Note 22 — Observations, and arguments, in proof of the American Indians being descended from the Jews.

The celebrated “black drink,” general among the Southern Indians, a decoction of the leaves and tender tops and shoots of the cassine shrub of the holly family. The drink repeated caused a sweating which was supposed to purify, physically and morally. The caffeine in the plant produced stimulation and a strong infusion was a narcotic, used as such by the conjurers to evoke ecstasies. “No one is allowed to drink it in council unless he has proved himself a brave warrior.” Bossu, Travels, II, 299; John Bartram’s Observations, 23; Gatschet, Migration Legend of the Creeks; Du Pratz, History of Louisiana, 372; and Harris, Memorials of Oglethorpe, 108. The white people of the Carolinas prepared from the shrub a sort of tea—“Carolina tea” or “Appalachian tea.”