SWANToM 1N|)IA.N linRKS OF TIIH T.OWKR MISSISSIPPI VALLKV 77 



Bt'iins. red, l>l;ul;. ami of otlicr cdlui-s. Iimnc liccii I'diiiul in lliis foiiiitry and 

 they have boon iiaiiUHl " forty-day licaiis." because (hey need only that time to 

 prow and be flood to eat j^reen." 



The {/iroDKiiifi are vaiieties of i>umpkins. There are two sorts. The one 

 is round and the other in the shape of corps do cltaxsc. These last are the 

 better, having tiruier flesh of a less insipid sweetness, containing fewer seeds, 

 and keeping much better than the other. These are the ones of which preserves 

 are made. For this i)urpose they are shaped like pears or other fruits and 

 preserveil thus with very little sugar, because they are naturally sweet. Those 

 who are unacquainted with them are surprised to see entire fruits preserved 

 without finding any seed inside. The yiroinons are not only eaten preserved; 

 they are also put into soups. Fritters (bifiiicts) are made of them, they are 

 fricasseed, they are cooked in the oven and under the embers, and in all ways 

 they are good and plea sing. ^ 



Another vegetable cultivated bv them was the watermelon. 

 Dii Pratz speaks thus of native fruits: 



When it [the persimmon] is well ripened the natives make bread of it, which 

 keeps from one year to another, and the virtue of this bread, greater than that 

 of fruit, is such that there is no diarrhea or dysentery which it does not arrest, 

 but one ought to use it with prudence and only after being purged. In order 

 to make this bread the natives scrape the fruit in very open sieves to separate 

 the flesh from the skin and seeds. From this flesh, which is like thick por- 

 ridge, and from the pulf) they make loaves of bread lA feet long, 1 foot broad, 

 and of the thickness of the finger, which they put to dry in the oven on a grill 

 or, indeed, in the sun. In this latter fashion the bread pi-eserves more of its 

 taste. It is one of the merchandises which they sell to the French.^ 



The natives had doubtless obtained from the English colony of Carolina the 

 peaches and the fig-trees which they had when the French established them- 

 selves in Louisiana. 



The peaches are those which we call clingstones (albcrgcs). They are as large 

 as the fist, do not leave the stone, and have such an abundant juice that a 

 kind of wine is made of it. The figs are either violet or white, large, and of 

 very good taste.*^ 



The occasional employment of chestnuts as food has been referred 

 to above. ^ Of the black walnut Du Pratz saj's: 



The meat is enveloped in such a hard shell that, although its taste is very 

 good, the difficulty of extracting it makes one lose the desire to do so. How- 

 ever, the natives make bread of it.^ 



Another food of peculiar character is thus described: 



One [of two excrescences on trees] is a kind of agaric or mushroom which 

 grows at the foot of the walnut, especially when it is overthrown. The natives, 

 who pay great attention to the choice of their nourishment, gather these with 

 care, have them boiled in water, and eat them with their grits. I have had the 

 curiosity to taste of these, and I have found them very delicate but a little flat, 

 which could be easily corrected by means of some seasoning.^ 



«Du Pratz, Hist, de La Louisiane, ir, 8-9. 'P. 76. 



*Ibicl., 11. f Dn Pratz, Hist, de La Louisiaoe, ii, 25. 



"Ibid., 18-19. fflbid., 51. 



<'Ibid., 20. 



