whether even America is an island, but is 

 confident that the Indians are closely allied to the Tartars. 



But to turn to the subject-matter of the book. First we 

 have a careful list of plants which the author found and which 

 were common in England also, and — what is quite delightful — 

 notes on the uses made of these plants by the Red Indians. 

 For instance, they used white hellebore to cure their wounds, 

 and John Josselyn tells us exactly how. They first rubbed 

 racoon's grease or wild cat's grease on the wounds and then 

 strewed the dried and powdered root on to it. They also applied 

 the powdered root for toothache. Under the yellow-flowered 

 water-hly we find a note to the effect that the Indians used 

 the roots for food, and Josselyn seems to have tried them him- 

 self, for he says that they taste of sheep's hver. " The Moose 

 Deer," he says, " feed much on them and the Indians choose 

 this time when their heads are under water to kiU them." From 

 acorns the Indians made the oil with which they rubbed them- 

 selves. This was prepared by burning rotten maple wood to 

 ashes and then boiling acorns with these ashes till the oil floated 

 on the top. Of American walnuts and violets he had apparently 

 a poor opinion, for he describes the walnuts as being not much 

 bigger than a nutmeg and " but thinly replenished with kernels," 

 and the violets as inferior to the English " Blew Violet." The 

 most interesting of the recipes is that for the beer which he used 

 to brew for Indians who came to him when they had bad colds. 

 New Englanders who still possess treasured old housewives' 

 books will probably find they have recipes for the same kind 

 of beer ; for it is typical of that commonly made in England in 

 the seventeenth century and is strangely flavoured with elecam- 

 pane, liquorice, sassafras, aniseed, and fennel seed. Then follows 



