Evening star., 1920-11-21
INDIANS TAUGHT PILGRIM FATHERS HOW
TO PREPARE THE THANKSGIVING DINNER

When one remembers the monoto-
nous and limited diet OF the English
middle class today, and substracts
tions, as well as the addition made by
a wider trade and tho possibilities Of
cold storage, one can easily see that
the diet of the Pilgrim fathers, though
occasionally short during the first ten
or dozen years. was Immensely
more varied and richer in energizing
elements.
Though they had left behind them
the roast beef Of old England. and
could not for some time supply them
selves with bacon, venison. and bear
meat were not bad substitutes. Tur-
key and wild fowl took the place OF
barnyard poultry, and the nsh of
American waters were supplemented
by several varieties Of sheflfish un-
known before, or, IL known, not ac-
cessible to the common people az
articles Of diet. To the hazel nut and
walnut, neither of which had been
die class, were added the hickory nut
and butternut, and in the southern
colonies the fat peanut. Chestnuts
were more common then than now,
since their fine hard wood mas been
cleared out Of the native forests by
the timber grabber.
wild plums, wild apples and wild
grapes could be dried as a substitute
for the raisin and "currant" Of the
English cook books. 1t must have
been, indeed, the case with which so
many agreeable things were compen-
sated for out of the new dietary that
first suggested the invention Of the
Connecticut variety of nutmeg.
Always, of course, among the recog-
nizable. medicinal herbs of the new
country, there must have been addi-
tions from the herbal lore of the In
dams, exchanges and experiments il
the new pharmacopoeia over the
cradle Of many an ailing child. It is.
as I said, through the women that
these things come. for no Puritan
mother was likely to be stopped from
possible relief for her sick baby be-
cause tn other mother who suggested
1t had feathers in her hair. Tears
spring to my eyes still when recall
how my own baby, being slow to talk,
my Piute neighbor presented me one
day with what looked like half q
dozen desiccated angleworms. which
turned out to be dried meadow lark's
tongues, which her husband had pro-
cured for her with great pains, soy
ereign remedy for the slow of speech.
One has to believe that commerce Of
such kind went on between the early
women in the intervals when their
men folks were fighting one another.
At any rate, there is evidence enough
to make of the suggestion that the
absorbed Indian culture facilitated
our root-taking in the new soil by
couple Of hundred years q very con-
servative estimate indeed. So that 1t
becomes us when the clam broth and
the turkey stuffed with chestnats. the
cranberry sauce. the celery, the sue
cotash ana sweet potatoes are pol
ished on; when the pumpkin pie and
the Indian pudding with maple sirup
are safely slowed: when the children
are busy with the hickory nuts and
the popcorn, and you yourself sit back
with that first, best gift of the early
American, the soul consolfng pipe
it becomes US. I say, to blaw saluta-
tory smoke to the shades of the
aborigiues, and to hope that in the
happy hunting ground of the departed
ali bitterness toward their usurpers
has passed away.
CCsUsritht. 1870,