Part 5 (1/2)
Although the family slept in the one big room, we should not have seen any bed in the daytime. It was turned up against the wall, and fastened to the side of the cabin. At night it was turned down and nearly filled the room. None of the beds were very soft, for they were filled with hay or leaves. By and by, after they had shot enough wild fowl, they had feather beds.
=64. Around the Dinner Table.=--When the little family gathered around the table for dinner, there was before them neither an abundance nor a variety of food. There was no milk, b.u.t.ter, nor cheese; for there was no cow in the colony. It was four years before a cow was brought over from England. They had no eggs, no beef nor pork nor lamb, and of course no vegetables yet, nor any nice white bread. The provisions they brought in the s.h.i.+p were partly spoiled, and were nearly used up. So they had to get food as best they could.
Now and then the colonists killed some game, but they had to be careful and not waste their powder and shot. One day they shot and cooked an eagle; but, as Bradford wrote in his journal, it was ”woefully tough.”
They could not often shoot a bear or a deer. They obtained some corn of the Indians by trading such trifles as they could best spare. The records tell us that once a Pilgrim bartered a little dog for a peck of corn.
=65. The Daily Fare becomes scant; Hards.h.i.+ps increased by Hunger.=--By and by all the other food failed, so that their main article of diet was corn. This they made into meal by pounding it on smooth stones. But even this supply from the Indians was often scanty and uncertain, so that at times they were without it until, after a year or two, they raised their own crops.
The rest of their provisions they obtained from the ocean--clams, lobsters, and various kinds of fish. But their fis.h.i.+ng boat was so frail and their hooks and nets were so poor that this source many times disappointed them.
Thus, the two articles on which they chiefly depended being Indian corn and sea-food, they were sometimes entirely dest.i.tute, unable to obtain either.
What a condition! ”I have seen men,” wrote one of the Pilgrims, ”stagger by reason of faintness for want of food; they knew not at night where to have a bit in the morning.” They were so badly off that if it were possible for a friend to visit them, the best they could offer him would be a piece of fish and some water!
[Ill.u.s.tration: PILGRIMS WATCHING THE RETURN OF THE MAYFLOWER.]
Such was the daily living of the first Pilgrim settlers in this country.
Such were a few of the hards.h.i.+ps they bravely and patiently endured. And yet, strange to say, when the Mayflower sailed for home in the early spring, as we have before stated, not one of these stout-hearted men and women returned in her to England.
CHAPTER VI.
THE INDIANS AND HOW THEY LIVED.
=66. How the Indians looked; the Clothes they wore.=--Let us now learn a few things about the Indians as they were before their habits and mode of life had been changed by contact with white men.
The heads of the Indians were always bare. It was customary for them to allow one tuft of hair to grow longer than the rest. This was called the ”scalp lock.” When a fight had been finished, this lock served as a convenience to the victor. It enabled him to remove handily the scalp from the head of a dead enemy, and to carry it easily away as a trophy of triumph.
The Indians had the curious custom of smearing their faces and their bodies with red paint. On great occasions, such as the holding of a tribal council or a war dance, they painted themselves a more brilliant red. The bright color was believed to give a formidable aspect. They decked themselves with queer ornaments of many sorts. Around their necks they wore strings of s.h.i.+ning stones, bits of mica, baubles made of copper, and animals' teeth highly polished. Feathers were held in great esteem. Success in war ent.i.tled the victor to wear eagles' feathers as a mark of the greatest distinction. In this love of finery the men were fully as vain as the women.
[Ill.u.s.tration: LONG HOUSE OF THE IROQUOIS INDIANS.]
The clothing of the Indians was, for the most part, fas.h.i.+oned out of the dried skins of animals, such as the deer and the beaver, whose flesh had been used for food. Unlike that of civilized people, this clothing was seldom or never changed, but was worn till it was worn out. If not unwashable, it was rarely washed. The ”n.o.ble red man” was not a model of cleanliness. He had never heard of soap.
=67. What the Indians had to eat.=--The food of the Indians varied with the place and the season, but game and fish were the princ.i.p.al articles.
Their game was chiefly deer, bears, moose, racc.o.o.ns, foxes, wild geese, and wild turkeys. Having no salt nor spices, no bread nor potatoes, neither milk, b.u.t.ter, nor cheese, their living must have lacked such relish as we give to ours.
In the settled villages the Indians cultivated rude gardens. In these they raised corn, beans, squashes, and tobacco; but, considering the crudeness of their tools, we must suppose that the crops were scanty.
The squaws used to cook corn and beans together, making _succotash_.
Both the dish and the name have come to us from the Indians. Green corn they used to roast in hot ashes, very much as we sometimes do now at clambakes or other outings. Meat they commonly cooked by thrusting a stick through it and holding it over the fire; but they sometimes boiled it in rude earthen pots. Fish they broiled on a frame of sticks.
=68. The Indian's Struggle for a Living.=--The princ.i.p.al work of the Indians was to get food enough. They did not hunt or fish merely for sport, as men and boys of our time are apt to do. To the Indian, hunting was the serious task of providing for his family and himself. At times the supply became very slight. It was especially so in the winter. Then they really suffered from hunger, and were forced to eat ground-nuts and acorns--anything to keep alive. But when they had had good hunting they would eat enormously. At times, when game was scarce, different tribes would have savage fights for the best hunting ground.
Their only drink was water. After the white man came they learned the use of rum and whiskey, and would pay a great price for what they called ”fire water.” On the other hand, the white man learned from the Indian the use of tobacco. It was a bad bargain both ways.
=69. Hards.h.i.+ps of the Indian Women.=--The Indian warriors occupied themselves with war and the chase. They looked upon ordinary labor as degrading, and fit only for women. These they treated very much as slaves. The squaw did all the everyday work--building the wigwam, raising the crops, making the clothes, and weaving bark mats for the beds. On journeys the women carried their infants, or papooses, on their backs.