712 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Boll. 137 



Here is his account of the huskanaw : 



There is one most abomiDable custom amongst them, which they call husque- 

 iiawing their young men, which I have not made any mention of as yet, so will 

 give you an account of it here. You must know, that most commonly, once a 

 year, at farthest, once in two years, these people take up so many of their young 

 men, as they think are able to undergo it, and husquenaugh them, which is to 

 make them obedient and respective to their superiors, and, as they say, is the 

 same to them as it is to us to send our children to school, to be taught good breed- 

 ing and letters. This house of correction is a large, strong cabin, made on purpose 

 for the reception of the young men and boys, that have not passed the graduation 

 already ; and it is always at Christmas that they husquenaugh their youth, which 

 is by bringing them into this house and keeping them dark all the time, where 

 they more than half starve them. Besides, they give the pellitory bark, and 

 several intoxicating plants, that make them go raving mad as ever were any 

 people in the world ; and you may hear them make the most dismal and hellish 

 cries and bowlings that ever human creatures expressed; all which continues 

 about five or six weeks, and the little meat they eat, is the nastiest, loathsome 

 stuff, and mixt with all manner of filth it is possible to get. After the time is 

 expired, they are brought out of the cabin, which never is in the town, but always 

 a distance off, and guarded by a jailor or two, who watch by turn. Now when 

 they first come out, they are as poor as ever any creatures were ; for you must 

 know several die under the diabolical purgation. Moreover, they either really 

 are, or pretend to be dumb, and do not speak for several days ; I think, twenty or 

 thirty, and look so ghastly, and are so changed, that it is next to an impossibility 

 to know them again, although you were never so well acquainted with them 

 before. I would fain have gone into the mad house, and have seen them in their 

 time of purgatory, but the king would not suffer it, because, he told me they 

 would do me or any other white man an injury, that ventured in amongst them, 

 so I desisted. They play this prank with girls as well as boys, and I believe it 

 a miserable life they endure, because I have known several of them run away 

 at that time to avoid it. Now the savages say if it were not for this, they 

 could never keep their youth in subjection, besides that it hardens them ever 

 after to the fatigues of war, hunting, and all manner of hardship, which their 

 way of living exposes them to. Beside, they add, that it carries off those infirm 

 weak bodies, that would have been only a burden and disgrace to their nation, 

 and saves the victuals and clothing for better people that would have been ex- 

 pended on such useless creatures. (Lawson, 1860, pp. 3S0-382.) 



But alas for this aboriginal experiment in eugenics ! The Algon- 

 quian and Siouan tribes who attempted it are extinct or carry on in 

 small mixed-blood fragments and the Tuscarora are by no means 

 distinguished above the descendants of the non-huskan awing tribes. 



Catesby has the following on childbirth including an account of 

 the native cradle, which has been quoted (p. 562) : 



Indian women by their field, as well as by domestick imployment, acquire a 

 healthy constitution, which contributes no doubt to their easy travail in child- 

 bearing, which is often alone in the woods; after two or three days have con- 

 firmed their recovery, they follow their usual affairs, as well without as within 

 doors : the first thing they do after the birth of a child, is to dip, and wash it in 

 the nearest spring of cold water, and then daub it all over with bear's oil ; the 

 father then prepares a singular kind of cradle, which consists of a flat board 



