[112] “Kautantowwit, the great southwest God, to whose house all souls go, and from whom came their corn and beans, as they say. They believe that the souls of men and women go to the southwest; their great and good men and women to Kautantowwit’s house, where they have hopes, as the Turks have, of carnal joys; murtherers, thieves and liars, their souls, say they, wander restless abroad.” Williams’s Key, ch. xxi.
[113] Wood, in his New England’s Prospect, ch. xix. spells this word Abamacho.
[114] See [page 33], [note [76].
[115] See [pages 13] and [37].
[116] Or centaury—probably the sabbatia chloroides, a plant conspicuous for its beauty, which is found in great abundance on the margin of the ponds in Plymouth. It belongs to the natural order of Gentians, one characteristic of which is an intense bitterness, residing both in the stems and roots. The gentiana crinita, or fringed gentian, also grows in this region. See Bigelows Plants of Boston, pp. 79 and 111.
“The greater centaury is that famous herb wherewith Chiron the centaur (as the report goeth) was cured at what time as having entertained Hercules in his cabin, he would needs be handling and tampering with the weapons of his said guest so long until one of the arrows light upon his foot and wounded him dangerously.” Hollands Pliny, b. xxv. ch. 6.
[117] “Their government is generally monarchical, their chief sagamore or sachem’s will being their law; but yet the sachem hath some chief men that he consults with as his special counsellors. Among some of the Indians their government is mixed, partly monarchical and partly aristocratical; their sagamore doing not any weighty matter without the consent of his great men or petty sagamores. Their sachems have not their men in such subjection but that very frequently their men will leave them upon distaste or harsh dealing, and go and live under other sachems that can protect them; so that their princes endeavour to carry it obligingly and lovingly unto their people, lest they should desert them, and thereby their strength, power and tribute would be diminished.” Gookin in Mass. Hist. Coll. i. 154.
[119] “Upon the death of the sick, the father, or husband, and all his neighbours wear black faces, and lay on soot very thick, which I have often seen clotted with their tears. This blacking and lamenting they observe in most doleful manner divers weeks and months, yea a year, if the person be great and public.—When they come to the grave, they lay the dead by the grave’s mouth, and then all sit down, and lament, that I have seen tears run down the cheeks of stoutest captains in abundance; and after the dead is laid in the grave, they have then a second lamentation.” Roger Williams’s Key, ch. xxxii.
[120] See [note [54] on [page 25].