76 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 43 



uated with them. So far as Piiioke-driecl little grain is conceruetl It suits us as 

 well as them." 



Cold meal {fariiie froide) is that which is liked best. If the natives find it 

 good the French relish it very well. I can say that it is a very good aliment 

 and at the same time the best that one can take on a long journey, because it 

 refreshes and is very nourishing.'' 



Du Pratz describes two sorts of canes, one, much taller than the 

 other, growing in moist places to a height of 18. to 20 feet and as 

 large as the fist. 



* * * At the end of a certain number of years [these] bear grain in abun- 

 dance. This grain, which rather resembles oats, except that it is three times 

 as thick an(J longer, is carefully gathered by the natives, who make of it bread 

 or porridge. This meal swells up as much as that of wheat.'' 



The same writer speaks of two other kinds of grain in the following 

 words : 



They also make food of two grains, of which one is called choupichoul,^ 

 which they cultivate without difficulty, and the other is the ividlogovill, which 

 grows naturally and without any cultivation. These are two kinds of millet 

 which they hull in the same way as rice.^ 



The former is referred to in another place: 



I ought not to omit here that from the lowlands of Louisiana upward the 

 river St. Louis [Mississippi] has many sand banks, which become entirely dry 

 after the waters have gone down at the end of the flood. These sand banks 

 vary in length. There are some half a league long which do not lack a good 

 breadth. I have seen the Natchez and other natives sow a grain which they 

 called choupichoul on these sand banks. This sand is never cultivated and the 

 women and children cover the grain, with a great deal of indifference, with their 

 feet, almost without looking at it. After this sowing and this kind of culti- 

 vation they wait until autumn and then gather a great quantity of this grain. 

 They prepare it like millet and it is very good eating. This plant is that which 

 is called "beautiful savage lady"'' and which grows in all countries, but it 

 needs a good soil, and however good is the quality of any European soil it 

 there reaches a height of only 1^ feet, while on this river sand without culti- 

 vation it reaches a height of 3* or 4 feet.^ 



When these grains fail them they have recourse to potatoes which they find 

 in the woods, but it is only when necessity compels them, .lust as when they 

 eat chestnuts.'' 



Although the l)eans and pumpkins described by Du Pratz were 

 those native to the coimtry, he docs not state definitely that the 

 natives cultivated them, though this was certainly the case with 

 pumpkins. 



"Du I'ratz, Hist, de La Louisiane, in, 34r)-.346. 



frlbid., 346. 



" Ibid., II, 58-50. 



<" Perliaps cockspur grass {Echinochloa crusf/alli). 



" Du Pratz, Hist, de La Louisiane, in. 0. Pi-obabl.v wild rice or water millet. 



' Belle dame sauvage. 



» Dn Pratz, Hist, de La Louisiane, i, ,'?16-317. 



"Ibid., Ill, 9-10. 



