102 
Baftard Calamus Aromaticus, agrees with the defcrip- 
tion, but is not barren ; they flower in July, and grow in 
wet places, as about the brinks of Ponds. 1 
To keep the Feet warm. 
The EngliJJi make ufe of the Leaves to keep their Feet 
warm. There is a little Beaft called a MuJkqtiaJJi y that 
liveth in fmall Houfes in the Ponds, like Mole Hills, that 
feed upon thele Plants. Their Cods fent as fweet and as 
ftrong as Musk, and will laft along time handfomly 
wrap'd up in Cotton wool; they are very good to lay 
amongfl; Cloaths. May is the belt [54] time to kill them, 
for then their Cods fent ftrongeft. 
thirteen gallons of corne, hee hath had encrease of it 52 hogsheads; every hogs- 
head holding seven bushels, of London measure : and every bushell was by him 
sold and trusted to the Indians for so much beaver as was worth 18 shillings. 
And so, of this 13 gallons of corne, which was worth 6 shillings 8 pence, he made 
about 327 pounds of it the yeere following, as by reckoning will appeare ; where 
you may see how God blessed husbandry in this land. There is not such greate 
and plentifull eares of corne, I suppose, any where else to bee found but in this 
countrey; because, also of varietie of colours, — as red, blew, and yellow, &c. : 
and of one corne there springeth four or five hundred." Roger Williams (Key, 
/. c, pp. 208, 221) has some interesting particulars of the Indian use of their corn. 
According to him, the Indian msickquatash (that is succotash, as we call it now) 
was "boiled corn whole," and " nazvsaump, a kind of meal pottage unparched. 
From this the English call their samp; which is the Indian corn beaten and 
boiled, and eaten, hot or cold; with milk or butter, — which are mercies beyond 
the natives' plain water, and which is a dish exceeding wholesome for the Eng- 
lish bodies. 
1 Acorus Calamus, L. ; common to Europe and America. In his Voyages, p. 
77, the author drops properly, in mentioning this, the injurious prefix. It seems 
that our New-England forefathers used the leaves to cover their cold floors, as 
thev had used rushes at home; and, according to Sir W. J. Hooker (Br. Fl., vol. 
i. p. 159), the pleasant smell of the plant has recommended it, in like manner, 
"for strewing on the floor of the cathedral at Norwich, on festival days." 
