They are toasted, a great many of them, wth oke leaves and ferns, and then cover all wiih 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 dry-ed in the sunne mixed with sorrel and greens, or such Uke -- it will prickle and torment the throat, extraordinary; and yet in summer, they use this commonly for bread."<^

R. Beverly, in his History of Virginia, pubhshed A. D. 1722, calls it Tuckahoe J>

"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 wld roots ; of these they had tawho, [arum virginicum,]

a Travels and .^ilvoaturL'a of Capt. John Smith, p. 121.'. h Beverlj'd llisr, of Vlrijiuia, p.-153.

656 HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER.

and tawkee, [orantium aquaticum.] These roots grew in low damp grounds, were a kind of potatoes to them, and were divested of their poisonous or injurious quahty by roasting."'^ The Mohegan term for bread is Tauquah.^

These names evidently point to one and the same plant, which still flourishes along the moist margins of the Tuckahoe creek. This stream rises on the lands of John Tompkins, and waters the western side of the ridge. Pursuing a south course, it discharges into the Armonperahin, near where the latter forms a junction with the Bronx.