764 BUREAU OF AMERICAlsr ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



old man came in and set up a bowling like unto a mighty dog, but beyond him 

 for length of breath, withal making a proclamation. This being done and most 

 of them having painted themselves, some red, some black, some with black and 

 red, with their bellies girt up as tight as well they could girt themselves with 

 ropes, having their sheaths of arrows at their backs and their bows in their 

 hands, being gathered together about the staff, six of the chiefest men in esteem 

 amongst them, especially one who is their doctor, took up the rattles and began 

 a hideous noise, standing round the staff with their rattles and bowing to it 

 without ceasing for about half an hour. Whilst these six were thus employed 

 all the rest were staring and scratching, pointing upwards and downwards on 

 this and the other side, every way looking like men frightened, or more like furies. 

 Thus they behaved until the six had done shaking their rattles ; then they all began 

 to dance, violently stamping on the ground for the space of an hour or more 

 without ceasing, in which time they sweat in a most excessive manner, so that 

 by the time the dance was over, by their sweat and the violent stamping of their 

 feet, the ground was trodden into furrows, and by morning the place where they 

 danced was covered with maggots; thus, often repeating the manner, they con- 

 tinued till about 3 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon, by which time many were sick 

 and faint. Being gathered into the cassekey's house they sat down, having some 

 hot casseena ready, which they drank plentifully of, and gave greater quantities 

 thereof to the sick and faint than to others ; then they eat berries. On these days 

 they eat not any food till night. 



The next day, about the same time, they began their dance as the day before ; 

 also the third day they began at the usual time, when many Indians came from 

 other towns and fell to dancing, without taking any notice one of another. This 

 day they were stricter than the other two days, for no woman must look upon 

 them, but if any of their women went out of their houses they went veiled with 

 a mat. ( Dickenson, 1803, pp. 52-54 ; Swanton, 1922, pp. 396-397. ) 



In the same town Dickenson observed the ceremony of the black 

 drink : 



The Indians were seated as aforesaid, the cassekey at the upper end of them, 

 and the range of cabins was filled with men, women, and children, beholding us. 

 At length we heard a woman or two cry, according to their manner, and that 

 very sorrowfully, one of which I took to be the cassekey's wife ; which occasioned 

 some of us to think that something extraordinary was to be done to us ; we also 

 heard a strange sort of a noise, which was not like the noise made by a man, but 

 we could not understand what, nor where it was ; for sometimes it sounded to be 

 in one part of the house, and sometimes in another, to which we had an ear. 

 And indeed our ears and eyes could perceive or hear nothing but what was 

 strange and dismal, and death seemed to surround us; but time discovered this 

 noise to us. The occasion of it was thus : 



In one part of this house, where a fire was kept, was an Indian, having a pot 

 on the fire wherein he was making a drink of a shrub, which we understood after- 

 wards by the Spaniards is called Casseena, boiling the said leaves, after they 

 had parched them in a pot; then with a gourd, having a long neck, and at the 

 top of it a small hole, which the top of one's finger could cover, and at the side of 

 it a round hole of two inches diameter. They take the liquor out [of] the pot, and 

 put it into a deep round bowl, which being almost filled, contains nigh three 

 gallons; with this gourd they brew the liquor and make it froth very much; it 

 looks of a deep brown color. In the brewing of this liquor was this noise made, 

 which we thought strange; for the pressing of the gourd gently down into the 

 liquor, and the air it contained being forced out of a little hole at the top, occa- 



