954 CHRONOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENT 



for their wives, as the Jews did:" and apparently in common with the Jews alone, they " separate 

 their women, during the time of their monthly sickness, in a little house alone by themselves, four or 

 five days, and hold it an irreligious thing for either father, or husband, or any male, to come near 

 them;" for the "practice they plead nature and tradition." In accordance with "the Greeks and 

 other nations," they call the seven stars " mosk or paukunnawaw," the bear. "They have many 

 strange relations of one Wetucks, a man that wrought great miracles amongst them, walking upon 

 the sea, etc." The "southwest, Sowwaniu, is the great subject of their discourse; from thence their 

 traditions ; there," is " the court of their great god Cawtantowwit ; at the southwest, are their fore- 

 fathers souls ; " and there, "they go themselves, when they die : from the southwest, came their corn 

 and beans, out of the great god Cawtantowwit's field." Some connexion is inferred with the Southwest 

 wind being the " pleasingest " and most desired by the natives, "making fair weather ordinarily." 

 They "are exceedingly delighted with salutations in their own language ; " are "remarkably free and 

 courteous to invite all strangers into their houses ; '' and he " acknowledged amongst them an heart 

 sensible of kindnesses," having "reaped kindness again from many, seven years after, when " he 

 himself "had forgotten." Their provision for a journey of three or four days, is "nokehick" parched 

 meal: of their other dishes, parched corn, " msickquatash " (succotash) boiled corn whole, " manu- 

 squussedash " beans, and " nawsiump " (samp) a kind of meal pottage unparched, are mentioned. 

 "They generally all take tobacco;'" one of the causes alleged being "against the rheum, which causeth 

 the tooth-ake ." Howling " and shouting is their alarm, they having no drums nor trumpets." When 

 "they have had a bad dream, which they conceive to be a threatening from God, they fall to prayer 

 at all times of the night, especially early before day." Having "no letters nor arts, it is admirable 

 how quick they are in casting up great numbers, with the help of grains of corn, instead of Europe's 

 pens or counters : " the names of numbers up to " nquittemittannug " thousand, are given ; and even 

 by combination, up to one hundred thousand. "They hold the band of brother-hood so dear, that 

 when one had committed a murder and fled, they executed his brother ; and it is common for a brother 

 to pay the debt of a brother deceased : " their "virgins are distinguished by a bashful falling down of 

 the hair over their eyes : there are no beggars among them, nor fatherless children unprovided for : 

 their affections, especially to their children, are very strong ; " and this, " together with want of learn- 

 ing, makes their children saucy, bold, and undutiful. ' Nickquenum ' I am going home, is a solemn 

 word amongst them ; and no man will offer any hinderance to him, who after some absence, is going 

 to visit his family, and useth this word : " two " families will live comfortably and lovingly in a little 

 round house, of some fourteen or sixteen feet over, and so more and more families in proportion : " 

 they "are as full of business, and as impatient of hinderance, in their kind, as any merchant in 

 Europe : " they "have amongst them natural fools, either so born, or accidentally deprived of reason." 

 They "are much delighted after battle, to hangup the hands and heads of their enemies." Their 

 "desire of, and delight in news, is great as the Athenians ; " and "upon any tidings," I have "seen 

 near a thousand in a round," and many "will deliver themselves " with "very emphatical speech and 

 great action, commonly an hour, and sometimes two hours together : " in " time of war, he that is a 

 messenger runs swiftly, and at every town the messenger comes, a fresh messenger is sent: " their 

 word for letter is from " wussuckwhommin " to paint, "for having no letters, their painting comes the 

 nearest." They "have thirteen months, according to the several moons; and they give to each of 

 them significant names." It "is admirable to see, what paths their naked hardened feet have made in 

 the wilderness, in most stony and rocky places : " I have " known many of them run between four- 

 score or an hundred miles in a summer's day, and back within two days : '' they " are joyful in meet- 

 ing of any in travel, and will strike fire either with stones or sticks, to take tobacco, and discourse a 

 little together : " I have travelled " many a hundred miles among them, without need of stick or staff, 

 for any appearance of danger amongst them ; yet it is a rule amongst them, that it is not good for a 

 man to travel without a weapon, nor alone : " if justice be refused in case of robbery between persons 

 of different states, "they grant a kind of letter of mart to take satisfaction themselves; yet they are 

 careful not to exceed in taking from others, beyond the proportion of their own loss : I could never 

 hear that murders or robberies are comparably so frequent, as in parts of Europe, amongst the Eng- 

 lish, French, etc." Some "of them account seven winds; some, eight or nine." A certain small 

 bird is called "sachim," from its "courage and command over greater birds " (the kino-bird, Musci- 

 capa tyrannus) : a hawk " wushowunan " is kept " tame about their houses, to keep the little birds 

 from their corn" (compare origin of falconry). They "are very exact and punctual in the bounds of 

 their lands, belonging to this or that " people, " even to a river, brook, etc. ; and I have known them 

 make bargain and sale among themselves for a small piece or quantity of ground : " when "a field is 

 to be broken up," all "the neighbours, men and women, forty, fifty, a hundred, etc. join, and come in 

 to help freely: with friendly joining they break up their fields, build their forts, hunt the woods, stop 

 and kill fish in the rivers : " the " women to this day, notwithstanding our hoes, do use their natural 

 hoes of shells and wood." The "variety of their dialects and proper speech, within thirty or forty 



