this group, whose direct descendants todav cultivate 

 tol)acco in St. James Parish, came to Louisiana and took 

 refuge in the Bayou Teche region. 



The area was largely a wilderness. Its Indian inhab- 

 itants, however, tlie Choctaw and Chickasaw, had been 

 culti\'ating a tobacco that was of interest to the new 

 Acadian settlers. 



Among these, legend has it, was a man named Pierre 

 Chenet, nick-named "Perique," who undertook to learn 

 all he could about tobacco from the Indians. The story 

 is told that they had an ingenious method of curing 

 tobacco. A stump was hollowed and placed on end. 

 Leaves of tobacco which had been dried for a few days 

 were made into twists and packed tightly into the 

 stump. When the stump was filled, pressure was ap- 

 plied to the contents by means of a lever fixed at one 

 end in a notch in the stump, while the other end was 

 weiglited down with heavy stone. The resulting steady 

 pressure dro\e the \ital juices from the leaves and 

 caused tlie tobacco to ferment and mellow. 



When the pressure was removed, the twists were 

 taken out, aired, and then put under pressure again. 

 This process continued until the desired mellowness 

 and aroma had been achieved. With the exception of 

 some meclianical improvements, tliis is the same proc- 

 ess used for making Peri(jue todav. 



K 



act or fiction 



This story, like all folklore, is an elusive mixture of 

 fact and fancy. Legends grow profuseK along the 

 bayous of Louisiana and those concerned with Perique 

 are iileiitilul. Thus, this is ])\ no means the onlv storv 



27 



