Their Diet, Cookery, Meal-times, and Hospitality at their Kettles.
In Winter time they have all manner of Fowls and Beasts of the Land and Water, Pond-fish, with Cathaires and other Roots, Indian Beans and Clamms; in the Summer they have all manner of Sea-fish, with all sorts of Berries. For the ordering of their Victuals, they Boil or Roast them, having large Kettles which they Traded for with the French long since, and do still buy of the English as their need requires, before they had substantial Earthen Pots of their own making. Their Spits are no other than cloven Sticks, sharpen’d at one end to thrust into the ground; into these cloven Sticks they thrust the Flesh or Fish they would have Roasted, behemming a round fire with a dozen of Spits at a time, turning them as they see occasion. They seldom or never make Bread of their Indian Corn, but seethe it whole like Beans, eating three or four Corns with a mouthful of Fish or Flesh, sometimes eating Meat first, and Corns after, filling the Chinks with their Broth. In Summer, when their Corn is spent, Sqoutersquashes is their best Bread, a Fruit like a young Pumpion: But as all are fellows at Foot-ball, so they all meet Friends at the Kettle, saving their Wives, that Dance a Spaniel-like attendance at their Backs for their Fragments. If their occasions cause them to Travel, the best of their Victuals for their Journey is Nocake, (as they call it) which is nothing but Indian Corn parch’d in the hot Ashes; the Ashes being sifted from it, it is afterwards beaten to Powder, and put into a long Leathern Bag, truss’d at their Back like a Knapsack, out of which they take thrice three Spoonfuls a day, dividing it into three Meals. If it be Winter, and Snow be on the ground, they can eat when they please, making use of Snow for their Drink; in Summer, they must stay till they meet with a Spring or Brook; with this strange viaticum they will travel four or five days together. They keep no Set-Meals, their Store being spent, they champ on the Bit, till they meet with fresh Supplies, either from their own endeavors, or their Wives industry, who trudge to the Clam-banks when all other means fail. Though they are sometimes scanted, yet are they as free as Emperors, both to their Countrey-men and English, be he stranger, or near acquaintance; counting it a great discourtesie, not to eat of their high-conceited Delicates.
Of their hardiness.
Their hardiness is much to be admir’d, no ordinary pains making them so much as alter their countenance; beat them, whip them, punch them, if they put on a resolution, they will not winch for it; whether it be their benumm’d insensibleness of smart, or their hardy resolutions, is hard to resolve; It might be a Perillus his Bull, or the Rack might force an out-cry from them, but a Turkish drubbing would not move them, the unexpected approach of a mortal Wound by a Bullet, Arrow, or Sword, striking no more terror, nor causing no more exclamation in them, than if it had been a shot into the body of a Tree; such Wounds as would be sudden death to an English Man, would be nothing to them; whether it be, that by their rare skill in the use of Vegetatives, or by Diabolical Charms, they cure them; nevertheless, the very name and thoughts of death is so hideous to them, or any thing that presents it so terrible, that a hundred of them will run from two or three arm’d with Guns. In the Night they need not to be feared, for they will not budge from their own Dwellings, for fear of their Abamacho (the Devil) whom they much fear, specially in evil enterprizes, they will rather lie by an English fire than go a quarter of a Mile in the dark to their own Dwellings; but they are well freed from this Scare-crow since the coming of the English, and less care for his delusions.
Of their Kings, Government, and Subjects obedience.
Now for the matter of Government amongst them; it is the custom of their Kings to inherit, the Son always taking the Kingdom after his Fathers death. If there be no Son, then the Queen rules; if no Queen, the next to the Blood-Royal; who comes in otherwise, is but counted an usurping Intruder, if his fair carriage bear him not out the better, they will soon Unscepter him. Some say the chief Powahe is next in Dignity and Authority to the King, and when he dies, Marries the Squasachem, or Queen.
The Kings have no Laws to Command by, nor have they any annual Revenues; yet commonly are they so either fear’d or beloved, that half their Subjects estate is at their Service, and their Persons at his Command, by which Command he is better known than by any thing else; for though he hath no Kingly Robes to make him glorious in the view of his Subjects, nor daily Guards to succor his Person, nor Court-like attendance, nor sumptuous Palaces; yet do they yield all submissive subjection to him, accounting him their Soveraign; going at his Command, and coming at his Beck, not so much as expostulating the cause, though it be in matters thwarting their wills; he being accounted a disloyal Subject that will not effect what his Prince Commands. Whosoever is known to Plot Treason, or to lay violent hands on his lawful King, is presently Executed. Once a Year he takes his Progress, accompanied with a dozen of his best Subjects, to view his Countrey, to recreate himself, and establish good Orders. When he enters into any of their Houses, without any more Complement, he is desir’d to sit down on the Ground, (for they use neither Stools nor Cushions) and after a little respite all that are present come in, and sit down by him, one of his Seniors pronouncing an Oration gratulatory to his Majesty for love, and the many good things they enjoy under his peaceful Government. A King of large Dominions hath his Vice-Roys, or inferior Kings under him, to agitate his State Affairs, and keep his Subjects in good Decorum. Other Officers there are, but how to distinguish them by Name is something difficult. For their Laws, as their Vices come short of many other Nations, so they have not so many Laws, though they are not without some, which they inflict upon notorious Malefactors, as Traitors to their Prince, inhumane Murtherers, and, some say, Adulterers: for Theft, as they have nothing to steal worth the Life of a Man, therefore they have no Law to Execute for Trivials, a Subject being more precious in the Eye of his Prince, than, where Men are so scarce, to be cast away upon so sleight a matter. A Malefactor having deserv’d Death, and being apprehended, is brought before the King, and some other of the wisest Men, where they enquire out the original of the thing, after proceeding by aggravation of Circumstances he is found Guilty, and Cast by the Jury of their strict Inquisition, he is Condemn’d and Executed in the following manner: The Executioner comes in, who blind-folds the Party, sets him in the publick view, and Brains him with a Tamahauke, or Club; which done, his Friends bury him.
Of their Marriages.
Now to speak something of their Marriages, the Kings and the Powwows, or great Doctors, may have two or three Wives, but seldom use it, Men of ordinary Rank having but one; which disproves the report, that they had eight or ten Wives apiece. When a Man hath a desire to Marry, he first gets the good will of the Maid or Widow, after, the consent of her Friends for her part; and for himself, if he be at his own disposing, and if the King will, the Match is made, her Dowry of Wampompeage paid, the Sagamore or King (who for every Marriage hath a Fathom of Wampompeage, which is about the value of seven or eight shillings) joyns their Hands, never to part till Death, unless she prove a Whore, for which they may put away their Wives.
Of their Worship, Invocations, and Conjurations.