SWANT..M EARLY HISTORY OF THE CREEK INDIANS 359 
contain, although the last author speaks of the eating of lizards. 1 
It may be suspected thai this picture is drawn from the imagination 
of the illustrator rather than from direct observation, for it is 
improbable that such animals were dried without being dressed. 
The description of the general drying process agrees very well, how- 
ever, with what, we know of this process elsewhere in the South. 
Le Challeux says that they used fish grease in place of butter "or any 
other sauce." - The same observer thus speaks of corn: "They do 
not have wheat, but they have corn in abundance, and it grows to 
the height of 7 feet ; its stem is as big as that of a cane and its grain 
is as large as a pea, the ear a foot in length; its color is like that of 
fresh wax." 2 The following statement by Laudonniere gives the 
best account of the method of cultivation and along with it an 
insight into the native economic life: 
They sow their maize twice a year — to wit in March and in June — and all in one and 
the same soil. The said maize, from the time that it is sowed until the time that it be 
ready to be gathered, is but three months on the ground; the other six months, they 
let the earth rest. They have also fine pumpkins, and very good beans. They never 
dung their land, only when they would sow they set weeds on fire, which grow up the 
six months, and burn them all. They dig their ground with an instrument of wood, 
which is fashioned like a broad mattock, wherewith they dig their vines in France ; they 
put two grains of maize together. When the land is to be sowed, the king commandeth 
one of his men to assemble his subjects every day to labor, during which labor the king 
causeth store of that drink [cassine] to be made for them whereof we have spoken. 
At the time when the maize is gathered, it is all carried into a common house, where 
it is distributed to every man, according to his quality. They sow no more but that 
which they think will serve their turn for six months, and that very scarcely. For, 
during the winter, they retire themselves for three or four months in the year, into the 
woods, where they make little cottages of palm boughs for their retreat, and live there 
of maste, of fish which they take, of disters [oysters], of stags, of turkey cocks, and 
other beasts which they take. 3 
Le Movne, however, asserts that they planted toward the end of 
the year, allowing then seed to lie in the ground nearly all winter. 
The Indians cultivate the earth diligently; and the men know how to make a kind 
of hoe from fish bones, which they fit to wooden handles, and with these they pre- 
pare the land well enough, as the soil is light. When the ground is sufficiently broken 
up and levelled , the women come with beans and millet, or maize. Some go first with 
a stick, and make holes, in which the others place the beans, or grains ot maize. After 
planting they leave the fields alone, as the winter in that country, situated between 
the west and the north, is pretty cold for about three months, being from the 24th of 
December to the 15th of March; and during that time, as they go naked, they shelter 
themselves in the woods. 4 When the winter is over, they return to their homes to 
wait for their crops to ripen. After gathering in their harvest, they store the whole 
of it for the year's use, not employing any part of it in trade, unless, perhaps some 
barter is made for some little household article. 5 
1 Le Moyne, Narrative, p. 2. 
1 Gaffarel, Hist. Floride franchise, p. 162 
3 Laudonniere, La Floride, pp. 11-12; French, Hist. Colls. La., 1869, p. 174. 
« In small huts; Laudonniere, op. eit., pp. 12, 144; French, op. cit., pp. 174, 294. 
6 Le Moyne, Narrative, p. 9 (ill.). 
