Page:The History of the American Indians.djvu/427

 the North American Indians. 415

The induftrious old traders have dill a plenty of hogs, which they raife in folds, moftly on the weeds of the fields during the whole time the crops are in the ground, likewife fome hundreds of fowls at once, plenty of venifon, the dried flefh of bears and buffalos, wild turkeys, ducks, geefe, and pigeons, during the proper feafon of their being fat and plenty ; for the former fort of fowls are lean in the fummer, and the others are in thefe moderate climates only during the winter, for they return north ward with the fun. The buffalos are now become fcarce, as the thoughtlefs and wafleful Indians ufed to kill great numbers of them, only for the tongues and marrow-bones, leaving the reft of the carcafes to the wild beads. The traders commonly make bacon of the bears in winter; but the Indians moftly flay off a thick tier of fat which lies over the flefh, and the latter they cut up into fmall pieces, and thruft them on reeds, or fuckers of fweet- tafted hiccory or faffafras, which they barbecue over a flow fire. The fat they fry into clear well-tafted oil, mixing plenty of faffafras and wild cinnamon with it over the fire, which keeps fweet from one winter to another, in large earthen jars, covered in the ground. It is of a light digeftion, and nutritive to hair. All who are acquainted with its qua lities, prefer it to any oil, for any ufe whatfoever : fmooth Florence is not to be compared in this refpeft with rough America.

I have known gentlemen of the niceft tafte, who on the beginning of their firft trip into the Indian country, were fo greatly prejudiced againft eating bears-flefh, that they vehemently protefted, they would as foon eat part of a barbecued rib of a wolf, or any other beaft of prey, as a fpare- rib of a young bear ; but, by the help of a good appetite, which their ex- ercife and change of air procured, they ventured to tafte a little : and prefently they fed on it more plentifully than others, to make up the lofs they had fuftained by their former fqueamimnefs and neglect. In the fpring of the year, bear-bacon is a favourite difh with the traders, along with herbs that the woods afford in plenty, efpecially with the young tops of poke, the root of which is a very ftrong poifon. And this method they purfue year by year, as a phyfical regimen, in order to purge their blood.

Buffalo flem is nothing but beef of a coarfer grain, though of a fweeter

tafte than the tame fort : elk-flefh has the like affinity to venifon. The deer

5 are

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