America: Being the Latest, and Most Accurate Description of the Nevv VVorld: Containing the Original of the Inhabitants, and the Remarkable Voyages Thither. The Conquest of the Vast Empires of Mexico and Peru, and Other Large Provinces and Territories, with the Several European Plantations in Those Parts. Also Their Cities, Fortresses, Towns, Temples, Mountains, and Rivers. Their Habits, Customs, Manners, and Religions. Their Plants, Beasts, Birds, and Serpents. With an Appendix, Containing, BesOgilby, John
History
America: Being the Latest, and Most Accurate Description of the Nevv VVorld: Containing the Original of the Inhabitants, and the Remarkable Voyages Thither. The Conquest of the Vast Empires of Mexico and Peru, and Other Large Provinces and Territories, with the Several European Plantations in Those Parts. Also Their Cities, Fortresses, Towns, Temples, Mountains, and Rivers. Their Habits, Customs, Manners, and Religions. Their Plants, Beasts, Birds, and Serpents. With an Appendix, Containing, Bes
Ogilby, John
America
Most of these Northward _Indians_ are between five and six Foot high,
straight Body’d, strongly compos’d, smooth Skin’d, merry Countenanc’d,
of Complexion more swarthy than the _Spaniards_, black Hair’d, high
Foreheaded, black Ey’d, out-Nos’d, broad Shoulder’d, brawny Arm’d, long
and slender Handed, out Breasted, small Wasted, lank Belly’d, well
Thigh’d, flat Kneed, with handsome grown Legs, and small Feet: In a
word, take them when the Blood skips in their Veins, when the Flesh is
on their Backs, and Marrow in their Bones, when they frolick in their
antique Deportments and _Indian_ Postures, they are more amiable to
behold (though onely in _Adam_’s Livery) than many a trim Gallant in the
newest Mode; and though their Houses are but mean, their Lodging as
homely, Commons scant, their Drink Water, and Nature their best
Clothing, yet they still are healthful and lusty. Their smooth Skins
proceed from the often anointing of their Bodies with the Oyl of Fishes,
and the fat of Eagles, with the grease of _Rackoons_, which they hold in
Summer the best Antidote to keep their Skin from blistering with the
scorching Sun; it is their best Armor against the _Musketoes_, and the
surest abrasour of the hairy Excrement, and stops the Pores of their
Bodies against the nipping Winters cold. Their black Hair is natural,
yet is brought to a more Jetty colour by Oyling, Dying, and daily
dressing; sometimes they wear it very long, hanging down in a loose
dishevel’d Womanish manner, otherwise ty’d up hard and short like a
Horse Tail, bound close with a Fillet, which they say makes it grow the
faster; they are not a little Phantastical in this particular; their
Boys being not permitted to wear their Hair long till sixteen years of
Age, and then they must come to it by degrees; some being cut with a
long foretop, a long lock on the Crown, one of each side of his Head,
the rest of his Hair being cut even with the Scalp; the young Men and
Soldiers wear their Hair long on the one side, the other being cut short
like a Screw; other cuts they have as their Fancy leads them, which
would torture the Wits of the most exact Barber to imitate. But though
they are thus proud of the Hair of their Head, you cannot wooe them to
wear it on their Chins, where it no sooner grows, but it is stubb’d up
by the roots, for they count it as an unuseful, cumbersome, and
opprobrious excrement, insomuch as they call him an _English_ Mans
Bastard that hath but the appearance of a Beard.
[Sidenote: The Apparel, Ornaments, Paintings, and other artificial
Deckings of the _Indians_.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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