{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. 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.
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