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P. 5 275
The Cherokees had also various methods of preparing nutritious and innnocent drinks. First, They cultivated the Honey Locust, i.e. encouraged its growth about their houses. These Locust pods, they gather when ripe, & put away to dry. Now whenever they wished to furnish their guests or themselves with pleasant drink, they put some of these pods into a pot, poured on water, broke or mashed the pods, and set the pot where the water would become a very little warm; and it would soon be sufficiently sweet for their cordial. That water being drunk out, hotter water was put in, to extract the remainder of the sweetness. Second. They gathered, pounded, ad sifted Hickory nuts, as if to make oil, and after pounding the meal in a mortar, instead of boiling it, they put it into cold water, when all the substance of the shell which had passed through the seive, sunk to the bottom of the vessel, which the meat of the nuts mixed with the water and formed a delicious, and nourishing drink. Third. Grape soup. Large quantities of grapes were usually gathered in the proper season, tied in large bunches, and hung in (under) the roof to dry. These would be preserved during the winter, or year. To prepare them for use, they were boiled, strained through a cone seive, to take out the seeds, then the liquor was put back into the pot, boiled again, and then thickened with meal (sometimes with the meal of parched corn) till it was about the consistency of honey. It was then esteemed, and truly so, a very delicious dish. Modern Cherokees, learning to make beer, have often made it of Persimmons. But no fermented drink was used by the ancients.
But in all common ans?, for ages past, their bread has been of corn and their most common drink, made by various preparations of that article.
So also their common dress was of deer skin & other skins taken in hunting, yet on some occasions