284 BUREiAU OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



ferred to the purchases the Indians now and then make from the white man, of 

 salt pork, wheat flour, coffee, and salt, and of the various canned delicacies, 

 whose attractive labels catch their eyes. (MacCauley, 1887, p. 504.) 



Elsewhere he says of the food from the cabbage palmetto : 



The tender new growth at the top of the tree is a very nutritious and palatable 

 article of food, to be eaten either raw or baked ; its taste is somewhat like that 

 of the chestnut; its texture is crisp like that of our celery stalk. (MacCauley, 

 1887, p. 517.) 



Skinner, in 1910, found the Everglade bands, unlike the other 

 Seminoles, utilizing turtles almost entirely in lieu of the deer, tur- 

 key, and other game animals obtained by the rest (Skinner, 1913, 

 p. 76). 



In 1761 Timberlake found that the Cherokee country was 



yielding vast quantities of pease, beans, potatoes, cabbages, Indian corn, pum- 

 pions, melons, and tobacco, not to mention a number of other vegetables im- 

 ported from Europe, not so generally known amongst them. . . . Before the 

 arrival of the Europeans, the natives were not so well provided, maize, melons, 

 and tobacco, being the only things they bestow culture upon, and perhaps sel- 

 dom on the latter. The meadows or savannahs produce excellent grass; being 

 watered by abundance of fine rivers, and brooks well stored with fish, otters and 

 beavers ; ... Of the fruits there are some of an excellent flavor, particularly 

 several sorts of grapes, which, with proper culture, would probably afford 

 an excellent wine. There are likewise plums, cherries, and berries of several 

 kinds, something different from those of Europe ; but their peaches and pears 

 grow only by culture; add to these several kinds of roots, and medicinal 

 plants. . . . There are likewise an incredible number of buffaloes, bears, 

 deer, panthers, wolves, foxes, racoons, and opossums. . . . There are a vast 

 number of lesser sort of game, such as rabbits, squirrels of several sorts, and 

 many other animals, besides turkey, geese, ducks of several kinds, partridges, 

 pheasants, and an infinity of other birds. . . . The flesh of the rattle-snake 

 is extremely good; being once obliged to eat one through want of provisions, 

 I have eat several since thro* choice. (Timberlake, Williams ed., 1927, pp. 68-72.) 



See also what Bartram has to say below, since his statements are 

 partly applicable to the Cherokee. It is remarkable that Timberlake 

 includes melons rather than "pumpions" in his list of plants cul- 

 tivated before the arrival of Europeans, another indication of the 

 rapidity with which the use of this vegetable spread. Bartram noted 

 the "Cassine yapon" (Cassine vomitoria), near the Jore village in 

 the Cherokee country under semicultivation : 



Here I observed a little grove of the Cassine yapon, which was the only 

 place where I had seen it grow in the Cherokee country; the Indians call It 

 the beloved tree, and are very careful to keep it pruned and cultivated: they 

 drink a very strong infusion of the leaves, buds and tender branches of this 

 plant, which is so celebrated, indeed venerated by the Creeks and all the 

 Southern maritime nations of Indians. (Bartram, 1792, p. 291.) 



The only specific accounts in this region of the extraction of maple 

 sugar apply to the Cherokee, who may have brought the industry 



