or more, the but end of which was placed under the side of a house or a large stump. This pole was supported by two forks, placed about one third of its length from its but end, so as to elevate the small end about fifteen feet from the ground. To this was attached, by a large mortise, a piece of sapling about five or six inches in diameter, and eight or ten feet long, the lower end of which was shaped so as to answer for a pestle, and a pin of wood was put through it at a proper height, so that two persons could work at the sweep at once. This simple machine very much lessened the labor and expedited the work.

I remember that when a boy I put up an excellent sweep at my father's. It was made of a sugar tree sapling, and was kept going almost constanly from morning till night by our neighbors for several weeks.

In the Greenbrier country, where they had a number of saltpetre caves, the first settlers made plenty of excellent gunpowder by means of these sweeps and mortars.

A machine still more simple than the mortar and pestle was used for making meal when the corn was too soft to be beaten. It was called a grater. This was a half circular piece of tin, perforated with a punch from the concave side, and nailed by its edges to a block of wood. The ears of corn were rubbed on the rough edges of the holes, while the meal fell through them on the board or block to which the grater was nailed, which being in a slanting direction, discharged the meal into a cloth or bowl placed for its reception. This, to be sure, was a slow way of making meal, but necessity has no law.

The hand mill was better than the mortar and grater. It was made of two circular stones, the lowest of which was called the bed stone, the upper one the runner. These were placed in a hoop, with a spout for discharging the meal. A staff was let into a hole in the upper surface of the runner, near the outer edge, and its upper end through a hole in a board fastened to a joist above, so that two persons could be employed in turning the mill at the same time. The grain was put into the opening in the runner by hand. These mills are still in use in Palestine, the ancient country of the Jews. To a mill of this sort our Savior alluded, when, with reference to the destruction of Jerusalem, he said, "Two women shall be grinding at a mill, the one shall be taken and other left."

This mill is much preferable to that used at present in upper Egypt for making the dhourra bread. It is a smooth stone, placed on an inclined plane, upon which the grain is spread, which is made into meal by rubbing another stone up and down upon it.

Our first water mills were of that description denominated tub mills. It consists of a perpendicular shaft, to the lower end of which a horizontal wheel of about four or five feet in diameter is attached: the upper end passes through the bed stone and carries the runner, after the manner of a trundlehead. These mills were built with very little expense, and many of them answered the purpose very well. Instead of bolting cloths, sifters were in general use. These were made of deer skins in the state of parchment, stretched over a hoop and perforated with a hot wire.

Our clothing was all of domestic manufacture. We had no other resource for clothing, and this indeed was a poor one. The crops of flax

often failed, and the sheep were destroyed by the wolves. Linsey, which is made of flax and wool, the former the chain, and the latter the filling, was the warmest and most substantial cloth we could make. Almost every house contained a loom and almost every woman was a weaver.

Every family tanned their own leather. The tan vat was a large trough sunk to the upper end in the ground. A quantity of bark was easily obtained every spring in clearing and fencing land. This, after drying, was brought in, and in wet days was shaved and pounded on a block of wood with an axé or mallet. Ashes was used in place of lime for taking off the hair. Bear's oil, hog's lard and tallow, answered the place of fish oil. The leather, to be sure, was coarse; but it was substantially good. The operation of currying was performed by a drawing knife with its edge turned after the manner of a currying knife. The blacking for the leather was made of soot and hog's lard.

Almost every family contained its own tailors and shoemakers. Those who could not make shoes could make shoe-packs. These, like moccasons, were made of a single piece of leather, with the exception of a tongue piece on the top of the foot, which was about two inches broad and circular at the lower end, and to which the main piece of leather was sewed with a gathering stitch. The seam behind was like that of a moccason, and a sole was sometimes added. The women did the tailor work. They could all cut out and make hunting shirts, leggins and drawers.

The state of society which existed in our country at an early period of its settlement, was well calculated to call into action every native mechanical genius. There was in almost every neighborhood, some one whose natural ingenuity enabled him to do many things for himself and his neighbors, far above what could have been reasonably expected. With the very few tools which they brought with them into the country, they certainly performed wonders. Their plows, harrows with their wooden teeth, and sleds, were in many instances well made. Their cooper-ware, which comprehended every thing for holding milk and water, was generally pretty well executed. The cedar-ware, by having alternately a white and red stave, was then thought beautiful. Many of their puncheon floors were very neat, their joints close, and the top even and smooth. Their looms, although heavy, did very well. Those who could not exercise these mechanic arts were under the necessity of giving labor or barter to their neighbors in exchange for the use of them, so far as their necessities required.

An old man in my father's neighborhood had the art of turning bowls, from the knots of trees, particularly those of the ash. In what way he did it I do not know, or whether there was much mystery in his art. Be that as it may, the old man's skill was in great request, as well-turned wooden bowls were amongst our first-rate articles of household furniture. My brothers and myself once undertook to procure a fine suit of these bowls made of the best wood, the ash. We gathered all we could find on our father's land, and took them to the artist, who was to give, as the saying was, one half for the other. He put the knots in a branch before the door, when a freshet came and swept them all away, not one of them

being ever found. This was a dreadful misfortune. Our anticipation of an elegant display of new bowls was utterly blasted in a moment, as the poor old man was not able to repair our loss or any part of it.

My father possessed a mechanical genius of the highest order, and necessity, which is the mother of invention, occasioned the full exercise of his talents. His farming utensils were the best in the neighborhood. After making his loom he often used it as a weaver. All the shoes belonging to the family were made by himself. He always spun his own shoe-thread, saying that no woman could spin shoe-thread as well as he could. His cooper-ware was made by himself. I have seen him make a small, neat kind of wooden ware, called set work, in which the staves were all attached to the bottom of the vessel, by means of a groove cut in them by a strong clasp knife and a small chisel, before a single hoop was put on. He was sufficiently the carpenter to build the best kind of houses then in use, that is to say, first a cabin, and afterwards the hewed log house, with a shingled roof. In his latter years he became sickly, and not being able to labor, he amused himself with tolerably good imitations of cabinet work.

Not possessing sufficient health for service on the scouts and campaigns, his duty was that of repairing the rifles of his neighbors when they needed it. In this business he manifested a high degree of ingenuity. A small depression on the surface of a stump or log, and a wooden mallet, were his instruments for straightening the gun barrel when crooked. Without the aid of a bow string he could discover the smallest bend in a barrel, and with a bit of steel he could make a saw for deepening the furrows when requisite. A few shots determined whether the gun might be trusted.

Although he never had been more than six weeks at school, he was nevertheless a first rate penman and a good arithmetician. His penmanship was of great service to his neighbors in writing letters, bonds, deeds of conveyance, &c.

Young as I was, I was possessed of an art which was of great use, viz: that of weaving shot pouch straps, belts and garters. I could make my loom and weave a belt in less than one day. Having a piece of board about four feet long, an inch auger, spike gimlet, and a drawing knife, I needed no other tools or materials for making my loom.

It frequently happened that my weaving proved serviceable to the family, as I often sold a belt for a day's work, or making an hundred rails; so that although a boy, I could exchange my labor for that of a full grown person for an equal length of time.

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CHAPTER XXVI.

MEDICINE.

THIS amongst a rude and illiterate people consisted mostly of specifics. As far as I can recollect them, they shall be enumerated, together with the diseases for which they were used.

The diseases of children were mostly ascribed to worms; for the expulsion of which a solution of common salt was given, and the dose was always large. I well remember having been compelled to take half a table spoonful when quite small. To the best of my recollection it generally answered the purpose.

This

Scrapings of pewter spoons was another remedy for the worms. dose was also large, amounting, I should think, from twenty to forty grains. It was coinmonly given in sugar.

Sulphate of iron, or green copperas, was a third remedy for the worms. The dose of this was also larger than we should venture to give at this time.

For burns, a poultice of Indian meal was a common remedy. A poultice of scraped potatoes was also a favorite remedy with some people.Roasted turnips, made into a poultice, was used by others. Slippery elm bark was often used in the same way. I do not recollect that any internal remedy or bleeding was ever used for burns.

The croup, or what was then called the "bold hives," was a common disease among the children, many of whom died of it. For the cure of this, the juice of roasted onions or garlic was given in large doses.Wall ink was also a favorite remedy with many of the old ladies. For fevers, sweating was the general remedy. This was generally performed by means of a strong decoction of Virginia snake root. The dose was always very large. If a purge was used, it was about half a pint of a strong decoction of walnut bark. This, when intended for a purge, was peeled downwards; if for a vomit, it was peeled upwards. Indian physic, or bowman root, a species of ipecacuanha, was frequently used for a vomit, and sometimes the pocoon or blood root.

For the bite of a rattle or copper-snake, a great variety of specifics were used. I remember when a small boy to have seen a man, bitten by a rattle-snake, brought into the fort on a man's back. One of the company dragged the snake after him by a forked stick fastened in its head. The body of the snake was cut into pieces of about two inches in length, split open in succession, and laid on the wound to draw out the poison, as they expressed it. When this was over, a fire was kindled in the fort and the whole of the serpent barnt to ashes, by way of revenge for the

injury he had done. After this process was over, a large quantity of chestnut leaves was collected and boiled in a pot. The whole of the wounded man's leg and part of his thigh were placed in a piece of chestnut bark, fresh from the tree, and the decoction was poured on the leg so as to run down into the pot again. After continuing this process for some time, a quantity of the boiled leaves were bound to the leg. This was repeated several times a day. The man got well; but whether owing to the treatment bestowed on his wound, is not so certain.

A number of native plants were used for the cure of snake bites.— Among them the white plantain held a high rank. This was boiled in A kind of

milk, and the decoction given the patient in large quantities. fern, which, from its resemblance to the leaves of the walnut, was called walnut fern, was another remedy. A plant with fibrous roots, resembling the seneca snake root, of a black color, and a strong but not disagreeable smell, was considered and relied on as the Indian specific for the cure of the sting of a snake. A decoction of this root was also used for the cure for colds. Another plant, which very much resembles the one above mentioned, but which is violently poisonous, was sometimes mistaken for it and used in its place. I knew two young women, who, in consequence of being bitten by rattle-snakes, used the poisonous plant instead of the other, and nearly lost their lives by the mistake. were applied to their legs in the form of a poultice. The violent burning and swelling occasioned by the inflammation discovered the mistake in time to prevent them from taking any of the decoction, which, had they done, would have been instantly fatal. It was with difficulty that the part to which the poultice was applied was saved from mortification, so that the remedy was worse than the disease.

The roots

Cupping, sucking the wound, and making deep incisions which were filled with salt and gun-power, were also amongst the remedies for snake bites.

It does not appear to me that any of the internal remedies, used by the Indians and the first settlers of this country, were well adapted for the cure of the disease occasioned by the bite of a snake. The poison of a snake, like that of a bee or a wasp, must consist of a highly concentrated and very poisonous acid, which instantly inflames the part to which it is applied. That any substance whatever can act as a specific for the decomposition of this poison, seems altogether doubtful. The cure of the fever occasioned by this animal poison, must be effected with reference to those general indications which are regarded in the cure of other fevers of equal force. The internal remedies alluded to, so far as I am acquainted with them, are possessed of little or no medical efficacy. They are not emeties, cathartics, or sudorifies. What then? They are harmless substances, which do wonders in all those cases in which there is nothing to be done.

The truth is, the bite of a rattle or copper-snake, in a fleshy or tendinous part, where the blood vessels are neither numerous or large, soon healed under any kind of treatment. But when the fangs of the serpent, which are hollow, and eject the poison through an orifice near the points, penetrate a blood vessel of any considerable size, a malignant and inen