SAPAEN. 
389 
seldom pass a day without it, unless they are on a journey, or 
hunting. We seldom visit an Indian lodge at any time of the 
day without seeing their sapaen preparing, or seeing them eating 
the same. It is the common food of all ; young and old eat it ; 
and they are so well accustomed to it, and fond of it, that when 
they visit our people, or each other, they consider themselves neg- 
lected unless they are treated to sapaen^ Maize seems, indeed, 
to have been the chief article of food with those Indians, at least, 
who lived upon the banks of the Hudson, or in the New Nether- 
lands. Yanderdonck, in describino- their food, does not, I believe, 
once mention the potato, at least not in the parts of his works 
which have been translated. He speaks of beans as a favorite 
vegetable of theirs, and one of the few tliey cultivated, planting 
them frequently with maize, that the tall stalk of the grain migt 
serve as a support to the vine. He observes, they had s(iveral 
kinds of beans — probably all the native varieties, of which we 
have several, were cultivated by them. Squashes he mentioned 
as peculiar to them, and called by the Dutch Quaasiens, from a 
similar Indian word. Pumpkins were also cultivated by them, 
and calabashes, or gourds, which, says he, " are the common wa- 
ter-pails of the Indians." Tobacco is also named as cultivated 
by them. But, as we have already observed, in his account of 
their field and garden produce, he says nothing of the potato, 
which is quite remarkable. The maize, on the contrary, seems to 
have been eaten at every meal : " Without sopaen,''^ he continues, 
" they do not eat a satisfactory meal. And when they have an 
opportunity they boil fish or meat with it, but seldom when the 
fish or meat is fresh — but when they have the articles dried hard 
and pounded fine. * * They also use many dry beans, which 
