SWANTON] INDIANS OF THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 645 



thus. First he sent diverse of his men as to lodge amongst them that night, 

 then the Ambuscadoes invironed al iheir houses, and at the houre appointed, 

 they all fell to the spoile; 24 men they sewe, the long haire of the one side of 

 their heades with the >'inme cased off witl? rie's or reed, they brought away. 

 They surprised also the women md the children and the A^ erowance. All 

 these they present to Powliatai:. The Werowance, women and children be- 

 came his prisoners, and doe him service. Tne locks of haire with iheir skinnes 

 he hanged on a line unto two trees. And thus he made ostentation as of a 

 great triumph at Werowocomoco, shewing them to the English men that then 

 came unto him, at his appointment : they expecting provision ; he, to betray 

 them, supposed to halfe conquer them, by this spectacle of his terrible crueltie. 

 (Smith, John, Tyler ed., 1907, pp. 114-116.) 



In the report on the Proceedings of the English Colonies in Vir- 

 ginia, we learn that Powhatan was found in the following state by 

 his English visitors : 



Sitting upon his bed of mats, his pillow of leather imbroydred (after their 

 rude manner) with pearle and white beades, his attire a faire Robe of skins 

 as large as an Irish mantle, at his head and feet a handsome young woman : 

 on each side his house sate 20 of his concubines, their heads and shoulders 

 painted red, with a great chaine of white beades about their necks; before 

 those sate his chief est men, in like order, in his arbor-like house. (Narr. Early 

 Va., Tyler ed., 1907, p. 134.) 



Such honors were also paid to the wives of chiefs, as appears from 

 what Strachey tells us of the entourage of the wife of a native chief 

 named Pipisco already alluded to. She lay 



upon a pallett of osiers, spred over with four or five fyne grey matts, herself 

 covered with a faire white drest deare skynne or two ; and when she rose, 

 she had a mayd who fetcht her a frontall of white currall, and pendants of 

 great but imperfect coloured and worse drilled pearles, which she put into her 

 eares, and a chayne, with long lyncks of copper, which they call Tapoantaminais, 

 and which came twice or thrice about her neck, and they accompt a jolly 

 ornament; and sure thus attired, with some variety of feathers and flowers 

 stuck in their haires, they seems as dehonairc, quaynt, and well pleased as (I 

 wis) a daughter of the howse of Austria behune with all her Jewells ; likewise 

 her mayd fetcht her a mantell, which they call puttawus, which is like a side 

 cloake, made of blew feathers, so arteficyally and thick sowed togither, that it 

 seemed like a deepe purple satten, and is very smooth and sleeke; and after 

 she brought her water for her hands, and then a braunch or twoo of fresh 

 greene asshen leaves, as for a towell to dry them. I offend in this digression the 

 willinger, since these were ceremonyes which I did little look for, carrying 

 so much presentement of civility, and which are not ordinarily perfourmed to 

 any other amongst them. (Strachey, 1849, pp. 57-58.) 



Beverley generalizes from the example of Powhatan to what he 

 assumes to have been customary in the Tidewater region, and he is 

 probably right : 



The method of the Indian Settlements is altogether by Cohabitation, in 

 Towneships, from fifty to five hundred Families in a Town, and each of these 

 Towns is commonly a Kingdom. Sometimes one King has the command of 

 several of these Towns, when they happen to be united in his Hands, by 

 Descent or Conquest; but in such cases there is always a Viceregent appointed 



