Meer starving Martyrs to their penury:

None but the Merchant of this thing can boast,

He, like the Bee, comes loaden from each Coast,

And to all Kingdoms, as within a Hive,

Stows up those Riches that doth make them thrive:

Be thrifty, Mary-Land, keep what thou hast in store,

And each years Trafique to thy self get more.

A Relation of the Cus­toms, Man­ners, Ab­surd­i­ties, and Re­li­gion of the SUSQUEHANOCK (see note No. [46]) INDIANS in and near MARY-LAND.

AS the di­vers­i­ties of Lang­uages (since Babels con­fu­sion) has made the dis­tinc­tion between people and people, in this Christ­en­dom­part of the world; so are they dis­tin­guished Na­tion from Nation, by the di­vers­i­ties and con­fusion of their Speech and Languages (see note No. [47]) here in America: And as every Nation dif­fers in their Laws, Manners and Customs, in Europe, Asia and Africa, so do they the very same here; That it would be a most intricate and laborious trouble, to run (with a description) through the several Nations of Indians here in America, considering the in­num­er­able­ness and di­vers­i­ties of them that dwell on this vast and un­measured Con­ti­nent: But rather then I’le be altogether silent, I shall do like the Painter in the Comedy, who being to limne out the Pour­trai­ture of the Furies, as they severally appeared, set himself behind a Pillar, and between fright and amazement, drew them by guess. Those Indians that I have convers’d withall here in this Province of Mary-Land, and have had any occular experimental view of either of their Customs, Manners, Religions, and Absurdities, are called by the {72} name of Susquehanocks, being a people lookt upon by the Christian Inhabitants, as the most Noble and Heroick Nation of Indians that dwell upon the confines of America; also are so allowed and lookt upon by the rest of the Indians, by a submissive and tributary acknowledgement; being a people cast into the mould of a most large and Warlike deportment, the men being for the most part seven foot high in latitude, and in magnitude and bulk suitable to so high a pitch; their voyce large and hollow, as ascending out of a Cave, their gate and behavior strait, stately and majestick, treading on the Earth with as much pride, contempt, and disdain to so sordid a Center, as can be imagined from a creature derived from the same mould and Earth.

Their bodies are cloth’d with no other Armour to defend them from the nipping frosts of a benumbing Winter, or the penetrating and scorching influence of the Sun in a hot Summer, then what Nature gave them when they parted with the dark receptacle of their mothers womb. They go Men, Women and Children, all naked, only where shame leads them by a natural instinct to be reservedly modest, there they become cover’d. The formality of Jezabels artificial Glory is much courted and followed by these Indians, only in matter of colours (I conceive) they differ.