ne, suppawn, samp, succotash.

The Indian method of preparing maize or corn was to steep or parboil it
in hot water for twelve hours, then to pound the grain in a mortar or a
hollowed stone in the field, till it was a coarse meal. It was then
sifted in a rather closely woven basket, and the large grains which did
not pass through the sieve were again pounded and sifted.

Samp was often pounded in olden times in a primitive and picturesque
Indian mortar made of a hollowed block of wood or a stump of a tree,
which had been cut off about three feet from the ground. The pestle was
a heavy block of wood shaped like the inside of the mortar, and fitted
with a handle attached to one side. This block was fastened to the top
of a young and slender tree, a growing sapling, which was bent over and
thus gave a sort of spring which pulled the pestle up after being
pounded down on the corn. This was called a sweep and mortar mill.

They could be heard at a long distance. Two New Hampshire pioneers made
clearings about a quarter of a mile apart and built houses. There was an
impenetrable gully and thick woods between the cabins; and the blazed
path was a long distance around, so the wives of the settlers seldom saw
each other or any other woman. It was a source of great comfort and
companionship to them both that they could signal to each other every
day by pounding on their mortars. And they had an ingenious system of
communication which one spring morning summoned one to the home of the
other, where she arrived in time to be the first to welcome fine twin
babies.

After these simple stump and sapling mortars were abandoned elsewhere
they were used on Long Island, and it was jestingly told that sailors
in a fog could always know on what shore they were, when they could hear
the pounding of the samp-mortars on Long Island.

Rude hand-mills next were used, which were called quernes, or quarnes.
Some are still in existence and known as samp-mills. Windmills followed,
of which the Indians were much afraid, dreading "their long arms and
great teeth biting the corn in pieces"; and thinking some evil spirit
turned the arms. As soon as maize was plentiful, English mills for
grinding meal were started in many towns. There was a windmill at
Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1631. In 1633 the first water-mill, at
Dorchester, was built, and in Ipswich a grist-mill was built in 1635.
The mill built by Governor John Winthrop in New London is still