IXDIAXS OF M.WI/A'n'.W ISLAM) 9 



a i)()int('(l or louiidcd lool" in w liicli a loii^; slol was Ict't al 1 lie i id^c lof 1 lie 

 ('S('aj)i> of smok(\ Siicli a lioiisc was coiinnoiily occupied l)\- a miinhci- of 

 rdattul families, and con-csi)()iid(Ml in many ways willi the lon^" tene- 

 ments of the lro(iuois. None of \\\v liouses and few of 1 he \illa^"es of t he 

 local Indians wei'e vwv delended l)y palisados or trenches. 



\\ (^ are told by the old wiitors, and ar('ha(M)l()t!;i('al invest i^;at ion con- 

 firms them, that the houst^hold utcMisils of the Indians wei'c pottery 

 vesscds. nearly always, curiously (Mi()U*2;h, made with a pointed bottom, so 

 that they had to be propped iij) with stones when in use, calabashes or 

 gourds for water, spoons of shell and wood, w^ooden bowls laboriously 

 made by burning; and serapin^ knots or burls of trees, and bone awls and 

 other tools. 



The Indians derived their livelihood by farming a little, for the}' 

 raised corn, beans, pumpkins, squashes, melons, and tobacco; but 

 mostly b}' fishino;, oystering, and clam gathering. They also were good 

 hunters, as the bones of various animals, so common on their old kitchen 

 refuse heaps, abundantly prove. However, from the vast heaps of 

 03'ster, clam, mussel, and other marine shells, that may be found scat- 

 tered about the old Indian camping grounds, it is obvious that the sea 

 furnished most of their food. 



They caught fish in the seines and gill nets, by harpooning, and by 

 shooting with the bow- and arrow; the}' killed deer and other game with 

 the bow and arrow, often hunting in large companies. This was, with the 

 w^aging of war, the duty of the men; the women tended the fields and 

 probably built and owned the lodges. 



In their fishing, and for traveling by water, our Indians used canoes, 

 sometimes made from heavy elm-bark but more often hollow^ed out of 

 logs. Roger Williams says of the Narragansett and their neighbors: 



Obs: Mishoon, an Indian Boat, or Canow made of a Pine or Oake, or Chestnut- 

 tree: I have seene a Native goe into the woods with his hatchet carrying onely a 

 Basket of Come with him, and stones to strike fire when he had felled his tree (being 

 a Chestnut) he made him a little House or shed of the bark of it, he puts fire and fol- 

 lowes the burning of it with fire, in the midst in many places: his come he boyles 

 and hath the Brook by him and sometimes angles for a little fish: but so hee con- 

 tinues burning and hewing untill he hath within ten or twelve dayes (lying there 

 at his work alone) finished, and (getting hands), launched his boate with which after- 

 ward hee ventures out to fish in the Ocean. 



******* 



Obs. Their owne reason hath taught them, to pull off a Coat or two and set it 

 up on a small pole, with which they will saile before a wind ten, or twenty mile Sec. 



