30 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 82 



door upon them, and there they sit and sweat until they are no more 

 able to support it, and then they go out naked and immediately jump 

 into the water over head and ears, and this is the remedy they have 

 for all distempers." 



The appearance of the Indians, and the manner in which the 

 Governor was received the day of his arrival at the fort, was told 

 by Fontaine. He wrote in his journal : "About three of the clock, 

 came sixty of the young men with feathers in their hair and run 

 through their ears, their faces painted with blue and vermilion, 

 their hair cut in many forms, some on one side of the head, and 

 some on both, and others on the upper part of the head, making it 

 stand like a cock's-comb, and they had blue and red blankets wrapped 

 about them. They dress themselves after this maner when they go 

 to war the one with the other, so they call it their war dress, and it 

 really is very ' terrible, and makes them look like so many furies. 

 These young men made no speeches, they only walked up and down, 

 seeming to be very proud of their most abominable dress. 



"After this came the young women ; they all have long straight 

 black hair, which comes down to the waist, they had each of them a 

 blanket tied round the waist, and hanging down about the legs like 

 a petticoat. They have no shifts, and most of them nothing to cover 

 them from the waist upwards ; others of them there were that had two 

 deer skins sewed together and thrown over their shoulders like a 

 mantle. They all of them grease their bodies and heads with bear's 

 oil, which, with the smoke of their cabins, gives them an ugly smell. 

 They are very modest and very true to their husbands. They are 

 straight and well limbed, good shape, and extraordinary good features, 

 as well the men as the women. They look wild, and are mighty shy 

 of an Englishman, and will not let you touch them. The men marry 

 but one wife, and cannot marry any more until she die, or grow so 

 old that she cannot bear any more children ; then the man may take 

 another wife, but is obliged to keep them both and maintain them. 

 They take one another without ceremony." 



The children were bound to boards that were " cut after the shape 

 of the child," with two pieces at the bottom to which the child's legs 

 were tied. A cord passed through a hole in the top of the board with 

 which it could be attached to a limb of a tree, " or to a pin in a post 

 for that purpose, and there the children swing about and divert 

 themselves, out of the reach of any thing that may hurt them." They 

 were kept in this manner until they were about two years of age. 



Governor Spotswood was evidently greatly interested in the 

 Indians and on April 6, 171 6, " asked the boys to dance a war dance, 



