NO.    4       INDIAN    SITES    ON    THE    RAPPAHANNOCK BUSHNELL  5 
of  oystering,  ffishing  and  gathering  tuckahoe/  cuttyemnions  ^"  or  other  wild 
fruites  by  which  they  were  wonted  for  a  greate  parte  of  the  yeare  to  sub- 
sist, Be  it  therefore  granted,  enacted  and  confirmed  that  the  said  Indians  upon 
°  Smith  wrote  in  1612,  when  referring  to  the  food  of  the  Virginia  Indians 
with  whom  he  had  come  in  contact  (op.  cit.,  p.  58)  :  "  The  chiefe  roote  they 
have  for  foode  is  called  Tockazvhoughe.  It  groweth  like  a  flagge  in  low  muddy 
freshes.  In  one  day  a  Savage  will  gather  sufficient  for  a  weeke.  These  rootes 
are  much  of  a  greatnes  and  taste  of  Potatoes.  They  use  to  cover  a  great  many 
of  them  with  oke  leaves  and  feme,  and  then  cover  all  with  earth  in  the  man- 
ner of  a  colepit ;  over  it,  on  each  side,  they  continue  a  great  fire  24  houres 
before  they  dare  eat  it.  Raw  it  is  no  better  then  poison,  and  being  roasted, 
except  it  be  tender  and  the  heat  abated,  or  sliced  and  dried  in  the  sun,  mixed 
with  sorrell  and  meale  or  such  like,  it  will  prickle  and  torment  the  throat 
extreamely,  and  yet  in  summer  they  use  this  ordinarily  for  bread."  This  was 
undoubtedly  the  same  plant  that  was  gathered  by  the  Indians  a  generation 
later,  and  to  which  reference  was  made  in  the  Act  just  quoted.  But  it  is  evi- 
dent that  in  later  years  many,  if  not  all,  edible  roots  became  known  as  tuckahoe 
to  the  English  colonists,  although  they  may  never  have  been  known  as  such  to 
the  Indians. 
A  century  later,  in  1749,  Peter  Kalm  (Travels  into  North  America,  second 
edition,  London,  1772)  mentioned  several  plants  to  which  the  name  tuckahoe 
was  then  applied.  He  wrote  (pp.  387-388)  :  "  Taiu-ho  and  Taw-him  was  the 
Indian  name  of  another  plant,  the  root  of  which  they  eat.  Some  of  them  like- 
wise call  it  Tiickah;  but  most  of  the  Swedes  still  knew  it  by  the  name  Taur-ho. 
It  grows  in  moist  ground  and  swamps  .  .  .  Nor  did  the  Indians  ever  venture 
to  eat  them  raw,  but  prepared  them  in  the  following  manner :  They  gathered  a 
great  heap  of  these  roots,  dug  a  great  long  hole,  sometimes  two  or  three  fathoms 
and  upwards  in  length,  into  which  they  put  the  roots,  and  covered  them  with 
the  earth  that  had  been  taken  out  of  the  hole ;  they  made  a  great  fire  above  it, 
which  burnt  till  they  thought  proper  to  remove  it ;  and  then  they  dug  up  the  roots, 
and  consumed  them  with  great  avidity.  These  roots,  when  prepared  in  this 
manner,  I  am  told,  taste  like  potatoes.  The  Indians  never  dry  and  preserve 
them ;  but  always  take  them  fresh  out  of  the  marshes  when  they  want  them. 
This  Taw-ho  is  the  Anim  Virgiiiicuni,  or  Virginian  Wake-robin." 
The  following  note  by  Dr.  Frederick  V.  Coville  tends  to  identify  the  plant 
first  called  Tockawhoughe  by  the  Virginia  colonists :  "  Peltandra  virginica. 
The  old  Indian  name,  tuckahoe,  appears  never  to  have  been  adopted  by  botanists 
as  the  common  name  of  this  important  Indian  food  plant.  It  has  been  called 
Virginia  wakerobin  because  of  its  close  relationship  to  Arum  maculatum,  the 
wakerobin  of  England.  It  has  also  been  called  by  botanists  arrow-arum,  be- 
cause of  its  arrow-shaped  leaves."  Dr.  Coville  was  convinced  of  the  correct- 
ness of  the  conclusion,  but  desired  to  determine  for  his  own  satisfaction  the 
edibility  of  the  roots  before  the  statement  should  appear  in  print.  In  the  endeavor 
to  collect  roots  of  the  plant,  Peltandra  virginica,  we  visited  Hunting  Creek,  on 
the  Virginia  side  of  the  Potomac  just  below  Alexandria,  Dec.  29,  1936,  but 
were  unsuccessful  as  the  leaves  had  disappeared  because  of  the  lateness  of  the 
season,  and  the  roots  could  not  be  identified.  Dr.  Coville  was  taken  ill  a  few 
days  later  and  died  on  Jan.  9,  1937,  and  thus  the  work  remained  unfinished. 
°'  The  wild  fruit  to  which  the  name  cuttyemnions  was  applied  has  not  been 
identified,  but  the  etymology  of  the  word  has  been  determined  by  John  P.  Har- 
