64 AUTHENTIC HISTORY 



them at tlieir backs. The children will go, very young, at nine months 

 commonly; they wear only a small clout round their waist till they are 

 big; if boys, they go a fishing, till ripe for the woods; which is about 

 fifteen; then they hunt; and after having given some proofs of their 

 manhood, by a good return of skins, they may marry ; else it is a shame 

 to think of a wife. The girls stay with their mothers, and help to hoe 

 the ground, plant corn and carry burdens ; and they do well to use them 

 to that young, which they must do when they are old ; for the wives are 

 the true servants of the husbands; otherwise the men are very affection- 

 ate to them. 



XIV. " When the young women are fit for marriage, they wear some- 

 thing upon their heads, for an advertisement, but so, as their faces are 

 hardly to be seen, but Avhen they please. The age, they marry at, if 

 women, is about thirteen, and fourteen ; if men, seventeen and eighteen ; 

 they are rarely elder. 



XV. "Their houses are mats, or barks of trees, set on poles, in the 

 iashion of an Englisli barn, but out of the power of the winds ; for they 

 are hardly higher than a man ; they lie on reeds, or grass. In travel they 

 lodge in the woods, about a great fire, with the mantle of dufiils tliey 

 Avear b}'^ da}^ wrapt about them, and a few boughs stuck round them. 



XVI. "Their diet is maize, or Indian corn, divers ways prepared; 

 sometimes roasted in the ashes ; sometimes beaten and boiled with water; 

 which they call liomine ; they also make cakes, not unpleasant to eat. 

 They have likewise several sorts of beans and pease, that are good nour- 

 ishment ; and the woods and rivers are their larder. 



XVII. "If an European comes to see them, or calls for lodging at their 

 house, or ivicjivam^ the}^ give him the best place and first cut. If they 

 come to visit us, they salute us with an Itali; which is as much as to say, 

 Oood he to yon.^ and set them doAvn; which is mostly on the ground, close 

 to their heels, their legs upright ; it may be they speak not a word, but 

 observe all passages. If you give them any thing, to eat, or drink, well : 

 for they will not ask ; and be it little or much, if it be with kindness, 

 they are well pleased, else they go away sullen, but say nothing. 



XVIII. "They are great concealers of their own resentments; brought 

 to it, I believe, by the revenge that hath been practised among them. 

 In either of these they are not exceeded by the Italians A tragical 

 instance fell out since I came into the country : a king's daughter, think- 

 ing herself slighted by her husband, in suffering another woman to lie 

 down between them, rose up, went out, plucked a root out of the ground, 

 and ate it ; upon which she immediately died : and, for which, last week, 

 he made an offering to her kindred, for atonement, and liberty of mar- 

 riage ; as two others did to the kindred of their wives that died a natural 

 death. For, till widowers have done so, they must not marry agaiQ. 



