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.