So they departed in joy
and peace.
To this day, also, the remnant of the Seminole Indians of Florida, a
people of the same stock as the Creeks, hold an annual purification
and festival called the Green Corn Dance, at which the new corn is
eaten. On the evening of the first day of the festival they quaff a
nauseous "Black Drink," as it is called, which acts both as an
emetic and a purgative; they believe that he who does not drink of
this liquor cannot safely eat the new green corn, and besides that
he will be sick at some time in the year. While the liquor is being
drunk, the dancing begins, and the medicine-men join in it. Next day
they eat of the green corn; the following day they fast, probably
from fear of polluting the sacred food in their stomachs by contact
with common food; but the third day they hold a great feast.
Even tribes which do not till the ground sometimes observe analogous
ceremonies when they gather the first wild fruits or dig the first
roots of the season. Thus among the Salish and Tinneh Indians of
North-West America, "before the young people eat the first berries
or roots of the season, they always addressed the fruit or plant,
and begged for its favour and aid.
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