The name Tuckahoe, means in the Algonquin, " The Bread," literally, Tuckah, (bread) the o, oe, or ong, being merely an objective sign relating to the plant itself.

The celebrated Captain Smith, in his travels and adventures, tells us, " that the chief root the Indians of Virginia have for food, is called Tockawhoughe. It groweth like flagge in marshes. In one day a salvage will gather sufficient for a weeke. These roots are much of the greatness and taste of potatoes. They are toasted a great many of them, with oke leaves and feraSj

492 HISTORY OF THE

and then cover all with earth in the manner of a cole pit ; over it on each side, they continue a great fire twenty-four hours before they dare eat it. Raw it is no better than poyson, and being roasted, except it be tender, and the heat abated, or sliced and dryed in the sunne mixed with sorrel and greens, or such like, it will prickle and torment the throat, extraordinary, and yet in summer, they use this commonly forbread."a

R. Beverly, in his History of Virginia, published A. D. 1722, calls it Tuckahoe.^

Respecting the frequent diet of the Indians in general, (says John F. Watson,) we may say that besides their usual plantations of corn, they often used wild roots ; of these they had tawho, (arum virginicum,) and tawkee, (orantinm aquaticum.) These roots grew in low damp grounds, were a kind of potatoes to them, and were divested of their poisonous or injurious quality by roasting.c The Mohegan term for bread is Tauquah.^