Old Daddy Flicker Likes Corn Likker 289 



metabolism of the drink called "whistle-belly-vengeance" 

 which a tavern-keeper in Salem is said to have invented. It 

 was made of sour homemade beer, simmered in an iron kettle 

 with molasses and brown bread crumbs, and drunk piping hot. 

 Or of flip, made of homemade corn and rye beer, sweetened 

 with molasses, laced with Massachusetts rum and beaten to a 

 bitter-tasting froth with a red hot poker. There may have been 

 a burning hunger and thirst after righteousness at the pit of 

 the Puritan stomach, but one suspects acidosis. 



The seventeenth century found it easy to believe in witch- 

 craft, eternal damnation and the capacity of the human frame 

 to stand anything. Mothers were advised to see that their 

 sickly children got their feet wet every day in cold weather, 

 to harden them. Also, they were recommended to feed the 

 young on cheese, brown bread and warmed beer. It is probable 

 that the two prescriptions balanced each other. At least, those 

 who escaped death by pneumonia had no lack of vitamins 

 A, B, C, D and G on which to perpetuate the Mayflower 

 posterity. 



When the apple orchards which the New England settlers 

 planted almost as soon as they set their corn came into bear- 

 ing, maize beer declined in popularity beside cider. An ale- 

 quart of cider, sweetened with molasses and spiced, cost a 

 groat in any tavern. On the frontier farms, as soon as the apple 

 harvest was gathered, an "Indian barrel" was prepared and set 

 ready with a gourd dipper for red-skinned visitors. Sometimes 

 the callers brought a trapped patridge, a piece of venison, or a 

 basketful of corn to offer in return for the drink. Often the 

 "Indian barrel" was a bribe. Its contents were the price of 

 immunity from attack during the treacherous days of balmy 

 weather after the first frosts. Then the savages frequently de- 

 scended upon the frontier settlements for a last foray before 

 the deep snows. "Indian summer" was a fearsome time for the 

 pioneers. 



The distilling of cider into applejack took place on hundreds 

 of farms. Just as the distilling of molasses into rum was car- 



