Note 215 — {41} Fifthly, Of Plants.

“Attitaash (whortleberries), of which there are divers sorts; sweet, like currants; some opening, some of a binding nature. Sautaash are these currants dried by the natives, and so preserved all the year; which they beat to powder, and mingle it with their parched meal, and make a delicate dish which they call sautauthig, which is as sweet to them as plum or spice cake to the English.”—R. Williams, Key, &c., l. c., p. 221. The fruitful and wholesome American whortleberries, or bilberries, were, it is likely, a very pleasant discovery to our forefathers. It was, no doubt, those species that we call blueberries which they made most of, and particularly the low blueberry (Vaccinium Pennsylvanicum, Lam.) and the swamp-blueberry (V. corymbosum, L.). From these the common black whortleberry (Gaylussacia resinosa, Torr. and Gray) differs no less in quality than in structure. Sa’té (compare sautaash, above), in Rasles Dict. of the Abnaki Language, l. c., p. 450, is rendered “frais, sans etre secs; lorsq’ils s’t secs, sikisa’tar.”