Their order in conducting him was thus: drawing themselves all in file, the king in the midst, had all their pieces and swords borne before him. Captain Smith was led after him by three great savages, holding him fast by each arm; and on each side six went in file with their arrows nocked.[295] But arriving at the town,――which was only thirty or forty hunting-houses made of mats, which they remove as they please, as we our tents,――all the women and children staring to behold him, the soldiers first, all in file, performed the form of a bissom[296] so well as could be; and on each flank, officers as sergeants to see them keep their order. A good time they continued this exercise, and then cast themselves in a ring, dancing in such several postures, and singing and yelling out such hellish notes and screeches; being strangely painted, every one his quiver of arrows, and at his back a club; on his arm a fox or an otter’s skin, or some such matter for his vambrace;[297] their heads and shoulders painted red with oil and pocones[298] mingled together, which scarlet-like color made an exceeding handsome show; his bow in his hand, and the skin of a bird with her wings abroad dried, tied on his head, a piece of copper, a white shell, a long feather, with a small rattle growing at the tails of their snakes tied to it, or some such like toy. All this while, Smith and the king stood in the midst, guarded, as before is said; and after three dances they all departed. Smith they conducted to a long house, where thirty or forty tall fellows did guard him; and ere long more bread and venison was brought him than would have served twenty men. I think his stomach[299] at that time was not very good: what he left they put in baskets, and tied over his head. About midnight, they set the meat again before him, all this time not one of them would eat a bit with him, till the next morning they brought him as much more; and then did they eat all the old, and reserved the new as they had done the other, which made him think they would fat him to eat him. Yet in this desperate estate to defend him from the cold, one Maocassater brought him his gown, in requital of some beads and toys Smith had given him at his first arrival in Virginia. IV.――CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH AND POCAHONTAS. [This narrative is taken from Smith’s “Generall Historie.” It was possibly written by Captain Smith, but is now generally disbelieved by historical students, because it is inconsistent with an earlier account of the same events, also written by Smith, and because the incident is not mentioned by Strachey, who also described the Virginia Colony.]