SWANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 277 



1901, p. 314), there can be no doubt that trees were tapped in the 

 western parts of Virginia and the Carolinas. Failure of many 

 early writers to mention this industry is probably because their 

 acquaintance began with the tidewater people, among whom the 

 tree was absent. 



Nearly all Virginia writers speak of the use of chestnuts, wal- 

 nuts, hickory nuts, chinquapins, and acorns as food. Smith says 

 of the last-mentioned : 



The Acornes of one kind, whose barke is more white then the other, is some- 

 what sweetish; which being boyled halfe a day in severall waters, at last 

 afford a sweete oyle, which they keep in goards to annoint their heads and 

 joints. The fruit they eate, made in bread or otherwise. (Smith, Tyler ed., 

 1907, p. 90.) 



Among animal foods, the deer and bear are constantly noted. 

 Beverley adds the elk and bison, and it is evident that the last-men- 

 tioned animal formerly ranged well into the present State of Vir- 

 ginia, though its importance there can never have been very great 

 (Beverley, 1705, bk. 2, p. 37). The rabbit, squirrel, beaver, and otter 

 are mentioned by various writers, and it may be inferred that the last 

 two are the two small animals noted by Hariot (1893, p. 30) under 

 their native names. 



Fowl appear collectively as part of the menu, the only bird or- 

 dinarily distinguished from the rest being the wild turkey, though 

 Smith speaks of the partridge. (For a number of Powhatan bird 

 names see S wanton, 1934.) Among fish we hear most of sturgeon 

 and herring. To these must be added oysters, mussels, crabs, and 

 tortoises, a green snake mentioned by Strachey and Beverley, and 

 beetles and locusts, the last two noted only by Beverley. Strachey 

 (1849, p. 127) distinguishes carefully between the common crab and 

 the king crab and says that the latter was rarely eaten. 



What Lawson has to say on the subject of Indian foods will ap- 

 ply to most of the Siouan tribes of the Carolinas, the Tuscarora, 

 and one or two bands of the coastal Algonquians, though his infor- 

 mation was derived principally from the first-mentioned: 



As to the Indians' food, it is of several sorts, which are as follows : Venison, and 

 the fawns in the bags, cut out of the doe's belly ; fish of all sorts, the lamprey eel 

 excepted, and the sturgeon, our salt water Indians will not touch ; bear, and bever, 

 panther, polecat," wild cat, possum, raccoon, hares, and squirrels, roasted with 

 their guts in ; snakes, all Indians will not eat them, though some do ; all wild 

 fruits, that are palatable, some of which they dry and keep against winter, as all 

 sorts of fruits, and peaches, which they dry and make quiddonies and cakes, that 

 are very pleasant, and a little tartish ; young wasps, when they are white in the 

 combs, before they can fly, this is esteemed a dainty; all sorts of tortois and 



^ Regarding the polecat, "The Indians love to eat their flesh which has no manner of 

 ill smell when the bladder is out. I know no use their furs are put to." (Lawson. 1860. 

 p. 197.) 



