A Pre-Columbian Dinner 165 



the lotus, were used as food. Not about 

 these meadows, but elsewhere in New Jersey, 

 this plant has been growing luxuriantly since 

 Indian times. 



Turning now to the consideration of what 

 animal food they consumed, one can speak 

 with absolute certainty. It is clear that the 

 Delawares were meat-eaters. It needs but 

 little digging on any village site to prove this, 

 and from a single fireplace deep down in the 

 stiff soil of this sinking meadow have been 

 taken bones of the elk, deer, bear, beaver, 

 raccoon, musk-rat, and gray squirrel. Of 

 these, the remains of deer were largely in ex- 

 cess, and as this holds good of every village 

 site I have examined, doubtless the Indians 

 depended more largely upon this animal than 

 upon all the others. Of the list, only the 

 elk is extincl: in the Delaware Valley, and 

 it was probably rare even at the time of the 

 European settlement of the country, except 

 in the mountain regions. If individual tastes 

 varied as they do among us, we have certainly 

 sufficient variety here to have met every fancy. 



With a food supply as varied as this, an 

 ordinary meal or an extraordinary feast can 

 readily be recalled, so far as its essential feat- 



