342 The Natural Historg 



'till he was dead ; the nearest Relations of the deceased strik- 

 ing him on the Head with great Clubs. These are the most 

 common Methods that are yet kno^vn amongst them, by which 

 they torture and put one another to death; but doubtless 

 there are many other barbarous Methods that they make use 

 of, which as yet we are strangers to. 



The King most commonly gives orders to put the offender 

 to Death, yet the punishment due to the offender is very 

 often left to the nearest Relation of the deceas'd, who prose- 

 cutes him with all the rage and fury imaginable, being both 

 Judge and Executioner till he is fully satisfied; yet this re- 

 venge is oftentimes bought of with their wampum. Beads, 

 Tobacco, and such like commodities, whereof they are very 

 fond, and are useful amongst them, though the crimes were 

 of the highest Mature, Villany, or Barbarity that cou'd be 

 acted by Mankind, yet these trifles make a sufficient attone- 

 ment for all. 



They have a strange custom or Ceremony amongst them, 

 to call to mind the persecutions and death of the Kings their 

 Ancestors slain by their Enemies, at certain Seasons, and 

 particularly when the Savages have been at War with any 

 i^ation, and return from their Country without bringing 

 home some Prisoners of War, or the Heads of their Enemies. 

 The King causes as a perpetual remembrance of all his pred- 

 ecessors to beat and wound the best beloved of all his Chil- 

 dren with the same Weapons wherewith they had been kill'd 

 in former times, to the end that by renewing the Wound, their 

 Death should be lamented a fresh. 



The King and his Nation being assembled on these Occa- 

 sions, a Feast is prepared, and the Indian who is authorized 

 to wound the Kings Son, runs about the House like a dis- 

 tracted Person crying and making n most hid ions noise nil 

 the time with the Weapon in his Hand, wlierewith he wounds 



the 



