OF ACCOMPANYING ANIMALS AND PLANTS. 955 



miles of each other, is very great, as appears in" the word for dog: "anum" in the Cowweset dialect, 

 " ayim 7 > in the Narroganset, " arum " in the Quunnipieuck, and " alum " in the Neepmuck : " moos- 

 soog" is the name of the "great ox, or rather red deer" (moose). " Paumpagussit " is the "name 

 which they give that deity or god-head, which they conceive to be in the sea: " a sail is called "sepa- 

 kehig," and '■ their own reason hath taught them to pull off a coat or two, and set it up on a small 

 pole, with which they will sail before the wind ten or twenty miles : " some of their canoes will carry 

 " twenty, thirty, forty men ; " and " I have known thirty or forty of their canoes filled with men, and 

 near as many more of their enemies, in a sea fight." I have heard a native lamenting the loss of a 

 child, " cry out, ' O God, thou hast taken away my child ! thou art angry with me ; O turn thine anger 

 from me, and spare the rest of my children : ' if they receive any good in hunting, fishing, harvest, etc., 

 they acknowledge God in it ; yea, if it be but an ordinary accident, a fall, etc., they will say, God was 

 angry and did it: but" they "branch their godhead into many gods," and "have given me the names 

 of thirty-seven, all which in their solemn worships they invocate," as the great southwest god Cau- 

 tantowwit, the eastern god, the western god, the northern god, the southern god, the house god, the 

 woman's god, the children's god " Muckquachuckquand ; " the last-named, believed by a dying native 

 to have appeared to him " many years before, and bid him, when he was in distress, call upon him : " 

 they also worship created things, in which " they conceive doth rest some deity," as the sun god, the 

 moon god, the sea god, the "fire god; 'Can it, say they, be but this fire must be a god, or divine 

 power, that out of a stone will arise in a spark, and when a poor naked Indian is ready to starve with 

 cold in the house, and especially in the woods, often saves his life, doth dress all our food for us, and 

 it it be angry, will burn the house about us, yea if a spark fall into the dry wood, burns up the coun- 

 try : ' besides there is a general custom amongst them, at the apprehension of any excellency in men, 

 women, birds, beasts, etc., to cry out ' manittoo,' that is, it is a god; " and further, "they conceive 

 that there are many gods, or divine powers, within the body of a man, in his pulse, his heart, his 

 lungs, etc. : " in sickness, the " powwaw " or priest "comes close to the sick person, and performs 

 many strange actions about him, and threatens and conjures out the sickness : " they "have an exact 

 form of king, priest, and prophet; " their "priests perform and manage their worship ; their wise and 

 old men, of which number the priests are also, make solemn speeches and orations, or lectures, to 

 them concerning religion, peace, or war, and all things : " besides the public feasts or dances, indi- 

 viduals give private ones, expending " sometimes beyond their estate : " the word for soul " cowwe- 

 wonck " is "derived from ' cowwene ' to sleep, because, say they, it works and operates, when the 

 body sleeps ; ' michachunck ' the soul, in a higher notion, which is of affinity with a word signifying a 

 looking glass or clear resemblance." Besides "their general subjection to the highest sachims, to 

 whom they carry presents, they have also particular protectors, under-sachims, to whom they also 

 carry presents, and upon any injury received, and complaint made, these protectors will revenge it : 

 the sachims, although they have an absolute monarchy over the people, yet they will not conclude of 

 ought that concerns all, either laws, or subsidies, or wars, unto which the people are adverse, and by 

 gentle persuasion cannot be brought : " the " most usual custom with them in executing punishments, 

 is for the sachim either to beat, or whip, or put to death with his own hand; to which the common 

 sort most quietly submit." Marriage "they solemnize by consent of parents and publick approbation, 

 publickly : " the " number of wives is not stinted ; yet the chief nation in the country, the Narrogan- 

 sets, generally have but one wife : " the " men put away frequently for other occasions beside adul- 

 tery ; yet I know many couples, that have lived twenty, thirty, forty years together." They have 

 money : the white, called " wompam," made " of the stem or stock of the periwinkle, when all the 

 shell is broken off " (Dcntalium ?) ; and the black, called " suckauhock," made of the shell of the 

 " poquauhock " ( Venus mercenaria) ; and for this money, the natives " bring down all their sorts of 

 furs, which they take in the country :" they have great difference in their money; "some that will 

 not pass without allowance ; and some again, made of.a counterfeit shell ; and their very black, coun- 

 terfeited by a stone and other materials ; yet I never saw any of them much deceived." Of their 

 occupations, some " follow only making bows ; some, arrows ; some, dishes ; and the women make 

 all their earthen vessels ; some follow fishing ; some, hunting ; most on the sea side make money, 

 and store up shells in summer against winter," and before obtaining awl-blades, "they made shift to 

 bore their shell money with stone : they also felled their trees with stone set in a wooden staff." 

 They have games, "private and publick: " one, "like unto the English cards, yet instead of cards, they 

 play with strong rushes ; secondly, they have a kind of dice, which are plumstones painted, which 

 they cast " in a tray ; " ntakesemin, I am telling or counting, for their play is a king of arithmetick : " 

 their "publick games are solemnized with the meeting of hundreds, sometimes thousands:" the 

 "chief gamesters amongst them much desire to make their gods side with them in their games; there- 

 fore I have seen them keep " a kind of stone "which is like unto a crystal, which they dig out of the 

 oround under some tree thundersmitten, and from this stone they have an opinion of success : " 

 besides o-amblin^-houses, " puttuckquapuonck, a playing arbour," on "which they hang great store of 



