NO. 12 MONACAN TOWNS IN VIRGINIA BUSHNELL 3I 



SO they all prepared for it, and made a great ring ; the musician 

 being come, he sat himself in the middle of the ring ; all the instrument 

 he had was a piece of board and two small sticks ; the board he set 

 upon his lap, and began to sing a doleful tune, and by striking on the 

 board with his sticks, he accompanied his voice ; he made several 

 antic motions, and sometimes shrieked hideously, which was answered 

 by the boys. As the men sung, so the boys danced all round, endeav- 

 oring who could outdo the other in antic motions and hideous cries, 

 the movements answering in some way to the time of the music. 

 All that I could remark by their actions was, that they were repre- 

 senting how they attacked their enemies, and relating one to the 

 other how many of the other Indians they had killed, and how they 

 did it making all the motions in this dance as if they were actually 

 in the action." 



It is within reason to believe that among the Indians who gathered 

 at the Saponi village early in April, 1716, to greet Governor Spots- 

 wood were some who, as children, had lived at Monasukapanough on 

 the banks of the Rivanna. But during that period of wandering, 

 changes had taken place in the habits and ways of life of the people; 

 nevertheless much that was witnessed and recorded by Fontaine had 

 probably been similarly enacted long before at the older town. The 

 earthen pots and wooden dishes and trays, the mats made of bul- 

 rushes, the mantles made of two deer skins sewed together, and the 

 small sweat houses standing near the river bank — all were details 

 that would have been seen at the more primitive town on the Rivanna. 



In 1728, 12 years after Governor Spotswood's visit to Fort Chris- 

 tanna, the line between Virginia and North Carolina was being run 

 westward from the coast. On September 29 Col. William Byrd, of 

 the Virginia commission, secured a Saponi Indian from the village 

 near the fort to serve as guide and hunter for the party during the 

 latter part of their journey through the wilderness. To the English 

 he was known as Bearskin. He was worthy and capable, and kept the 

 camp well supplied with game. On Sunday, October 13, he explained 

 the religion of the Saponi which was recorded at length by Byrd — ' 

 a remarkable account of the primitive beliefs of a tribe of which 

 so little is known. 



The habitations at the Saponi village near Fort Christanna, as 

 described by Fontaine in 1716, were quite unusual and are believed 

 to have been of English conception. It is doubtful if any structure 

 of a similar nature ever stood at Monasukapanough, where the small 



^Op. cit., p. 51. 



