Page:Historic highways of America (Volume 4).djvu/143

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DESCRIPTION OF BACKWOODS
139

came from. Among others he made me pay for my Supper by selling me a Horse upon Honour, which, as soon as it was cool, shewed itself Dog-lame and Moon-blind.

"As for eating, they have the Names of almost every Thing that is delicious, or in Fashion in England, but they give them to Things as little like as Cæsar or Pompey were to the Negroes whom they call by those Names. For what they call a Hare is a Creature half Cat, half Rabbet, with white strong Flesh, and that burrows in rotten Trees; they call a Bird not much bigger than a Fieldfare, with hard, dry, strong Flesh, hardly eatable, a Partridge. The best Thing they have is a wild Turky, but this is only in Season one Month in the Year; the rest it is hard, strong, and dry. As for Beef, the Months of October and November excepted, it is Carrion; that is to say, so lean as it would not be called Meat in England; their Mutton is always as strong Goats' Flesh; their Veal is red and lean, and indeed the Heat of the Summer and the pinching Frost of Winter, makes all like Pharaoh's lean Kine. They brag of the Fruits, that they have such plenty of