Faull: Pineapple Fungus 



269 



a tree on which pineapples, that is, cones grew). The French 

 designation employs the word " enfant " in quite an ordinary 

 sense, but its non-inclusion of other fungus growths on the pine 

 indicates the special attention paid to this one. The Ojibway 

 name " wabadou is quite plainly a combination of the Indian 

 " wab " which means white and " amadou,"^ a French word for 

 the tinder formerly made in Europe from the context of Foines 

 fomentarius and other bracket fungi, and still current among the 

 French-Canadians for *'punk." This derivation is all the more 

 understandable when it is pointed out that all other fungus 

 growths on trees without distinction are called " anadou by 

 these Indians, — evidently a slightly corrupted form of amadou " 

 and an easy transition in application from tinder to the source of 

 the tinder. To the Ojibways then the fruiting body of Fomes 

 officinalis is simply ''wabadou,"^ contraction of wabaniidou, that 

 is white tinder fungus. It is interesting that the vocabulary of 

 the Ojibways north of Lake Nipissing includes no names for any 

 other species of fungi ; so far as I could learn not one of the 

 many species of mushrooms which in season abound in the forest 

 is used by these Indians as food, and so there has been no occa- 

 sion for enlarging their mycological nomenclature. 



That the Indians have a special name for Fomes officinalis is 

 good evidence of a long-standing use of this fungus aside alto- 

 gether from certain superstitions held with regard to it, but this 

 evidence is not sufficient proof that they knew of it prior to the 

 coming of the Europeans, especially as the Indian name is evi- 

 dently based on the French " amadou." The Georgian Bay coun- 

 try and eastward was much travelled over by French Jesuits, fur 



3 " Amadou " is of disputed origin. The most probable explanation is 

 that it is derived from " amadouer " (Provengal) meaning to wheedle or coax 

 (quite appropriately applied to a substance especially used for coaxing fire 

 into being), 



4 In the closely related Cree language the names for " amadou " according 

 to LaCombe are " pusagan," and " kutawagan." 



5 Through Mr. F. W. Waugh, I learn that there is an Ojibway word 

 " wabado " meaning rhubarb — I presume the root of the medicinal Turkish 

 rhubarb. As there is a similarity in taste and use of rhubarb and wabadou, 

 it may be reasonably assumed that the term as applied to rhubarb is a bor- 

 rowed one. 



