muunTy] SAPONI early HISTORY. 49 



to meet them, and amoug them was their old friend Bearskin, dressed 

 in all his ceremonial liuery. The whole party Mas on horseback, whit^h 

 was evidently in greater honor of the occasion, as the distance from 

 the village was only 3 miles, and, as Batts says, they had probably 

 walked as far on foot to catch their horses. Bnt these timber Indians 

 were very difierent from the free rangers of the plains, for the traveler 

 declares that they rode more awkwardly than a Dutch sailor. With 

 them came several women, who lode man-fashion, as do the women of 

 all the tribes. The men are described as having something great and 

 venerable in their countenances, beyond the common mien of savages, 

 which agreed with their reputation as the most honest and brave Indi- 

 ans the Virginians had ever known. Anyone familiar with the facial 

 type and bearing of the Sioux or Osage will understand what it was 

 that struck the observer so forcibly in the appearance of these Saponi, 

 Continuing, the traveler says : 



This people is now made up of the I'einnaut of several other nations, of Avhich the 

 most considerable are the .Sai)ponys, the Occaneches, and Steukenhocks, who not 

 tindiiig themselves separately numerous enough for their defence, have agreed to 

 unite into oue body, and all of them now go under the name of the Sapponys. Each 

 of these was formerly a distinct nation, or rather a several clan or canton of the 

 same nation, sjieaking the same language, anil using the same customs. But their 

 Iterpetual wars against all other Indians, in time, reduc'd them so low as to make it 

 necesssary to join their forces together (IJyrd, 8). 



He goes on to tell how, about twenty-five years ago, they had fled 

 from the Yadkin and taken refuge in Virginia, where Governor Spots- 

 wood, having a good opinion of their courage and fidelity, had settled 

 them at Fort Christanna as a barrier against the attacks of other 

 foreign Indians upon the settlements. His purpose was defeated, how- 

 ever, by (he debauchery wrought among them by the Avhites, resulting 

 ill many disorders and culminating at last in a murder committed by 

 one of their chiefs while drunk, and for which he was hanged after he 

 had become sober. The ignominious manner of his death angered his 

 people exceedingly, largely from an idea, common to other tribes, that 

 the soul of the dead person, being prevented by this mode of execution 

 from leaving the body by the mouth, must necessarily be defiled. 

 Some of the Indians took the matter so much to heart that they soon 

 after left their settlement and moved in a body to the Catawba ti'ibe. 

 Byrd says that those who thus removed to the south were the Sapoui 

 proper, but this is certainly a mistake if intended to apply to the whole 

 tribe. It is more probable that they were the Eno or the Keyauwee, or 

 perhaps the Sara, the two former of whom had joined the Saponi and 

 Tutelo about 1701, but were afterwards found incorporated with the 

 Catawba, with whom also the Sara had confederated. He states also 

 that the daughter of the Tutelo chief went away with them, but being 

 the last of her nation, and fearing that she would not receive the treat- 

 ment due her rank, she i)oisoiied herself with the root of the trumpet 

 BULL. V=22 4 



