[Footnote 25: The "black drink" was, till a recent period, in use among the Creeks. It is a strong decoctiun of the plant popularly called eassina, or nupon tea. Major Swan, deputy agent for the Creeks in 1791, thus describes their belief in its properties: "that it purifies them from all sin, and leaves them in a state of perfect innocence; that it inspires them with an invincible prowess in war; and that it is the only solid cement of friendship, benevolence, and hospitality." Swan's account of their mode of drinking and ejecting it corresponds perfectly with Le Moyne's picture in De Bry. See the United States government publication, History, Condition, and Prospects of Indian Tribes, V. 266.] [Footnote 27: The earliest maps and narratives indicate a city, also called Norembega, on the banks of the Penobseot. The pilot, Jean Alphonse, of Saintonge, says that this fabulous city is fifteen or twenty leagues from the sea, and that its inhabitants are of small stature and dark complexion. As late as 1607 the fable was repeated in the Histoire Unicerselle des Indes Occidentales.] [Footnote 28: Such extempore works of defence are still used among some tribes of the remote west. The author has twice seen them, made of trees piled together as described by Champlain, probably by war parties of the Crow or Snake Indians. Champlain, usually too concise, is very minute in his description of the march and encampment.] [Footnote 29: According to Lafitan, hoth bucklers and breastplates were in frequent use among the Iroquois. The former were very large and made of cedar wood covered with interwoven thongs of hide. The kindred nation of the Hurons, says Sagard (Voyage des hlurens, 126-206), carried large shields, and wore greaves for the legs and enirasses made of twigs interwoven with cords. His account corresponds with that of Champlain, who gives a wood-cut of a warrior thus armed.] [Footnote 30: It has been erroneously asserted that the practice of scalping did not prevail among the Indians before the advent of Europeans. In 1535, Cartier saw five scalps at Quebec, dried and stretched on hoops. In 1564, Laudonniere saw them among the Indians of Florida. The Algonquins of New England and Nova Scotia were accustomed to cut off and carry away the head, which they afterwards scalped. Those of Canada, it seems, sometimes scalped dead bodies on the field. Thu Algonquin practice of carrying off heads as trophies is mentioned by Lalemant, Roger Williams, Lescarbot, and Champlain. Compare Historical Magazine, First Series, V. 233.]