They worship one God, Creator of all things, whom some call Okæè, others Mannith: to him alone the High-priest, or Periku, offers Sacrifice; and yet they believe he has no regard to sublunary affairs, but commits the Government of Mankinde to lesser Deities, as Quiacosough and Tagkanysough, that is, good and evil Spirits: to these the inferiour Priests pay their devotion and Sacrifice, at which they make recitals, to a lamentable Tune, of the great things done by their Ancestors.
From four women, viz. Pash, Sepoy, Askarin, and Maraskarin, they derive the Race of Mankinde; which they therefore divide into four Tribes, distinguished under those several names. They very religiously observe the degrees of Marriage, which they limit not to distance of Kindred, but difference of Tribes, which are continued in the issue of the Females: now for two of the same Tribe to match, is abhorred as Incest, and punished with great severity.
Their places of Burial they divide into four quarters, assigning to every Tribe one: for, to mingle their bodies, even when dead, they hold wicked and ominous. They commonly wrap up the corpse in beasts skins, and bury with it Provision and Houshold stuff for its use in the other world. When their great men die, they likewise slay prisoners of War to attend them. They believe the transmigration of souls: for the Angry they say is possest with the spirit of a Serpent; the Bloudy, with that of a Wolf; the Timorous, of a Deer; the Faithful, of a Dog, &c. and therefore they are figured by these Emblemes.
Elizium, or the abode of their lesser Deities, they place beyond the Mountains and Indian Ocean.
Though they want those means of improving Humane Reason, which the use of Letters affords us; let us not therefore conclude them wholly destitute of Learning and Sciences: for by these little helps which they have found, many of them advance their natural understandings to great knowledge in Physick, Rhetorick, and Policie of Government: for I have been present at several of their Consultations and Debates, and to my admiration have heard some of their Seniors deliver themselves with as much Judgement and Eloquence as I should have expected from men of Civil education and Literature.
The First Expedition,
From the head of Pemæoncock, aliàs York-River (due West) to the top of the Apalatæan Mountains.
Upon the ninth of March 1669 (with three Indians whose names were Magtakunh, Hopottoguoh, and Naunnugh) I went out at the falls of Pemæoncock, aliàs York-River in Virginia, from an Indian Village called Shickehamany, and lay that night in the Woods, encountring nothing remarkable, but a Rattle-snake of an extraordinary, length and thickness, for I judged it two yards and a half or better from head to tail, and as big about as a mans arm: by the distention of her belly, we believed her full with young; but having killed and opened her, found there a small Squirrel whole; which caused in me a double wonder: first, how a Reptile should catch so nimble a creature as a Squirrel; and having caught it, how she could swallow it entire. The Indians in resolving my doubts, plunged me into a greater astonishment, when they told me that it was usual in these Serpents, when they lie basking in the Sun, to fetch down these Squirrels from the tops of trees, by fixing their eye stedfastly upon them; the horrour of which strikes such an affrightment into the little beast, that he has no power to hinder himself from tumbling down into the jaws of his enemy, who takes in all his sustenance without chewing, his teeth serving him onely to offend withal. But I rather believe what I have heard from others, that these Serpents climb the trees, and surprise their prey in the nest.
The next day falling into Marish grounds between Pemæoncock and the head of the River Matapeneugh, the heaviness of the way obliged me to cross Pemæoncock, where its North and South-branch (called Ackmick) joyn in one. In the Peninsula made by these two branches, a great Indian King called Tottopottoma was heretofore slain in Battel, fighting for the Christians against the Mahocks and Nahyssans, from whence it retains his name to this day. Travelling thorow the Woods, a Doe seized by a wild Cat crossed our way; the miserable creature being even spent and breathless with the burden and cruelty of her rider, who having fastned on her shoulder, left not sucking out her bloud until she sunk under him: which one of the Indians perceiving, let flie a luckie Arrow, which piercing him thorow the belly, made him quit his prey already slain, and turn with a terrible grimas at us; but his strength and spirits failing him, we escaped his revenge, which had certainly ensued, were not his wound mortal. This creature is something bigger then our English Fox, of a reddish grey colour, and in figure every way agreeing with an ordinary Cat; fierce, ravenous and cunning: for finding the Deer (upon which they delight most to prey) too swift for them, they watch upon branches of trees, and as they walk or feed under, jump down upon them. The Fur of the wilde Cat, though not very fine, is yet esteemed for its vertue in taking away cold Aches and Pains, being worn next to the body: their flesh, though rank as a Dogs, is eaten by the Indians.
The eleventh and twelfth, I found the ways very uneven, and cumbred with bushes.