KALM'S   TRAVELS   IN  NORTH  AMERICA.                                   £2,2
old Swedes were yet alive, who in their younger years had an intercourfe with
the Indians, and had feen the minutiae of their oeconomy. I was therefore defirous
of knowing which of the fpontaneous herbs they made ufe of for food at that
time ; and all the old men agreed that the following plants were what they chiefly
confumed.
Hopnifs or hapnifs was the Indian name of a wild plant which they ate at that time-
The Swedes ftill call it by that name, and it grows in the meadows in a good foil. The
roots refemble potatoes, and were boiled by the Indians, who eat them inftead of
bread. Some of the Swedes at that time likewife ate this root for want of bread.
Some of the Englifh ftill eat them inftead of potatoes. Mr. Bartram told me, that
the Indians who live farther in the country do dot only eat thefe roots, which are
equal in goodnefs to potatoes, but likewife take the peafe which lie in the pods of
this plant, and prepare them like common peafe. Dr. Linnaeus calls the plant
glycine apios.
Katnifs is another Indian name of a plant, the root of which they were likewife*
accuftomed to eat, when they lived here. The Swedes ftill preferve this name. It
grows in low, muddy, and very wet ground. The root is oblong, commonly an inch
and an half long, and one inch and a quarter broad in the middle ; but fome of the
roots have been as big as a man's fills. The Indians either boiled this root or roafted
it in hot afhes. Some of the Swedes likewife eat them with much appetite, at the time
when the Indians were fo near the coaft ; but at prefent none of them make any ufe
of the roots. A man of ninety-one years of age, called Nils Guftafson, told me, that
he had often eaten thefe roots when he was a boy, and that he liked them very well at
that time. He added, that the Indians, efpecially their Women, travelled to the ifland?,,
dug out the roots, and brought them home ; and whilft they had them, they defired
no other food. They faid that the hogs, which are amazingly greedy of them, have
made them very fcarce. The cattle are very fond of its leaves. ' I afterwards got
fome of thefe roots roafted, and in my opinion they tafted well, though they were
rather dry : the tafte was nearly the fame with that of the potatoes. When the Indians
come down to the coaft and fee the turnips of the Europeans, they likewife give them
the name of katnifs. Their katnifs is in an arrow-head or fagittaria, and is only a
variety of the Swedifh arrow-head or fagittaria fagittifolia, for the plant above the
ground is entirely the fame, but the root under ground is much greater in the American
than in the European. Mr. Ofbeck in his voyage to China, mentions that the Chinefe
plant a fagittaria, and eat its roots. This feems undoubtedly to be a variety of this-
kitnafs. Further in the north of this part of America, I met with the other fpecies of
fagittaria which we have in Sweden.
Taw-ho and taw-him was the Indian name of another plant, the root of which they,
eat. Some of them likewife call it tuckah ; but moft of the Swedes ftill knew it by
the name of taw-ho. It grows in moift ground and fwamps. Hogs are very greedy
of the roots, and grow very fat by feeding on them. Therefore, they often vifit the
places where thefe roots grow ; and they are frequently feen rooting up the mud, and
falling with their whole body into the water, fo that only a little of the back part was
out of the water. It is therefore very plain that thefe roots muft have been extirpated
in places which are frequented by hogs. The roots often grow to the thicknefs of a
man's thigh. When they are frefh they have a pungent tafte, and are reckoned a
poifon in that frefh ftate. Nor did the Indians ever venture to eat them raw, but pre-
pared them in the following manner -. They gathered a great heap of thefe roots, dug
a great"