They Are Fifty One In Number, Their Length
About Seven Inches; When They Play, They Throw Part Of Them
To Their Antagonist; The Art Is, To Discover, Upon Sight, How Many You Have,
And What You Throw To Him That Plays With You.
Some are so expert
at their Numbers, that they will tell ten times together,
what they throw out of their Hands.
Although the whole Play is carried on
with the quickest Motion it's possible to use, yet some are so expert
at this Game, as to win great Indian Estates by this Play.
A good Sett of these Reeds, fit to play withal, are valued and sold
for a dress'd Doe-Skin.
{Indian Dice.}
They have several other Plays and Games; as, with the Kernels or Stones
of Persimmons, which are in effect the same as our Dice,
because Winning or Losing depend on which side appear uppermost,
and how they happen to fall together.
{Indian Trap-Ball.}
Another Game is managed with a Batoon and a Ball, and resembles our Trap-ball;
besides, several Nations have several Games and Pastimes,
which are not used by others.
{Indian Cabins.}
These Savages live in Wigwams, or Cabins built of Bark, which are made round
like an Oven, to prevent any Damage by hard Gales of Wind. They make the Fire
in the middle of the House, and have a Hole at the Top of the Roof
right above the Fire, to let out the Smoke. These Dwellings
are as hot as Stoves, where the Indians sleep and sweat all Night.
The Floors thereof are never paved nor swept, so that they have always
a loose Earth on them. {Fleas.} They are often troubled
with a multitude of Fleas, especially near the Places where
they dress their Deer-Skins, because that Hair harbours them;
yet I never felt any ill, unsavory Smell in their Cabins,
whereas, should we live in our Houses, as they do, we should be poison'd
with our own Nastiness; {Indians a sweet People.} which confirms
these Indians to be, as they really are, some of the sweetest People
in the World.
The Bark they make their Cabins withal, is generally Cypress,
or red or white Cedar; and sometimes, when they are a great way
from any of these Woods, they make use of Pine-Bark, which is the worser sort.
{Making Cabins.} In building these Fabricks, they get very long Poles,
of Pine, Cedar, Hiccory, or any Wood that will bend; these are
the Thickness of the Small of a Man's Leg, at the thickest end,
which they generally strip of the Bark, and warm them well in the Fire,
which makes them tough and fit to bend; afterwards, they stick
the thickest ends of them in the Ground, about two Yards asunder,
in a Circular Form, the distance they design the Cabin to be,
(which is not always round, but sometimes oval) then they bend the Tops
and bring them together, and bind their ends with Bark of Trees,
that is proper for that use, as Elm is, {Black Moss.} or sometimes the Moss
that grows on the Trees, and is a Yard or two long, and never rots;
then they brace them with other Poles, to make them strong; afterwards,
cover them all over with Bark, so that they are very warm and tight,
and will keep firm against all the Weathers that blow.
{Indians Store-Houses.} They have other sorts of Cabins without Windows,
which are for their Granaries, Skins, and Merchandizes;
and others that are cover'd over head; the rest left open for the Air.
{Indians Banqueting Houses.} These have Reed-Hurdles, like Tables,
to lie and sit on, in Summer, and serve for pleasant Banqueting-Houses
in the hot Season of the Year.
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