The Cabins They Dwell In Have Benches
All Round, Except Where The Door Stands; On These They Lay Beasts-Skins,
And Mats Made Of Rushes, Whereon They Sleep And Loll.
In one of these,
several Families commonly live, though all related to one another.
As to the Indians Food, it is of several sorts, which are as follows.
{Indian Food.}
Venison, and Fawns in the Bags, cut out of the Doe's Belly;
Fish of all sorts, the Lamprey-Eel excepted, and the Sturgeon
our Salt-Water Indians will not touch; Bear and Bever; Panther; Pole-cat;
Wild-cat; Possum; Raccoon; Hares, and Squirrels, roasted with their Guts in;
Snakes, all Indians will not eat them, tho' some do; All wild Fruits
that are palatable, some of which they dry and keep against Winter,
as all sort of Fruits, and Peaches, which they dry, and make Quiddonies,
and Cakes, that are very pleasant, and a little tartish;
young Wasps, when they are white in the Combs, before they can fly,
this is esteemed a Dainty; All sorts of Tortois and Terebins;
Shell-Fish, and Stingray, or Scate, dry'd; Gourds; Melons; Cucumbers;
Squashes; Pulse of all sorts; Rockahomine Meal, which is their Maiz,
parch'd and pounded into Powder; Fowl of all sorts, that are eatable;
Ground-Nuts, or wild Potato's; Acorns and Acorn Oil; Wild-Bulls, Beef,
Mutton, Pork, &c. from the English; Indian Corn, or Maiz,
made into several sorts of Bread; Ears of Corn roasted in the Summer,
or preserv'd against Winter.
The Victuals is common, throughout the whole Kindred Relations,
and often to the whole Town; especially, when they are in Hunting-Quarters,
then they all fare alike, whichsoever of them kills the Game.
{Feasts of Charity. Indians discern not between fat and lean Meat.}
They are very kind, and charitable to one another, but more especially
to those of their own Nation; for if any one of them has suffer'd any Loss,
by Fire or otherwise, they order the griev'd Person to make a Feast,
and invite them all thereto, which, on the day appointed, they come to,
and after every Man's Mess of Victuals is dealt to him, one of their Speakers,
or grave old Men, makes an Harangue, and acquaints the Company,
That that Man's House has been burnt, wherein all his Goods were destroy'd;
That he, and his Family, very narrowly escaped; That he is every Man's Friend
in that Company; and, That it is all their Duties to help him,
as he would do to any of them, had the like Misfortune befallen them.
After this Oration is over, every Man, according to his Quality,
throws him down upon the Ground some Present, which is commonly Beads,
Ronoak, Peak, Skins or Furs, and which very often amounts to treble
the Loss he has suffer'd. The same Assistance they give to any Man
that wants to build a Cabin, or make a Canoe. They say, it is our Duty
thus to do; for there are several Works that one Man cannot effect,
therefore we must give him our Help, otherwise our Society will fall,
and we shall be depriv'd of those urgent Necessities which Life requires.
{Indians no Fences.} They have no Fence to part one anothers Lots
in their Corn-Fields; but every Man knows his own, and it scarce ever happens,
that they rob one another of so much as an Ear of Corn,
which if any is found to do, he is sentenced by the Elders
to work and plant for him that was robb'd, till he is recompensed
for all the Damage he has suffer'd in his Corn-Field;
and this is punctually perform'd, and the Thief held in Disgrace,
that steals from any of his Country-Folks.
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