Part 3 (2/2)
As to their religion, they have all of thehter ones, if a person may be believed who had this confession from the mouth of an Indian: ”That they believed God was universally beneficent; that his dwelling was in heaven above, and the influence of his goodness reached to the earth beneath; that he was incomprehensible in his excellence, and enjoyed all possible felicity; that his duration was eternal, his perfection boundless, and that he possessed everlasting happiness” So far the savage talked as rationally of the existence of a God as a Christian divine or philosopher could have done; but when he ca of the Devil, whom they call Okee, his notions were very heterodox He said, ”It is true God is the giver of all good things, but they flow naturally and promiscuously from him; that they are showered down upon all men without distinction; that God does not trouble himself with the impertinent affairs of men, nor is concerned at what they do, but leaves them to make the most of their free will, and to secure as s that flow from him; that therefore it was to no purpose either to fear or worshi+p him; but, on the contrary, if they did not pacify the evil spirit, he would ruin their health, peace, and plenty, he being always visiting them in the air, thunders, storms, &c”
As to the idol which they all worshi+p, and is kept in a temple called Quiocasan, he seemed to have a very different opinion of its divinity, and cried out against the juggling of the priests-This e, and therefore we may suppose he had studied the enerality, paid a great deal of devotion to the idol, and worshi+pped him as their chief deity
Their priests and conjurors are highly reverenced by the; and one of theentleht, for two bottles of ruive credit to such supernatural events; and, had we not found this in an author as on the spot, we should have rejected it as a fable
Their priests pro, and every pleasure in perfection in the other world, which charmed them in this; and threaten them with lakes of fire, and torments by a fairy in the shape of an old woman They are often bloody in their sacrifices, and offer up young children to the devil They have a superstitious cere_, and is perfor e, in a strong inclosure, ar loaf, and every way open like a lattice, for the air to pass through; they are kept for several months, and are allowed to have no sustenance but the infusion or decoction of poisonous intoxicating roots, which turn their brains, and they run stark mad
By this it is pretended they lose the res, even of their parents, treasure, and language, as if they had drunk of the water of oblivion, drawn out of the lake of Lethe When they have been in this condition as long as their custorees, the young men recover the use of their senses; but before they are quite well, they are shown in their towns; and the youths who have been _huskanawed_ are afraid to discover the least sign of their re of their past lives; for, in such a case, they ain, and they are disciplined so severely the second ti men have passed this trial, they are Coucarouses, or men of quality in their nations; and the Indians say they do it to take away fro partiality to persons and things which is contracted before reason takes place
The Indian priests, to coly and as terrible as they can; the conjurors always share with theain by it; the Indians consult both of theo on any enterprise There are no priestesses or witches a them They erect altars on every remarkable occasion, and have temples built like their common cabins, in which their idol stands, and the corpses of their kings and rulers are preserved
They have no sort of literature as frolyphics They lish do; but they reckon their years by cohonks, or winters, and divide every year into five seasons; the budding ti of the corn, the summer, the harvest, and the winter
Their months they count by moons They divide the day into three parts, the rise, power, and lowering, of the sun; and keep their accounts by knots on a string, or notches on a stick, of which Captain Smith relates a very pleasant story; that, when the princess Pocahonta went for England, a Coucarouse, or lord of her own nation, attended her; his na Powhatan, Pocahonta's father, coland, to count the people, and give him an account of their nuot a stick, intending to count them by notches; but he soon found that his arithmetic would be to no purpose, and threay his stick At his return, the king asked him how many people there were? and he replied, count the stars of the sky, the leaves upon the trees, and the sand upon the seashore, and you will kno e-vow as the ements, and abhor divorces; adultery is the st them, and seldom occurs without exemplary punishment
Their maidens are very chaste; and if any one of thee, her fortune is spoiled They are very sprightly and good huenerally handsoh: as soon as the child is born, they plunge it over head and ears in cold water, and they bind it naked to a board,a hole in the proper place for evacuation Between the child and the board they put some cotton, wool, or fur, and let it lie in this posture till the bones begin to harden, the joints to knit, and the li; they then loosen it from the board, and let it crawl about where it pleases From this custom, it is said, the Indians derive the neatness and exactness of their limbs, which are the antic stature, live to a great age, and are stronger than others; but there is not a crooked, bandy-legged, or ill-shaped, Indian to be seen Soe limbed, but others are short and small; their complexion is a dark brown and tawny They paint themselves with a pecone root, which stains thereasing and sunning make their skin turn hard and black Their hair, for the most part, is coal black; so are their eyes; they wear their hair cut after several whi lock behind; the wo at their backs, or twisted up with beads; and all the better sort adorn their heads with a kind of coronet Theany, use certain devices, which they will not coirt close in the middle, and underneath a piece of cloth tied round their waist, and reaching down to the h The common sort only tie a piece of cloth or skin round the middle As for their food they boil, broil, or roast, all thedish, and consists of Indian corn soaked, broken in a entle fire ten or twelve hours together They draw and pluck their fowls, skin and paunch their quadrupeds, but dress their fish with the scales on, and without gutting; they leave the scales, entrails, and bones, till they eat the fish, when they throw the offal away Their food is chiefly beeves, turtle, several species of snakes, broth made of deer's humbles, peas, beans, &c They have no setbut water Their bread is made of Indian corn, wild oats, or the seed of the sun-flower; they eat it alone, and not with un or bow They live upon the garass The English prohibit thes, lest they should steal their neighbour's
When they come to rivers, they presently patch up a canoe of birch bark, cross over in it, and leave it on the river's bank, if they think they shall not want it; otherwise they carry it along with theers is by the pipe, or calu account in his voyage, and the pipe is as follows: they fill a pipe of tobacco, larger and bigger than any coht it, and then the chief of theer, and if he smoke of it, it is peace; if not, war; if peace, the pipe is handed all round the company
The diseases of the Indians are very few, and easy to be cured: they for the et rid of by sweating As for aches, and settled pains in the joints or li The priests are their physicians, and froht the nature and use of sie is excellent; but they will not coift of God; and by this mystery they make it the more valuable
Their riches consist of furs, peak, roenocke, and pearl Their peak and roenocke are le, but the roenocke is a piece of cockle, drilled through like a bead Before the English ca them, the peak and the roenocke were all their treasure; but now they set a value on their fur and pearl, and are greedy of keeping quantities of theood, and formerly was not so rare as it is at this tiht them over: their knives were sharpened reeds or shells, their axes sharp stones They rubbed fire, by turning the end of a hard piece of wood upon the side of one that is soft and dry, which at last would burn They felled great trees by burning the the fire froentle fire, and scraped the trunk clean, and this
They are very good handicraft enerally neat and convenient
Their kingdoms descended to the next heir,the succession in the right line If, as it often happened, one great prince subjected the other, those conquests coain to the obedience of their natural princes They have no written laws, neither can they have any, having no letters
Their lands are in coes, are all lord-chancellors, deciding causes and inflicting punish as they think fit These Werowances and the Coucarouses are their teruish the men of quality; the former are their war-captains, and the latter such as have passed the trial of huskanawing Their priests and conjurors have great authority a them They have servants who the respect that is due to their several qualities
Most of the Indians live on the eastern shore, where they have two or three little towns; soo over to the other side, in winter tilish They take delight in nothing else, and it is very rare that any of the and worshi+p There are about 500 fighting Indians in all the province; the cause of their dilish, for they have none with the of, but fro thereat h they are a people very tiht, yet when taken prisoners and conde theall the time they are upon the rack
We find several of the Indians doing actions which would do honour to the greatest heroes of antiquity: thus captain S the colony of Virginia, being taken prisoner, while he was h, he not only spared Mr Smith's life, but carried him to his town and feasted hi of the savages, ould have beheaded hienerosity of his daughter, Pocahonto, hen Mr
Smith's head was on the block, and she could not prevail with her father to give hi the blow to save hie
Soall to Patowmac to buy corn, where he met with Pocahonta He invited her to come aboard his shi+p, which with so of Postcany, brother to the king of Patowot her into his custody, detained her, and carried her to Ja Powhaton, to cohter Though the king loved her tenderly, yet he would not do any thing for her sake which he thought was not for his own and the nation's interest; nor would he be prevailed upon to conclude a firhter, who had turned a Christian, was christened Rebecca, and iving her away in the church
Powhaton approved of the e, took it for a sincere token of friendshi+p, and was so pleased with it, that he concluded a league with the English in the year 1613