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Title: Ilex cassine, the aboriginal North American tea
        Its history, distribution, and use among the native North American Indians

Author: Edwin M. Hale

Release date: February 8, 2023 [eBook #69985]

Language: English

Original publication: United States: Government Printing Office, 1891

Credits: Charlene Taylor, Krista Zaleski and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)


*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ILEX CASSINE, THE ABORIGINAL NORTH AMERICAN TEA ***



[Illustration:

    Bulletin 14, Division of Botany, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture.
                                                             PLATE 1.

             ILEX CASSINE.]




  U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.

  DIVISION OF BOTANY.

  BULLETIN No. 14.

  ILEX CASSINE,

  THE ABORIGINAL NORTH AMERICAN TEA.

  ITS HISTORY, DISTRIBUTION, AND USE AMONG THE
  NATIVE NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS.

  BY

  E. M. HALE, M. D.

  PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE.

  WASHINGTON:
  GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE.
  1891.




LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.


  SEPTEMBER, 1891.

SIR: I have the honor of presenting for publication the accompanying
paper on the history, distribution, and uses of Ilex cassine, commonly
called youpon, a shrub belonging to the southern and southeastern parts
of the United States. Dr. E. M. Hale, the author, has made a thorough
examination of the scattered information which is to be found on the
subject.

In my opinion it is well to publish this paper, in order to perpetuate
in a concise form the recorded facts concerning the economic and
ceremonial uses of this plant among the North American Indians. The
leaves are now used to a limited extent among the Southern people, and
possibly their use may be somewhat extended.

It seems that the detection of caffeine in the leaves of this Ilex
rests upon the chemical analysis of Professor Venable, of the
University of North Carolina. I am not aware that any analysis has been
made by others.

  GEO. VASEY,
  _Botanist_.

  HON. J. M. RUSK,
  _Secretary of Agriculture_.




PREFACE.


Several years ago, when reading that delightful narrative, by the
younger Bartram, relating to his travels in Florida, I was much
interested in his mention of the Ilex cassine, and the decoction
made from it, called the “black drink,” in use among the Creeks and
other aborigines of the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. My curiosity led
me to investigate the subject, and I was surprised to find so little
written about it. I have consulted all the works in which there are any
allusions to the Ilex cassine, and the results of this research are
embodied in this bulletin.

I must acknowledge the kind assistance and encouragement of many
eminent men; among whom are Dr. George Vasey, Dr. A. W. Chapman, Albert
S. Gatschet, Dr. Daniel G. Brinton, Horatio Hale, and Prof. F. P.
Venable.

I hope this imperfect paper may stimulate others to further
investigations of this indigenous analogue of tea and coffee.

  EDWIN M. HALE, M. D.

  No. 2200 _Prairie Avenue, Chicago, Ill._




ILEX CASSINE, THE ABORIGINAL NORTH AMERICAN TEA.

EDWIN M. HALE, M. D., _Chicago_.


There is a shrub or small tree, a species of holly (Ilex cassine),
growing in the Southern States along the seacoast, not extending inland
more than 20 or 30 miles, from Virginia to the Rio Grande. Its leaves
and tender branches were once used by the aboriginal tribes of the
United States in the same manner as the Chinese use tea and the South
Americans use maté. But while the use of _Thea sinensis_ and _Ilex
paraguayensis_ still survives, the use of the shrub above mentioned has
been almost abandoned by our native Indians and by the white people who
once partially adopted it as a beverage.

The reason for its disuse is hard to discover, for, in common with the
tea and maté, it contains caffeine, or a similar alkaloid. The object
of this paper is to examine its history, to suggest its restoration to
a place among the stimulant beverages, and inquire into its possible
economic value.

I have been able to trace its use as a beverage back to the legendary
migration of the Creeks from their supposed far western home to the
seacoast of the Carolinas. Whether it was used by the prehistoric
mound-builders is a question which may not at present be solved.
But some archæologist of the future may find in the remains of the
mound-builders or their predecessors proof of its use among them.[1]


BOTANY OF CASSINE.

Before tracing the history of the cassine from the earliest historic
period down to the present, a few botanical notes relating to the genus
Ilex are appropriate. According to Bentham and Hooker in their “Genera
Plantarum,” this genus contains about 145 species, mostly natives of
Central and South America, but some belonging to the southern portions
of North America; others to the central and tropical parts of the
Eastern Hemisphere; and a few to Africa and Australia.[2]

The question whether any other species than the I. cassine contains an
alkaloid analogous to caffeine has not been investigated. It is also
a question whether any of the allied species, such as those of the
sections _Prinoides_ and _Prinos_, contain a constituent which would
enable them to be a substitute for the cassine.[3] Chapman, in his
“Botany of the Southern States,” enumerates three principal species
of the genus Ilex, and one variety, namely, _Ilex opaca_ (common
holly), _Ilex dahoon_ (dahoon holly), and _Ilex cassine_, sometimes
called “Ilex vomitorea.” The one variety is the _Ilex myrtifolia_
(myrtle-leaved holly). He mentions three species of the section
_Prinoides_ and four of _Prinos_. The habitat of all the species,
except the I. cassine, extends from the seacoast inland in swamps,
along river courses, and low pine lands. In fact, no mention is made of
their occupying the light sandy soil close to the seacoast.

Rev. E. C. Reinke writes from Fairfield, Island of Jamaica, that there
are four species of Ilex on the island, viz, _I. obcordata_, _I.
occidentalis_, _I. diœca_, _I. montana_. Most of these are found on
the Blue Mountains, 5,000 feet above the level of the sea. He could
not ascertain that any use whatever was made of the leaves or berries
either on the island or anywhere in the West Indies. As the aborigines
of the West India Islands are all extinct, or nearly so, it is not
strange that no present use is made of the Ilex. It is probable that
none of these species contains any such active constituents as the _I.
cassine_.

Dr. Chapman, in a recent letter, says: “The I. cassine grows along the
whole east and west coast of Florida, and on the shores of the Gulf and
in Texas, if the _Orcophiles_ (Scheele) is the same, as is possible.”

John M. Coulter (Contributions U. S. National Herbarium, vol. II, No.
1, Texas) mentions that the _Ilex cassine_ yaupon “extends into Texas
to the valley of the Colorado.” This would imply that it is not found
farther westward than the mouth of the Colorado River, which is at
Matagorda Bay, about halfway from the Louisiana line to the Rio Grande.

In a recent pamphlet on the extinct coast Indians of Texas, the
_Karankawas_, Gatschet mentions their use of the cassine. They gathered
it “in the woods, _not_ on the coast line,” but probably not beyond the
tide water of the rivers. These Indians lived on the coast from the
Colorado River to the Rio Grande, so it must be found as far as the
latter river. Possibly its habitat extends down along the Mexican coast.

P. M. Hale, in his “Woods of North Carolina,” describes several species
of holly. Of Ilex cassine he writes as follows:

    Yopon (_I. Cassine_ Linn.).--An elegant shrub, 10 to 15 feet
    high, but sometimes rising into a small tree of 20 to 25
    feet. Its native place is near to salt water, and it is found
    from Virginia southward, but never far in the interior. Its
    dark evergreen leaves and bright red berries make it very
    ornamental in yards and shrubberies. The leaves are small,
    ½ to 1 inch long, very smooth, and evenly scalloped on the
    edges, with small rounded teeth. In some sections of the
    lower district, especially in the region of the Dismal Swamp,
    these are annually dried and used for tea, which is, however,
    oppressively sudorific--at least, to one not accustomed to
    it. The maté, or Paraguay tea, of South America, is of the
    same genus as this, but a very different species. Our yopon is
    the article from which the famous black drink of the Southern
    Indians was made. At a certain time of the year they come
    down in droves from a distance of some hundred miles to the
    coast for the leaves of this tree. They make a fire on the
    ground, and putting a great kettle of water on it, they throw
    in a large quantity of these leaves, and, seating themselves
    around the fire, from a bowl that holds about a pint they
    begin drinking large draughts, which in a short time occasion
    them to vomit freely and easily. Thus they continue drinking
    and vomiting for the space of 2 or 3 days, until they have
    sufficiently cleansed themselves; and then, every one taking a
    bundle of the tree, they all retire to their habitations.


ETYMOLOGY OF THE NAMES “DAHOON,” “CASSINE,” AND “YOUPON.”

I have been at some pains to ascertain the correct etymology of these
names.

Dr. Albert S. Gatschet, of the Bureau of Ethnology, at Washington, D.
C., one of the best authorities, writes me as follows:

    According to Lawson there are two or three sorts of youpon. The
    Indians of South Carolina call it “cassina.” It grows on sand
    banks and islands near the sea. (Used by the North Carolina
    Indians for tea.) It is written _cassena_. From Mutter it
    would appear that the cassine are chiefly African plants, nor
    do I think that the name is Indian. I find no word in Katawba
    corresponding to the word “dahoon.” I saw here in the Botanical
    Garden a shrub from North Carolina called _Ilex vomitoria_,
    undoubtedly the _Assi shrub_. “Assi” is only an abbreviation
    of _Assi lupub’ski_ (Creek), “small leaves.” The Shetimasha
    term was _no’ut_ (Ch. C. Jones). Tomochichi calls it “foskey,”
    probably Yamassi, a dialect of the Creek.

W. R. Gerard, of New York, an eminent philologist, writes me:

    The word _cassine_ belongs to the language of the now extinct
    Timucua Indians of Florida. Little is known of the language
    of those people. It has seemed to me that they borrowed the
    word from the Creeks, who call Ilex cassine _ussie_, leaf tea.
    Cassine (c-assi-ne) would seem to be this word with a guttural
    prefix and a suffix _ne_ of unknown meaning. I can not refer
    the word _dahoon_ to any Indian language. I believe it to be
    of French origin, “_houx d’Ahon_.” _Youpon_ is Indian, and
    seems to belong to the language of the long-extinct Waccoons of
    North Carolina. The word is Catawba, for in Catawba _yáp_, also
    pronounced “yop,” means wood, stick, and tree.

Prof. Lester F. Ward, botanist of the U. S. National Museum, writes:

    Linné first used “cassine” as a generic name, and applied it to
    a South African plant (Gen. Ed. Nova: No. 371, 1753, and his
    Systema Naturæ, ed. 13th, Lipsiæ, 1791). Thomas Walter used
    it first as a specific name for Ilex (Flor.-Carolina, Loud.,
    1778). None of these two refer to the origin of the word.
    Thomas Walter used dahoon as a specific name; Linné copied from
    him and spells it “duhoon.”

Probably Gerard’s explanation of the etymology of those three words
is correct, for at the time Walter and Linné wrote the Indian names
of plants had been carried abroad by botanists and travelers in this
country.


CHEMISTRY OF CASSINE.

ANALYSIS OF THE LEAVES OF ILEX CASSINE.

I quote the following from a paper by F. P. Venable, PH.D., University
of North Carolina:

    Having on hand a small sample of the leaves procured from New
    Berue during the winter of 1883, it seemed desirable to make an
    examination of them, to decide, if possible, the presence of
    any alkaloid or other principle which would make the decoction
    useful as a beverage. The usual treatment with magnesium oxide,
    exhaustion with water, separation by means of chloroform, and
    subsequent purification was adhered to, resulting in obtaining
    a small amount of a white substance slightly soluble in water,
    more so in alcohol, and easily soluble in chloroform, which
    gave distinctly the tests for caffeine, especially the murexide
    reaction, and very closely resembled a specimen of pure
    caffeine from Powers & Weightman.

    This caffeine formed .32 per cent. of the dried leaves. Later
    on, in May, a much larger supply of the same leaves was
    gotten from the neighborhood of Wilmington. A more thorough
    examination of them was then made, with the following results:

      Water in air-dried samples   13.19
      Extracted by water           26.55
      Tannin                        7.39
      Caffeine                       .27
      Nitrogen (on combustion)       .73
      Ash                           5.75

    Maté or Brazilian holly (_Ilex paraguayensis_) belongs to the
    same genus. Its ash analysis, as made by Señor Arate, is given
    in the second column. The plant grows wild in Brazil, and is
    very largely used by the South Americans. It has, according to
    Peckolt (Pharm. J. Trans. (3) 14, 121-124; Abstract Jour. Chem.
    Soc., 1884, 479), been planted, and seems to succeed well,
    in the Cape of Good Hope, Spain, and Portugal. It is stated
    that six different species of Ilex are used in the preparation
    of this tea. Peckolt gives, in his analysis of the air-dried
    leaves, the percentage of caffeine as 0.639. The average
    percentage of analyses by different authors is about 1.3. I
    can find mention of only one other Ilex used as a substitute
    for tea. The analysis of this by Ryland and Brown is quoted
    in Blythe’s “Composition and Analysis of Foods” (p. 343). It
    is called the Ilex cassiva, is said to be used as a tea in
    Virginia, and the percentage of caffeine is given as 0.12.
    This is probably the same thing as the yopon, the analysis of
    which is given above, and the “cassiva” may be a misprint for
    “cassine.”

In a more recent paper Professor Venable reports additional analyses,
which are interesting. He says:

    Some years ago an analysis of the leaves of Ilex cassine
    was given in this journal.[4] In this analysis appeared the
    interesting fact that these leaves contained a small percentage
    of caffeine. During the winter of 1885-’86, at the request
    of some medical friends whose attention was drawn to the
    analysis, a more thorough examination was undertaken, not only
    of the leaves, but of the berries. It was thought advisable,
    at the same time, to examine the leaves and fruit of other
    representatives of the Ilex family in this State--_Ilex opaca_
    and _Ilex dahoon_. This was primarily a search after alkaloids,
    and not intended as a complete chemical examination. As no
    alkaloids were found other than the caffeine already mentioned,
    no account of the work was published, and the results have been
    hidden away in my note books ever since. Thinking, however,
    that even negative results are often of some value and that the
    partial analysis might be of aid to others, I offer this paper
    for publication in the journal of the society.

    Besides the _I. opaca_, _I. dahoon_, _I. cassine_, according
    to Curtis there are in this State five additional species
    of this genus: _I. decidua_ Walt. _I. ambigua_ Chapman; _I.
    verticillata_ Gray, _I. glabra_ Gray, _I. coriacea_ Chapm, but
    the examination was not extended to them. In searching for the
    alkaloids the directions of Dragendorff were first followed.
    The leaves (or crushed berries) were first digested at 40°-50°
    with dilute sulphuric acid. This extract was evaporated to
    a sirupy consistence, the residue mixed with three or four
    times its bulk of alcohol, filtered after 24 hours’ standing,
    and washed with alcohol. The alcohol was then distilled off
    from the filtrate, the watery residue was diluted with water
    and filtered. Petroleum-ether, benzol, and chloroform were
    successively used to extract the alkaloidal principles, if any
    were present in the acid liquid. Then, after rendering alkaline
    with ammonia, the liquid was again extracted with the solvents
    mentioned.

    As, even with water but slightly acidified with sulphuric acid,
    some risk of the destruction or change of the alkaloids was run
    during the long evaporation, a second method was made use of,
    as follows:

    The leaves were digested for 10 hours with 70 per cent alcohol,
    the alcohol distilled off, and the residue treated with lead
    acetate and soda. The excess of lead was removed by means of
    sulphuretted hydrogen and the filtrate from this evaporated
    to a thin sirup. This was then treated with strong alcohol,
    filtered, and the excess of alcohol distilled off. Bismuth,
    potassium-iodide, and sulphuric acid were next used to
    precipitate any alkaloid present. The presence of albuminoid
    matter rendered it necessary to decompose this by means of
    soda, neutralized with dilute sulphuric acid, and reprecipitate
    with mercuric chloride. The solutions to which mercuric
    chloride had been added were allowed to stand several days. The
    results may be tabulated as follows:

      I. opaca, leaves       No alkaloid.
      I. opaca, berries      No alkaloid.
      I. dahoon, leaves      No alkaloid.
      I. dahoon, berries     No alkaloid.
      I. cassine, leaves     Caffeine.
      I. cassine, berries    No alkaloid.

    I regard these analyses as conclusive, at least, of the absence
    of the known, well characterized alkaloids. It is, of course,
    possible that other methods might reveal the presence of some
    of the more elusive ones.

It is interesting to note in this connection that of the five species
in the genus _Thea_, only one contains _theine_; of the genus
_Cinchonaceæ_, to which coffee belongs, only one contains _caffeine_;
while of the many species of Ilex in South America, only three, so far
as known, contain caffeine. Chemists assert that theine and caffeine
are identical, but physicians know that they differ widely in their
physiological and therapeutic effects.


PHYSIOLOGICAL AND TOXIC EFFECTS.

All of the hollies possess decided physiological action on the human
system. _Ilex opaca_ once had a large reputation in Europe and England
in rheumatism, gout, cutaneous diseases, and intermittent fever. The
young leaves and branches, in France, are fed to cattle, and said to
increase the quantity and quality of the milk of cows.

Griffith (Medical Botany, 1847) writes of the _cassine_:

    Another native species, the _I. vomitoria_, of Aiton, appears
    to be endowed with still more powerful properties. This is a
    native of the most southern parts of the country, where it is
    held in high esteem amongst the Indians, who considered it
    a holy plant, and employed it in their religious ceremonies
    and councils, to purge their bodies from all impurities. They
    called both this and the _I. dahoon_ by the name of “cassena.”
    The leaves, which were the part employed, were collected
    with great care, and formed an article of trade among the
    tribes. Dr. B. S. Barton (“Collections,” 38) says of it: “It
    is thought to be one of the most powerful diuretics hitherto
    discovered. It is held in great esteem among the Southern
    Indians; they toast the leaves and make a decoction of them. It
    is the men alone that are permitted to drink this decoction,
    which is called ‘black drink.’” These leaves are inodorous,
    and have a somewhat aromatic, acrid taste. In small doses
    the decoction acts as a powerful diuretic, and in large ones
    produces discharges from the stomach, bowels, and bladder. In
    North Carolina, on the seacoast, the inhabitants modify the
    deleterious action of their brackish water by boiling a few
    leaves of cassena with it. (The African kola nut, powdered
    and added to foul water, is said to purify it. It contains
    theobromine, an alkaloid analogous to caffeine.)

Rafinesque (Medical Botany, 1828) calls it “_Cassine Peragua_”
(Schoeph), or _Ilex vomitoria_ (Aiton), and says:

    This by some is said to be the true cassine of the Florida
    tribes. But _C. aumlosa_ (Rafinesque), _Ilex cassine_, and
    _dahoon_, _Viburnum cassinoides_, are all equally so named
    and used. The leaves are bitterish, sudorific, purgative,
    and diuretic; vomitive and purgative in strong decoctions,
    called “black drink.” Said to be useful in gravel, nephritis,
    diabetes, fevers, and small-pox.

King (Dispensatory, 1864) says: “The _Ilex vomitoria_, or ‘South Sea
tea,’ is the cassine of the Indians. A few leaves of this plant lessen
the injurious influence of saline water.”

It has never been made officinal in any pharmacopœia in this country or
Europe.


METHOD OF PREPARATION.

The leaves and young tender branches were carefully picked. The fresh
cassine was gathered at the time of harvest or maturity of the fruits,
which was their New Year. The New Year began with the “busk,” which was
celebrated in July or August, “at the beginning of the first new moon
in which their corn became full eared,” says Adair. The leaves were
dried in the sun or shade and afterwards roasted. The process seems to
have been similar to that adopted for tea and coffee. The roasting was
done in ovens, remains of which are found in the Cherokee region; or in
large shallow pots or pans of earthenware, such as the Indian tribes
made.

These roasted leaves were kept in baskets in a dry place until needed
for use. Laudonnière (1564) writes of being presented with baskets
filled with leaves of the cassine. A description of the method of
making the decoction, or “black drink,” will be found in Dickenson’s
and Bartram’s narrations, and in other quotations below. A special
feature was the practice of pouring the liquid from one bowl to another
until a deep froth appeared. Whether this was supposed to increase the
potency of the beverage, or was a fashion, like the Spanish method of
whipping chocolate to a foam, is a question; probably the latter is the
true explanation. The Japanese treat their infusions of tea in the same
manner.

_Was it an article of commerce?_--There seems to be no doubt on this
subject. Allusions to the drinking of the “black drink” are found,
indicating its use among tribes residing at a long distance from the
habitat of the cassine.

Lawson (1709) writes of its being “collected by the savages of the
coast of Carolina, and from them sent to the westward Indians and sold
at a considerable price.” Dr. Porcher, author of the “Resources of the
South,” says: “The Creek Indians used a decoction of the cassine at the
opening of their councils, _sending to the seacoast for a supply_,” and
adds that the coast Indians sent it to the far west tribes. How far its
use extended northward I can not ascertain. From some allusions of the
early French writers I think it was used by the Natchez, and that it
was sent up the Mississippi from the coast of Louisiana. The Indians of
Wisconsin, Illinois, and westward, used a decoction of willow leaves
as a beverage, but I can not find that they used it in ceremonials, or
that it was looked upon with the same reverence.

It appears from the accounts of various early writers that there were
several methods of preparing the black drink.

(1) The decoction made of the fresh leaves and young branches.

(2) A decoction of the dried and roasted leaves. It is probable that
the leaves during roasting developed new qualities, as the roasting of
coffee brings out the aromatic odor due to a volatile oil.

(3) A decoction which was allowed to ferment. In this condition
it became an alcoholic beverage, capable of causing considerable
intoxication, similar to that caused by beer or ale.

McCullough, in his “Researches,” seems to be in error when he asserts:

    None of the people of Florida appear to have used intoxicating
    drinks; but they made a hot tea from the leaves of the cassine
    (_Prinos glaber_), which they poured backwards and forwards
    until it frothed. This tea may have been slightly stimulant,
    but it seems to have had no other than a diaphoretic or
    diuretic effect.

This seems to have been the belief of all the early writers, but I
have always doubted it, for if true the North American Indians would
stand about alone among races above the lower grade of savagery in
their ignorance of alcoholic beverages. The Mexican Indians (Aztecs),
the tribes of the Pacific coast and of Central America, all had
intoxicating drinks. I admit that there is no proof that the Indians of
Canada and of the States north of the Ohio and the Potomac possessed
intoxicating beverages, but there is ample proof that the southern
Indians brewed from cassine a strong beer.

In my experiments I find that an infusion of cassine leaves with
boiling water, after standing till cool, gives a scarcely perceptible
taste and slight odor. This infusion, if boiled for half an hour,
gives a dark liquid like very strong black tea, of an aromatic odor,
_sui generis_, not like coffee, but more like Oolong tea without
its pleasant rose odor. The taste is like that of an inferior black
tea, quite bitter, but with little delicacy of flavor. It is not an
unpleasant beverage, and I can imagine that the palate would become
accustomed to it, as to maté, tea, or coffee.


HISTORY.

The early history of the use of _Ilex cassine_ as a beverage is lost
in the darkness of prehistoric ages. Probably the same can be said of
tea, coffee, maté, and cocoa. But it is a singular fact that while all
the latter beverages still continue to be used in the countries where
they are indigenous, as well as all over the world, the use of cassine
is nearly extinct, as it is now only used occasionally in certain
important religious ceremonies by the remnants of the Creek Indians,
and will disappear with them unless rescued by chemical research and
its use revived for hygienic or economical reasons.

The very earliest mention of cassine was made in the “Migration Legend
of the Creek Indians.” This curious legend has been lately published
by A. S. Gatschet, of the Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, D. C., with
text, glossaries, etc. In his preface he says: “The migration legend
of the Kosihta tribe is one of the most fascinating accounts that has
reached us from remote antiquity and is mythical in its first part.”
This tribe was a part of the Creek Nation. Its chief, Tchikilli, read
the legend before Governor Oglethorpe and many British authorities
in 1735. It was written in red and black characters (pictographic
signs) on a buffalo skin. This was sent to London, and was lost there;
but fortunately a text of the narrative was preserved in a German
translation.

It begins by narrating that the tribe started from a region variously
supposed to be west of the Mississippi, or in southern Illinois, or
southern Ohio. They traveled west, then south, then southeast, until
they reached eastern Georgia. Here they met a tribe, called in the
legend, the “Palachucolas,” who gave them “black drink” as a sign of
friendship, and said to them, “Our hearts are white, and yours must be
white, and you must lay down the bloody tomahawk, and show your bodies
as a proof that they shall be white.”

This was evidently the first knowledge the Kosihta tribe had of this
beverage.

The next mention is by Cabeza de Vaca, who found the Cutalchiches west
of the mouth of the Mississippi drinking a tea from the leaves of a
tree like an oak. Another narrative says, “Leaves like a plum leaf.” It
was drunk by men only.

Jean Ribault, the French explorer of east Florida (1666), mentions
his first experience in tasting the beverage: “Leur boisson qu’ils
appellent _cassinet_ se fait d’herbes composées, et m’a semblé de telle
couleur que la cervoyce de ce pays; j’en ay gousté et ne l’ay point
trouvé fort estrange.” (Their drink, which they call _cassinet_, is
made of compounded herbs, and seemed to me about the color of French
beer. I tasted it and did not find it at all unpleasant.)

Gatschet, in commenting on the mention of cassine in the legend, says:

    Black drink was prepared from the small and narrow leaves
    and the tender shoots of the shrub Ilex cassine, which grows
    spontaneously as far north as the thirty-seventh degree of
    latitude. The white people of the Carolinas prepared from it a
    sort of tea. The botanical name formerly given to the plant was
    _Cassine yaupon_, yaupon being a derivative from the Katawba
    term _yáp_ or _yop_ plant, tree, or shrub. The name cassine was
    first applied, as Prof. Lester F. Ward informs me, as a generic
    name to a South African plant by Linné, and as a species name
    for an Ilex by Thomas Walter. (Dahoon is the name of another
    Ilex; Walter spells it duhoon, others _houx d’ahon_.) The
    plant and decoction are called by the Sketimasha, _nu’ut_; by
    the Creeks, Assi luputski, _small leaves_, which is generally
    abbreviated to Assi leaves. The term black drink originated
    among the British traders. In Ch. C. Jones’s “Tomochichi,” p.
    118, it is called “foskey.”

    The Creeks made use of the Assi as we use fermented liquors, to
    promote conviviality; but it entered also into their ceremonies
    of religion and warfare. But the black drink potion was not
    always prepared in the same strength. The ancient Creeks had
    three modes of preparing it; the three potions resulting from
    them widely differed in strength according to the uses for
    which they were intended. Small quantities of the young leaf,
    parched in a pot until it assumed a brown color, produced a
    liquor acting as an exhilarant and gentle diuretic; it was
    drank by the people at the busk, and by the “elders” when
    assembled in council or when discussing every-day topics. After
    the potion had been poured from one pan or cooler into another,
    it begins to ferment and to produce a white froth, from which
    it is styled also _white drink_, the term “white” alluding
    simultaneously to its purifying qualities. To make the liquid
    stronger a larger infusion of the parched leaves is required;
    it then assumes a dark hue, nearly as black as molasses, and
    acts as a powerful intoxicating stimulant. A still larger
    addition of the cassine leaf produces a strong narcotic, which
    was, as mentioned previously, used by conjurors to evoke
    prophetic ecstacies accompanied by dreams. The black drink of
    the weaker sort acts as an emetic,[5] and was used as such at
    the annual busk and on other occasions extensively; this gave
    to the liquid its renown as a bodily and moral purificator,
    for primitive people are prone to regard agencies which act
    with mysterious force upon the bodily constitution as symbols
    for abstract spiritual or religious ideas. This drink being
    served at all games and festivals, councils, and conclusions of
    treaties, special ministrants, the Hinihalgi, were appointed
    for its manufacture by the miko of the town. On festive days
    they prepared it with peculiar ceremonies and served it to all
    who attended the celebration in the square. The singing of the
    yahola, or black-drink note, was, and is still, a peculiar rite
    connected with the drinking of this favorite liquid.

Narvaez writes (1536) of the Indians on the coast of Texas:

    They have a sort of drink made of the leaves of a tree like
    the mulberry tree, which they boil very well and work it up
    into a froth, and so drink it as hot as ever they can suffer
    it to come into their mouths. All the while this is over the
    fire the vessel must be close shut; and if by chance it should
    be uncovered, and a woman should come by in the meantime, they
    would drink none of it, but fling it all away. Likewise, while
    they stand cooling it and pouring it out to drink, a woman must
    not stir or move, or they would throw it all to the ground,
    or spew it up again if they had drunk any; she herself would
    incur the bastinado. All this time they continue bawling out
    aloud, “Who will drink?” and when the women begin to hear these
    exclamations, then it is that they settle themselves in their
    postures, and were they sitting or standing, though it were a
    tiptoe, or one leg up and the other down, they must continue so
    till the men have cooled their liquor and made it fit to drink.
    The reason of this is every whit as foolish and unreasonable
    as the custom itself, for they say should not the women stand
    still when they hear their voice some bad thing would be
    conveyed into the liquor, which they say would make them die;
    and if such a generation of asses were all poisoned it were no
    great loss to the world.

In the narrative of René Laudonnière (1564) he says of his expedition
from Fort Caroline, at the mouth of the river of May (St. Johns),
Florida:

    I departed with fifty of my best soldiers in two barks, and
    arrived in the dominion of Utina, distant from our fort about
    40 or 50 leagues (125 miles); and going ashore we drew near his
    village, situated 6 leagues from the river, where we took him
    prisoner. They (his tribe) therefore brought me fish in their
    little boats, and their meal of mast (maize); they also made
    their drink which they call cassine, which they sent to Utina
    and me.

The map in Le Moine’s Narrative shows the residence of Utina to be west
of the river St. Johns, and in such a position that it is possible that
Laudonnière went up the St. Johns to the Ochlawaha River, then up that
river to Orange Creek and to Orange Lake, which is of crescent shape,
just as it is figured on Le Moine’s map. The cassine which Utina’s men
sent to him must have been obtained from the east or west coast, unless
it was the leaves of the _Ilex dahoon_, which grows in the interior of
Florida.

Le Moine, in his “Narrative,” illustrated with drawings and written in
1504, has the following mention of cassine:

    I sent a second expedition, with two shallops, having soldiers
    and sailors aboard, with a present to be given in my name to
    the widow of a deceased chief named Hionacara, who lived about
    12 miles north of us. She received my men kindly, and loaded
    both of these shallops, for me, with maize and nuts; and she
    sent in addition some baskets of cassina leaves, of which they
    make a drink.

In another place he describes the proceedings of the original
Floridians in deliberating on important affairs; this description is
illustrated with a spirited drawing:

    The chief and his nobles are accustomed during certain days of
    the year to meet early every morning for this express purpose
    in a public place, in which a long bench is constructed, having
    at the middle of it a projecting part laid with nine round
    trunks of trees, for the chief’s seat. On this he sits by
    himself for distinction sake; and the rest come to salute him,
    one at a time, the oldest first, by lifting both hands twice
    to the height of the head, and saying, “Ha, he, ya, ha, ha.”
    To this the rest answer, “Ha, ha.” Each as he completes his
    salutation, takes his seat on the bench. If any question of
    importance is to be discussed the chief calls upon his lauas
    (that is, his priests), and upon the elders, one at a time, to
    deliver their opinions. They decide upon nothing until they
    have held a number of councils over it, and they deliberate
    very sagely before deciding. Meanwhile the chief orders the
    women to boil some cassine; which is a drink prepared from
    the leaves from a certain root and which they afterwards pass
    through a strainer.

    The chief and his councillors being now seated in their places,
    one stands before him, and spreading forth his hands wide
    open, asks a blessing upon the chief and the others who are to
    drink. Then the cup-bearer brings the hot drink in a capacious
    shell, first to the chief, and then, as the chief directs, to
    the rest in their order, in the same shell. They esteem this
    drink so highly that no one is allowed to drink it in council
    unless he has proved himself a brave warrior. Moreover, this
    drink has the quality of at once throwing into a sweat whoever
    drinks it. On this account those who can not keep it down, but
    whose stomachs reject it, are not intrusted with any difficult
    commission, or any military responsibility, being considered
    unfit, for they often have to go three or four days without
    food; but one who can drink this liquor can go for 24 hours
    afterward without eating or drinking. In military expeditions
    also, the only supplies which they carry consist of gourd
    bottles or wooden vessels full of this drink. It strengthens
    and nourishes the body, and yet does not fly to the head, as we
    have observed on occasion of these feasts of theirs.

In “The Karankawa Indians, the coast people of Texas,” by A. S.
Gatschet (Peabody Museum, 1891), Mrs. Oliver, who lived among that
tribe, says:

    At their principal festival, at the full moon, they assembled
    in a tent, in the middle of which was a small fire upon which
    boiled a very strong and black decoction made from the leaves
    of the youpon tree. From time to time this was stirred with
    a whisk, till the top was covered thickly with a yellowish
    froth. This tea, contained in a vessel of clay of their own
    manufacture, was handed around occasionally and all the Indians
    drank freely. It was very bitter and said to be intoxicating,
    but if so, it could only have been when drunk to great excess,
    as it never seemed to produce any visible effect upon them.

She further mentions a chant, which rose and fell in a melancholy
cadence, and occasionally all the Indians joined in the chorus, which
was ha-i-yah, ha-i-yah, hai, hai-yah, hai-yah. The first two words were
shouted slowly, then a succession of hai-yahs very rapidly uttered in
chromatic ascending and descending tones, ending in an abrupt hai! very
loud and far reaching. [Compare this with the Creek ceremonies--Adair.]

Gatschet adds a note: “The Texans find it [yopon] in the woods, not on
the coast line, and drink a tea or decoction of it with sugar and milk.
The white people east of the Mississippi do the same.”

In the narrative of the expedition of Dominique de Gourges (1567) to
Florida, to revenge the massacre of the Huguenots at St. Augustine, it
is narrated that when he was on a visit to the Chief Satoriona, whose
tribe lived in southern Georgia, near the seacoast--

    Before leaving there the savages made a beverage, called by
    them _cassine_, which they are accustomed to take at all times,
    and when they go to fight in places where there is danger. This
    beverage, made of a certain plant, and drunk quite hot, keeps
    them from being hungry or thirsty for 24 hours. They presented
    it first to Captain Gourges, who pretended to drink it, and
    swallowed none of it; then Satoriona partook of it, and after
    him all the others, each one according to his rank.

This assertion that the drink prevents hunger and thirst reminds us of
the similar effect of coca leaves used by the Peruvian Indians, and now
an officinal medicine used for the same purpose.

James Adair was an Englishman, who lived 40 years among the Southern
Indians (from 1735 to 1775), and whose “History of the American
Indians” is invaluable to the antiquarian. It was published in London,
A. D. 1775, and is a mine of valuable information. He thus describes
the cassine:

    There is a species of tea that grows spontaneously and in great
    plenty along the seacoast of the two Carolinas, Georgia, and
    east and west Florida, which we call _yopon_ or _casseena_.
    The Indians transplant and are very fond of it. They drink it
    on certain occasions, and in the most religious ceremonies,
    with awful invocations; but the women and children and those
    who have not accompanied their holy ark, _pro aris et focis_,
    dare not even enter the sacred square when they are on their
    religious duty.

He says distinctly that the Indians “transplant” the shrub, which means
that they cultivated it, and in another place he uses a phrase which
implies that they had plantations near to their “temples,” or places
of worship. Travelers in Paraguay assert that, though attempts have
been made by Jesuits and others to cultivate plantations of maté, or
Paraguay tea, it has never succeeded under cultivation. Adair is the
only author who mentions this transplanting.

In another place Adair says:

    The yopon, or casseena, is very plenty [in northwest Florida]
    as far as the salt air reaches over the lowlands. It is well
    tasted and very agreeable to those who accustom themselves
    to use it. Instead of having any noxious quality, according
    to what many have experienced of the East India insipid and
    costly tea, it is friendly to the human system, enters into and
    contests with the peccant humors, and expels them through the
    various channels of nature. It perfectly cures a tremor of the
    nerves.

At the time Adair wrote the above, Chinese tea was a rare and expensive
luxury in England, and its use was opposed as intensely as was the use
of tobacco when it was first introduced. The power ascribed to cassine
of curing “tremors” is significant. Adair, in the same paragraph,
mentions another leaf used as a beverage, but his description is so
indefinite that I am not able to decide as to its botanical name. It
is certainly not the _Ceanothus_ (New Jersey tea). On referring to
Rafinesque, I think this “North America tea” may be the _Viburnum
cassinoides_, which, he says, is “also named cassine, and so used.” He
also says that “_V. levigatum_ and _V. prunifolium_ are used for the
tea in the South.”

Adair further says:

    The North American tea has a pleasant aromatic taste and the
    same salubrious property as the casseena. It is an evergreen
    and grows on hills. The bushes are about a foot high, each
    of them containing in winter a small, aromatic, red berry in
    the middle of the stalk. Such I saw it about Christmas, when
    hunting among the mountains, opposite to the lower Mohawk
    Castle, in the time of deep snow. There is no visible decay of
    the leaf, and October seems the proper time to gather it.

He frequently refers to the “sacred uses” of the _black drink_, a
decoction of the cassine. I quote his most important allusions:

    There is a carved human statue of wood, to which, however, they
    pay no religious homage. It belongs to the head war town of
    the upper Muskogee country, and seems to have been originally
    designed to perpetuate the memory of some distinguished hero
    who deserved well of his country, for when this _casseena_,
    or bitter black drink, is about to be drank in the Synedrion
    they frequently on common occasions will bring it there and
    honor it with the first conch shell full, by the hand of the
    chief religious attendant, and then they return it to its
    former place. It is observable that the same beloved waiter, or
    holy attendant, and his coadjutant, equally observe the same
    ceremony to every person of reputed merit of that quadrangular
    place.

(Adair seems to have written this book for the sole purpose of proving
that the Creeks were one of the lost tribes of Israel. He imagines that
in one of their religious festivals they invoke the name of Jehovah
under the appellation of Y-O-He-Wah.)

    When this beloved liquid, or supposed drink offering, is fully
    prepared and fit to be drank, one of the magi brings two old,
    consecrated, large conch shells out of a place appropriate for
    containing the holy things, and delivers them into the hands of
    two religious attendants, who, after a wild ceremony, fill them
    with the supposed sanctifying bitter liquid; then they approach
    near to the two central red and white seats (which the leaders
    call the war and beloved cabins), stooping with their heads
    and bodies pretty low. Advancing a few steps in this posture,
    they carry their shells with both hands, at an instant, to
    one of the most principal men on those red and white seats,
    saying in a bass key, Yah, quite short; then in like manner
    they retreat backwards, facing each other with their heads
    bowing forward, their arms across rather below their breasts
    and their eyes half shut. Thus in a very grave, solemn manner
    they sing on a strong bass key the awful monosyllable O for
    the space of a minute; then they strike up a majestic He on
    the treble, with a very intent voice, as long as their breath
    allows them, and on a bass key, with a bold voice and short
    accent, they at last utter the strong, mysterious accent Wah,
    and thus finish the great song, or most solemn invocation of
    the divine essence. The notes together compose the sacred,
    mysterious name, Y-O-He-Wah. The favored persons, whom the
    religious attendants are invoking the divine essence to bless,
    hold up their shells with both hands to their mouths during the
    awful sacred invocation, and retain a mouthful of the drink to
    spurt out upon the ground as a supposed drink offering to the
    great self-existing giver, which they offer at the end of their
    draft. If any of the traders who at those times are invited
    to drink with them were to neglect this religious observance
    they would reckon us as godless and wild as the wolves of
    the desert. After the same manner the supposed holy waiters
    proceed, from the highest to the lowest, in their Synedrion,
    and when they have ended that awful solemnity they go round the
    whole square, or quadrangular place, and collect tobacco from
    the sanctified sinners, according to ancient customs: “For they
    who serve at the altar must live by the altar.”

In another place (page 106), in describing at great length one of the
religious festivals of the Creeks, Adair says: “He” [the Arch Magus, or
fire-maker,] “consecrates the button-snake root and casseena by pouring
a little of those two strong decoctions into the pretended holy fire.
He then purifies the red and white seats with those bitter liquids and
sits down.”

This leads me to observe that the sacred “black drink” was not made
of the cassine alone, but sometimes of several bitter and aromatic
roots and leaves. Mrs. A. E. W. Robertson, in a letter from Okmulgee,
Ind. T., writes: “The black drink as now prepared is, I think, made
from three plants, the “Passa,” (Pasa) or Button Snakeroot (_Eryngium
aquaticum_), and the Mekko Hoyonee v. (_Micco-Hoyonvicha_), a small
willow, and the third I do not now recall.” It may be that cassine is
not now used at all by the Creeks in Indian Territory, for it does not
grow there, and if used would have to be imported from the Atlantic or
Gulf coast.

Bossu, who traveled through the country now known as Louisiana,
Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia, in 1751, makes no mention of the
use of cassine by the Indians of the two first-named States (Natchez),
nor by the Indians along the Mississippi as far as he traveled, namely,
to the country of the Illinois. But in his travels eastward, when he
was in the neighborhood of Mobile, he writes:

    All the Allibamas drink the cassine.[6] This is the leaf of
    a little tree which is very shady; the leaf is about the
    size of a farthing, but dentated on its margins. They toast
    these leaves as we do coffee, and drink the infusion of them
    with great ceremony. When this diuretic potion is prepared,
    the young people go to present it, in calabashes formed into
    cups, to the chiefs and warriors, that is, the honorables,
    and afterwards to the other warriors, according to their rank
    and degree. The same order is preserved when they present the
    calumet to smoke out of. Whilst you drink, they howl as loud as
    they can and diminish the sound gradually. When you have ceased
    drinking they take their breath, and when you drink again they
    set up their howls again. These sorts of orgies sometimes
    last from 6 in the morning to 2 o’clock in the afternoon. The
    Indians find no inconvenience from this potion, to which they
    attribute many virtues, and return it without any effort. The
    women never drink of this beverage, which is only made for the
    warriors.

What Bossu says relating to the size of the leaves shows conclusively
that it was the leaf of the tree _Ilex cassine_, for one of the leaves
is just the diameter of the English farthing, a coin the size of the
old half cent of American currency. His phrase “return it without any
effort” is rather ambiguous, but it probably refers to the expulsion
of the decoction after having drenched their stomachs with it. I do
not think this was a true emesis, for there is no proof that it was an
emetic. The Indians doubtless swallowed such large quantities that it
was regurgitated without effort.

Bossu’s only other reference to the cassine is when, in describing a
council between the French and the Allibamas, he writes:

    The Chevalier de Emville held a speech to the assembly in his
    turn, and made the nation a present which the governor had sent
    him. The Indians gave him the great calumet of peace to smoke;
    all the soldiers and French inhabitants likewise smoked it, in
    sign of a general amnesty. Afterwards they drank the cassine,
    which is the potion of the white word, _i. e._, the potion of
    oblivion and peace.

Bernard Romans, “Natural History of Florida” (1775), page 94, writes as
follows:

    The _cassine_ is used by them (the Creeks) as a drink; they
    barbecue or toast the leaves and make a strong decoction of
    them; then men only are permitted to drink this liquor, to
    which they attribute many virtues. It is made so strong as
    to be _black_ and raise a froth. When they drink it at their
    assemblies in the square they call it black drink.

Romans states (p. 96) that it was the business of the women to “prepare
the cassine drink.” These are his only allusions to cassine.

William Bartram, in his “Travels in Florida” (1792), one of the
most fascinating books ever written, narrates that he attended a
“feast” given by the “White king of Talahafochta,” near the River
“Appalochuchla” (Apalachicola), and says:

    When the feast was over, * * * our chief, with the rest of the
    white people in town, took their seats according to order;
    tobacco and pipes were brought; the calumet was lighted and
    smoked, circulating according to the usual forms and ceremony;
    and afterwards _black drink_ concluded the feast. The king
    conversed, drank _cassine_, and associated familiarly with his
    people and with us. (P. 234.)

Again, when in what is now Georgia, or extreme north Florida, meeting
the Creek Indians at a town he calls “Attasse,” he attended a great
council of the chiefs of that nation:

    I was introduced to the ancient chiefs at the public square
    or areopagus; and in the evening in company with the traders,
    who are numerous in this town, repaired to the great rotunda,
    where were assembled the greatest number of ancient, venerable
    chiefs and warriors that I had ever beheld; we spent the
    evening and greater part of the night together in drinking
    cassine and smoking tobacco. The great council house, or
    rotunda, is appropriated to much the same purpose as the public
    square, but more private, and seems particularly dedicated to
    political affairs; women and youth are never admitted, and I
    suppose it is death for a female to presume to enter the door
    or approach within its pale. It is a vast conical building of
    circular dome, capable of accommodating many hundred people:
    constructed and furnished within exactly in the same manner as
    those of the Cherokees already described, but much larger than
    any I had seen of them; there are people appointed to take care
    of it, to have it daily swept clean, and to provide canes for
    fuel or to give light. As their vigils and manner of conducting
    their vespers and mystical fire in this rotunda are extremely
    singular, and altogether different from the customs and usages
    of any other people, I shall proceed to describe them. In the
    first place, the governor or officer who has the management
    of this business, with his servants attending, orders the
    black drink to be brewed, which is a decoction or infusion of
    the leaves and tender shoots of the _cassine_; this is done
    under an open shed or pavilion, at 20 or 30 yards distance,
    directly opposite the door of the council house. Next he orders
    bundles of dry canes to be brought in; these are previously
    split and broken in pieces to about the length of 2 feet, and
    then placed obliquely crossways upon one another on the floor,
    forming a spiral circle round about the great center pillar,
    rising to a foot or 18 inches in height from the ground; and
    this circle, spreading as it proceeds round and round, often
    repeated from right to left, every revolution increases its
    diameter, and it at length extends to the distance of 10 or 12
    feet from the center, more or less, according to the length of
    time the assembly or meeting is to continue. By the time these
    preparations are accomplished, it is night, and the assembly
    have taken their seats in order. The exterior extremity or
    outer end of the spiral circle takes fire and immediately rises
    into a bright flame (but how this is effected I did not plainly
    apprehend; I saw no person set fire to it; there might have
    been fire left on the earth; however, I neither saw nor smelt
    fire or smoke until the blaze instantly ascended upwards),
    which gradually and slowly creeps round the center pillar, with
    the course of the fire, feeding on the dry canes, and affords
    a cheerful, gentle, and sufficient light until the circle is
    consumed, when the council breaks up.

    Soon after this illumination takes place the aged chiefs and
    warriors are seated on their cabins or sofas, on the side
    of the house opposite the door, in three classes or ranks,
    rising a little one above or behind the other; and the white
    people and red people of confederate towns in like order on
    the left hand, a transverse range of pillars, supporting a
    thin clay wall about breast high, separating them; the king’s
    cabin or seat is in front; the next to the back of it the
    head warriors’, and the third or last accommodates the young
    warriors, etc.

    The great war chief’s seat or place is in the same cabin with
    and immediately to the left hand of the king and next to the
    white people; and to the right hand of the mico or king the
    most venerable headmen and warriors are seated. The assembly
    being now seated in order, and the house illuminated, two
    middle-aged men, who perform the office of slaves or servants
    _pro tempore_, come in together at the door, each having very
    large conch shells full of black drink, and advance with
    slow, uniform, and steady steps, their eyes or countenance
    lifted up, singing very low but sweetly; they come within 6
    or 8 paces of the king’s and white people’s cabin, when they
    stop together, and each rests his shell on a tripod or little
    table, but presently takes it up again, and bowing very low,
    advances obsequiously, crossing or intersecting each other
    about midway; he who rested his shell before the white people
    now stands before the king, and the other, who stopped before
    the king, stands before the white people, when each presents
    his shell, one to the king and the other to the chief of the
    white people; and as soon as he raises it to his mouth, the
    slave utters or sings two notes, each of which continues as
    long as he has breath, and as long as these notes continue
    so long must the person drink, or at least keep the shell to
    his mouth. These two long notes are very solemn, and at once
    strike the imagination with a religious awe or homage to the
    Supreme, sounding somewhat like a hoo-ojah and a he-yah. After
    this manner the whole assembly are treated as long as the drink
    or light continues to hold out; and as soon as the drinking
    begins, tobacco and pipes are brought.

Mark Catesby (_Hortus americanus_, 1763) describes the _Ilex cassine_
as follows:

    This shrub usually rises from the ground with several stems to
    the height of 12 feet, shooting into many upright, slender,
    stiff branches, covered with a whitish, smooth bark, and set
    alternately with small evergreen serrated leaves, resembling
    those of the Aleternus; its flowers are small and white, and
    grow promiscuously among the leaves, and are succeeded by small
    spherical berries on short footstalks. These berries turn red
    in October and remain so all winter, whereby with the green
    leaves and white bark they produce an elegant appearance.

    But the esteem the American Indians have for this shrub,
    from the great use they make of it, renders it most worthy
    of notice. They say its virtues have been known amongst them
    from the earliest times, and they have long used it in the
    same manner as they do at present. They prepare the leaves for
    keeping by drying or rather parching them in a pottage pot over
    a slow fire, and a strong decoction of the leaves thus cured
    is their beloved liquor, of which they drink large quantities,
    both for health and pleasure, without sugar or other mixture.
    They drink it down and disgorge it with ease, repeating it very
    often, and swallowing many quarts. They say it restores lost
    appetite, strengthens the stomach, and confirms their health,
    giving them agility and courage in war. It grows chiefly in the
    maritime parts of the country, but not farther north than the
    capes of Virginia.

    The Indians on the seacoast supply those of the mountains
    therewith, and carry on a considerable trade with it in
    Florida, just as the Spaniards do with their South Sea tea
    from Paraguay to Buenos Ayres. Now, Florida being in the same
    latitude north as Paraguay is south, and no apparent difference
    being found on comparing the leaves of these two plants
    together, it is not improbable they may be both the same.

    In South Carolina it is called cassena, in Virginia and North
    Carolina it is known by the name of yopon; in the latter of
    which places it is as much in use amongst the white people as
    among the Indians, and especially among those who inhabit the
    seacoast.

    This plant is raised from the seeds, which lie 2 years in the
    ground before it appears; it grows plentifully on many of the
    sand banks on the seashore of Carolina.

In that rare and quaint narrative of Jonathan Dickenson (1790), “who
was shipwrecked on the southeast coast of Florida among the savage
cannibals,” he states that when a short distance south of the “village
of Sta. Lucca” (St. Lucia), and among the Indians and at the “house
of the Cassekey,” he heard often a strange noise in another part of
the house which he could not account for. The following quotation is
interesting; it shows that cassine grows on the extreme south coast of
Florida, and gives the method of preparing the black drink among those
barbarous nations:

    In one part of this house where the fire was kept was an Indian
    man having a pot on the fire wherein he was making a drink of
    the leaves of a shrub (which we understood afterward by the
    Spaniard is called cassena), 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 2 inches
    diameter, they take the liquor out of the pot and put it in a
    deep round bowl, which being almost filled containeth nigh 3
    gallons. With this gourd they brew the liquor and make it froth
    very much; it looketh 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 which it contained being forced out of the little hole at
    top occasioned a sound, and according to the time and motion
    given would be various, this drink, when made and cooled to
    sup, was in a shell first carried to the Cassekey, who threw
    part of it on the ground and the rest he drank up, and then
    would make a loud _hem_, and afterwards the cup passed to the
    rest of the Cassekey’s associates as aforesaid, but no other
    man, woman, or child must touch or taste of this sort of drink,
    of which they sat sipping, chattering, and smoking tobacco, or
    some other herb instead thereof, for the most part of the day.

In a letter from William Baldwin, a noted naturalist and surgeon in the
U. S. Navy, written from St. Marys, Fla. (6 miles from Fernandina),
in 1816, he mentions finding the _Ilex prinoides_ predominant on the
sandy, shrubby plains of the vicinity:

    Its common height is about 6 or 8 feet, and at this season
    (December), with its ripe crimson-colored fruit, makes a fine
    appearance. The berry of this species is considerably larger
    than that of any other I have seen, and is not unpleasant to
    the taste, possessing an agreeable sweet, along with a slight
    bitter. I have eaten freely of it with entire impunity.

He discusses the question whether the genus Prinos should not be merged
into that of Ilex. They are so near alike that their leaves doubtless
possess similar properties, and are probably mixed with cassine.

Collinson, in a letter from London, England, to John Bartram, 1739,
makes mention of “the yupon of Virginia, or cassena of Carolina” (_Ilex
cassena_ or _I. vomituria_). The Indians drive a great trade with the
berries (?) to make tea with to the Gulf of Mexico. It grows nowhere to
the northward of that island they found it on, which belongs to Col.
Custis. I have it in my garden. (He errs as to the berries being used,
but proves that it can be cultivated.)

Dr. Fothergill cultivated it together with maté in his botanical garden
in London in 1784. (See his Memoirs.)

John Lee Williams, in his history of east and west Florida, 1837, a
work unique in character and of special value to historians, contains
but one mention of the “black drink.” It is in a mention of Oseola, a
noted chief of the Seminoles. In writing of his parentage, he says:

    Powell, or Oseola, is a native Red Stick; who his father was
    is unknown, but it is said that his mother was at one time
    connected with an Englishman of the name of Powell. We are
    informed by a respectable Creek chief that his name is As-sin
    Yahole, “Singer at the black drink.”

Now this word As-sin is a variation of cassine, and Oseola was probably
one of those whose duty it was to sing during the ceremonies which
accompanied the drinking of cassine.

It is strange that the cassine has not been celebrated in poetry or
song. The songs of the Creeks have not been preserved. Perhaps they
sung the praises of the “black drink.” The only mention I find in
poetry is an allusion to it as “the tough cassine,” in the poems of
Mrs. Sigourney, when she enumerates the variety and qualities of the
trees of America.

C. C. Jones, in his “Antiquities of the Southern Indians,” writes (page
11): “The black drink was a decoction of the leaves and tender twigs
of the cassine, or Ilex yupon.” He mentions no other ingredients,
but other observers claim that the _Iris versicolor_ (blue flag) and
sometimes the _Lobelia inflata_ were used. My opinion is that, when
used in their wars or religious festivals, other ingredients were used,
for it is represented as powerfully purgative and emetic. Yet, on the
other hand, we are told that the two species of _Ilex cassine_ and
_dahoon_ possess these qualities. The _I. cassine_ is called by some
botanists _Ilex vomitoria_. On social occasions the black drink was
probably made of the leaves of the cassine alone, or made much weaker.
Jones writes:

    The Mico councillors or warriors meet every day in the public
    square, sit and drink acee (assi), a strong decoction of the
    cassine yupon, called by traders black drink, talk of the news,
    the public and domestic concerns, etc. They have a regular
    ceremony for making as well as delivering the acee to all who
    attend the square.

The black drink made by the Seminoles is described as “nauseous to the
smell and taste, and emetic and purgative.” It is a mixture and not
brewed of the cassine alone. All our beverages, such as tea, coffee,
maté, and even chocolate, when drank very strong are capable of causing
diuresis, purging, and vomiting.

One peculiarity of the drinking of the black drink is that, so far as I
can ascertain, it was not used at their meals as we use tea and coffee,
but wholly as a social beverage or at festivals and other public
occasions. I do not think the women were allowed to drink it, at least
not publicly. Authorities differ on this point.

Among the Creeks the women sometimes prepared the black drink, but
Narvaez writes that the Indians on the coast of what is now Texas did
not allow a woman to come near it during its preparation.

That a beverage containing caffeine should fall into disuse and become
almost forgotten is a singular fact. The use of maté has not decreased
from the time of the conquest of South America by Europeans. The reason
why the latter is still in use and the former not lies, perhaps, in
the fact that the Europeans in South America mixed with the natives,
married, and adopted their customs, while the English and French
who settled the Gulf States did not associate with the Indians, and
adhered to the use of Chinese tea. Now that we know that the leaf of
the cassine contains caffeine or theine, can its use as a beverage be
revived?

It is not as pleasant in odor and taste as _Thea sinensis_, and this
may be against it; on the other hand, it seems to have some salutary
properties which the latter does not possess, and may, perhaps, be far
more cheaply obtained.

[Illustration: Distribution of the _Ilex cassine_, indicated by dotted
portions along coast line.]

A rough estimate can be made as to the number of square miles upon
which it grows. Estimating the coast line from the James River,
in Virginia, to the Rio Grande, in Texas--about 2,000 miles--and
multiplying this by 20 miles, the extent of its growth inland, we get
a total of about 40,000 square miles. On this area could be picked an
immense quantity of the leaves, and if the trees are not destroyed in
the picking the crops could be harvested every year. No estimate can be
approximated even of the amount of the crop of leaves which could be
gathered, because we can not estimate the number of trees on this area.

It would seem possible that further inquiries on this point and careful
experiments in cultivation and manipulation might result in furnishing
our market with a product which would be found in many cases an
acceptable and useful substitute for the more expensive imported teas.




FOOTNOTES:

[1] This was written before Professor Venable’s recent investigations,
hereafter referred to.

[2] Prof. W. Trelease, of the Shaw School of Botany, St. Louis, Mo.,
has written an excellent synopsis of the genus Ilex in the United
States embracing 14 species.

[3] This was written before Professor Venable’s recent investigations,
hereafter referred to.

[4] Vol. II, p. 39, “Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society.”

[5] Only when drunk in great quantity.--H.

[6] This is the _Prinus glaber_ of Linnæus sp. pl. p. 471 and Cassena
vera Floridanorum, Catesby’s Carolinas, 2 t. 57.




Transcriber’s Notes

Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations
in accents have been standardised but all other spelling and
punctuation remains unchanged.

Italics are represented thus _italic_.



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