These Indians are a People of tall Stature, long grim Visages, slender Wasted, and having exceeding great Arms and Thighs, wherein they say their strength lieth; which is such, that one of them hath been known to kill a Dog with a fillip of his Finger, and afterwards to have flead and sod him, and eat him to his Dinner. They are so hardy, that they can eat such things as would make other Indians sick to look upon; being destitute of Fish and Flesh, they suffice Hunger and maintain Nature with the use of Vegetatives; but that which they most hunt after, is the flesh of Man: Their custom is, if they get a stranger near their Habitations, not to Butcher him immediately, but keep him in as good plight as they can, feeding him with the best Victuals they have.
These Indians are more desperate in Wars than the other Indians, which proceeds not only from the fierceness of their Natures, but also in that they know themselves to be better Arm’d and Weapon’d; all of them wearing Sea Horse Skins and Barks of Trees, made by their Art as impenetrable, it is thought, as Steel, wearing Head-Pieces of the same, under which they March securely and undantedly, running, and fiercely crying out, Hadree Hadree succomee succomee, We come to suck your Blood, not fearing the feather’d shafts of the strong-arm’d Bow-men, but like unruly headstrong Stallions, beat them down with their right-hand Tamahawks, and left-hand Javelins, being all the Weapons which they use, counting Bowes a cowardly fight. Tamahawks are Staves of two Foot and a half long, with knobs at one end as round and big as a Foot ball; a Javelin is a short Spear, headed with sharp Sea-Horse Teeth; one blow or thrust with these sharp Weapons, will not need a second to hasten death from a Mowhacks arm.
The nature of the Indians inhabiting Eastward.
The Tarrenteens saving that they eat not Mans flesh, are little less Salvage and cruel than these Cannibals; our Indians do fear them as their deadly Enemies, for so many of them as they meet, they kill. Take these Indians in their own proper and natural disposition, and they are reported to be wise, lofty-spirited, constant in friendship to one another, true in their promise, and more industrious than many others.
The nature of the Pequods and Narragansets.
The Pequants are a stately Warlike People, just and equal in their dealings; not treacherous either to their Country-men, or English, to whom (except in time of War) they were not any ways uncivil. Their next Neighbors the Narragansets, are the most numerous People in those Parts, the most rich also, and the most industrious; being the Store-house of all such kind of wild Merchandize as is amongst them. These Men are the most curious Minters of their Wampompeage and Mowhakes, which they form out of the inmost Wreaths of Periwinkle-shells. The Northern, Eastern, and Western Indians fetch all their Coyn from these Southern Mint-Masters. From hence they have most of their curious Pendants and Bracelets, from hence they have their great Stone Pipes, which will hold a quarter of an Ounce of Tobacco, which they make with Steel Drills and other Instruments; such is their Ingenuity and dexterity, that they can imitate the English Mold so accurately, that were it not for matter and colour, it were hard to distinguish them; they make them of green, and sometimes of black Stone; they are much desir’d of our English Tobacconists, for their rarity, strength, handsomness, and coolness. Hence likewise our Indians had their Pots, wherein they us’d to seeth their Victuals before they knew the use of Brass. Since the English came, they have employ’d most of their time in catching of Beavers, Otters, and Musquashes, which they bring down into the Bay, returning back loaden with English Commodities, of which they make double profit, by selling them to more remote Indians, who are ignorant at what cheap rates they obtain them, in comparison of what they make them pay, so making their Neighbors ignorance their enrichment: They were never known to be desirous to take in hand any Martial Enterprize, or expose themselves to the uncertain events of War; wherefore the Pequants call them Women-like Men, resting secure under the conceit of their popularity, and seeking rather to grow rich by industry, than famous by deeds of Chivalry.
The nature and complexion of the Aberginians.
Most of these Northward Indians are between five and six Foot high, straight Body’d, strongly compos’d, smooth Skin’d, merry Countenanc’d, of Complexion more swarthy than the Spaniards, black Hair’d, high Foreheaded, black Ey’d, out-Nos’d, broad Shoulder’d, brawny Arm’d, long and slender Handed, out Breasted, small Wasted, lank Belly’d, well Thigh’d, flat Kneed, with handsome grown Legs, and small Feet: In a word, take them when the Blood skips in their Veins, when the Flesh is on their Backs, and Marrow in their Bones, when they frolick in their antique Deportments and Indian Postures, they are more amiable to behold (though onely in Adam’s Livery) than many a trim Gallant in the newest Mode; and though their Houses are but mean, their Lodging as homely, Commons scant, their Drink Water, and Nature their best Clothing, yet they still are healthful and lusty. Their smooth Skins proceed from the often anointing of their Bodies with the Oyl of Fishes, and the fat of Eagles, with the grease of Rackoons, which they hold in Summer the best Antidote to keep their Skin from blistering with the scorching Sun; it is their best Armor against the Musketoes, and the surest abrasour of the hairy Excrement, and stops the Pores of their Bodies against the nipping Winters cold. Their black Hair is natural, yet is brought to a more Jetty colour by Oyling, Dying, and daily dressing; sometimes they wear it very long, hanging down in a loose dishevel’d Womanish manner, otherwise ty’d up hard and short like a Horse Tail, bound close with a Fillet, which they say makes it grow the faster; they are not a little Phantastical in this particular; their Boys being not permitted to wear their Hair long till sixteen years of Age, and then they must come to it by degrees; some being cut with a long foretop, a long lock on the Crown, one of each side of his Head, the rest of his Hair being cut even with the Scalp; the young Men and Soldiers wear their Hair long on the one side, the other being cut short like a Screw; other cuts they have as their Fancy leads them, which would torture the Wits of the most exact Barber to imitate. But though they are thus proud of the Hair of their Head, you cannot wooe them to wear it on their Chins, where it no sooner grows, but it is stubb’d up by the roots, for they count it as an unuseful, cumbersome, and opprobrious excrement, insomuch as they call him an English Mans Bastard that hath but the appearance of a Beard.
The Apparel, Ornaments, Paintings, and other artificial Deckings of the Indians.
The Cloathing of the Indians is only a pair of Indian Breeches to cover their secret Parts, which is but a piece of Cloth a yard and a half long, but between their Groins, ty’d with a Snakes Skin about their middles, one end hanging down with a flap before, the other like a tail behind. In the Winter time, the more Aged of them wear Leather Drawers, in form like Irish Trouses, fasten’d under their Girdle with Buttons: They wear Shooes likewise of their own making, cut out of a Mooses Hide; many of them wear Skins about them, in form of an Irish Mantle, and of these some are Bears Skins, Mooses Skins, and Beaver Skins sew’d together, others Otter Skins, and Rackoon Skins; most of them in the Winter having his deep Furr’d Cat Skin, like a large Muff, which he shifts to that Arm which lieth most expos’d to the Wind. Although they are poor, yet is there in them the sparks of natural Pride, which appears in their longing desire after many kind of Ornaments, wearing Pendants in their Ears, in form of Birds, Beasts, and Fishes, Carv’d out of Bone, Shells, and Stone, with long Bracelets of their curious wrought Wampompeage and Mowhackees, which they put about their Necks and Loins; these they count a rare kind of Decking; many of the better sort bearing upon their Cheeks certain Pourtraitures of Beasts, as Bears, Deers, Mooses, Wolves, &c. some of Fowls, as of Eagles, Hawks, &c. which is not a superficial Painting, but a certain Incision, or else a raising of their Skin by a small sharp Instrument, under which they convey a certain kind of black unchangeable Ink, which makes the desir’d form apparent and permanent. Others have certain round Impressions down the outside of their Arms and Breasts, in form of Mullets or Spur-rowels, which they imprint by searing Irons: Whether these be Foils to illustrate their unparallel’d Beauty (as they deem it) or Arms to blazon their antique Gentility, cannot easily be determin’d: But a Segamore with a Humbird in his Ear for a Pendant, a black Hawk on his Head for his Plume, Mowhackees for his Gold Chain, good store of Wampompeage begirting his Loins, his Bowe in his Hand, his Quiver at his Back, with six naked Indian Lacquies at his Heels for his Guard, thinks himself little Inferior to the great Cham.