i^oNEv] LAWSON AMONG SAPONI AND TUTELO. 39 



intended to follow this trail to Virginiii, but was obli.ced to leave 

 it at the Occaneechi village (near the i»reseut site of Ilillsboro, North 

 Carolina), and tiiru southeastward on account of the alarm created 

 by a fresh inroad of the dreaded Iroquois. 



While stopping at the village of the Waxhaw on a small eastern 

 tributary of the Catawba, just within the limits of South Carolina, a 

 messenger arrived from the Sapoui to arrange some tribal business 

 with the Waxhaw. The visitor had his entire face i)ainted with ver- 

 milion, and carried a cutlass in his belt and a gun in his hand. His 

 coming" was celebrated that night by a masquerade dance, to which 

 Lawson and his party were invited. 



Continuing on his journey, in the course of which he found several 

 fresh reminders of the Iroquois in the shape of stone heaps erected to 

 commemorate several of their victims slain near the path, he arrived 

 at last at the Saponi village, situated on Yadkin river, in the nighbor- 

 hood of the present Salisbury, North Carolina. Lawson calls the stream 

 Sapona, and incorrectly supposed it to be a branch of Cape Fear river. 

 The name is still retained in connection with a small village a few miles 

 northeast of Salisbury in Davidson county. He has much to say of 

 the beauty of the stream, making constant music as it rippled over its 

 rocky bed in unison with the songs of innumerable birds on the hills 

 round about. He declares that all Europe could not afibrd a pleasanter 

 stream, and describes the surrounding country as delicious, leaving 

 nothing to be desired by a contented mind. 



He found the people as friendly as the location was agreeable, and 

 rested there several days as the si^ecial guest of the chief, who had 

 lost an eye in defense of an English trader, and who added to his dig- 

 nity as a chief the sacred character of a medicineman. While here 

 the Englishmen were well entertained with feasting and presents of 

 game and medical dissertations by one of the Indian doctors. Near 

 the village they noticed several stone sweat-houses, which were in fre- 

 quent use, especially for rheumatic pains due 1o exposure in the woods. 



From one of the Totero with whom he talked at this village he found 

 that a powder made from the so-called bezoar stone, a hairy concretion 

 sometimes tbund in the stomach of the deer and other ruminants, was 

 in great repute among their hunters, who believed that when blown 

 into the eyes it strengthened the sight. 



The Saponi had recently taken prisoner several ''Sinnagers" (Iro- 

 quois), whom they were jireparing to burn when Lawson arrived. The 

 burning was to be by the horrible splinter torture, in which the body of 

 the victim was stuck full of pine splinters, which were tlien lighted like 

 so many candles, while the sufferer was compelled to dance around a fire 

 until his strength failed and he fell, when the tomahawk put an end to 

 his agony. A ceremonial feast was always an accompaniment of the 

 tragedy. Before the burning, however, some "Toteros" (Tutelo) came 

 down from their tribe living in the neighboring mountains toward the 

 west, probably about the headwaters of the Yadkin, and asked j)osses- 



