Note 71 — {23} Thirdly, Of Fishes.[62]

The clam is one of the eight fishes mentioned at p. 37 as most prized by the Indians. “Sickishuog (clams). This is a sweet kind of shell-fish, which all Indians generally over the country, winter and summer, delight in; and, at low water, the women dig for them. This fish, and the natural liquor of it, they boil; and it makes their broth and their nasaump (which is a kind of thickened broth) and their bread seasonable and savoury, instead of salt.”—Williams’s Key, &c., l. c. p. 224. “These fishes be in great plenty in most parts of the country: which is a great commodity for the feeding of swine, both in winter and summer; for, being once used to those places, they will repair to them as duly, every ebb, as if they were driven to them by keepers.”—Wood, N. Eng. Prospect, l. c. The mollusk thus approved is the common clam (Mya arenaria, L.); but the poquauhock, or quahog (Venus mercenaria, L.), “which the Indians wade deep and dive for” (R. Williams, l. c., p. 224), was also eaten by them, and the black part of the shell used for making their suckauhock, or black money. Wood speaks also of “clams as big as a penny white loaf, which are great dainties amongst the natives” (N. E. Prospect, l. c.); doubtless the giant clam (Mactra solidissima, Chemn.) of Gould (Report on Invertebr. of Mass., p. 51), which is still esteemed as food.