Crude Intoxicants

It is a reniarkable fact that up to the time of the coming of the whites the North Ainerican Indians generalij had no knowledge of intoxicants. As for tobacco, they did not smoke it as we de apparently, but merely for ceremonial purposes. Going southward into Mexicc in those days, however, the traveler might have found .alcoholic stimulants in uommon use. Even at the present time the natives in that part of the world make an odd sort of beer ont of corn. They wet a wooleu blanket, lay it in the sun and spread wliole grains of maize upon it. The grains germinate, sprouting and sending ont rootlets through the texture of the blanket, which is kept moist. They are then parched and ground to a coarse meal. To this meal a little yeast, made by chewing some corn and allowing it to ferruent, is added. Then the stuff is mixed with water and put away in jars. Fermentation follows, and as it dirninishes the liquor becomes as clear as yellow amber, in which condition it is drunk. It is qnite intoxicating. Several varieties of grasses, herbs and flowers, the roots of suudry plants, the juices of the sugar cañe and aloe, and even beets, are used by various tribes and peoples as a basis of driuks. In earlier times spruce trees, ür trees, birch trees and ash trees were tapped for their sap, which was fermented to make stimulating beverages. The willow, poplar, sycamore and walnut are said to yieldpalatable driuks. The.Tapanese obtain intoxicating beverages from plurus and from the flowers of the motherwort and peach. The Chinese actually produce an alcoholic drink from mutton. The Abnaki Indians of New England used to manufacture a kind of liquor from the tops of fir trees, which they boiled and put into casks with molasses. The contents of the oasks were allowed to ferment for three duys. The Eskimos were entirely unacquainted with the art of getting drunk until they came into contact with the Whites. Travelers have observed that they drink extraordinary quantities of water when they can procure it. That is not always so easy in a latitude where the normal condition of water is that of a solid. In winter one of the most important occupations of the women is the thawing of snow to get water. The snow is cut into very thin slices as a preparation for the thawing procesa, and it is fetched to the hut from a considerable distance in order that it may be perfectly clean. The Eskimo greatly dislikes water that is many degrees above the freezing point. The Chilcat Indians of southern Alaska distill a fearful beverage called "hootchenoo. " The process adopted was probably suggested to them by United States soldiers originally. Molasses or I vegetables of any sort, made into a "mash, " are employed as raw material. The mash is put into a large tin can, which is connected with another tin can by a tube of the hollow stem of the giant kelp. This tnbe is buried in 6now. A fire is built under the can that contains the mash, and the alcohol passes over into the other vessel. The liquor thus distilled is druuk fresh and produces ternporary insanity. The aborigines of Mexico and farther j to the gouth were acquainted only with fermented intoxicants up to the time i when they learned from the whites the principie of the still. At present, [ ever, this contrivance of civilization is in general nse among savages on this continent. The Apaches of southern ' Arizona make whisky from the sap of a small species of cactus. They cut out the hearts of the plants, resembling little cabbages, and in the cup shaped receptacles left behind the sap accumulates. From this sap they distill the f amons "mescal," which drives those who drink it to sheer madness. Many spirituous drinks are made from the banana. Banana wine is obtained by I pressing the fruit through a sieve, after I which it is made into cakes, dried in the sun and dissolved in water when wanted for use. On the west coast of África it is a common thing to seo a bare legged an cïimbing up a gigant'c palm tree, with a calabash of immeDse size hung I round her neck. When she has reached ' the top branch, she taps the tree, and the sap begins to fiow. Then she hangs the calabash beneath the stream of sap and descends. Twelve honrs later she climbs ; the tree again and takes down the calabash, which by that time is full of palm ; beer. It resembles mead somewhat, but a j small quantity of it stupofies the drinker. Africau uatives uuiversally know how to prepare drunk producing liquors from such simple materials as the tops of broom corn, sugar cane juice and ! coanut milk. All over eastern Asia is consumed a drink known as "arrack. " The best of it is distilled from the unexpancied flowers of certain varieties of palm. A vile kind of arrack is made from iinpnre molasses that is left over as refuse in j the manufacture of raw sugar. It makes i the drinker crazy, and under the , ence of it whole parties of Malays j times "run amuck" together, the sport only conoluding with the death of all participants, as well as the destruction [ of numbers of innocent people. This is , a favorito Malay plan of committing : suicide. A man makes up his mind that be wants to die, and so he filis himself np with arrack and starts to run amuck, stabbing every one that comes in his way until he himself is slain. - St. Louis ■ Globe Democrat. Blotting paper is wholly unsized, the lack of sizing enabling it to take up and retain the ink of the writing on whicb it is laid.