As For Their Women, They Never Use
Any Paint On Their Faces; Neither Do They Ever Carry Them Along With Them
Into The Field, When They Intend Any Expedition, Leaving Them At Home
With The Old Men And Children.
{Ear Bobs.}
Some of the Indians wear great Bobs in their Ears, and sometimes
in the Holes thereof they put Eagles and other Birds, Feathers, for a Trophy.
When they kill any Fowl, they commonly pluck off the downy Feathers,
and stick them all over their Heads.
Some (both Men and Women)
wear great Necklaces of their Money made of Shells. They often wear
Bracelets made of Brass, and sometimes of Iron Wire.
{Indian Money.}
Their Money is of different sorts, but all made of Shells,
which are found on the Coast of Carolina, which are very large and hard,
so that they are very difficult to cut. Some English Smiths
have try'd to drill this sort of Shell-Money, and thereby thought
to get an Advantage; but it prov'd so hard, that nothing could be gain'd.
They oftentimes make, of this Shell, a sort of Gorge, which they wear
about their Neck in a string; so it hangs on their Collar,
whereon sometimes is engraven a Cross, or some odd sort of Figure,
which comes next in their Fancy. There are other sorts valued at a Doe-Skin,
yet the Gorges will sometimes sell for three or four Buck-Skins ready drest.
There be others, that eight of them go readily for a Doe Skin;
but the general and current Species of all the Indians in Carolina,
and, I believe, all over the Continent, as far as the Bay of Mexico,
is that which we call Peak, and Ronoak; but Peak more especially.
This is that which at New-York, they call Wampum, and have used it
as current Money amongst the Inhabitants for a great many Years.
This is what many Writers call Porcelan, and is made at New-York
in great Quantities, and with us in some measure. Five Cubits of this
purchase a dress'd Doe-Skin, and seven or eight purchase a dress'd Buck-Skin.
An English-man could not afford to make so much of this Wampum
for five or ten times the Value; for it is made out of a vast great Shell,
of which that Country affords Plenty; where it is ground smaller
than the small End of a Tobacco-Pipe, or a large Wheat-Straw.
Four or five of these make an Inch, and every one is to be drill'd through,
and made as smooth as Glass, and so strung, as Beads are,
and a Cubit of the Indian Measure contains as much in Length,
as will reach from the Elbow to the End of the little Finger.
They never stand to question, whether it is a tall Man, or a short one,
that measures it; but if this Wampum Peak be black or purple,
as some Part of that Shell is, then it is twice the Value.
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