280 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHN0LCK5T [Bull. 137 



extended account of the native method of securing this crustacean. 

 (Lawson, 1860, pp. 266, 338-339.) 



The antipathy to sturgeon which coast Indians exhibited has been 

 noted, but Lawson says elsewhere : 



They that live a great way up the rivers practice striking sturgeon and 

 rockfish, or bass, when they come up the rivers to spawn; besides the vast 

 shoals of sturgeon which they kill and take with snares, as we do pike in 

 Europe. (Lawson, 1860, pp. 260, 339.) 



Herring were also caught upstream, principally by means of weirs. 



The following comments may be made on Lawson's general state- 

 ment. The panther, polecat, wildcat, and opossum seem to have 

 been used rather rarely, and Adair (1775, p. 16) states that the 

 Chickasaw had a distinct aversion to the flesh of the animal last 

 mentioned, yet in one of the myths a Choctaw is represented as 

 eating an opossum under peculiar circumstances (S wanton, 1931 a, p. 

 203). The melons and cucumbers noted must have been introduced, 

 and we know independently that melons were brought to America 

 at a very much earlier date. However, they are also noted in Bar- 

 low's narrative and we must suppose either that the Koanoke 

 Indians had gotten them from the South by that time, which is a 

 possibility, or that the names were given to certain varieties of 

 squashes and pumpkins (Burrage, 1906, p. 234). 



Lederer confirms Lawson regarding the consumption of wildcats 

 by the interior Siouan tribes. (Lawson, 1860, p. 289; Lederer, 1912, 

 p. 147.) 



Lawson also mentions dirt eating. 



The Indian children are much' addicted to eat dirt, and so are some of the 

 Christians, but roast a bat on a skewer, then pull the skin off, and make the 

 child that eats dirt eat the roasted rearmouse and he will never eat dirt 

 again. (Lawson, 1860, p. 206.) 



One would hardly suppose so. 



From the few notes preserved to us regarding the diet of the 

 Cusabo Indians, it seems to have differed little from that in the 

 regions considered except, of course, that fish and shellfish constituted 

 a larger proportion of the food consumed, and melons, peaches, and 

 other imported fruits and vegetables got a foothold earlier. The 

 fig is mentioned along with these (Swanton, 1922, pp. 74-75). 



In Florida we would look for greater changes and we do indeed 

 begin to find them, but not as many as might have been expected. 

 Fish, of course, occupy a prominent place, among the species men- 

 tioned under European names being "trout, great mullets, plaice, 

 turbots," and crabs, lobsters, and crawfish are also mentioned. Deer, 

 turkey, and bear appear as familiar game animals, but we read of 

 "leopards," and "lions," presumably panthers, confirmatory of Law- 



