Tuesday 22d Continued Rain and y. Freshes kept us at Cresaps.
Wednesday 23d Rain'd till about two oClock & Clear'd when we were agreeably surpris'd at y. sight of thirty odd Indians coming from War with only one Scalp[23] We had some Liquor with us of which we gave them Part it elevating there Spirits put them in y. Humour of Dauncing of whom we had a War Daunce[24] there manner of Dauncing is as follows Viz They clear a Large Circle & make a Great Fire in y. middle then seats themselves around it y. Speaker makes a grand Speech telling them in what Manner they are to Daunce after he has finish'd y. best Dauncer Jumps up as one awaked out of a Sleep & Runs & Jumps about y. Ring in a most comicle Manner he is followed by y. Rest then begins there Musicians to Play ye Musick is a Pot half of Water with a Deerskin Streched over it as tight as it can & a goard with with some Shott in it to Rattle & a Piece of an horses Tail tied to it to make it look fine y. one keeps Rattling and y. other Drumming all y. while y. others is Dauncing
[23] Scalp—a term applied to the tissues covering the human head, and embracing all the hairy integuments and flattened muscles from the back of the skull to the brow above the eyes. Taking the scalp of an enemy, living or dead, has been held from remote times as a special sign of victory and token of triumph. The North American Indians, particularly during the early colonial wars, took the scalps of their enemies, preserving and exhibiting them with savage pride and occasionally wearing them as decorations and trophies. The assembly of Virginia, in 1755, established a reward of £10 for every scalp of a male Indian above the age of twelve (Hening's Statutes, vol. VI, p. 551). In 1757 this sum was raised to £15, and £30 more for every scalp taken within the next two years (Hening, VII, p. 122). Maryland and Pennsylvania also offered rewards for Indian scalps.
[24] The war dance of the Indians probably had a significance to their minds not understood by civilized man, and was not to them the meaningless custom it seems to us. It has frequently been described and painted by eye-witnesses. In 1857 Virtue, Emmins & Co. copyrighted a very effective engraving of a war dance in the forest, arranged from Washington's description of it in this journal.
Fryday 25th 1748 Nothing Remarkable on thursday but only being with y. Indians all day so shall slip it this day left Cresaps & went up to y. mouth of Patersons Creek[25] & there swam our Horses over got over ourselves in a Canoe & traveld up y. following Part of y. Day to Abram Johnstones 15 Miles from ye Mouth where we camped.
[25] Paterson Creek rises in Hampshire county, West Virginia, and empties into the Potomac about twelve miles below Cumberland, Md. On the old maps of Evans, Hutchins and Lewis, the name is given as Pattison. There are large tracts of good, arable land along the valley and bottoms adjacent to this stream. They began to attract settlements a little before the time Fort Cumberland was built. Fort Ashby was also erected to protect settlers along this stream.
Saterday 26 Travelld up ye Creek to Solomon Hedges Esqr one of his Majestys Justices of ye Peace for ye County of Frederick where we camped when we came to Supper there was neither a Cloth upon ye Table nor a Knife to eat with but as good luck would have it we had Knives of own.[26]
[26] Knife and fork at table.—Polished nations have usages which, at first view, appear natural or common to all mankind. This, however, is not the fact. That there was a period in the history of our race when the knife and fork were unknown to the furnishings of the table, cannot well be doubted; and there was even a time when the table itself was not deemed an essential. At the present day the idea of eating a meal at table without the accompaniment of a knife and fork would excite disgust; their absence, however, in a remote Virginia mountain cabin in 1747-8 as here recorded, simply shows that they had not been provided nor deemed essential to the life of a hunter, not an ignorance of their use, as the two-pronged, iron, table fork was in common use at that period throughout the settlements in all the American colonies. It is nevertheless true that the knife and fork now deemed so necessary at table, are a much more modern convenience than is generally supposed. The king of Hungary, Coevinus, toward the close of the fifteenth century, as related by Galeotus Martius, ate his meat with his fingers as did all the guests at table. In Italy, the fork was, to a limited extent, in use at this time among the nobility. In France, at the end of the sixteenth century, forks were comparatively new at court. The use of the table fork is referred to in "Washington's Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour," and in Hawkins' Youths' Companion, the source of these rules printed about 1650. The knife is perhaps one of the most ancient of instruments, it was made of different metals and in a great variety of forms. The table knife was, however, contemporary with the fork. According to Chamberlin it was first made in England, in 1563. The use of the fork at table spread to Europe from Venice, in Italy. In 1608 it was brought to England by Thomas Coryate who, while traveling, observed its use in Italy and continued it himself on his return to England. (See his work entitled "Crudities.") It is rather disappointing that neither the Greeks nor Romans have even a name for the table fork. The flesh fork, called creagra, with a long handle, for cooks to take meat out of a boiling pot, was known and used by the Hebrews and the Greeks. But had the table fork been used by the latter or by the Romans, some specimens would have been found among those extensive ruins which have been so carefully explored by modern investigators. It is known that some articles have been found, the use of which conjecture assigns to the table, but they are not forks and the surmise is not generally credited. The Chinese, who claim to have led the rest of the world in most of the economic inventions, seem to have overlooked the table fork and do not even now use it in cutting or conveying food to the mouth but employ in its stead the "chop sticks" which, it must be said in their praise, they use with skill and dexterity. It should be stated that large bronze forks were used by the Egyptians in presenting offerings to the gods. It is unpleasant to represent the tables of our ancestors of a few centuries back as without forks, yet this certainly was the fact. The silver table fork, which also had its evolution from two to four prongs, was first manufactured in 1662 by Heylin.
The small knife, formerly worn by gentlemen at their girdles, was used by them, not only as a weapon of defense, but also as an article of convenience in cutting their meat. However, the ancient custom of serving food at table was to have a servant cut meats and other food into small morsels before distributing it to guests. The wealthy employed a person whose special duty it was to carve the meats into proper and convenient pieces and his was the only knife in the dining hall. When the fork was first introduced into England, its employment was ridiculed as an effeminate practice, as may be seen in the plays of Beaumont and Fletcher, and others where the persons using it are referred to as "your fork-carving-traveler."
Sunday 27th Travell'd over to y. South Branch attended with y. Esqr to Henry Vanmetriss[27] in order to go about Intended Work of Lots[28]