victory, although those shell-init errors make me feel I may have created my server's version of an ISIS cell in so doing. Perhaps it's just a few blown up cars. nbd, really...

[centos@localhost cassandra]$ cqlsh
shell-init: error retrieving current directory: getcwd: cannot access parent directories: No such file or directory
shell-init: error retrieving current directory: getcwd: cannot access parent directories: No such file or directory
Connected to Test Cluster at 127.0.0.1:9042.
[cqlsh 5.0.1 | Cassandra 3.11.6 | CQL spec 3.4.4 | Native protocol v4]
Use HELP for help.
cqlsh>