SwANTON] INMANS OF THE SOUTHEASTEKN UNITED STATES 227 



As for their legs and feet, they are generally the handsomest in the world. 

 Their bodies are a little flat, which is occasioned by being laced hard down to a 

 board in their infancy . . . Their eyes are black, or of a dark hazel ; the white is 

 marbled with red streaks, which is ever common to those i)eople, unless when 

 sprung from a white father or mother. Their color is of a tawny, which 

 would not be so dark did they not dawb themselves with bear's oil, and a color 

 like burnt cork. This is begun in their infancy and continued for a long time, 

 which fills the pores and enables them better to endure the extremity of the 

 weather. They are never bald on their heads, although never so old, which, 

 I believe, proceeds from their heads being always uncovered, and the greasing 

 their hair, so often as they do, with bear's fat, which is a great nourisher of 

 the hair, and causes it to grow very fast. . . . 



Their eyes are commonly full and manly, and their gate sedate and majestic. 

 They never walk backward and forward as we do, nor contemplate on the 

 affairs of loss and gain, the things which daily perplex us. They are dextrous 

 and steady, both as to their hands and feet, to admiration. They wiU walk 

 over deep brooks and creeks on the smallest poles, and that without any fear or 

 concern. Nay, an Indian will walk on the ridge of a barn or house and look 

 down the gable end, and spit upon the ground as unconcerned as if he was 

 walking on terra firma. In running, leaping or any such other exercise, their 

 legs seldom miscarry and give them a fall ; and as for letting anything fall out 

 of their hands, I never yet knew one example. ... I never saw a dwarf 

 among them, nor but one that was hump-backed. . . . 



They have no hairs on their faces, except some few, and those but little, 

 nor is there often found any hair under their arm pits. They are continually 

 plucking it away from their faces by the roots. As for their privities, since 

 they wore tail clouts to cover their nakedness, several of the men have a deal 

 of hair thereon. . . . Although we reckon these a very smooth people, and 

 free from hair; yet I once saw a middle aged man that was hairy all down 

 his back ; the hairs being above an inch long. 



As there are found very few, or scarce any, deformed or cripples amongst 

 them, so neither did I ever see but one blind man; and then they would give 

 me no account how his blindness came. ... No people have better eyes, or see 

 better in the night or day than the Indians. . . . 



They are not of so robust and strong bodies as to lift great burdens, and 

 endure labor and slavish work, as the Europeans are ; yet some that are slaves, 

 prove very good and laborious ; but, of themselves, they never work as the 

 English do, taking care for no farther than what is absolutely necessary to 

 support life. In traveling and hunting, they are very indefatigable, because 

 that carries a pleasure along with a profit. I have known some of them very 

 strong; and as for running and leaping, they are extraordinary fellows, and 

 will dance for several nights together with the greatest briskness imaginable, 

 their wind never failing them. (Lawson, 1860, pp. 280-284 ; cf. p. 103. ) 



As for the Indian women which now happen in my way, when young and 

 at maturity, they are as fine shaped creatures, take them generally, as any 

 in the universe. They are of a tawny complexion, their eyes very brisk and 

 amorous, their smiles afford the finest composure a face can possess, their 

 hands are of the finest make, with small, long fingers, and as soft as their 

 cheeks, and their whole bodies of a smooth nature. They are not so uncouth 

 or unlikely as we suppose them. ( Lawson, 1860, p. 299. ) 



In spite of what he says about the keenness of vision and physical 

 perfection of these Indians, Lawson came upon a town called "the 



