290 BUEEAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



the stalk ; it bears only one leaf, that always floats on the surface of the water, 

 and affords plenty of cooling small nuts, which make a sweet-tasted and 

 favourite bread, when mixed with Indian corn flour. It is a sort of marsh- 

 mallows, and reckoned a speedy cure for burning maladies, either outward or 

 inward, — for the former, by an outward application of the leaf; and for the 

 latter, by a decoction of it drank plentifully. The Choktah so highly esteem 

 this vegetable, that they call one of their head- towns by its name. (Adair, 

 1775, p. 418.) 



I have been unable as yet to identify the town thus mentioned, 

 the only plants aside from trees that appear in Choctaw town names 

 being the cane (used several times), blackberry, mulberry, sassafras, 

 wild onion, and grass. We may feel sure that this was used by the 

 Creeks also and by all other Southeastern Indians within whose 

 borders it was found in any quantity. 



They hunted the deer, bison, elk, bear, turkey, duck, goose, and 

 pigeon, and many small animals, especially squirrels. Adair, inter- 

 ested in establishing a series of food restrictions which would bear 

 out his theory of an Israeli tish origin for the Indians, says that, in 

 ancient times, they would not eat the beaver or opossum, and in later 

 times they would not touch eagles, ravens, crows, bats, owls, flies, 

 mosquitoes, worms, wolves, panthers, foxes, cats, mice, rats, moles, 

 snakes, or horses, though the Choctaw ate the two last mentioned. In 

 general the Chickasaw would touch no birds of prey or birds of 

 night,^® no beast of prey except the bear, and no aquatic animals 

 including frogs. According to the same writer, they would not swal- 

 low flies, mosquitoes, or gnats lest they breed sickness or worms 

 (Adair, 1775, p. 131). 



For the tribes of the Mississippi itself, our information derived 

 from the Natchez is most extensive. Dumont de Montigny (1753, 

 vol. 1, pp. 32-34) speaks of two kinds of corn; but Du Pratz of 

 several, describing three specifically : 



Louisiana produces many kinds of maize, such as the flour maize which is 

 white, flat, and corrugated, but more tender than the other kinds ; and the 

 gruel or grits maize which is round, hard, and glossy. Of this latter kind 

 there is white, yellow, red, and blue. The maize of these two last colors is 

 more common in the highlands than in lower Louisiana. We have besides, the 

 little grain or little maize, so named because it is smaller than the others. (Le 

 Page du Pratz, 1758, vol. 2, p. 3.) 



The same writer tells us that beans were found in cultivation along 

 the Mississippi, some varieties of which were red, some black, and 

 some of other colors, and he says that they were called "forty-day 

 beans" because they were ready to eat within 40 days from the time 

 when the seed was planted. He mentions two kinds of pumpkins 

 (giromons) . 



"An old Chickasaw woman once refused to dress a hawk Adair (1776, p. 137) had 

 killed, but see page 289 for a reference to the eating of a hawk by the Choctaw. 



