Creature, and by _Salomon_ commended for its wisdom, Prov. 30. 24,
25. _Quatuor ista parva sunt humilia, tamen sunt sapientia, apprime
sapientia: formicæ populus infirmus, quæ comparant æstate cibum
suum_, &c. There are two sorts, red Ants and black Ants, both of
them are many times found winged; not long since they were poured
upon the Sands out of the clouds in a storm betwixt _Black-point_
and _Saco_, where the passenger might have walkt up to the Ankles
in them.
The Grashopper is innumerable and bigger by much than ours in
_England_, having Tinsel-wings, with help whereof they will flye
and skip a great way. Next to these in number are your Crickets, a
man can walk no where in the summer but he shall tread upon them;
The _Italian_ who hath them cryed up and down the streets (_Grille
che cantelo_) and buyeth them to put into his Gardens, if he were
in _New-England_ would gladly be rid of them, they make such a dinn
in an Evening. I could never discover the Organ of their voice,
they have a little clift in their Crown which opens, and at the
same instant they shake their wings.
[p. 119.] The Eft or Swift in _New-England_ is a most beautiful
Creature to look upon, being larger than ours, and painted with
glorious colours; but I lik’d him never the better for it.
Frogs too there are in ponds and upon dry land, they chirp like
Birds in the spring, and latter end of summer croak like Toads.
It is admirable to consider the generating of these Creatures,
first they lay their gelly on the water in ponds and still waters,
which comes in time to be full of black spots as broad as the head
of a Ten-penny nail, and round, these separate themselves from
the gleir, and after a while thrust out a tail, then their head
comes forth, after their head springs out their fore-legs, and
then their hinder-legs, then their tail drops off, and growes to
have a head and four legs too, the first proves a frog, the latter
a water nuet. The Herbalist useth to say by way of admiration,
_quælibet herba deum &c._ So God is seen in the production of these
small Creatures which are a part of the Creation; _Laudate Jehovam
cælites, laudate eum in excelsis_, &c. _Laudent nomen Jehovæ quæ
ipso præcipiente illico creata sunt_ &c. _ipsæ bestiæ & omnes
jumenta, reptilia & aves alatæ_, Psal. 148.
The Toad is of two sorts, one that is [p. 120.] speckled with
white, and another of a dark earthy colour; there is of them that
will climb up into Trees and sit croaking there; but whether it be
of a third sort, or one of the other, or both, I am not able to
affirm; but this I can testifie that there be Toads of the dark
coloured kind that are as big as a groat loaf. Which report will
not swell into the belief of my sceptique Sirs; nor that there
is a Hell, being like _Salomon’s_ fool, Prov. 26. 22. _Sed si
contunderes stultum in mortario cum mola pistillo, non recederet ab
eo stultitia ejus._
Now before I proceed any further, I must (to prevent
misconstructions) tell you that these following Creatures, though
they be not properly accounted Serpents, yet they are venomous
and pestilent Creatures. As, first the Rat, but he hath been
brought in since the _English_ came thither, but the Mouse is
a Native, of which there are several kinds not material to be
described; the Bat or flitter mouse is bigger abundance than any in
_England_ and swarm, which brings me to the insects or cut-wasted
Creatures again, as first the honey-Bee, which are carried over
by the _English_ and thrive there exceedingly, in time they may
be produced from Bullocks when the wild Beasts are destroyed.
But the wasp is [p. 121.] common, and they have a sort of wild
humble-Bee that breed in little holes in the earth. Near upon
twenty years since there lived an old planter at _Black-point_,
who on a Sun-shine day about one of the clock lying upon a green
bank not far from his house, charged his Son, a lad of 12 years of
age to awaken him when he had slept two hours, the old man falls
asleep and lying upon his back gaped with his mouth wide enough for
a Hawke to shit into it; after a little while the lad sitting by
spied a humble-Bee creeping out of his Fathers mouth, which taking
wing flew quite out of sight, the hour as the lad ghest being come
to awaken his Father he jogg’d him and called aloud Father, Father,
it is two a clock, but all would not rouse him, at last he sees the
humble-Bee returning, who lighted upon the sleepers lip and walked
down as the lad conceived into his belly, and presently he awaked.
The Countrey is strangely incommodated with flyes, which the
_English_ call Musketaes, they are like our gnats, they will sting
so fiercely in summer as to make the faces of the _English_ swell’d
and scabby, as if the small pox for the first year. Likewise there
is a small black fly no bigger than a flea, so numerous up in
the Countrey, [p. 122.] that a man cannot draw his breath, but
he will suck of them in: they continue about Thirty dayes say
some, but I say three moneths, and are not only a pesterment but
a plague to the Countrey. There is another sort of fly called a
Gurnipper that are like our horse-flyes, and will bite desperately,
making the bloud to spurt out in great quantity; these trouble
our _English_ Cattle very much, raising swellings as big as an
egg in their hides. The Butterfly is of several sorts and larger
than ours; So are their Dragon-flyes. Glow-worms have here wings,
there are multitudes of them insomuch that in the dark evening
when I first went into the Countrey I thought the whole Heavens
had been on fire, seeing so many sparkles flying in the air: about
_Mount-Carmel_, and the valley of _Acree_ in the _Holy-land_ there
be abundance of them.
These are taken for _Cantharides_. _Cantharides_ are green flyes by
day, in the night they pass about like a flying Glow-worm with fire
in their tails.
I have finished now my relation of plants, _&c._ I have taken some
pains in recollecting of them to memory, and setting of them down
for their benefit from whom I may expect thanks; but I believe my
[p. 123.] reward will be according to _Ben Johnsons_ proverbs,
Whistle to a Jade and he will pay you with a fart, Claw a churl by
the britch and he will shit in your fist.
The people that inhabited this Countrey are judged to be of the
_Tartars_ called _Samonids_ that border upon _Moscovia_, and are
divided into Tribes; those to the East and North-east are called
_Churchers_ and _Tarentines_, and _Monhegans_. To the South are
the _Pequets_ and _Narragansets_. Westward _Connecticuts_ and
_Mowhacks_. To the Northward _Aberginians_ which consist of
_Mattachusets_, _Wippanaps_ and _Tarrentines_. The _Pocanokets_
live to the West-ward of _Plimouth_. Not long before the _English_
came into the Countrey, happened a great mortality amongst them,
especially where the _English_ afterwards planted, the East and
Northern parts were sore smitten with the Contagion; first by the
plague, afterwards when the _English_ came by the small pox, the
three Kingdoms or _Sagamorships_ of the _Mattachusets_ were very
populous, having under them seven Dukedoms or petti-_Sagamorships_,
but by the plague were brought from 30000 to 300. There are not
many now to the Eastward, the _Pequots_ were destroyed by the
_English_: the _Mowhacks_ are about five hundred: Their speech
a dialect of the _Tartars_, [p. 124.] (as also is the _Turkish_
tongue). There is difference between Tongues and Languages, the
division of speech at _Babel_ is most properly called Languages,
the rest Tongues.
As for their persons they are tall and handsome timber’d people,
out-wristed, pale and lean _Tartarian_ visag’d, black eyed which is
accounted the strongest for sight, and generally black hair’d, both
smooth and curl’d wearing of it long. No beards, or very rarely,
their Teeth are very white, short and even, they account them the
most necessary and best parts of man; And as the _Austreans_ are
known by their great lips, the _Bavarians_ by their pokes under
their chins, the _Jews_ by their goggle eyes, so the _Indians_ by
their flat noses, yet are they not so much deprest as they are to
the Southward.
The _Indesses_ that are young, are some of them very comely, having
good features, their faces plump and round, and generally plump
of their Bodies, as are the men likewise, and as soft and smooth
as a mole-skin, of reasonable good complexions, but that they dye
themselves tawnie, many prettie Brownetto’s and spider finger’d
Lasses may be seen amongst them. The _Vetula’s_ or old women are
lean and uglie, all of them are of a modest demeanor, considering
their [p. 125.] Savage breeding; and indeed do shame our _English_
rusticks whose rudeness in many things exceedeth theirs.
Of disposition very inconstant, crafty, timorous, quick of
apprehension, and very ingenious, soon angry, and so malicious that
they seldom forget an injury, and barbarously cruel, witness their
direful revenges upon one another. Prone to injurious violence
and slaughter, by reason of their bloud dryed up with overmuch
fire, very lecherous proceeding from choller adust and melancholy,
a salt and sharp humour; very fingurative or theevish, and bold
importunate beggars, both Men and Women guilty of Misoxenie or
hatred to strangers, a quality appropriated to the old Brittains,
all of them Cannibals, eaters of humane flesh. And so were formerly
the Heathen-_Irish_, who used to feed upon the Buttocks of Boyes
and Womens Paps; it seems it is natural to Savage people so to do.
I have read in Relations of the _Indians_ amongst the _Spaniards_
that they would not eat a _Spaniard_ till they had kept him two
or three dayes to wax tender, because their flesh was hard. At
_Martins_ vinyard, an Island that lyes South to _Plimouth_ in the
way to _Virginia_, certain _Indians_ (whilst I was in the Countrey)
seised upon a Boat that put into [p. 126.] a By-_Cove_, kill’d the
men and eat them up in a short time before they were discovered.
Their houses which they call _Wigwams_, are built with Poles pitcht
into the ground of a round form for most part, sometimes square,
they bind down the tops of their poles, leaving a hole for smoak
to go out at, the rest they cover with the bark of Trees, and line
the inside of their _Wigwams_ with mats made of Rushes painted
with several colours, one good post they set up in the middle that
reaches to the hole in the top, with a staff across before it at a
convenient height, they knock in a pin on which they hang their
Kettle, beneath that they set up a broad stone for a back which
keepeth the post from burning; round by the walls they spread
their mats and skins where the men sleep whilst their women dress
their victuals, they have commonly two doors, one opening to the
South, the other to the North, and according as the wind sits, they
close up one door with bark and hang a _Dears_ skin or the like
before the other. Towns they have none, being alwayes removing from
one place to another for conveniency of food, sometimes to those
places where one sort of fish is most plentiful, other whiles where
others are. I have seen half [p. 127.] a hundred of their _Wigwams_
together in a piece of ground and they shew prettily, within a day
or two, or a week they have been all dispersed. They live for the
most part by the Sea-side, especially in the spring and summer
quarters, in winter they are gone up into the Countrie to hunt
_Deer_ and _Beaver_, the younger webbs going with them. Tame Cattle
they have none, excepting Lice, and Doggs of a wild breed that they
bring up to hunt with.
Wives they have two or three, according to the ability of their
bodies and strength of their concupiscence, who have the easiest
labours of any women in the world; they will go out when their
time is come alone, carrying a board with them two foot long, and
a foot and half broad, bor’d full of holes on each side, having a
foot beneath like a Jack that we pull Boots off with, on the top
of the board a broad strap of leather which they put over their
fore-head, the board hanging at their back; when they are come to a
Bush or a Tree that they fancy they lay them down and are delivered
in a trice, not so much as groaning for it, they wrap the child
up in a young _Beaver_-skin with his heels close to his britch,
leaving a little hole if it be a Boy for his Cock to peep out at;
and lace him down to the [p. 128.] board upon his back, his knees
resting upon the foot beneath, then putting the strap of leather
upon their fore-head with the infant hanging at their back home
they trudge; What other ceremonies they use more than dying of
them with a liquor of boiled _Hemlock_-Bark, and their throwing of
them into the water if they suspect the Child to be gotten by any
other Nation, to see if he will swim, if he swim they acknowledge
him for their own, their names they give them when they are men
grown, and covet much to be called after our _English_ manner,
_Robin_, _Harry_, _Phillip_ and the like, very indulgent they are
to their Children, and their children sometimes to their Parents,
but if they live so long that they become a burden to them, they
will either starve them or bury them alive, as it was supposed an
_Indian_ did his Mother at _Casco_ in 1669.
Their Apparel before the _English_ came amongst them, was the skins
of wild Beasts with the hair on, Buskins of _Deers_-skin or _Moose_
drest and drawn with lines into several works, the lines being
coloured with yellow, blew or red, Pumps too they have, made of
tough skins without soles. In the winter when the snow will bear
them, they fasten to their feet their snow shooes which are made
like a large Racket we play at [p. 129.] _Tennis_ with, lacing
them with _Deers_-guts and the like, under their belly they wear a
square piece of leather and the like upon their posteriors, both
fastened to a string tyed about them to hide their secrets; on
their heads they ware nothing: But since they have had to do with
the English they purchase of them a sort of Cloth called trading
cloth of which they make Mantles, Coats with short sleeves, and
caps for their heads which the women use, but the men continue
their old fashion going bare-headed, excepting some old men amongst
them. They are very proud as appeareth by their setting themselves
out with white and blew Beads of their own making, and painting of
their faces with the above mentioned colours, they weave sometimes
curious Coats with _Turkie_ feathers for their Children.
Their Diet is Fish and Fowl, Bear, Wild-cat, Rattoon and Deer;
dry’d Oysters, _Lobsters_ rosted or dryed in the smoak, _Lampres_
and dry’d _Moose_-tongues, which they esteem a dish for a
_Sagamor_; hard eggs boiled and made small and dryed to thicken
their broth with, salt they have not the use of, nor bread, their
_Indian_ Corn and Kidney beans they boil, and sometimes eat their
Corn parcht or roasted in the ear against the fire; they feed
likewise upon earth-nuts, [p. 130.] or ground-nuts, roots of
water-Lillies, Ches-nuts, and divers sorts of Berries. They beat
their Corn to powder and put it up into bags, which they make
use of when stormie weather or the like will not suffer them to
look out for their food. _Pompions_ and water-_Mellons_ too they
have good store; they have prodigious stomachs, devouring a cruel
deal, meer _voragoes_, never giving over eating as long as they
have it, between meals spending their time in sleep till the next
kettlefull is boiled, when all is gone they satisfie themselves
with a small quantity of the meal, making it serve as the frugal
bit amongst the old _Britains_, which taken to the mountenance of a
Bean would satisfie both thirst and hunger. If they have none of
this, as sometimes it falleth out (being a very careless people not
providing against the storms of want and tempest of necessity) they
make use of Sir _Francis Drake’s_ remedy for hunger, go to sleep.
They live long, even to an hundred years of age, if they be not cut
off by their Children, war, and the plague, which together with
the small pox hath taken away abundance of them. _Pliny_ reckons
up but 300 Diseases in and about man, latter writers Six thousand,
236 belonging to the eyes. There are not so many Diseases raigning
[p. 131.] amongst them as our _Europeans_. The great pox is proper
to them, by reason (as some do deem) that they are _Man-eaters_,
which disease was brought amongst our _Europeans_ first by the
_Spaniards_ that went with _Christopher Columbus_ who brought it
to _Naples_ with their _Indian_-women, with whom the _Italians_
and _French_ conversed _Anno Dom._ 1493. _Paracelsus_ saith it
happened in the year 1478 and 1480. But all agree that it was
not known in _Europe_ before _Columbus_ his voyage to _America_.
It hath continued amongst us above two hundred and three score
years. There are Diseases that are proper to certain climates, as
the Leprosie to _Ægypt_, swelling of the Throat or _Mentegra_ to
_Asia_, the sweating sickness to the Inhabitants of the North; to
the _Portugals_ the Phthisick, to _Savoy_ the mumps; So to the
_West-Indies_ the Pox, but this doth not exclude other Diseases. In
_New-England_ the _Indians_ are afflicted with pestilent Feavers,
Plague, Black-pox, Consumption of the Lungs, Falling-sickness,
Kings-evil, and a Disease called by the _Spaniard_ the Plague in
the back, with us _Empyema_, their Physicians are the _Powaws_ or
_Indian_ Priests who cure sometimes by charms and medicine, but
in a general infection they seldom come amongst them, [p. 132.]
therefore they use their own remedies, which is sweating, _&c._
Their manner is when they have plague or small pox amongst them
to cover their _Wigwams_ with Bark so close that no Air can enter
in, lining them (as I said before) within, and making a great fire
they remain there in a stewing heat till they are in a top sweat,
and then run out into the Sea or River, and presently after they
are come into their Hutts again they either recover or give up
the Ghost; they dye patiently both men and women, not knowing of
a Hell to scare them, nor a Conscience to terrifie them. In times
of general Mortality they omit the Ceremonies of burying, exposing
their dead Carkases to the Beasts of prey. But at other times they
dig a Pit and set the diseased therein upon his breech upright, and
throwing in the earth, cover it with the sods and bind them down
with sticks, driving in two stakes at each end; their mournings
are somewhat like the howlings of the _Irish_, seldom at the grave
but in the _Wigwam_ where the party dyed, blaming the Devil for
his hard heartedness, and concluding with rude prayers to him to
afflict them no further.
They acknowledge a God who they call _Squantam_, but worship him
they do not, [p. 133.] because (they say) he will do them no harm.
But _Abbamocho_ or _Cheepie_ many times smites them with incurable
Diseases, scares them with his Apparitions and pannick Terrours, by
reason whereof they live in a wretched consternation worshipping
the Devil for fear. One black _Robin_ an _Indian_ sitting down in
the Corn field belonging to the house where I resided, ran out of
his _Wigwam_ frighted with the apparition of two infernal spirits
in the shape of _Mohawkes_. Another time two _Indians_ and an
_Indess_, came running into our house crying out they should all
dye, _Cheepie_ was gone over the field gliding in the Air with a
long rope hanging from one of his legs: we askt them what he was
like, they said all wone _Englishman_, clothed with hat and coat,
shooes and stockings, _&c._ They have a remarkable observation of
a flame that appears before the death of an _Indian_ or _English_
upon their _Wigwams_ in the dead of the night: The first time that
I did see it, I was call’d out by some of them about twelve of the
clock, it being a very dark night, I perceived it plainly mounting
into the Air over our Church, which was built upon a plain little
more than half a quarter of a mile from our dwelling house, on the
Northside of the Church: look on [p. 134.] what side of a house it
appears, from that Coast respectively you shall hear of a Coarse
within two or three days.
They worship the Devil (as I said) their Priests are called
_Powaws_ and are little better than Witches, for they have familiar
conference with him, who makes them invulnerable, that is shot-free
and stick-free. Craftie Rogues, abusing the rest at their pleasure,
having power over them by reason of their Diabolical Art in curing
of Diseases, which is performed with rude Ceremonies; they place
the sick upon the ground sitting, and dance in an Antick manner
round about him, beating their naked breasts with a strong hand,
and making hideous faces, sometimes calling upon the Devil for his
help, mingling their prayers with horrid and barbarous charms; if
the sick recover they send rich gifts, their Bowes and Arrowes,
_Wompompers_, _Mohacks_, _Beaver skins_, or other rich Furs to
the Eastward, where there is a vast Rock not far from the shore,
having a hole in it of an unsearchable profundity, into which they
throw them.
Their Theologie is not much, but questionless they acknowledge
a God and a Devil, and some small light they have of the Souls
immortality; for ask them [p. 135.] whither they go when they dye,
they will tell you pointing with their finger to Heaven beyond the
white mountains, and do hint at _Noah’s_ Floud, as may be conceived
by a story they have received from Father to Son, time out of mind,
that a great while agon their Countrey was drowned, and all the
People and other Creatures in it, only one _Powaw_ and his _Webb_
foreseeing the Floud, fled to the white mountains carrying a hare
along with them and so escaped; after a while the _Powaw_ sent the
_Hare_ away, who not returning emboldned thereby they descended,
and lived many years after, and had many Children, from whom the
Countrie was filled again with _Indians._ Some of them tell another
story of the _Beaver_, saying that he was their Father.
Their learning is very little or none, Poets they are as may be
ghessed by their formal speeches, sometimes an hour long, the
last word of a line riming with the last word of the following
line, and the whole doth _Constare ex pedibus_. Musical too they
be, having many pretty odd barbarous tunes which they make use of
vocally at marriages and feastings; but Instruments they had none
before the _English_ came amongst them, since they have imitated
them and will make out Kitts and string them as neatly, [p. 136.]
and as Artificially as the best Fiddle-maker amongst us; and will
play our plain lessons very exactly: the only Fidler that was in
the Province of _Meyn_, when I was there, was an _Indian_ called
_Scozway_, whom the Fishermen and planters when they had a mind to
be merry made use of.
Arithmetick they skill not, reckoning to ten upon their fingers,
and if more doubling of it by holding their fingers up, their age
they reckon by Moons, and their actions by sleeps, as, if they go
a journie, or are to do any other business they will say, three
sleeps me walk, or two or three sleeps me do such a thing, that
is in two or three days. Astronomie too they have no knowledge
of, seldom or never taking observation of the Stars, Eclipses,
or Comets that I could perceive; but they will Prognosticate
shrewdly what weather will fall out. They are generally excellent
_Zenagogues_ or guides through their Countrie.