746 BUREAU OP AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [Bull. 137 



Cube, upon which, in their greatest Solemnities, they used to sacrifice. This, they 

 would make us believe, was so clear, that the Grain of a Man's Skin might be seen 

 through it ; and was so heavy too, that when they remov'd their Gods and Kings, 

 not being able to carry it away, they buried it thereabouts : But the Place has never 

 been yet discover'd. (Beverley, 1705, bk. 2, pp. 10-11.) 



They erect Altars where-ever they have any remarkable occasion ; and because 

 their principal Devotion consists in Sacrifice, they have a profound resi)ect for 

 these Altars. They have one particular Altar, to which, for some mystical reason, 

 many of their Nations pay an extraordinary Veneration; of this sort was the 

 Crystal Cube, mention'd Book II. Chap. 3 (art. 8.) The Indians call this by the 

 name of Pawcorance, from whence proceeds the great Reverence they have for a 

 small Bird that uses the Woods, and in their note continually sounds that name. 

 This Bird flys alone, and is only heard in the twilight. They say this is the Soul 

 of one of their Princes ; and on that score, they wou'd not hurt it for the World. 

 But there was once a profane Indian in the upper parts of James River, who, after 

 abundance of fears and scruples, was at last brib'd to kill one of them with his 

 Gun ; but the Indians say he paid dear for his presumption, for in a few days 

 after he w^as taken away, and never more heard of. 



When they travel by any of these Altars, they take great care to instruct their 

 Children and Young people in the particular occasion and time of their erection, 

 and recommend the respect which they ought to have for them; so that their 

 careful observance of these Traditions proves as good a Memorial of such An- 

 tiquities, as any Written Records ; especially for so long as the same people con- 

 tinue to inhabit in, or near the same place. (Beverley, 1705, bk. 3, pp. 46-47.) 



As regards the Indians' conception of the After Life : 



Concerning the ymmortality of the sowle [says Strachey] they suppose that 

 the common people shall not live after death ; but they thinck that their weroances 

 and priests, indeed whom they esteeme half quioughcosughes, when their bodyes 

 are laied in the earth, that that which is within shall goe beyond the mountaynes, 

 and travell as farr as where the sun setts into most pleasant fields, growndes, and 

 pastures, where yt shall doe no labour; but, stuck finely with feathers, and 

 painted with oyle and pocones, rest in all quiet and peace, and eat delicious 

 fruicts, and have store of copper, beades, and hatchetts ; sing, daunce, and have 

 all variety of delights and merryments till that waxe old there, as the body did 

 on earth, and then yt shall dissolve and die, and come into a woman's womb 

 againe, and so be a new borne unto the world. (Strachey, 1849, p. 90; see also 

 p. 749 below.) 



Smith and Strachey do not differentiate between the priest and the 

 conjurer as does Hariot, but Beverley is probably right in what he 

 has to say Regarding the separate functions of the two though he chooses 

 to illustrate his account of them by patent reproductions of the White 

 drawings. Strachey says that at Uttamussack, the principal temple, 



commonly are resident seven priests, the chief differing from the rest in his orna- 

 ment, whilst the inferior priests can hardly be knowne from the common people, 

 save that they had not (it may be may not have) so many holes in their eares to 



hang their Jewells at In their hands they carry every one his rattle, for 



the most part as a symbole of his place and profession, some basse, some smaller. 

 (Strachey, 1849, p. 91.) 



