IROQUOIS USES OF MAIZE /i I 



V VARIETIES OF MAIZE USED BY THE IROQUOIS AND 

 OTHER EASTERN INDIANS 



I Varieties mentioned by historians. Few authorities agree as 

 to the varieties of Indian corn. Beverly^ mentions four " sorts " 

 among the Virginia Indians, two of which he says are early ripe and 

 two late ripe. He describes the four varieties carefully and ends by 

 saying that his description is without respect to what he calls the 

 " accidental differences in color, some being blue, some red, some 

 yellow, some white and some streaked." He continues that the real 

 difference is determined by the '" plumpness or shriveling of the 

 grain." To him the smooth early ripe corn was flint corn and the 

 " other , . . with a dent on the back of the grain . . . they call she- 

 corn." This is probably the Poketawes of the Powhatan Indians. 



In Harris's Discoveries^ is another description of corn giving the 

 variety of colors as " red, white, yellow, blue, green and black and 

 some speckled and striped but the white and yellow are most 

 common." ^ ' 



Thomas Hariot in his Brief and True Report, reports* the " divers 

 colors " as red, white, yellow and blue which in the light of the de- 

 scriptions of his contemporaries would seem to make his report true 

 but not the whole truth. 



Morgan^ is even more unsatisfactory in his descriptions and records 



^ Beverly. Virginia, p. 126. 



2 Pinkerton. Voyages and Travels, 12:242. 



s " . . . maise or Indian corn, which is not our pease in taste, but grows 

 in a great ear or head as big as the handle of a large horse whip, having 

 from three hundred to seven hundred grains in one ear, and sometimes one 

 grain produces two or three such ears or heads ; it is of various colours, 

 red, white, yellow, blue, green and black, and some speckled and striped, 

 but the white and yellow are most common ; the stalk is as thick as an 

 ordinary walking cane, and grows six or eight feet high, in joints, having 

 a sweet juice in it, of which a syrup is sometimes made, and from every 

 joint there grow long leaves in the shape of sedge leaves." Ibid. p. 242. 



* Pagatowr, a kind of grain so called by the inhabitants ; the same is 

 called mayze, Englishmen call it Guinywheat or Turkey-wheat, according to 

 the names of the countries from whence the like has been brought. The 

 grain is about the bigness of our ordinary English pease and not much 

 different in form and shape; but of divers colors, some white, some red, 

 some yellow and some blue. All of these yield a very white and sweet 

 flour being used according to his kind, it maketh a very good bread." 

 Hariot. Reprint. N. Y. 1872. p. 13-16. 



^ League of the Iroquois, p. 370. 



