They Often Walk And
Converse With Each Other, As I Have Observed Before; And Upon
Extraordinary Occasions, Will Take A Ride To Palpus, Where There Is
An House Of Entertainment; But These Rural Amusements Are Conducted
Upon The Same Plan Of Moderation, As Those In Town.
They are so
simple as hardly to be described; the pleasure of going and
returning together; of chatting and walking about, of throwing the
bar, heaving stones, etc., are the only entertainments they are
acquainted with.
This is all they practise, and all they seem to
desire. The house at Palpus is the general resort of those who
possess the luxury of a horse and chaise, as well as of those who
still retain, as the majority do, a predilection for their primitive
vehicle. By resorting to that place they enjoy a change of air, they
taste the pleasures of exercise; perhaps an exhilarating bowl, not
at all improper in this climate, affords the chief indulgence known
to these people, on the days of their greatest festivity. The
mounting a horse, must afford a most pleasing exercise to those men
who are so much at sea. I was once invited to that house, and had
the satisfaction of conducting thither one of the many beauties of
that island (for it abounds with handsome women) dressed in all the
bewitching attire of the most charming simplicity: like the rest of
the company, she was cheerful without loud laughs, and smiling
without affectation. They all appeared gay without levity. I had
never before in my life seen so much unaffected mirth, mixed with so
much modesty. The pleasures of the day were enjoyed with the
greatest liveliness and the most innocent freedom; no disgusting
pruderies, no coquettish airs tarnished this enlivening assembly:
they behaved according to their native dispositions, the only rules
of decorum with which they were acquainted. What would an European
visitor have done here without a fiddle, without a dance, without
cards? He would have called it an insipid assembly, and ranked this
among the dullest days he bad ever spent. This rural excursion had a
very great affinity to those practised in our province, with this
difference only, that we have no objection to the sportive dance,
though conducted by the rough accents of some self-taught African
fiddler. We returned as happy as we went; and the brightness of the
moon kindly lengthened a day which had past, like other agreeable
ones, with singular rapidity.
In order to view the island in its longest direction from the town,
I took a ride to the easternmost parts of it, remarkable only for
the Pochick Rip, where their best fish are caught. I past by the
Tetoukemah lots, which are the fields of the community; the fences
were made of cedar posts and rails, and looked perfectly straight
and neat; the various crops they enclosed were flourishing: thence I
descended into Barrey's Valley, where the blue and the spear grass
looked more abundant than I had seen on any other part of the
island; thence to Gib's Pond; and arrived at last at Siasconcet.
Several dwellings had been erected on this wild shore, for the
purpose of sheltering the fishermen in the season of fishing; I
found them all empty, except that particular one to which I had been
directed.
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