354 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 182 



account illustrated with engravings adapted by DeBry from White's 

 watercolors. In the second part of his report, entitled "Concerning 

 such commodities as Virginia is known to yield for food and the 

 sustenance of life, customarily eaten by the natives . . ." he lists the 

 following : 



Maize (called by the English Guinea wheat or Turkey wheat) : The inhabi- 

 tants not only use it for bread but also make food of these grains. They either 

 parch them, boiling them whole until they break, or boil the flour with water 

 into a pap. 



Beans, peas: The natives boil them in a broth, where the beans are reduced to 

 small pieces, or boil them whole until they are soft and begin to break . . . 

 These peas are either cooked by themselves or mixed with wheat. Sometimes 

 after they have been boiled whole, they are pounded in a mortar and made into 

 loaves or lumps of doughy bread. 



Hariot also mentions melons, pumpkins, gourds, and sunflower(?) 

 seeds, the latter made into a bread or broth. Various roots, among 

 them cassava, are mentioned as being eaten raw, boiled, roasted, or 

 made into puddings. Chestnuts were eaten raw, or crushed and 

 boiled, or as bread. Walnuts were eaten raw, or ground in a mortar 

 with water to make a milk, which they added as flavoring to their 

 "spoon-meat," boiled wheat, peas, beans, and pumpkins. Five kinds 

 of acorns were available; these were eaten raw, boiled, pounded into 

 loaves, crushed for oil, parched, or dried and then soaked and boiled. 

 Some of the latter were eaten with fish or meat as a substitute for 

 bread. Among the fruits were grapes, strawberries, and other kinds 

 of berries. For meat, they hunted a variety of animals : deer, rabbits, 

 bears, turkeys, geese, and other birds. Fish were trapped in weirs or 

 speared. The waters yielded crabs, oysters, and other shellfish, as well 

 as tortoises which supplied both meat and eggs. 



Later visitors to the Southeast also decribed the food of the Indians 

 and its preparation.^ Strachey noted that they gathered the com 

 while it was green and milky and roasted it ; the canes were sucked for 

 the sugar they contained. Smith described the preparation of hom- 

 iny, both the large grains and grits; others mention cornmeal mush, 

 bread, and other uses for the grain. Indeed, some 40 dishes using 

 corn were prepared, and the uses of beans, squash, and other vegetables 

 were nearly as varied. 



Wliile it is not likely that all of the above-named dishes were used 

 by the people at the Clarksville site, it is safe to assume that the diet 

 of the Indians in the Occaneechi Island area around A.D. 1500 was 

 varied and well cooked, soft and fairly starchy. In this respect the 

 historical record of the kind of food available and its preparation 

 accords well with the archeological record, and the inferences drawn 

 from the state of the teeth of these people. 



• For fuller descriptions, see Swanton, 1946, pp. 351-381. 



