NO.    4       INDIAN    SITES    ON    THE    RAPPAHANNOCK BUSHNELL  4I 
and  that  is  the  price,'"^  they  all  smoke  as  well  as  the  men,  but  they  do  not  raise 
any  tobacco,  it  is  given  them  in  exchange  for  game  or  fish." 
They  marry  among  themselves  but  it  is  only  to  avoid  confusion  among  the 
children,  for  as  soon  as  a  young  man  takes  a  wife  he  builds  a  little  house,  leaves 
his  father  and  mother  and  retires  to  it.  They  have  some  knowledge,  but  a  very 
imperfect  knowledge,  of  the  true  God,  they  believe  that  he  is  creator  of  all  that 
they  see,  and  of  the  growth  of  what  is  necessary  to  life,  but  that  he  does  not 
lower  himself  so  far ;  that  the  demons  which  are  inferior  to  him  were  created 
for  that  purpose,  and  so  they  fear  them  because  they  are  from  time  to  time 
tormented  by  them.  They  have  no  other  ceremony  in  their  marriages  unless  it 
be  the  assembling  of  the  village,  and  the  man  having  chosen  she  whom  he  wishes 
to  take  gives  her  a  roe's  foot  or  a  deer's,  and. she  gives  him  an  ear  of  corn, 
which  signifies  that  the  husband  will  keep  the  house  provided  with  meat  and 
the  woman  with  corn.^' 
The  Ministers  of  this  region  take  no  pains  to  convert  them  to  Christianity 
and  instruct  them,  although  the  greater  part  of  them  know  how  to  speak  Eng- 
lish. When  we  left  them  they  made  a  present  to  Mr.  Wormeley  of  a  dozen 
deerskins,  and  to  Mr.  Parker  and  to  me  a  handful  of  pipes  each. 
public  square,  whither  the  people  with  their  hoes  and  axes ;  and  from  thence 
proceed  to  their  plantation,  where  they  begin  to  plant,  not  every  one  in  his  own 
little  district,  assigned  and  laid  out,  but  the  whole  community  united  begins  on 
one  certain  part  of  the  field,  where  they  plant  on  until  finished ;  and  when  their 
rising  crops  are  ready  for  dressing  and  cleansing,  they  proceed  after  the  same 
order,  and  so  on  day  after  day,  until  the  crop  is  laid  by  for  ripening.  After  the 
feast  of  the  busk  is  over,  and  all  the  grain  is  ripe,  the  whole  town  again  assemble, 
and  every  man  carries  off  the  fruits  of  his  labour,  from  the  part  first  allotted 
to  him,  which  he  deposits  in  his  own  granary ;  which  is  individually  his  own." 
But  a  large  crib  was  provided  in  the  town  in  which  grain  was  placed,  volun- 
tarily, and  in  such  quantity  as  the  individual  chose,  which  served  as  "  a  public 
treasury  .  .  .  and  to  which  every  citizen  has  the  right  of  free  and  equal  access, 
when  his  own  private  stores  are  consumed."  Durand  may  have  known  of  a 
similar  custom  prevailing  at  Portobago  village. 
"  Evidently  the  value  of  the  corn  that  a  vessel  would  hold  was  the  accepted 
value  of  the  vessel  itself.  As  previously  recorded,  an  act  passed  the  Assembly  in 
June  1676  that  allowed  the  English  to  obtain  various  articles  from  the  Indians, 
mentioning  "  canooes,  bowles,  matts  or  basketts,  and  to  pay  the  said  Indians  for 
the  same  in  Indian  corne,  but  noe  other  commodities." 
^'  Nicofiana  rustica  has  been  identified  as  the  plant  formerly  raised  by  the 
Indians  of  Virginia.  Discussed  by  W.  A.  Setchell  in  Amer.  Anthrop.  vol.  23, 
no.  4,  1921. 
"Adair  (op.  cit.,  pp.  139-140)  referred  to  this  ceremony:  "When  the  bride- 
groom marries  the  bride,  after  the  usual  prelude,  he  takes  a  choice  car  of  com, 
and  divides  it  in  two  before  w'itnesses,  gives  her  one  half  in  her  hand,  and  keeps 
the  other  half  to  himself ;  or  otherwise,  he  gives  her  a  deer's  foot,  as  an  emblem 
of  the  readiness  with  which  she  ought  to  serve  him :  in  return,  she  presents 
him  with  some  cakes  of  bread  .  .  .  Formerly,  this  was  an  universal  custom  .  .  ." 
However,  Adair  was  writing  of  conditions  and  customs  in  the  country  far  south 
of  Virginia  and  many  years  after  Durand  visited  the  village  on  the  Rappahannock 
in  1686. 
