PARADISE KEY SAFFORD. 429 



to them, even stealing a bag of them for provisions on starting out 

 for the north, and deploring the loss of a small quantity which was 

 accidentally burned at night. Large supplies of palmetto berries 

 were paid as tribute to the " King, or young Cassekey," of a town 

 near the present site of Palm Beach, by the Indians of Santa Lucia, 

 who were his vassals. On reaching St. Augustine, Dickenson says, 

 his palate had become so changed by a diet of these berries that he 

 could not endure the taste of salt. 



The Indians were very fond of cassine (an infusion of Ilex vomi- 

 toria) , which they used not only ceremonially, but also as a refresh- 

 ing beverage. This plant (pi. 59) does not grow in southern 

 Florida. Dickenson describes the joy with which the Indians re- 

 ceived from the north a supply of its leaves, together with some vege- 

 table product which they used as a tobacco substitute. Of tobacco 

 they were immoderately fond. The Spanish officials in Florida, like 

 those on the island of Guam in early days, used tobacco leaves in 

 paying the Indians for supplies and for labor. At the time of 

 which Dickenson wrote, the use of Ilex vomitoria tea was as common 

 among the Spaniards of Florida as that of Ilex paraguarlensis 

 among the colonists of Paraguay and Uruguay. Like the latter it 

 contains caffeine and is a pleasant stimulant. When very strong 

 and taken immoderately it acts as an emetic. 



From an ethnological point of view Dickenson's description of a 

 ceremony accompanied by drinking cassine is the most interesting 

 part of his narrative. His account follows : 



The Indians were seated as aforesaid, the Cassekey at the upper end Ox 

 them, and the range of cabins was filled with men, women and children, be- 

 holding us. At length we heard a woman or two cry, according to their man- 

 ner, and that very sorrowfully, one of which I took to be the Cassekey's wife ; 

 which occasioned some of us to think that something extraordinary was to be 

 done to us ; we also heard a strange sort of a noise, which was not like the 

 noise made by a man, but we could not understand what, nor where it was ; 

 for sometimes it sounded to be in one part of the house, sometimes in another, 

 to which we had an ear. And indeed our ears and eyes could perceive or hear 

 nothing but what was strange and dismal, and death seemed to surround us ; 

 but time discovered this noise to us — the occasion of it was thus : 



In one part of this house, where a fire was kept, was an Indian man, having 

 a pot on the fire, wherein he was making a drink of a shrub (which we under- 

 stood afterwards by the Spaniards, is called Casseena) boiling the said leaves, 

 after they had parched them in a pot ; then with a gourd, having a long neck, 

 and at the top of it a small hole, which the top of one's finger could cover, and 

 at the side of it a round hole of two inches diameter. They take the liquor out 

 of the pot and put it into a deep round bowl, which, being almost filled, con- 

 tains nigh three gallons; with this gourd they brew the liquor, and make it 

 froth very much ; it looks of a deep brown color. In the brewing of this liquor 

 was this noise made, which we thought strange ; for the pressing of the gourd 

 gently down into the liquor, and the air which it contained, being forced out 

 of the little hole at the top, occasioned a sound, and according to the time 



